Thanks guys.

I hope I am not feeling fatigue from the game. I just reached a point where I started to feel the game getting a bit repetitive. It kind of came when I had so much money I didnt know what to do with it, I am buying random houses, though it doesn't mean much. Also since there are no indoor missions all the missions in the game have to be about driving or getting into very simplistic firefights in the street. My fear about the combat not being able to hold up for so long is coming through. Don't get me wrong, still the best handheld GTA but its starting to fall behind the main console counterparts, which to me was expected.

Dvader said:

I hope I am not feeling fatigue from the game. I just reached a point where I started to feel the game getting a bit repetitive.

My fear about the combat not being able to hold up for so long is coming through.

 I hit a similar bump where I just started to lose all interest in the game for a few hours of play, but for some reason I recovered from it and the game was actually more fun from that point on.

The combat system doesn't really bother me, because while you have no real control over your accuracy, it still gets the job done. I hold down A and everyone around me dies. When I'm in a car and I hold down A, everyone chasing/shooting me either explodes or falls back. Good enough for me.

Okay finished the game. So I guess I will have to write down impressions now.

Well let's start with the good points. The writing is sharp and their are genuinely funny moments in the game. The characters all have their funny perks. Chan being a complete idiot Zhao being fucking awesome and so on.

The graphics look cool, they went with an overhead style like the older GTAs, but still 3D. It kinda looks like the artwork you see on front of the box. I really wish Rockstar would use this 'cartoony' style for all their GTAs.

Some of the missions are really awesome, like escaping from a bank robbery by hiding in a chinese dragon costume and doing the dragon dance you see during the Chinese New Year. Besides the normal story missions you have plenty of sidequests, like taxi missions, fireman missions, ambulance, police, etc. Also the drug trading is addictive and is key to earning lots of money quickly.

But now it is time for the negative points.

Most of the side missions are really basic and get repetitive. The taxi missions are basically go to a random location as quickly as possible, the same is true for the fireman missions. After a while you get bored. The drug missions are addictive, but now I have so much money what the hell do I do with it? Near the end the main missions start to get repetive too. Too much shooting buch of guys in an enclosed space.

The main mission design has some awesome clever moments, but also some moments you want to throw you DS through the window. And it is usually when the game becomes more difficult when it all falls apart. The problem with GTA Chinatown Wars is that the main mechanics are poor. Normally this is not a problem, because the missions are easy enough, but whne they become difficult they get really frustrating. Especially longer missions that do not have checkpoints. Thank God that you can restart a mission after you fail, I heard in the older GTAs you had to drive all the way back to the mission giver to start anew.

Let's talk about the on foot controls.Fighting against one enemy not a problem. Two, Four, Six still managable. But near the end of the game there are like dozens enemies the combat system really starts to reek. The auto-aim is stupid. I run to one enemy only to have it target an enemy behind him while the guy right in front of me is standing there shooting me in the face. Combat is basically running around shooting and hoping you do not die.

Driving is fun when you need to get away, but if you need to follow a specific route then a single mistake can end the whole mission. Driving is fun when getting away from the police, but more frustrating when you require more precision.

You see the problem is that just controlling you character is not that fun. Just jumping around with Mario is fun, controlling link and using his items is fun, exploring and fighting monsters in Xenoblade is fun, walking around or driving in GTA not so much. GTA is so much fun when you stir up trouble, but actually playing the game properly not so much. You know GTA should really stop focussing on adding new stuff than will controls bad and start focussing on the main mechanics. Does not matter how many new things they add if the main mechanics are not fun, then the games will not improve significantly.

The story is simply a huge giant pile of dung. It does not make sense whatsoever. The main character is strung along for way too long, what a fucking idiot. And the conclusion of the story did not make sense either. The writing is sharp, the characters are funny, but the plot is dung.

After I finished the game I decided to explore the city and find new stuff to do, but I got bored of that pretty quickly. Quite frankly it is a boring place to explore, with lots of building and alleys that have nothing there. It kinda feels empty. The people are just there to run over and kill, the cars are just their for you to steal.

So all in all it is a good game with some serious issues. I am not sure how this game is the highest scoring DS game on gamerankings, but the same could be said about GTA 4. On to the next game I say.