Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is an action-adventure game set in an open world environment and played from a third-person perspective. Liberty City's layout is largely similar to Grand Theft Auto III,[8] while it also incorporates elements found in Grand Theft Auto III's successors, such as more indoor environments, clothing changes, and motorcycles. In addition, in keeping with recent Grand Theft Autogames, the player has more flexibility in terms of moving the camera around for viewing surroundings (Grand Theft Auto III is noticeably limited in that respect).[9][10] Things that are omitted from the game are the ability to climb and the ability to swim – contact with deep bodies of water is instantly fatal.[11] The overall game's open world, as it is based upon the original Liberty City layout, is considerably smaller than that of San Andreas.
Differently from GTA III, motorcycles are usable in the game.[12] Though flyable aeroplanes and helicopters can be found in Vice City and San Andreas, flyable aeroplanes cannot be found in Liberty City Stories, and helicopters are only accessible through certain exploits.[11]
The PSP version of Liberty City has a multiplayer mode, for up to six players through Wi-Fi ad-hoc mode (same area).[13] The game features seven modes of wireless multiplayer gaming, in which various pedestrian and character models are from the single player mode avatars.[13] These multiplayer modes were removed in the PS2 and mobile versions.[14][15]
