5 reasons why GTA Chinatown Wars is different but in a good way

GTA Chinatown Wars is one of the most underrated titles in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Many new-age players don’t know about its existence as the game isn't available on mainstream gaming platforms. Rockstar Games released it in March 2009 as part of the modern HD Universe. Despite being less popular than its peers, the game has many veteran fans.

The gaming studio also included many interesting things that make it a unique game. This article lists five reasons why GTA Chinatown Wars is different than others.

Note: This article is subjective and only reflects the writer's opinions.

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5 things that make Chinatown Wars unique compared to other GTA games

1) It is a portable game

Chinatown Wars has always been a handheld portable game you can play from anywhere. Currently, the GTA Chinatown Wars Android and iOS versions are more popular for their availability. Rockstar Games launched it on the Nintendo DS and later ported it to the PlayStation Portable and others.

Since its origin lies in handheld gaming consoles, the developers designed every aspect of the title to be perfectly playable on all small screens. The graphics and controls are also well-optimized to run smoothly on most smartphones. Moreover, you can pair a gamepad to your smartphone to play it like mainstream video games.

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2) New camera perspective

GTA Chinatown Wars uses a top-down perspective. Although this camera angle was introduced in the first Grand Theft Auto game, Rockstar Games added a 3D perspective to it in Chinatown Wars. This made the gameplay more immersive and enjoyable on small screens.

The game takes place in Liberty City, known for its tall buildings and metro bridges. The 3D in-depth effect makes these objects feel like popping out of the screen. Additionally, it gives you more hints of what is happening in the surrounding environment. Rockstar Games should consider bringing back this camera angle as a secondary feature in GTA 6.

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3) Unique police mechanism

Grand Theft Auto games are known for having police forces that can stall you for a while. However, Chinatown Wars has a unique GTA police AI that isn't available in its successors. In other titles, you must get away from the police as far as you can to evade them. Killing or confronting them in any way increases your wanted level.

However, in Chinatown Wars, you can ram cop cars to eliminate them. Forcefully hitting police cars also disables the NPCs inside, making you out of the law enforcement mechanism’s sight. However, there must not be other cops in the area for it to work.

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4) Interesting missions

Despite being a small-scale game compared to its peers, Chinatown Wars has some of the best missions in the GTA franchise, with a total of 65. These can be divided into 58 main missions, five exclusive to the PlayStation Portable, and two downloadables.

Some of the best missions include The Wheelman, Stealing the Show, Tricks of the Triad, Store Wars, and Salt in the Wound. There are also nine side and four miscellaneous missions that keep fans busy for hours.

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5) Multiplayer mode

GTA Chinatown Wars also has a multiplayer game mode that can be accessed locally or over Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, this feature is only available in the game's Nintendo DS and PSP versions. Rockstar Games has yet to add it in Android and iOS versions.

You can play these six game modes in local mode: Single Race, Season, Stash Dash, Defend The Base, LC Survivor, and Gang Bang. In Wi-Fi mode, you cannot play with others; however, you can interact with online players through weapon trading and drug trading.

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More things to explore in the Grand Theft Auto series:

All GTA titles || Grand Theft Auto 5 sales record || Popular characters || Boring missions || Android games