Grand Theft Auto III

"Hey! You Can Kill Stuff!"

“Hey! You can kill stuff!”

This was the lone thought running through my head as I picked up a recently purchased Grand Theft Auto III for my PC and this thought was clearly not without basis. The main premise of this game appears to be that you can, in fact, “kill stuff” and really who doesn’t like the thought of blood gushing like a fountain from a newly decapitated pedestrian or a bus (potentially filled with elderly or young children) blowing up in an incinerating fire of mayhem? Well, maybe the lawmakers and many parents of the world tend to think this type of senseless brutality and acts of cruelty are “evil”, but Hey! What do they know? After all, violence sells and that’s exactly what GTA III did. Sold.

The hero of the game, or anti-good Samaritan, starts off with his pals in a bank robbery. The alarm springs and suspense mounts. “Will they make it out in time?” Just when the main character, who goes nameless throughout the game, is about to reach success, a comrade guns him down. Taken on a police escort to a local prison, a gang suddenly attacks the escort springing one of the prisoners and taking him, apparently, home. You’re free! Therefore, what better thing to do than get back to work as the rambunctious hooligan that you are? You immediately meet a fellow prisoner who introduces you to an associate of his and the world of Liberty City opens up. It’s like a pocket of money waiting for you to pick. Look out Liberty City! The mysterious rogue has come!

While the story basically ends there, I enjoyed getting to know the psyche of the criminal mind. A ruthless thug who will do anything necessary to complete “the job” and get paid for it was interesting. Whether it be by murder, robbery, or a simple drop off of a package or two, the unknown figure was appealing and gets the job done with the plot pretty much maintaining this present attitude of job, money, job, money, throughout the entire game. Fantastic.

Liberty City is synonymous with “The Land Of Opportunity,” which is what I loved most about it. Each of the three islands you’ll ultimately gain access to provide a wealth of employers that more or less “unlock” after completing certain missions for a while. Each mission requires you to perform certain tasks for the gang that you are currently associated with. These gangs include the likes of the Mafia, the Columbian Cartel, and other various blood thirty thugs anxious to gather the city in their grasp. Typically, the missions will have you committing random acts of violence against the other gangs, which you may have previously worked for! However, make sure not to cross your gang or they may end up giving you the old concrete boots and a trip to the big aquarium.

Your crossing and double-crossing of gangs certainly doesn’t appear very amusing to the gangs themselves and retaliatory acts will be inevitable. Driving through certain areas of town will become impossible after you’ve committed a certain deadly act like killing off the head honcho of the gang. They apparently weren’t laughing. There’s no turning back once a certain gang has been made upset, either. Once they’re mad, they stay mad much to your detriment. Make sure you do what you need to do with these punks first and then blow their brains out. That’s typically a more worthwhile combination.

Of course, while the gangs are busy shooting at you, what missions may you be performing for these gentlemen? Certain members of the gang may ask you to escort prostitutes to a local police party. You may be asked to simply dispose of a bloodied vehicle by car crusher or by sea. A Mafia member may appreciate some monetary compensation from the people he’s protecting. The list continues yet it cycles. These are the more unique missions of GTA III. You’ll usually find yourself being asked to simply go kill someone. While killing people may be a rush at first, it eventually just hits a rut of normality and loses the excitement it once had. This is unfortunate as killing people is pretty much the main principle here and it’s a shame it gets boring at some points, but it just gets so repetitive with many of the deaths being asked to happen in the same manner.

Luckily, some welcome relief will come from extra side quests to break up the monotony that will beat down upon the average GTA III player. A number of extras are available for the choosing and they are all fun to do. Go masquerading in a police car ironically eliminating the criminal threat of Liberty City by bashing into them with your cop car and killing them when they hop out. Save the day by putting out fires on lit up vehicles. Rescue injured pedestrians and take them back to the hospital for treatment. There are all kinds of other things to do to take a break from the killing that you’re doing such as started a Rampage and, um, killing people as quickly as possible. OK, maybe that was a bad example, but there are others.

The extras are aplenty and certainly appreciated to step out of the mission mode for a while and just have some fun driving around and listening to the radio while doing something a little less frantic. Each also comes equipped with rewards to distribute upon satisfactory completion of certain objectives and that’s certainly a nice incentive. However, even these extras get tiresome eventually even after leaving the mission mode to escape repetitiveness, but they usually maintain a level of fun during the game if you can just find a perfect cycle incorporating the missions and the extras for a fun filled killing spree.

Think your mayhem is going to go unnoticed? Don’t make me laugh. The police are out in full force and they’re thirsty for almost as much blood as you are, it seems. You possess six empty star shapes at the upper right of the screen. Commit some “minor infractions” and you gain a star. By minor infractions, I am clearly referring to killing only three or four people or simply bumping into a police car. With more and more destruction come more and more stars and more and more punishment from the cops. A simple one star “wanted level” will result in a cop simply trying to arrest you. Add a couple more and they’re brandishing firearms. Another one or two and you got the FBI gunning for you. Get a grand total of six stars and kiss yourself good-bye when the military start rolling up in tanks with soldiers decked out in M16s.

I loved every minute of it. The cops are certainly one of the highlights of the game whether it be dodging them in a mission or seeing how long you can last against an all out onslaught. It’s delightful. Of course, their behavior warrants some questioning as they’ll run over more pedestrians and kill more in the cross fire than you did moments before gaining your stars. It’s good for a laugh, that’s for certain. The cops will relentlessly pursue you and no other gangs, it would appear, throughout the duration of the game and it certainly makes it much more exciting and fun filled. Blowing off a rent a cop’s head is one thing, but a full-fledged FBI member? What more could you want?

Taking the road of very recent games, such as Battlefield 1942, GTA III is a slap in the face to all PC owners who haven’t made a recent processor, memory card, RAM, and other various upgrade purchases to their computer in the last half a year or so. The recommended requirements turn out to be malicious lies to trick people into buying this under the impression that “It must run well since I’ll be above the recommended specs.” Lies. All of my PC specs met these recommended requirements at least or surpassed them by great lengths, yet the performance that I was being delivered has convinced me that I can’t read a number or a terrible typo has been made on my box. Either way, the minimum requirements to “run” the game become a subject of mockery and utter hatred.

With consistent slowdown throughout the entire game, this was not a fun experience. It was like somebody hit the slow motion button and continued to hit it ten more times with each impact more devastating than the last. Surprisingly, the graphics that I was having delivered to me at such a slow rate were not even that dazzling. The character models were somewhat blocky with hideous lines denoting the separation of their arms from their torsos. A miniscule assortment of pedestrians accompanied the streets with some pedestrians being seen numerous times in the same 100-yard strip (and I’m not talking about the gangs).

However, the car models were very attractive with detailed design and a relatively wide assortment. Ranging from the sporty Banshee to the sluggish (and that slowdown didn’t help) and awkward bus, each vehicle is designed appropriately and even appears in a realistic manner. The buses appear rarely with the much more common sight of mini vans and station wagons. The responses from these cars are equally well done with more responsive handling from the sport cars and slower acceleration yet more powerful buses and semis. Driving in the open road in the rain was a pleasant experience, but I did tend to wonder how this same rain managed to fall through concrete overpasses and into garages unscathed by these same blockades.

What’s more to the positive aspect is that the city seems very realistic. Residential, industrial, and commercial zones cover the landscape in a sensible manner. Each layout is enjoyable with three separate islands of Liberty City with each one steadily more complicated than the last. I loved the variety of things thrown in GTA III. A normal suspended type of bridge was neat only to be outclassed by a raising bridge that was a sight to see sometime later. The buildings look well done, with some unfortunate blandness of color, but the textures look very pleasing. I wished it would only be possible to walk into a couple to see them from the inside instead of the small few that are available. Liberty City really is a nice (looking) city.

One of my favorite things in this game was the assortment of radio stations available in the vehicles catering to a wide variety of tastes. With hilarious talk shows, pop style music, and just some heavy material, each one was unique and equally enjoyable with a flow of parody style commercials with some even poking mild fun at GTA III! Unfortunately, the track for each station is relatively small and if you’re doing large amounts of driving you’ll begin to hear repeated talking sessions and music within a very small amount of time. However, many of the shows are so enjoyable that this will not present a problem until the point where you can actually do the entire show from memory. Then it IS a little repetitive.

Voice acting is spot on with the characters yet doesn’t make a large appearance. The main character never actually breaks down the barrier of communication by talking himself and you only get to encounter conversations (albeit one sided) at the start of every mission, which are usually only short snippets, about two sentences or so. Although, each character has a believable voice and/or accent and really adds to the atmosphere of the particular gang you’re working for. Short sound clips also accompany some of the pedestrians and cops with simple things like “Watch it!” to a more humorous comment from an officer who says, “We’re going to killllll you!” and he is immediately reprimanded by his fellow cop. The explosions and gunshots are all well done with every weapon as well as the screams of pedestrians that immediately ensue.

The occasional glitchy controls will cause you to find yourself suddenly halfway through a ramp in the “falling” position with little to do but rampantly press every button in the keyboard, joystick, or whatever you may be using to break free of your abnormal predicament. These instances are thankfully rare, however, but they can cause wasted time and frustration. Bad camera angles also rear their ugly head with views staring, as if by magic, at the interior of a wall as soon as you enter a garage of some sort as opposed to a behind view of your character. Changing views is a nuisance, too, as I found it irritating to switch through a cycle of five to see my character with an up close and personal shot and then having to cycle back through to the way I had it. However, every thing else comes with ease and isn’t nearly as irritating. Driving the vehicles is masterfully done with each button (or key) accessible or easily changed to make it so and the shooting and aiming of weapons is simply performed following your thoughts.

Grand Theft Auto III really is a worthwhile purchase with hours of gameplay. The challenge is equally attractive and it should meet the needs of all consumers especially with the difficulty stepping up at the end. While I disagree with “Game of the Year” caliber and whatnot, it delivers with spectacular gameplay (which can get boring if taken in doses too large), great audio, an impressive city, and decent controls and visuals. Unfortunately, you’ll need a really up to date computer to be able to handle the game, so make sure if you’re interested in a purchase, that you spit on those recommended specs. A fun game with a wide assortment of missions and side quests to choose from, I recommend you pick this game up even if you’re computer isn’t the best there is right now, but you’ll wish it were.

“Hey! You can kill stuff!”

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/01/03, Updated 02/27/03