Grand Theft Auto 3 is a member of the Grand Theft Auto series, as you would imagine. The predecessors of the game were strictly top down, 2D affairs, involving answering phones, stealing cars, and killing. GTA3 takes that theme, and sends it kicking and screaming into the third dimension. So, you’re standard 3D update, eh? Wrong. GTA3 is so much better in every conceivable department than its prequels, that it’s just ridiculous.
The story in GTA3 is simple. After busting out of jail, your job is to work your way up through the criminal ranks from mere errand boy, to the grand daddy of them all to get back at your former crime buddy, Catalina. In doing this, you’ll perform various tasks and missions for crime bosses around the city, who’ll reward you with progressively larger sums of money. It’s made all the more difficult by the fact that Liberty City just happens to be the crime capital of the entire universe. Dandy.
Graphically, GTA3 isn’t the prettiest game in the world. Don’t expect any Grand Turismo 3 car detail here. But, the visuals are more than adequate. The draw distance in particular is quite good, with next to no trace of pop up. The characters themselves won’t stun you with their awesomeness, but they are above average, with no polygonally-challenged characters stumbling around. The number of characters, cars and buildings on screen at once is quite phenomenal at times. Although, a minor complaint could be leveled at the way the game seems to think that visual continuity isn’t important. For example, you often find yourself running down a street. You push down on the analog to look behind you, and then as you turn around, everything in front of you has changed.
One area in which GTA3 shines is the audio. It’s simply stunning. Characters on the street have their own lines which they will blurt out at random intervals. For example, the gay sailors will pipe up with “You can sail the seven seas” at regular intervals, where as the Indian taxi drivers scream at you to “Get out of my cab!” as you ‘borrow’ their taxi. The voice acting for all the major characters cannot be faulted. The Italian mafia is particularly convincing.
But the best part of the sound is, without a doubt, the radio stations in the cars. There is something for everything. Feel like listening to some old, 80s style music? Tune into Flashback FM. Want some classical opera? Double Cleff FM is what you need. What some techno pumping through the car? You’ll like Rise FM. But, my favourite station, without a doubt, is Chatterbox. It’s Liberty City’s talkback station, and is quite possibly the funniest thing ever heard in a video game. Lazlow, the host of the station, is damn funny with his quips at the various callers, guests and advertisements. I, no matter what, always have the radio tuned to Chatterbox. There’s only around half an hour of stuff on the station, but, for some uncanny reason, it doesn’t get boring.
The mission part of the game is the core of the game. If you want to progress through different parts of the cities, you have to play it. As mentioned, you assist various crime syndicates in their operations until they decide to kill you, or you decide to backstab them. There are around sixty obvious missions around the city. The others come by doing various little things, such as driving a 4WD through a serious of checkpoints, or blowing up a certain number of gang cars with remote control cars. Once you’ve completed the missions, you’ll find that only 40% of the game is completed! There is still 100 packages to find, unique jumps to conquer, and rampages to abuse. Without mucking around, there’s a good 50-60 hours of gameplay in the disc. But believe me, you’ll want to muck around.
What good is being a gangster if you don’t have the right tools? There is some serious hardware available in GTA3. The most obvious are the vehicles. They range from your standard family station wagon, to garbage trucks, to hotted up Dodge Viper look alikes, and even a Mr. Whippy van. All of the cars do feel genuinely different, and you can tell whether or not you’re driving an old station wagon, or an insanely fast Cheetah. There’s even a few boats, and, gasp, a plane available at your disposal. And just wait until you find a tank. There is no fault whatsoever that can be leveled at the cars. They handle absolutely perfectly, and if you drive off the edge of a cliff, it’s your own damn fault.
Aside from cars, there’s a vast array of weapons available for your use. You’ve got your fists and feet, obviously. Then there’s a baseball bat, a pistol, (good for killing a few baddies), an uzi’s (rapid fire on the run), shotgun (will blow up a car with a few shots), AK-47 (stand and deliver carnage), colt commando (stand and deliver LOTS of carnage), sniper rifle (long distance assassinations), grenades (kaboom!), molitov cocktails (light those people up!), flamethrower (set your friends on fire!), and the granddaddy of them all… The rocket launcher.
Obviously, when you’re unleashing hell on the unsuspecting citizens of Liberty City, the Police are going to try to stop you. There is a six star wanted level system. The more stars, the more the cops want you to die. A one star wanted level is easy fixed – just hide somewhere for a few moments. After that though, you’ll have to get your car re-sprayed if you want to avoid ending up in jail. Police choppers will come after you, as will big armored trucks, and the FBI. But when things are really going bad, the army will start rolling out the tanks. Then you might as well kiss everything goodbye.
Enough with the aesthetics. These would be useless if GTA3 was the most boring game on the planet. The good news is that it’s not. In fact, GTA3 is one of the most playable games to hit the shelves in recent years. The freedom is possibly the games biggest attribute. You can do absolutely anything you want. Is that guy over on the corner there annoying you? Go and punch him until he’s dead. What that car? Steal it. That cop car irritating you? Send a rocket into it. You name it, you can do it. There is probably enough game in the disc without even bothering to play the mission component of the game. Unless of course, you tend to find random violence boring.
However, the game does have a few faults. The fighting system is, to put things simply, abysmal. The camera spins around frantically, as you struggle to send lead into your enemies. Pulling down the R1 button will lock onto the nearest enemy, but that’s about all the help you’re going to get. In close, fighting is made extremely tough and awkward, as you not only try and spin the camera into the right spot, but try and shoot your enemies down. Thankfully, there’s so much more to GTA3 that this doesn’t ruin the game.
The other major problem is the artificial intelligence. At times, it is not only frustrating, it’s just plain stupid. You steal a car right in front of a cop. What do they do? Turn on their sirens, and demand you pull over? Yeah, right. Instead, they drive flat out into the car that you just stole, attempting to kill you. At times, they’ll even run over pedestrians to do it. Citizens also tend to drive into solid objects if emergency vehicles need to get past them, as well. But, the most annoying thing about it is that when you are driving through a gang territory of which don’t like you, the gang members on the roads will open fire on you. Even if the car has pitch black windows, and is traveling at full speed. It does nothing but irritate. It even makes certain areas of the city off limits, unless you want to try and fight off gang member after gang member after gang member.
Whilst not really being a major problem, it would have been nice to be able to gain access to at least some buildings. Every building is inaccessible. Why can’t we pull off some home invasions? Or, do a break and enter and steal some guy’s TV? It’s nothing major, but it would have been a nice addition.
But, these faults fail to detract enough from GTA3 to bring it down from its mantle as a classic game. GTA3 has it all – good enough graphics, great sound, a fun quest, carnage, freedom, lifespan, and that all important fun factor. Plus, you get to be a criminal. How can you possibly ask for anything more than that? Just make sure you take note of the rating tag - this isn't one for the young ones to be playing.
Note: If you’re Australian, you’re probably aware that in December 2001 the game was taken off the shelves to have the ability to pick up hookers and engage in, erm, activities, removed from the game. It was later re-released in February 2002 without this feature.
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