GTA: Chinatown Wars - Hands On Preview

Chariot Of Fire

Moving on to the bread and butter of GTA (its missions), CTW didn't disappoint with either the variation or scope of the seven missions we saw. One thing that most of them had in common was a hell of a lot of carnage. Granted, Rockstar had cheated for us by providing Huang with an arsenal of weapons that would make Rambo blush, including a chain gun, grenades aplenty, and the usual stock of side-arms and assault rifles. Nevertheless, the amount of Triad manpower that had to be held at bay for us to complete each mission was pretty daunting, so we were more than grateful for the extra firepower. 

At the extreme end of the scale, our final mission took place from the cockpit of a helicopter. The pilot scoured a region of Liberty City while we had to chuck Molotov cocktails out of the window at the enemies below. To throw these Molotovs (likewise for grenades), Rockstar Leeds has provided gamers with a nifty dial on the touch screen. After starting the stylus off in the middle of the dial, you can then draw it away from the centre to open up a throwing arc displayed on the top screen. The further from the centre you pull the stylus before releasing, the further away this throwing arc reaches from Huang. This particular mission (aptly titled 'Slaying With Fire') demands a mastered technique with these controls as you pick-out multiple rocket firing bad guys on the ground and, at the missions conclusion, a helicopter alongside you that fires missiles.

But this isn't the only way Rockstar Leeds has grafted an intuitive control layout onto Nintendo's DS for CTW. As you might expect, Huang's movement is controlled by the d-pad, although there is the option to move around automatically by holding down the B button. Using this, Huang will continue walking automatically in the direction you last tapped on the d-pad until you alter his trajectory by tapping in another direction on the d-pad. This will doubtless alleviate a lot of thumb cramp but, more importantly, the way it works in conjunction with the game's camera makes it a fairly amicable way of compensating for the lack of dual thumbsticks.

CTW's camera is automated. It'll revolve around Huang Lee of its own freewill and seems to be fairly adept at finding agreeable isometric viewpoints which avoid being obscured by buildings and other such detritus. However, if you do run into problems, you can always re-centre the camera behind Huang at any point using the left shoulder button. If Huang jumps into a vehicle then the camera tends to favour a more conventional aerial view, above and just behind the action, which tends to make driving that bit easier. This all comes in handy when you've attracted the attention of the law, as driving skill will arguably play a more significant role in your ensuing escape than we've seen in previous GTA iterations.

As well as the usual wanted stars depending on the amount of felony you've perpetrated, you'll also notice small police car icons below these wanted stars. While the more conventional option for evading the police is still available (i.e. getting out of range and avoiding suspicion once you're there), there's now the alternative option of taking out police cars by T-boning them. If, for example, you have two police car icons next to your wanted stars, then you need only incapacitate two police cars in order to escape the all seeing eye of the fuzz. This may come at the expense of realism, but it also brings back an arcadey feel to the series that many feel GTA IV lacked, and that's a sentiment that can be directed at much of the CTW experience.      

In typically GTA fashion, many of the missions we saw were heavy on conflict. While 'Driven to Destruction' was pretty similar in style to the previously mentioned 'Slaying With Fire' (except that we were in the driving seat of an armoured car sporting a mounted gun that a guy called Zhou Ming went on a killing spree with), 'Store Wars' was perhaps the textbook example of a GTA mission. After driving a van to a rival store, two of Huang's gang members blew a hole in the wall to steal goods while he was charged with keeping a look-out during the break-in. Naturally, back-up soon appeared to mow Huang and his team down, which gave us an opportunity to have a good look at the combat system.

The lock-on mechanic is fairly rudimentary. After pressing the right shoulder to unload your piece, the system will then lock you to the nearest bad guy automatically; tapping the left shoulder button then allows you to toggle through any other enemies on screen. There's not much skill involved, with no cover system to speak of or free-aiming controls to master. Surviving is more a case of avoiding enemy gunfire, which had the sort of slow pace we can remember from GTAs 1 and 2. To change our weapon, all we had to do was select one from our arsenal on the touch screen, although the game helpfully pauses automatically whenever you do this.

Another of the missions we played through, 'One Shot, One Kill', offered a touch more variation in the gunplay than we otherwise experienced in our hands-on. We were sent to the top of an apartment complex and told to look out for a guy wearing a white top and blue trousers with the aim of assassinating him. Using a sniper-rifle in a decidedly 'Day of the Jackal' style, we had to zoom-in and pick out the guy fitting that description from a bunch of innocent bystanders. It certainly got the atmosphere of espionage and assassination spot-on, although it's also worth noting that it was the only free-aiming we did with a gun during our play-test.