Grand Theft Auto III

"Freeeeeeedom!!!"

Grand Theft Auto 3 is an Action game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar. Grand Theft Auto was as a simple game in the first Playstation that althought had very prehistoric graphics managed to become extremely popular for 2 reasons, first because you where a total criminal spreading chaos across a city and secondly because of the feeling of freedom it gave the player. In this old game you would view everything from the top as if you where in a helicopter and everything from cars to people would actually look like toys, not to mention that most objects weren't even 3D. Now imagine the same gameplay in a totally 3D world, wouldn't that be great? WOULDN'T IT?!?!?!

Story: 6/10

Pretty basic stuff but at least it totally draws you into the game. You are a simple criminal that was betrayed by your girlfriend, (and comrade) and you are being transferred to jail with an armored car. Because of a sudden “accident” you manage to escape and start gathering your pieces, meaning that you start again being the low-life you've used to be. From there on you start doing small chores for the Mafia and become a perfect “errant boy”. However the game adds some plot twists in order to keep you interested and of course there is some sort of a storyline in the game involving a certain popular drug. I can't say that I expected much from the plot, but GTA3 being a pure Action game certainly didn't disappointed me so much in that section.

Graphics: 8.8/10

The world of GTA3 is a very real one. Liberty City, which is similar with New York, is a very large metropolis, so big that you'll feel that you are actually in city as big as NY. Watching the skyscrapers in the other side of the city from a great distance gives you a great, realistic feeling. Of course in a game like this things can't have the quality of game like Doom 3, meaning that characters in the game are low polygon models and most buildings, (apart from the important ones), are just big boxes with a texture on them, but the amount of detail that is included makes everything look great. Cars move on the streets, all kind of city people walk around, from junkies and old ladies to businessmen and gang members, (isn't that the same?), posters on the walls, newspapers flying around, all sorts of buildings from the simple resident structures to Live Shows and a lot of various props that create a realistic and alive city.

Another thing that makes the Liberty City very real is the day\night cycle and when I say day\night cycle I don't mean that suddenly everything becomes dark when night comes, instead light changes gradually, so we have the dawn, the midday sunlight, beatiful sunsets and a night city full of lights. Also good work on weather effects like mist and rain and lighting effects although they could be done a bit better. The only complain I have though is the strange blur that the game has that although makes the low polygon models look a bit smoother and generally gives a unique atmosphere to the game it also is a bit irritating and makes you feel as if you are a bit drunk, but that's nitpicking, the game looks great! Oh, I forgot to mention the various cameras available with the “helicopter view of the original game being here too!

Sound: 10/10

The great atmosphere continues in the sound section too. People talk, cars have unique engine sounds, explosions and gunfights… everything sounds great and add the overall feeling of a big city. Yes the sound effects are good but what makes the game PERFECT is the music! You see when entering a car you can play with its radio and here music from various stations, from old school dance, rap, opera, a chat station, (my favorite), and many, many more that are directed in such a way, (advertisements and all), making them sound like the real thing and if that wasn't enough you can actually add your own music to the game! Believe me it is a great feeling roaming with your Lamborghini-like car in a large city listening to Iron Maiden, (or Liza Minnelli, tastes are tastes…).

Gameplay: 9/10

Here is where Rockstar has absolutely rocked! The gameplay can be described in one word… FREEEEEEEDOM!!! There is a main part of the game with missions but I'll talk about that later. You start on foot, in the center of a city, what can you do in this game? You can walk around beating up simple pedestrians and gang members, pick up guns from bats to flamethrowers and bazookas or you can steal a car and start spreading chaos in four wheels by driving everywhere possible destroying everything in your path, use the many ramps in the game to make high jumps and other crazy stuff. In the city there are some scattered bonus stuff like skulls that when you touch them you gain a gun and unlimited ammo from a couple of seconds and are given a small objective like “kill all Diablo gang members” or destroy 10 police cars and many more. You can be a taxi driver, a police officer and chase criminals and finally an ambulance and fire department driver. There are some small missions where you can use small toy cars that detonate in order to destroy cars and finally there are 100 hidden objects that with each five ones, (or 10 I don't remember), you gain an extra item in you starting garage.

Of course all these stuff would be quite boring with out are friendly neighbor police officers. While you spread chaos across the city you gain some stars that show how dangerous you currently are. So if you have one star cops chase you on foot and sometimes follow you with squad cars. If you have too, they chase you more and ram you a bit with their vehicles. Three and four stars mean more special units coming after you like helicopters that can be destroyed only with special fire and armored vehicles with elite police units inside and even more irritating cops ramming you more and more. Things may become a bit irritating and unrealistic to say the truth and that because cops actually behave more crazy even than you! All they do is ramming you at full speed and nothing more. This is fun at first but as you gain more stars you would expect a greater variety in terms of police offensive strategies and not just endless hunting. A great example are the last two stars you can obtain. With five stars FBI cars start coming towards you and if the FBI agents come out they can kill you in matter of seconds before you even kill one and six stars mean… the military… I'll let you guess what happens when the cavalry finally comes!

All these stuff are great and create a wonderful gaming experience unlike any other game but after trying everything a couple of times that fun isn't the same, not to mention that it can be a little boring after a while. What you do then is to actually play the main missions. You see in the city there are various areas where you can actually get some special chores to do with many of them connected to the main plot of the game. After the, (well made), cutscene you get a mission, something usually very simple but fortunately quite entertaining and a very good break from the more “arcade” aspect of the game. Typical missions are kill\destroy that man\vehicle, place a bomb in a car, steal an amount of cars, kill a group of gang members, escort some people and avoid them being killed, gather certain items. All missions follow this pattern with some small variations like time limits and other conditions. There are a lot of missions in the game and although they luck originality the fact that they aren't linear since you can experiment a lot in various ways of completing them makes the game a very good one.

Positives:
-Great gameplay giving you absolute freedom to do what you please
-You spread more chaos and the challenge increases
-Very good audiovisual experience, great atmosphere of a real city
-The radio stations and the ability to add your own music!

Negatives:
-The AI of the police is a bit irritating
-The main missions could be a bit more original
-You might not like the strange blur
-The fun might wear off after you've tried everything

Also Play:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC, PS2)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PC, PS2)

Overall: 8.4/10

To tell you the truth if someone would ask me to give this game a score some days after playing it I would say “11/10!!!” but after a lot of hours spent in this great game I've got to admit that although very good it is far from perfect so an 8 is a fair number. Nonetheless try it and I guarantee that you'll enjoy it!!!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/01/08

Game Release: Grand Theft Auto III (EU, 05/24/02)