Liberty City Stories Adds Vice City Upgrades, But Truncates Everything Elseīecause Liberty City Stories followed Vice City, there were some additions that might have stood out as glaring omissions had they not been included, and many of its gameplay improvements came as a result of this conscious effort to make a more fully-featured game on the PSP. The familiar mission loop is present and accounted for, with NPCs offering work for the player in both optional side content and missions that progress the main story, and the latter are broken up with cutscenes in much the same way they were in Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City. The game largely mirrors gameplay concepts found in the larger series entries, especially when it comes to how it’s structured. Related: GTA Trilogy Remaster Rumor Gains Traction After Take Two Earnings Call But not everything remained the same, and plenty of the improvements that Rockstar had implemented to the usual formula over the course of Vice City’s development made their way into the gameplay of Liberty City Stories. Since Liberty City Stories felt a lot like a handheld version of GTA 3 when it released for Sony’s PlayStation Portable in 2005, it made sense that the gameplay was similar, especially given that both games share a nearly identical version of Liberty City.

While series fans in 2021 might not want another GTA set in Liberty City, 2005 was a perfect time for that nostalgia trip, especially with GTA 4 still two years away.

It came as no surprise that players were anxious to return to Liberty City, the series stand-in for New York City, after Vice City and San Andreas had taken them to areas that mimicked Miami and Southern California. While Rockstar Games had already put themselves on the map with their first several games, the third installment made them a household name all over the world. Long-time fans often remember its first fully 3D entry, Grand Theft Auto 3, with great fondness, and that lent the first two handheld releases more weight as legitimate titles than they might otherwise have had, with both Grand Theft Auto Advance and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories acting as prequels to GTA 3. Grand Theft Auto has had a storied history, from main series titles to side entries like Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

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