Grand Theft Auto III

"If you can find this aged gem, BUY IT!!!"

Introduction
Grand Theft Auto III. The game that started the craze of sandbox games. Four sequels in this Grand Theft Auto era, which unfortunately is coming to an end when Grand Theft Auto IV in 2008. And what an amazing track record! Four rewards on Gamespot (2001 Game of the Year!) , three on IGN (PS2 Game of the Year). And finally, it was so good, there are thirty + “GTA Clones” that copy this games' amazing open ended style. Yes folks, it's THAT good. I didn't pick it up for 5 years after it came out, and I regret not picking it up sooner. The storyline…the extras…the characters! Oh right, I'm sidetracking, on with the review!

Gameplay
According to the GameFAQs review guide, gameplay should be divided into three subsections: Fun factor, Difficulty, and Controls. The Fun factor is great. As I said, I'm on my second playthrough, and I still enjoy blowing up cars, doing side missions such as being a taxi-man (which reminds me of my Crazy Taxi days), going on rampages (using a flamethrower, fry 20 gang members! How awesome does that sound?), doing unique jumps, or even just driving around. There are so many things to do in the city it unbelievable how you can play this game endlessly and still find things to do. The difficulty I find so-so. There are some things that are easy, like most of the story missions, that are checkpoint missions, and some of the side missions (like unique jumps, taxi driving). However, some of the things are VERY hard, such as the paramedic missions (cause the dang thing is so top heavy it flips on simple turns, and flips equal failure), some off road missions, and some rampages which are near impossible (get 20 headshots on gangsters who can decimate you in about 12 seconds!). Lastly, I have no problem with the controls, except for the camera being in the way. But it's easily fixable by pushing a button or two shoulder buttons if you're in a car.

Story
The story is AMAZING! Down on his luck, the anonymous protagonist (whose name I won't spoil) is robbing a bank, gets shot by her fiance/partner Catalina, gets left for dead, and is arrested by the cops. On his way to jail in a police van, some gang members blow up a part of the bridge the van is traveling on, hijack the van, and our protagonist escapes with a new friend. Folks, keep in mind this happens in the first five minutes in the game! Hookers, pimps, the mafia, triads, gangs, weird business men, and a bent cop, all is involved in this humongous story that will absorb you and keep you playing. If you have played other Grand Theft Auto games, you will recognize this great feeling. Oh uh, be warned though, our protagonist does not talk at all, so don't expect a lot of funny dialog between him and other characters, unless a certain women is in the car with him, LOL. That was probably the only downside of the story. The main character does not respond, he just walks in, listens to the guy, gets his, mission, and then walks off. Kind of strange, but hey, maybe he has laryngitis or some disease like that. Or maybe he's afraid of saying something, on account he'll get threatened for questioning authority. I don't know. Also, unfortunately, a lot of the story missions are rather easy, checkpoint, or “A to B” style missions. The difficulty curve gets steeper and steeper as the game goes on, and it becomes much more enjoyable.

Graphics
I'm not good with rating graphics, but for the year this game came out (2001) its good. The frame rates pretty good, I never experienced any extreme slowdowns except for changing between cities, where it would pause to load the next city. Take about 10 seconds and then it would continue. Another slowdown I experienced was when I had to blow up 15 cars for a mission, so I parked a bus perpendicularly across the street, cause a huge traffic jam, then shot a rocket, cause all the cars to blow up simultaneously. My game still took it well, after they all blew up, it worked just fine. It also works very well having 30+ people on the screen, or 10+ cars, but if they're all blowing up or crashing, watch out for the lag!

Sound/Music
I've always liked the soundtracks of Grand Theft Auto games. There's usually a music channel that I'll always tune into because I enjoy that kind of music. For example, on Vice City I always tuned into V-Rock (which I actually consider the best channel in my GTA experience) because I like the artists. I never found a music channel that I liked, but there is a contemporary, an oldie's, and a hip hop channel. The radio channel I fell in love with on this game was Chatterbox FM. A talking station by a recurring real life DJ, Lazlow, has funny conversations with many different people about numerous topics (which I won't spoil for you). However, after about an hour of listening, it will repeat, which was a disappointment, because you'll start to know the conversations and it won't be as fresh anymore. All sound effects in the game also sound real. The sirens, helicopters, gunshots, and everything else sounded just like you'd want it to sound. However, certain sounds, like people screaming at the scene of people dying, people moaning when getting shot, and the police, all sound the same! And the police have maybe 3 lines total so you'll hear all three of them a lot.

Playtime/Replayability

When I 100% my first playthrough, with resets, freezes, and all that, I can probably say I spent about 50-60 hours on that game. If you're a gamer who plays an hour a day and don't play more then one game, then that means this game could very well take you 2 months to complete! Replayability is very strong too, I am on my second playthrough and I already have a nostalgic feeling I get for games that I haven't played in YEARS, yet the time between my two playthroughs was maybe 2 months.

Final Review

Should you buy, rent, or return it for cash if you get it as a gift? Well, for one thing, when I bought it at Christmas 2006, it was at a used Gaming store, NEW, for 5 dollar. So if you are going to return a game as great as this and only get 5 dollars back, you are an idiot. I would buy this game for 50 dollars right now, and since its only 5 dollars used, you should get it, play it, and love it. And remember, if you've played San Andreas already, keep in mind that San Andreas came AFTER Grand Theft Auto III and San Andreas would not be as great without GTA III. And now time for the (DRUM ROLL PLEASE!) report card!

Gameplay – 9/10 (some things are a little too hard for casual gamers and some things are ridiculously easy)
Story – 10/10
Graphics – 9/10(little choppy, but great for the time)
Sound – 9/10 (very repetitive)
Playtime – 10/10

OVERALL
9/10

STILL LOVE IT!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/08/07

Game Release: Grand Theft Auto III (US, 10/22/01)