Grand Theft Auto III

"It defined a generation and created a genre – How does it hold up? (A GTA Retrospective)"

Grand Theft Auto hardly needs any introduction, but it might be prudent to explain just why I've decided to come back and review this title after so many years have passed, and after so many others have already sounded off on the matter. It's simple really; after some thought I concluded that the Grand Theft Auto franchise was one of the most dominant and influential of the Playstation 2 era. Because of their success, dozens of imitators were spawned and the face of gaming was changed forever. But I wondered just how good they still were. With that in mind, I decided to revisit all the PS2 generation Grand Theft Auto games in a series of retrospective reviews and hopefully answer the question, “How well have they stood the test of time?”.

Keeping in mind that III was the herald of a new generation of Grand Theft Auto game (prior to this, they were all two dimensional, top down games), it's important to realize that it served as a sort of spring board for things to come. Many of the more complicated elements of later entries are nowhere to be found, and much of the game bows to the mentality of “this is just the beginning”.

However, plenty of the franchise characteristics are here in full force. One of the biggest selling points of the game at the time of its release, and the one thing that has consistently defined the series through the years, is a massive open world. In GTA III, the game takes place in a fictionalized version of New York, called Liberty City, which is made up of three islands. Another trademark of the franchise and aspect of the open world is the ability to choose from many other ancillary activities as well as take on story missions. These missions are initiated by going to any number of contacts strewn across the map, and there are usually a handful to choose from at any given time

But let's begin at the most logical place, where it all starts. Grand Theft Auto III revolves around a nameless, mute character (whom I shall henceforth refer to as The Dude) who takes place in some sort of robbery along with several other criminals. As they escape, he is double-crossed by his girlfriend and shot in the face. Fast forward, and the Dude is being transferred to prison when an attack is mounted on the prison vehicle he is riding in and a couple of guys are freed by an unknown group. Taking this opportunity at freedom, the Dude escapes as well and starts working in Liberty City.

Unfortunately the story never really goes anywhere and is undoubtedly the weakest of the franchise. This can be attributed to the fact that there is no clear story thread which ties everything together, meaning as you progress and work for different people it never feels as if you're doing anything more than playing the errand boy. It also doesn't help that the Dude has no clear motivations for what he does, and he even lacks a personality due to his complete silence.

In the long run, this doesn't really hurt the game although it is noticeable. But it's likely that most people will simply be too focused on everything else going on to care about this lack of a cohesive story. The biggest chunk of game time will be spent completing story missions in order to finish the game. These missions are typically quite short and uncomplicated. A sizeable number come down to simple fetch missions, or just involve players driving around and killing people.

Those missions which are a bit more original have a tendency to be supremely frustrating. Take for instance a sniping mission, which tasks the player with killing off everyone on a container ship while another character sneaks in. Two issues make what could have otherwise been a great mission a teeth-grinding experience. The first is that the character who is sneaking in keeps moving regardless of whether or not there are still enemies ahead of him. The second is that the aiming controls are quite sloppy, due in no small part to the fact that you can't change the inverted aiming scheme. Another early mission tasks players with taking out a crime boss before he arrives at his mansion. He is of course flanked by two escort cars which immediately break off and chase you as soon as you get close. A later mission involves the same principle of destroying a car, but this time getting close puts the police on your tail.

These missions aren't always bad in and of themselves. It's just that they often put the bad aspects and oddities of the game on full display. In the aforementioned examples, it isn't the mission design that is ultimately the problem, it is the difficult aiming scheme, weak cars, and ridiculous wanted system respectively which causes the frustration.

In addition to taking on missions from contacts, players will find that they are capable of getting up to all sorts of fun by themselves. By jumping into the appropriate vehicle, players will be able to take on side missions. For instance, jumping in a taxi will allow you to shuttle fares around the city, finding a fire truck will allow you to fight fires, and getting in a cop car will allow you to access vigilante missions, killing off Liberty City's criminals.

There's plenty more to get into aside from that. Players can get into a car theft ring and go find vehicles for export, search for hidden packages across the city, which unlock weapons or simply get into some free-form chaos by going on killing sprees a la classic Grand Theft Auto.

Regardless of what players do, conflict is inevitable (Liberty City is, after all, a cesspit of crime and corruption). Thankfully, getting a piece in Liberty City is as easy as walking into the nearest Ammu-Nation and picking out your weapon of choice. Actually using said weapon is a bit trickier. The aiming system of Grand Theft Auto has always been a sticking point for the franchise, but it's at its worst here. Basically, all that's really required is holding a trigger button to lock onto a target, then firing away. However, it is often hard to target the person you want to be shooting without cycling through a bunch of targets, meaning players might have to cycle through a bunch of harmless pedestrians while being shot by a gangster. It's also quite inaccurate, so unloading a shotgun from a couple of feet away doesn't always mean an enemy is going to die. However, there is one handy maneuver with a gun. With an Uzi, players can drive a car and point the gun out a window and fire away.

While Liberty City is an incredibly corrupt place filled with all sorts of crime, the cops do protect their interests. Going around firing semi-automatic weaponry into the populace and running people down like a homicidal maniac will eventually arouse the attention of the police. The wanted level operates on a six star system. At one star cops will swarm en masse, ramming your car until it catches fire and then run you over, or shoot you when you get out. At higher levels SWAT, the FBI and finally the military will be called in to take you down. At higher levels, the heat is absolutely fatal, as helicopters buzz overhead taking potshots, and tanks roll through the streets. But even a level one star is a massive headache, simply because so many cops come after you. The only way to get rid of the heat is to drop by a local Pay and Spray, which repaints your vehicle.

Thus far I've referenced a number of the oddities and nuisances players will find in Grand Theft Auto III. While none of them are exceptionally problematic on their own, they stack up to create big problems and significantly detract from the game. Some of the biggest irritations that I found were that the Dude can't swim, nor can he bail out of a moving vehicle which means if a car is on fire it must be stopped before getting out (and before it explodes). On that note, vehicles are weak and can only sustain a small amount of damage before bursting into flames, which is a big problem when a couple of police cruisers barrel into the side of the car during a chase. At one point in the game I was driving down the street and two pedestrians shot the car with shotguns, immediately causing it to catch fire. Speaking of that, during the course of the game the Dude will progressively piss off nearly every gang in the city. This comes into play as they just start firing when they catch a glimpse of him, even if he's in a car. And of course, should you attempt to defend yourself that catches the attention of the police, bringing on a whole new set of problems. Perhaps the least of the game's problems is the fact that there is no full map a player can view. This means the only form of navigation players will have is the small min-map at the bottom of the screen, so getting from one place to another is a matter of luck until fully memorizing the layout of the city.

Over the years Rockstar has become known as much for the sound of its games as the actual gameplay. This is in fact, the game in which the company set their standard for voice work, and there are quite a few actors who have previously starred in crime and Mafia dramas. There are also nine radio stations to choose from when driving around and the selection is quite good, with reggae, hip-hop, talk radio, Italian opera and a station of eighties music which is actually all songs from Scarface. Oddly enough there isn't what I would call a rock station.

Rockstar also debuted their razor sharp wit and clever satire with this game. The game practically oozes with its endless satire of Americana and radio commercials parodying pop culture phenomena such as reality television, video games, the automotive industry, dating services and America's addiction to prescription drugs. Rockstar's wit is apparent even in the titles of missions, such as “Drive Misty for Me”.

Coming back to an eight year old game, I can't say what I was expecting to find with the graphics, but it certainly couldn't have been as good as what I found. While Grand Theft Auto III isn't (and wasn't) a great looking game it has held up fairly well. It is colorful and the pop up isn't as dramatic as one would imagine. However there is plenty of texture fill in. The frame rate stays more stable than I would have expected, considering how much is often going on, though it does bog down a tad from time to time.

I could make a few complaints; namely the characters are stubby looking and they have hilarious animations and hands look more like lobster claws. However, I think that might be missing the point. For an eight year old game, GTA III still looks impressive.

THE VERDICT
So, Grand Theft Auto III defined an entire generation of console gaming and changed this glorious pastime forever. But back to my original question, the entire reason for coming back to the game. Eight years on, how does it hold up? Coming into this I wasn't expecting what I found. I thought it would be an awful experience by this time, seeing how dramatically the next few games were changed. While there are certainly significant areas that have suffered it is interesting to note that these were the very things that Rockstar spent the most time working on and fixing for the next games. So GTA III may no longer be the epitome of what a video game can be, but it still serves as an example of how to do an open world game. Its importance to gaming cannot be understated, as many games that have come out after it have been influenced by its success to some degree. In the end, Rockstars golden game holds up surprisingly well, but it pales in comparison to what would come later.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/12/09

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