"It's still a great game even though the other 2 GTA games are already out."

If you reading this, that means that GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas have already been released for PS2, Xbox, and PC. Your wondering why you should even touch this game if you can do more stuff in the other two. For starters, Grand Theft Auto III is the first game that is third person view than from the birds eye view of the previous GTA games for those who have been living under a rock. It's also the least complicated than the other 2 because you don't have those extra things that keep you away from the game or the missions. Take GTA San Andreas for example, it takes you away from the world of GTA by introducing Gambling. It's fun and you get lots of money but whats it's purpose beside that? It's to extend the game longer, that's it. Now to go on with the review.

Introduction: 10/10

Ever wanted to kill people for no reason and get away with it but couldn't because it's not easy to get away with it in real life. Ever wanted to work for mob-bosses for cash. I'm sure all of you have something that you wish you can do but it was illegal in real life. That is, when Rockstar released GTA 3 for the PS2, one could do the things that one couldn't do in real life. Example is murdering someone. When you kill someone or a large amount of people, the police will go after you. If you just go into a Pay and Spray, you'll lose them all them no matter if the police or the FBI or even the US army chased you, something that's not possible in real life. Yes, now you've gotten your wish.

Story: 7/10

Well here's how the story begins, you [insert name here], the guy has no name robs a bank with your girlfriend. Suddenly, she betrays you and leaves you behind with the police. When your getting transferred to another place, some guys from the gang take one of the guys who's riding in the police van with you and threatened the cops with guns. Once the guy left, you and the other guy with you called 8-Ball break out. Suddenly you notice a bomb on the bridge, it explodes making it unaccessible to get to the other side. Then you must go into a hideout that 8-Ball knows and hide low. Once there, you'll start working with mob-bosses for the rest of the story. Some main characters will either betray you or die in this game as the story unfolds. The reason it's the score is a 7 because the story is too short, there's probably like 5 missions per person and you're done with them forever, with some people.

Gameplay: 8/10

The gameplay is quite simple. You just run around in a city killing people, jacking cars, doing missions for people, do a drive by, using explosives to blow up a lot of things, or using a tank and destroy everything in your path plus more, the possibilities are almost endless.

One reason and probably the only reason I gave this an 8/10 because I hate GTA 3 system of buying. Here's how it works, you go to your local gun store called Ammunation. Once inside, instead of walking to the counter and tell the guy what you want, you have to walk up to the gun you want and walk into it and you automatically buy it and your money will decrease based on how much it cost. Sometimes you might accidentally run into a weapon you don't want like the sniper rifle that costs $10,000 and are forced to buy it because of the poor system of buying.

On the good side, making money is easy. You can do R3 mission while in a certain vehicle. If you are in a cop car, you can become a vigilante for a while and earn some cash, just don't try this in real life because being a vigilante is illegal in real life and also illegal in the game. That and taxis or fire trucks could get you easy money and rewards.

Now the missions, you're given a certain task to do such as kill a guy or take on a gang on your own. Completing the mission gets you money and closer to the end of the story but failing a mission can be annoying because you have to drive all the way back to where your mob-boss lives and restart the mission from the beginning, even a long one. Also is annoying when you fail a mission because you died because of the lack that your guy can't swim or got busted by the cops. not only you fail the mission but you lose some cash and all your hard earned weapons. That means you have to drive all the way to your safehouse to save the game after every mission and drive back to your mob-boss' home to start the next one which is irritating near the end of the game.

Controls: 9/10

The controls are simple. You mostly should use the left analog stick to move your guy around or drive because it's easier than the control pad. It makes you feel like you're in a racing game when you drive in this game which is cool. The Square button is to jump, the X button is mostly used to confirm stuff on a menu, the circle is for shooting people or using your weapon, the triangle is to jack cars and cancel stuff on the menu, and the L3 and R3 is the horn or activates the R3 missions. The L1 or R1 are only used for locking on and the R2 and L2 are for switching between weapons. The bad thing about the controls in this game is that you have to lock on with someone to get a good shot and it might lock on someone you don't want to shoot and you would have to switch targets which takes up a lot of time.

Graphics: 6/10

The graphics are not the best in the world the character design looks awful. The main guy looks nice just like you probably saw on a magazine but the other characters are awful. You can't tell the difference between an old lady and a cop because of this. The character design looks so bad that they don't even come close to what they were suppose to look like on the instruction manual.

The graphics with the surroundings are another story. There very good. It's almost realistic. When you're driving in the evening, the evening is so realistic that you can't be able to see because of the sunset just like in real life. The only bad thing about the environment is that the trees look awful, you can tell which one is fake and which is real by driving through it and by the look of it. If it's a fake tree, it probably has no trunk and can drive right through it and if it's real, then you'll crash right into the trunk of the tree and do damage to your car.

Sound: 10/10

The sound is almost realistic. When your caught in a traffic jam, you'll hear all these cars honking at you or with each other and they sound almost like rush hour on a busy freeway in real life. When your being chased by the cops, the sirens are just as loud as the ones you probably see on wild polices chases on TV in real life. The voices of some characters are great, and sometimes funny especially the pedestrians.

Finally the radio is the main reason the sound is 10/10. Radio stations play real songs that the makers of GTA choose and put them on a radio station that they made up in this game and made up a DJ who would play these songs. Plus there's also hilarious commercials between songs that might make you laugh for the first few times. There's a variety of radio stations to choose from like rap music or 80s music like Scarface music, yes music from Scarface is here in this game. Overall this makes sound worth hearing.

Replayabilty: 10/10

Once the credits roll and are finished, you think is over? You're wrong, GTA never ends. You may have the missions completed but there's more to do. Your main goal is probably be the master of GTA 3 and want to have 100% completed. That means you'll have t work with some mob-bosses that were optional, find these hidden packages around Liberty City, and do those R3 missions and master them. That's the main purpose of replayabilty in GTA, to do the stuff you forgot to do or feel like doing.

Final Score: 7/10

Overall, this is a great game to those who are new to GTA or have played the previous ones on the PS1 but want to play in a whole new look. If you start playing with Vice City or San Andreas first, there's pretty good chance that you won't take the time to play this game because of the lack of something that this game doesn't have with the other two. You should by the game if you're a fan with shooting games or driving games. If not, at least rent it first, then buy it or not when it comes to a final decision.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/06/05, Updated 07/07/05