GTA: Liberty City Stories is refreshing. It's a good move on Rockstar's behalf to move the series into the handheld race
GTA: Liberty City Stories is a decent game. If you're a fan of the series, this is a must have. If you don't have a PSP, and you're waiting for that one game to convince you to get a PSP, then this is that game.
First of all, I would like to say that GTA is more enjoyable on the PC. It's more impressive, and it just plays so much better with a mouse. Don't get me wrong, it isn't bad on the consoles, nor is it bad here on the PSP.
The game takes place in Liberty City, just before the events of GTA 3. The formula for the game hasn't changed much from San Andreas. This isn't a bad thing since the game is on a portable platform. THe game looks great, if not identical to GTA 3, or better than GTA 3. The graphics certainly do look a lot cleaner, and Liberty City couldn't look better if it was on my PC. The cars are more detailed in little ways, and the whole game just looks great. The only problem with the graphics are the usual ones found in GTA games. Sometimes the graphics dont load properly, you get a bad pop up within the enviroments. THeir is also a framerate issue when too many things are going on on screen... It's a minor problem, but you'll definitly notice it.
The games sound isn't fairly decent. The guns, the voice work, and music are great. You'll find music from the mid to late 90s here... All of your favorite poppy songs, rap stars, foriegn tracks, and even a few crazy talk DJs on the talk station. The only down part of the sound is that their is no custom track support. However it wasn't realy expected since no game on the PSP has had it (correct me if I'm wrong via private message)...
Now the gameplay, it's very frustrating. It's always been this frustrating. It's just more frustrating without the mouse to help you shoot someone in the head or blow up a car via gas cap... Some of the missions are dull and too easy. Some are easy, but they may seem difficult due to lack luster controls.
It's easy to love GTA: Liberty City Stories. However it's also easy to dislike it. You certainly wont hate the game if your on the go, however with some of the missions being so frustrating due to the controls, you may not care to finish it.