In addition to buying and selling, you can also steal drugs; there are vans driving around the city that are packed with drugs, and by stealing them and bringing them back to the nearest secluded safehouse, you can secure the contents and sell them for 100% profit. You will catch yourself turning away from whatever mission you planned on heading to when you see one of these vans, as the allure of a boat load of coke or heroin that you can sell for a tidy profit is too much to ignore when it’s just there for the taking. There are also 100 security cameras scattered around the city, many of them in areas where drug dealers reside. Buying and selling in these areas can result in some hefty prices, as you have the marbles to trade drugs essentially in front of the police, but you will also automatically have the cops come down on your for the deed, and it’s your job to get away before they catch you and confiscate the goods. You can destroy these cameras if you wish (and it’s a necessity if you want to earn 100% completion.
The PDA returns, but this time it looks like the menu screen from your PSP menu. This works just as well as it did on the DS when it comes to organizing your GPS, setting routes for missions, checking your e-mail, ordering weapons from Ammu-Nation, or just to save or load a game. My one complaint is that it takes a few seconds to load up every time you open it or go in between screens, which is more annoying than it is game-breaking. You spend a lot of time in your PDA, so it adds up. These loads are nowhere near as awful as those for autosaving though–that takes 10 seconds or more on average if you use the UMD version of the game, though with the UMD Legacy copy on the PSN store, you can avoid that problem altogether.
Chinatown Wars also has multiplayer, and you’ll be happy to know that you don’t need Friend Codes to utilize it, given this is the PSP release. Not only are there five competitive multiplayer modes (two racing modes, a competitive version of stealing vans loaded with drugs, a deathmatch type game with kill counts, “Gang Bang” where you defend your territory against a friend and his hordes of gang members) and a co-op mode where you defend a territory against waves of opposing gang members, but you can also share your favorite stops and areas from your GPS with a friend. Maybe they have found more cameras than you have, and are willing to share their locations with you. Not just this, but you can also trade drugs, weapons and cash with your buddy; given that the in-game economy is different in each game, this has significant cash flow potential if you’ve got a buddy who plays as much as you do.
The story mode is a bit longer for the PSP version of the game, as there are extra missions exclusive to this one–think of it as a Director’s Cut. These missions are a lot of fun, and give you some incentive outside of the graphical overhauls if you’re a two system handheld owner. You also get some exclusive radio stations on the PSP version, so there’s more variety in what you listen to–the PSP speakers are also more powerful than those of the DS, so you can crank the tunes you really like while you drive around Liberty City wreaking havoc.
Blast Factor: The scope of this game is huge, and it is easily worth the purchase and the time you will invest in it. Fans of the series need to play this game, as it’s a worthy entry in Grand Theft Auto’s history, and those with a PSP who are searching for the next big thing have to look no further than their local retailers shelves. This is the second time I’ve played through Chinatown Wars, and it was just as much fun as the first, thanks to new missions and some graphical work that helped to overshadow the control changes and a few graphical glitches.
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