Grand Theft Auto : Chinatown Wars

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a 2009 open-world action-adventure game for PlayStation Portable, developed by Rockstar Leeds with Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It follows the Nintendo DS original while bringing Rockstar's crime saga to PSP in a compact, mission-driven form, retaining the series' freedom to roam, steal vehicles, take on jobs, and cause trouble across Liberty City.

The story begins when Huang Lee arrives from Hong Kong to deliver the Yu Jian, an ancient sword once owned by his murdered father, to his uncle Wu "Kenny" Lee. An ambush leaves Huang robbed and presumed dead, turning a family errand into a search for the missing heirloom, his father's killer, and a place in the city’s volatile Triad hierarchy.

Liberty City is presented from a high, freely rotating camera angle that recalls the earliest Grand Theft Auto games while still showing a dense, modern urban playground. Huang can follow the central campaign or break away for races, taxi work, rampages, collectibles, and other diversions as he moves between the city’s boroughs. The condensed map is based on Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City, without Alderney.

Missions mix driving, shootouts, chases, sabotage, and escapes, with a broad selection of cars, motorcycles, boats, weapons, and explosives available along the way. Wanted levels work differently from Grand Theft Auto IV: instead of merely leaving a search area, Huang can lower police attention by destroying pursuing police vehicles. Parked-car thefts also require brief interactive break-ins, from simple ignition work to bypassing an immobilizer.

Money has a practical role beyond the story. Huang can buy or earn safehouses around Liberty City, save progress, and use his PDA to manage contacts, messages, maps, and purchases such as weapons. A separate black-market trading activity lets players buy contraband from suppliers and sell it to dealers elsewhere in the city, making location-specific prices and demand part of the risk-and-reward loop.

The PSP edition preserves the top-down design but replaces the DS version’s touch-screen interactions with button-based, quick-time-style challenges. Its visuals move away from the DS release’s cel-shaded look toward a more conventional Grand Theft Auto presentation, and it adds improved audio, extra story missions involving reporter Melanie Mallard, and additional radio stations.

For social play, the PSP version includes local wireless multiplayer for two players, with competitive and cooperative activities separate from Huang’s single-player campaign. Together with its portable mission structure, expanded side activities, purchasable properties, and distinctive Liberty City story, Chinatown Wars offers a handheld Grand Theft Auto that feels deliberately tailored to the PSP rather than a stripped-down adaptation.