In 1997 Scottish videogame developer DMA Design released Grand Theft Auto much to the dismay of politicians and the morally superior. However, despite all the buzz the game had garnered about its excessive violence, the game itself was relatively mundane. It sold well enough to get a sequel, which also didn’t set the world on fire, but criticisms were levelled at both games for their simple design and outdated mechanics. But the PlayStation 2 was on the horizon and DMA had their sights set on moving Grand Theft Auto into the third dimension and in the process change everything people thought was possible in a videogame.
Shot and left for dead following a bank robbery, Claude must work his way up through Liberty City’s criminal underground to regain money and respect to exact revenge on the woman who broke his heart.
It’s an incredibly simple story, and the narrative of GTA III never gets particularly complex. Cutscenes rarely do anything other than outline what you’re going to be doing in that particular mission, and whilst characters are certainly extravagant, you never learn too much about them.
Story is very much on the backburner in GTA III, though no more than most games of this time, with it really only being there to give context to your actions, and a motivation to move forward.
Shot and left for dead following a bank robbery, Claude must work his way up through Liberty City’s criminal underground to regain money and respect to exact revenge on the woman who broke his heart.
It’s an incredibly simple story, and the narrative of GTA III never gets particularly complex. Cutscenes rarely do anything other than outline what you’re going to be doing in that particular mission, and whilst characters are certainly extravagant, you never learn too much about them.
Story is very much on the backburner in GTA III, though no more than most games of this time, with it really only being there to give context to your actions, and a motivation to move forward.
What makes GTA III special is its world, and its gameplay. Until this point there had never been an open world that gave you as much freedom to do whatever you wanted, at any time you wanted as GTA III's Liberty City does. GTA III’s missions can be tackled in a relatively non-linear order, and the streets of Liberty City are yours to explore at your own pace, be it by foot or by car.
The city feels alive with dynamic weather effects, a population that mill around the place, and A.I that can create random events such as gang fights without any influence from the player. Add to this the dialogue you’ll hear pedestrians come out with, and the iconic radio stations that play in the car, and Liberty City at the time was a game environment like no other.
There’s also a number of side activities you can engage in, such as taxi, ambulance, and police missions; as well as collectibles to find and races to win. There’s a lot going on in Liberty City, and whilst the size of the environment is quaint by today’s standards, at the time it was a playground larger than anything seen before.
Despite the diversity of the game world, the gameplay falls into a repetitive cycle. Missions usually consist of you driving somewhere, shooting someone, or destroying property. Over the course of the forty-seven story missions these objectives get progressively more difficult and complex, starting out by simply driving to specific points in the city and ending with an explosive finale where you engage in combat with multiple heavily armed foes within a short time limit. GTA III is hard, but it’s usually a fair kind of hard that simply requires you to try and try again until you succeed. A lot of the difficulty stems from the combat. It doesn’t take very many bullets for Claude to die, but the shooting mechanics aren’t the most accurate, and often require you to simply stand in the open and shoot as there are no cover mechanics. Trial and error usually is the best approach for GTA III, however the awkward combat controls can make this a frustrating process.
The city feels alive with dynamic weather effects, a population that mill around the place, and A.I that can create random events such as gang fights without any influence from the player. Add to this the dialogue you’ll hear pedestrians come out with, and the iconic radio stations that play in the car, and Liberty City at the time was a game environment like no other.
There’s also a number of side activities you can engage in, such as taxi, ambulance, and police missions; as well as collectibles to find and races to win. There’s a lot going on in Liberty City, and whilst the size of the environment is quaint by today’s standards, at the time it was a playground larger than anything seen before.
Despite the diversity of the game world, the gameplay falls into a repetitive cycle. Missions usually consist of you driving somewhere, shooting someone, or destroying property. Over the course of the forty-seven story missions these objectives get progressively more difficult and complex, starting out by simply driving to specific points in the city and ending with an explosive finale where you engage in combat with multiple heavily armed foes within a short time limit. GTA III is hard, but it’s usually a fair kind of hard that simply requires you to try and try again until you succeed. A lot of the difficulty stems from the combat. It doesn’t take very many bullets for Claude to die, but the shooting mechanics aren’t the most accurate, and often require you to simply stand in the open and shoot as there are no cover mechanics. Trial and error usually is the best approach for GTA III, however the awkward combat controls can make this a frustrating process.
For this review I played the ‘Definitive Edition’ release to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the game. The Definitive Edition was critically panned on release due to a large number of game breaking technical issues. I was lucky in that during my time with the Definitive Edition I didn’t encounter many major technical issues, and I also don’t feel as though the remaster was as awful as many people made it out to be.
First up I’ll address the visuals. The original look of GTA III was dark and grimy, everything was grey and flat owing to the technical limitations of the PS2 and the RenderWare game engine that GTA III was built with. But despite this the visual aesthetic of the game worked, low polygon character models were animated in ways that allowed a lot to be conveyed through body language, and the way litter drifted around the streets made everything look dingy and unpleasant.
In the Definitive Edition textures have been upgraded to a 4K resolution, and the game runs on the Unreal Engine. These differences are absolutely night and day, and some work and others don’t. Personally, I think the city and lighting looks much better in the remaster, but it does loose that distinctly downtrodden look because everything is so much cleaner. Some character models also haven’t been given a great deal of attention in comparison to others, with some faces looking weird now that they’ve been given a massive resolution bump.
Cars look fantastic though, with a great deal of detail put into them, and the game tends to run at a much more consistent frame rate…though this could depend on the hardware you’re using to play the game on as eighth generation systems seem to have noted multiple performance issues.
The control scheme has also been revamped which is arguably the best update the Definitive Edition has to offer, which has made combat significantly more responsive and easier to control. It’s still clunky in comparison to modern games, but compared to the original versions the Definitive Edition has the benefit of twenty years’ worth of control innovation to draw from. A better camera has been implemented and a GTA V style weapon wheel has made major quality of life improvements to the game, even if other areas have been neglected or even made worse.
No matter which version you play, Grand Theft Auto III is an essential part of gaming history as without it we would not have open world games like we currently do. GTA III is the template by which all modern open world games are adapted from, and whilst twenty years of improvements to the open world genre has definitely shown how simple the game is, but for 2001 this was cutting edge and so incredibly influential.
Whilst the PS2 version is the most stable build of the game, the Definitive Edition does provide some very welcome quality of life improvements, however it comes at the cost of some artistic value and some unforgivable technical issues.
First up I’ll address the visuals. The original look of GTA III was dark and grimy, everything was grey and flat owing to the technical limitations of the PS2 and the RenderWare game engine that GTA III was built with. But despite this the visual aesthetic of the game worked, low polygon character models were animated in ways that allowed a lot to be conveyed through body language, and the way litter drifted around the streets made everything look dingy and unpleasant.
In the Definitive Edition textures have been upgraded to a 4K resolution, and the game runs on the Unreal Engine. These differences are absolutely night and day, and some work and others don’t. Personally, I think the city and lighting looks much better in the remaster, but it does loose that distinctly downtrodden look because everything is so much cleaner. Some character models also haven’t been given a great deal of attention in comparison to others, with some faces looking weird now that they’ve been given a massive resolution bump.
Cars look fantastic though, with a great deal of detail put into them, and the game tends to run at a much more consistent frame rate…though this could depend on the hardware you’re using to play the game on as eighth generation systems seem to have noted multiple performance issues.
The control scheme has also been revamped which is arguably the best update the Definitive Edition has to offer, which has made combat significantly more responsive and easier to control. It’s still clunky in comparison to modern games, but compared to the original versions the Definitive Edition has the benefit of twenty years’ worth of control innovation to draw from. A better camera has been implemented and a GTA V style weapon wheel has made major quality of life improvements to the game, even if other areas have been neglected or even made worse.
No matter which version you play, Grand Theft Auto III is an essential part of gaming history as without it we would not have open world games like we currently do. GTA III is the template by which all modern open world games are adapted from, and whilst twenty years of improvements to the open world genre has definitely shown how simple the game is, but for 2001 this was cutting edge and so incredibly influential.
Whilst the PS2 version is the most stable build of the game, the Definitive Edition does provide some very welcome quality of life improvements, however it comes at the cost of some artistic value and some unforgivable technical issues.