Grand Theft Auto isn't a newcomer to the Playstation Portable. Released back in 2005, Liberty City Stories was the first ever attempt to bring the series into a handheld gaming system. Not that it wasn't to be expected, it succeeded greatly, offering players a huge free-roaming territory, a great singleplayer story and some cool multiplayer modes – all the core elements that make a good GTA title. Not long after, RockStar Games announced another iteration to the universe – Vice City Stories. Even though VCS does fix some flaws seen in the previous title, it still doesn't offer anything too new to the genre. For all it's worth, though, if you're looking for some more Grand Theft Auto fun, it's definitely a great deal.

The prequel to Vice City, originally released on the Playstation 2 and PC, takes place a couple of years before the events of the original game, which told the story of Tommy Vercetti, a man who barely got out of a drug deal gone wrong, and then made his way to the top, becoming the criminal master of the city. In the PSP counterpart, you get into the boots of Victor Vance, brother of Lance Vance - one of the key characters in Vice City. Victor himself didn't take any big role in the original game, but thanks to Vice City Stories, you'll get to see a big slice of events that happened earlier.

The game starts with an introduction video, showing Vic join the army in need of money to support his sick mother. Upon entering the Fort Baxter Air Base via an army truck, he meets the Sergeant, Jerry Martinez, which gives Victor his very first missions. Ever since the first minutes of the game, Vic starts claiming how he doesn't want to become a thug, and has joined only to support his relatives. Still, right as he gets out of the Sergeant's office, he goes out to the streets, relentlessly killing gang members and other people. Which is funny, as when you start to advance through missions, even in the latter ones, it seems that Vic still hasn't changed his mind, and you still see him whining about it to the other characters.

Vice City remains pretty much identical to its appearance two years later, with a few new areas open to explore, and a few areas cut out, presumably since they weren't build two years before. The game offers a pretty lengthy singleplayer experience, though while it has a number of unique mission designs, the story itself isn't anything too special. The characters you meet throughout the campaign are mostly little criminals, and are far from being as memorable as the main folks from Vice City. Of which some, in fact, made their way to VCS, including Umberto Robina, Richardo Diaz, and others. Passing the main missions surely takes a while, as some of them are multi-staged, meaning that getting from point A to B isn't enough. You'll experience pretty much everything there is to experience in Vice City through passing those missions, getting access to bigger and louder weaponry, unlocking new side missions, and more.

Pistols, SMGs, Rifles - every weapon from VC is available in the PSP version, making causing mayhem a lot easier. In close quarter firefights, the auto-aim is going to be your best friend, though you can use precision aim, as well, which helps a lot when taking out vehicles. By pressing the right shoulder button, you lock onto targets, and then can scroll through all the NPCs on the screen using the left and right D-Pad buttons. The controls are identical to those in LCS, and take no time used to, even if you're new to the universe. Moving Vic with the analog nub is easy, shooting is easy, and the driving is great - even with lack of a right analog stick on the PSP. The only letdown is close-combat controls – enemies are pretty much deadly at close proximity, and if you don't dodge them in a matter of seconds, you'll be lying on the ground dead in no time.

Losing health doesn't mean the game is over, though. There are taxis to pick you up and drive you back to the latest mission location after you die, and police bribe markers after you fail to survive against law enforcement, letting you regain access to all the equipment you had before dying - just don't think you'll get them back for free. Gameplay elements like these really make it easier, and you'll spend much less time surfing through the menu, loading that last savegame over and over again.

Weapon bribes aren't the only addition to the game. Knowing you were able to swim in San Andreas, it's pretty strange how the feature wasn't implemented into Liberty City Stories. Still, it's available now, not only offering a new way of exploring the city, but also keeping you one inch away from failing a mission after dropping into water. Having the ability to pilot aircraft is also new to GTA on the PSP, and knowing just how easy the vehicles control, you're going to spend hours flying over the city. There are over seventy vehicles available, ranging from bikes and motorcycles, to cars and tanks, though while the last ones seem to offer a lot of fun, having a lot of action going on the screen really drops the framerate. Framerate issues aren't really too common, but they may sometimes screw you up during missions. So can the re-appearing environments – buildings and other static objects that don't fully load when you drive past them with a fast vehicle. Granted they aren't exactly new to the genre, it's pretty frustrating to bump into an invisible fence, losing precious time getting back to the vehicle, especially if it's a timed mission.

That's right, Vice City Stories remains as frustrating as ever. You're never safe from accidentally bumping into that pesky pole while trying to get away from police forces, driving at top speed through the busy streets of Vice, or unintentionally rolling your car, lighting it on fire, resulting in a mission failure. These cases are very common in the GTA universe, and hold a lot of people off from playing it, but even thoughthe game has a number of missions that will really test your patience, it's certainly not unbeatable.

Going from mission to mission is never boring, thanks to the radio, storing over 100 licensed songs and 9 radio stations. The stations aren't as lengthy as in the original Vice City due to the PlayStation Portable's storage limitations, but they are very well made, with funny DJs and hilarious commercials. VCPR is in the game, as well, with Maurice Chavez's famous "Pressing Issues", and other discussion shows. The sound overall deserves the best mark. With cutscene videos before every single mission, there's obviously a lot of dialog in the game, and the voice acting is made top notch. Phil Collins, the famous rock-star from UK, is in-game, too, and is actually one of the main characters, voicing his own voice.

It takes roughly ten to fifteen hours to pass the core missions, but the game doesn't end here. Similarly to the previous installments, there are taxi, vigilante, paramedic and other side missions to accomplish, with addition to some never seen before ones, like Beach Patrol, where you smash bikers off their vehicles to keep them away from ruining peace in the sandy beaches, or Air Rescue, where you have to fly to different areas of the map and save people by grabbing them with a magnetic hook and bringing them back to the nearest hospital. Passing these missions is rather easy, compared to the rest of the game, and they don't leave you without rewards that mainly strengthen your abilities, like infinite stamina, etc.

One of the biggest additions to the game, though, is the Empire Building system. With many buildings-empire sites scattered on the map, you can conquer them by attacking them and defeating the defenders, making the buildings your own property. After that's done, you can transform them into illegal job sites, which range from Smuggling to Prostitution and Protection Rackets, and the more sites you own, the bigger the daily payout. Later in the game, if you conquer a solid slice of empires, you can get hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. Frankly, knowing just how often they're attacked by rival gangs, you probably won't set up too much. Building your own empire seems fun at first, but having to go to another side of the map to save a property over and over again gets frustrating quickly. Regardless, if you get into all the optional jobs there are, which you undoubtedly will, it'll extend the game time up to forty hours or so.

Then there's the multiplayer, with a great quantity of ten game modes available to play, including one where players have to make their way as fast as they can to the Hunter - an army helicopter, or one where they have to kill a selected target. There are also street races, deathmatch, and others. Fancy going around the city and just shooting everyone in the face? Do so! NPCs are present even in the multiplayer component, and make it all a lot more dynamic.

Liberty City Stories on the PSP was already a stunning technical achievement, and Vice City Stories improves graphically even more. Just like Vice City looks compared to GTA3, Vice City offers a more colorful city, with detailed districts, full of nice buildings and textures. Not to mention the amazing weather effects and lighting, which all make it even more lifelike. Overall, Vice City Stories is another well polished Grand Theft Auto title, and if you have a PSP, you simply can't pass this game up. Of course, it doesn't offer anything revolutionary to the series, and the story isn't as fun as the previous installments', but having the ability to roam such a huge environment on-a-go is amazing, not to mention the very solid multiplayer component, which provides tons and tons of replay value.