After beating Grand Theft Auto IV, I was wondering if I'd be able to play the first two games in the original 3D trilogy without having to buy a PS2 or something like that, because I really didn't want to end up buying the disaster of a "definitive" collection that was released back in 2021. Because of this, you could imagine my surprise when I found a double pack of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the original Xbox at a CeX four weeks ago, as I realized that I could play both games on my Xbox 360 as soon as I took the pack off the shelf. Grand Theft Auto III is one of those games where people talk more about how innovative it was at the time of its release than they do about the game itself, because despite my fun with it, Grand Theft Auto III doesn't hold a candle to the rest of the games in the series.
If you look up any sort of retrospective review of Grand Theft Auto III, you're guaranteed to see the writer mention how "revolutionary" this game was for letting you explore Liberty City at your own pace and do whatever you wanted, but even that aspect of Grand Theft Auto III isn't perfect. Yes, going on rampages and messing around will always be fun, but there's almost nothing to do in the open world outside of that, because while the open world is very impressive for the time with how lively it feels, you're never given any real reason to explore each of the game's three islands as you unlock them, aside from ticking the game's 100% completion checklist by completing identical taxi and vigilante missions or finding some asinine collectibles. You don't even have any real reason to spend the money you earn throughout the game, as all you can really buy is more ammunition, which is already cancelled out by the game's cheat codes. Exploring the grungy, foggy streets of Liberty City while listening to the game's great soundtrack can be fun, but Grand Theft Auto III might be the only game in the series where people will just randomly gun you down for no reason, so it's almost like the game discourages you from trying to take the scenery in. This game pretty much entirely consists of either driving or shooting, and both of these elements are annoying to deal with in their own ways. While the actual driving feels fast and responsive, the fragility of all the game's cars make it so that bumping into even one thing makes your vehicle spin out of control and get very close to exploding, and it doesn't help that playing this specific version of the game makes it so that the frame rate slows down dramatically every time I drive. The shooting in Grand Theft Auto III is downright atrocious, as the targeting system is a far cry from the one used in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the guns themselves are barely even that effective. Not only that, but the only guns that let you aim freely are either incredibly situational (such as the sniper rifle and the rocket launcher) or they make you stop moving entirely, so I ended up trying to avoid using my guns as much as I could during the game's missions.
One of the weirdest elements of Grand Theft Auto III would be the complete lack of an in-game map. All you're given is a tiny, inaccurate mini-map on the screen's bottom left corner, so you end up having to just remember where everything is, and that also applies to the Pay 'n' Sprays and 8-Ball's bomb garages. Most of my time with Grand Theft Auto III was spent going through the main story, and my thoughts on it are complicated, to say the least. Despite the entirely forgettable writing, the lack of linearity in many of the game's missions allowed for me to complete them in ways that I came up with rather than what the game told me to do, and it was especially fun to do this with the inclusion of cheat codes. This player freedom doesn't apply to all of the missions, though, as a lot of them are arguably some of the hardest and most frustrating levels in the entire series. The most difficult missions often involve timers, which means that you need to have a fast car in order to even stand a chance, but the low draw distance often led to me crashing into cars that I couldn't even see, which led to me having to load previous saves and do the missions from the very beginning. Despite how innovative it was back in 2001 and the merits that I managed to find with it, Grand Theft Auto III is chock full of shortcomings and is easily my least favorite game in the series so far, and I really have no desire to go back to it.
If you look up any sort of retrospective review of Grand Theft Auto III, you're guaranteed to see the writer mention how "revolutionary" this game was for letting you explore Liberty City at your own pace and do whatever you wanted, but even that aspect of Grand Theft Auto III isn't perfect. Yes, going on rampages and messing around will always be fun, but there's almost nothing to do in the open world outside of that, because while the open world is very impressive for the time with how lively it feels, you're never given any real reason to explore each of the game's three islands as you unlock them, aside from ticking the game's 100% completion checklist by completing identical taxi and vigilante missions or finding some asinine collectibles. You don't even have any real reason to spend the money you earn throughout the game, as all you can really buy is more ammunition, which is already cancelled out by the game's cheat codes. Exploring the grungy, foggy streets of Liberty City while listening to the game's great soundtrack can be fun, but Grand Theft Auto III might be the only game in the series where people will just randomly gun you down for no reason, so it's almost like the game discourages you from trying to take the scenery in. This game pretty much entirely consists of either driving or shooting, and both of these elements are annoying to deal with in their own ways. While the actual driving feels fast and responsive, the fragility of all the game's cars make it so that bumping into even one thing makes your vehicle spin out of control and get very close to exploding, and it doesn't help that playing this specific version of the game makes it so that the frame rate slows down dramatically every time I drive. The shooting in Grand Theft Auto III is downright atrocious, as the targeting system is a far cry from the one used in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the guns themselves are barely even that effective. Not only that, but the only guns that let you aim freely are either incredibly situational (such as the sniper rifle and the rocket launcher) or they make you stop moving entirely, so I ended up trying to avoid using my guns as much as I could during the game's missions.
One of the weirdest elements of Grand Theft Auto III would be the complete lack of an in-game map. All you're given is a tiny, inaccurate mini-map on the screen's bottom left corner, so you end up having to just remember where everything is, and that also applies to the Pay 'n' Sprays and 8-Ball's bomb garages. Most of my time with Grand Theft Auto III was spent going through the main story, and my thoughts on it are complicated, to say the least. Despite the entirely forgettable writing, the lack of linearity in many of the game's missions allowed for me to complete them in ways that I came up with rather than what the game told me to do, and it was especially fun to do this with the inclusion of cheat codes. This player freedom doesn't apply to all of the missions, though, as a lot of them are arguably some of the hardest and most frustrating levels in the entire series. The most difficult missions often involve timers, which means that you need to have a fast car in order to even stand a chance, but the low draw distance often led to me crashing into cars that I couldn't even see, which led to me having to load previous saves and do the missions from the very beginning. Despite how innovative it was back in 2001 and the merits that I managed to find with it, Grand Theft Auto III is chock full of shortcomings and is easily my least favorite game in the series so far, and I really have no desire to go back to it.
Huss
1 year ago
Pretending like the other GTA games have anything to do in their open world aside from the missions and messing around would be delusional, there's absolutely nothing to do in GTA open worlds other than half assed activities
Let me remind you IV's money also had no real purpose other than clothes you can buy at the beginning or food, if anything this was done on purpose to play with the themes but it still occurs. Using cheats is simply that, cheating, just because it exists doesn't mean money is worthless
The best part about the open world in III is driving around taking in the fantastic atmosphere of the city while blasting Head Radio, the environment is great.
Driving and shooting is completely fine, you just need to learn how to use your guns lol, the best thing about this game is how insanely chaotic it is with its missions
Again, the cars are super fun to drive as they're incredibly fast and immediately respond to your inputs, just gotta learn how to control it well, major skill issue
Lack of an in game map never affected anyone because the game's open world can be memorized after exactly 1 roam around, the duration of the campaign can make you remember the map entirely anyways
GTA 3 doesn't have a story and it doesn't want to have a story, its pure focus is the campaign and the open world and it executed it perfectly, a lot of these reasons sound like you just couldn't get used to the mechanics which unfortunately means, skill issue.
Get good