This is definitely the first 3D GTA alright. It's an okay time, sound track is cool, I like the visuals, and even though the vehicle physics are awful, I actually enjoy driving around listening to the music. The missions are nothing special and imo are only hard due to design choices (likely due to limitations at the time), so much so that I couldn't help but think about how easy some of them would be in a modern GTA. Story kept me engagedish, I guess, not enough to finish the game tho, more on that later. Cops are pretty fucking annoying and the way you have to lose them is pretty annoying, you have to memorize where things are yourself, or pull up a map on the side. I ended up just using cheats to make my life easier and lose them as soon as it got too much. At best missions are eh, at worst they're tedious and annoying.

Which is why I abandoned this title, my game tweaked out and crashed causing me to lose like 3 hours of progress, and with all the above in mind it was not worth it to me to go thru it again for more mediocre gameplay when there's 4 other 3D GTAs for me to go through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6qUB13LTTc

also vividly remember the kid at my elementary school who told me about the word "shit" loving the Shit out of this game back around 2003 and i was fascinated by his descriptions of what could take place in it. probably better than most Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC works from the past 6-7 or so years, which are just barely-evolved versions of what DMA design was cooking up here and a little bit earlier with space station silicon valley on the n64. i usually get pretty bored about halfway in every time i've played, and just end up driving around liberty city listening to some mad tunes from the legendary moving shadow records or some dubs mixed by the scientist over at king tubby's (rip) studio. that's pretty much the case with every subsequent game in this series, but with different music, actually.

A sensação de jogar GTA 3 pela primeira vez é fascinante. Fascinação pelo mundo aberto revolucionário da época que a Rockstar conseguiu proporcionar, um mundo aberto que, apesar de muito simples, consegue ser envolvente.

Situado nas ruas movimentadas de Liberty City, GTA 3 faz você se sentir como Robert de Niro em Taxi Driver. A liberdade de explorar, completar missões e causar estragos é incomparável, tornando cada jogo uma aventura única.

Entretanto, GTA 3 não envelheceu muito bem. Apesar de ser meu jogo favorito da franquia, seus erros são indiscutíveis. A história do jogo não é tão cativante assim, e muito da IA deste jogo é apenas estranha.

O fator nostalgia e a jogabilidade atemporal são o que garantem que GTA III continue sendo um jogo obrigatório para qualquer jogador que queira experimentar um verdadeiro clássico.

While I do respect the revolutionary legacy of this game, it doesn't save it from being a frustrating nightmare that ruined my experience.

Lack of checkpoints when dying.
Fragile and hard to control vehicles.
Insufferable brutal police AI.
Bad to straight up unfair mission design.
Forgettable story and characters.

Thank God I played Vice City and San Andreas first.

GTA is GTA, and it's always is going to be good there's no question in that. GTA III was the first GTA to go 3D and it really revolutionized the gaming industry. It innovated so much and laid the ground work for what a GTA game can be today. Considering that this game released 23 years ago at this point, it's really amazing that it is still a somewhat fun game to play.

I say somewhat because it did become a chore for me to get through. Not counting the 2D games, I think personally that this is the worst GTA. While I can appreciate what the game achieved in it's time and kickstarted the franchise like we know it, it's a very tedious game to play. The physics that they could achieve at the time are in 2024 frustrating to work with. Outside of the frustrating controls and behavior of cars, the story wasn't that interesting either. So the gameplay isn't that great and the story isn't either. Point being that I didn't really enjoy the whole experience. The problem is that it has really started to age and compared to modern games it is tough to connect with. I don't have a nostalgia factor with this game either.

It just got boring after a while. I finished the story but I did not complete all side activities because I couldn't be bothered anymore.
While I did not fully enjoy this game, I can appreciate what it achieved and I can appreciate the iconic moments that it brought.