GTA:LCS/VCS – Quick Overview
February 21st, 2010
Unloved, uninspired, and unsophisticated are three adjectives starting with the “un” prefix which describe my experiences with both GTA: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. The “Stories” games appear to be driven by the intention of “let’s try to get GTA III and GTA: Vice City on the PSP” rather than “let’s try to make a fun GTA game on a handheld”. The latter is akin to the sublime GTA: Chinatown Wars.
The worlds, replicated almost identically to their former games, come pre-established. Sure, open world games have evolved since the original debut of Liberty and Vice City, but the cities themselves are more than adequate to meet the occasion. Plus, they provide nostalgia for continuing fans.
The problems lie in the collision of uninspired, one dimensional mission design and the creaky, aged and underdeveloped subsystems (ie. hand combat, weapons combat, targeting, flying). Missions are simply go-here-do-this affairs which fail to take advantage of the world’s assets, besides the tedious drive to and from missions. Often you’ll fail these missions because of the imprecise combat system or wonky mission guidance which has seen little refinements over its progenitors (possibly downgraded from San Andreas too?).
The issues stem from every corner, and really, if Rockstar were going to re-use the same gameplay circa 2002, then they should have at least designed missions which would work around these issues as much as possible.
I hate to speak so harshly, because ultimately these games appear to have just lacked the essential time or consideration in development, or the developers possibly succumbed to the technological imperative of squeezing the experience on a portable platform and left the rest until later. Surprisingly, the open-ended emergence of GTA’s gameplay works to the game’s benefit. Having trouble shooting an unreasonable number of ethnic bad guys? Find a main road and hitch and car to run them down, buy a rocket launcher prior to the mission or snipe them from afar. The “GTA factor” redeems so much of what’s wrong with these portable iterations. The world is familiar, the gameplay open-ended and the city is still an enjoyable place to chill out. However, even by these standards, both games are filler, there’s simply little reason to go back and explore unless you’re a megafan.
Comparing the two games either side, Liberty City benefits from the iconic and overall better game world, and less exuberant characters, while Vice City has a whole empire building sub-game underlining the main story and longer missions. I personally prefer Liberty City because the city feels less empty and the characters don’t demean you so much.
GTA:LCS/VCS – City Atmosphere
February 19th, 2010
For the past month I’ve been blitzing through the PS2 ports of GTA: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. Entertainment is an easily acquired commodity in this modern age, which renders these old-cum-new GTA games closer to filler than enjoyment. I’ll admit. Although they’re still decent, I regret buying Liberty/Vice City Stories, but have learnt a valuable lesson from my bad decision. And hey, it’s not all bad, the low-impact gameplay has allowed me to catch up on a few months worth of podcasts. This is the first of three short articles I’ve written on the duo.
City Atmosphere
I don’t live in the city. I live in an outer suburban area of South Australia. The capital of South Australia is Adelaide. People say that Adelaide is a small “country town”, they’re probably right. Sure, it’s not as exciting as Sydney, nor as cultured as Melbourne, but it’s the place in my head which is synonymous with the word “city”. ‘Adelaide’ connotes all of the feelings I associate with a metropolis, even though it can hardly be considered one itself.
Despite shoddy game design, left, right and centre, I can’t help but look fondly on GTA: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, because they too evoke a sense of ‘Adelaide’ as with the other GTA games I’ve played. The connection isn’t complicated; inhabiting GTA’s virtual cities, with all the freedom and degree of realism that it affords, elicits the feelings of living within a city environment. GTA’s cities share the same responsibilities and dilemmas of any real city, just under the context of a syndicate culture, rather than that of a law-abiding citizen. The two experiences are therefore similar.
Personally speaking, the sense of place is a little different in Vice City; I find it less effective because the setting and time period are less familiar to me. That, and the licensed radio station music (a selection of greatest hits 80’s tracks) are horrible. I guess if I were someone else it might seem nostalgic.
You really can’t underestimate the city atmosphere, it’s the franchise’s main hook, and what ultimately kept me on the line throughout a series of crummy missions and derogatory humour, which we’ll explore in the following post.
Okami Side Commentaries
February 16th, 2010
Finally, I’ve said all that I need to say about Okami, and then some. The final scrappy remarks can be found below:
Nonlinear Narrative
The nonlinear storytelling framework famously used in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, is also used in Okami, albeit, a little bit differently. The basic idea is that the main story is a narration, and at some point the narration ends and another dimension is added to the story through the ensuing events. In Okami, after the credits roll, Issun, the travelling artist, is revealed to be the narrator. Because Issun narrates Okami‘s story as well as painting it to scroll, his position after the events of the main storyline are subtly revealed: he takes the place of his father, passing down the story of Amaterasu and teaching the younger sprites of their purpose.
Hour-by-Hour Ratings
After I finished Okami, I looked up a guide to see what secrets were lying under the hood. This play guide by zukowskc at GameFAQs, featured a neat little chart which I though would be worth discussing:
This chart rates each individual hour of Okami‘s play length out of ten, effectively mapping out the interest levels of the player over the time of play. I agree with most of the rankings, but more importantly, I love the way zukowskc’s chart outlines the stamina phenomena I described in my prior post.
Backtracking
It’s worth noting that throughout Okami there is a decent amount of backtracking. Fortunately, obstacles requiring brush techniques acquired later in the game are scattered throughout the earlier hub areas, ensuring that backtracking isn’t a time hole, but instead an opportunity to re-approach old areas with new abilities. I discussed this previously in regards to Metroid Prime 3 as well.
Viewtiful Visuals
Stylistically people claim that Okami is unique, I disagree somewhat. In the same way Super Mario Galaxy is an evolution of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (and before that Pikmin 2), Okami is an evolution of artistic techniques established in Viewtiful Joe. Many of the same tricks, such as the pre-rendering and cel-shading, are shared amongst both games.
Get me that OST
It only took me a few hours into Okami to decide that I adamantly wanted to buy the original soundtrack. I don’t make a habit of buying video game OSTs, except for my personal favourites and it’s right there where Okami belongs. The music is a mix of Zelda and Final Fantasy Tactics with a nature themeatic.
Back of the Manual
There’s a really genuine explanation of Okami‘s cultural origins at the back of the instruction manual which is a really clever, necessary addition on Capcom’s part.
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