While there are some issues to this game, there is enough good to make any fan of the series take a serious look at it.
LCS starts out similarly to Vice City in that you play Tony Ciprianni, a character returning to work for the now fabled Leone family, and in no time the drama ramps up as you are kept on a leash by your old Don, Salvatore. The story from there is another fantastic mob based drama that will lead you all over the familiar Liberty City setting from GTA3. This game is set three years before the classic GTA3, where your current character was one of your eventual bosses.
The graphics in LCS are no slouch. Rockstar has done a fantastic job of squeezing the familiar GTA style down to fit the portable console. There is a decent amount of polys making up all the items in the world and the draw distance is comparable to other entries in the series. There are occaisional hiccups in the graphics however, especially when using the motorcycles. getting thrown from a motorcycle will often cause a slight freeze as you transition from vehicle control to on foot control. This is noticable and somewhat annoying, but at the same time it's a small tradeoff for being able to travel through the familiar Liberty City streets on a PJC-600 or a Freeway. For as much as they crammed into this game in such a small portable package, small glitches like this are hardly even worth griping about.
Audio in LCS is characteristically strong in this game as in it's predecessors. The radio is as great as ever with plenty of content in the form of licensed tracks as well as a great talk radio station. Ambient noises are here in good form, although not as strong as the big console counterparts. Ped dialogue is present, but not nearly as much as in other GTA adventures. This is of course, another thing to be expected from squeezing such a large game onto a portable system. What is there is done well enough and with the headphones in the game sounds as good or better than any PSP title.
Controls for this game are a double edged sword. While it is easy to get used to the controls quickly, using the nubby for steering and walking isn't the easiest thing in the world. Still, it is a neccessary evil and at the end of the day it's done well enough that with some practice veterans will be making good use of it in no time. Newcomers to the series, well are there any newcomers left for this series? If this is your first GTA game... shame on you.
Overall LCS manages to deliver the goods you expect from a GTA game. Control is as good as it can be, graphics are nice for the system and the radio will have you laughing just like always. The story is fantastic and is the driving force behind this game. It's also noteworthy that having this kind of gameplay in a portable package is a dream come true. Anyone who owns a PSP should also pick up this game (provided you are of age that is), it is an instant classic and well worth the price of admission.