I love the rainy fall vibe of the visuals and people just bustling about in the busy setting of Liberty City and how much the vibe immediately changes the moment you move from Portland Harbor where it moves from sleazy clubs and rundown streets to the noticeably fancier high rises and parks of Staunton Island. Rockstar's humorous cynicism of the modern era already shines brightly through the radio's mixture of tunes (most of which are pretty well picked even before they started getting access to much more well known songs in later games) and the constant ridiculously absurd advertisements playing as you drive through the city.
I just really wish GTA 3 was more fun to actually go back to and play because if you've played any of the games after this one, you're going to be used to so many things that you thought were basic essentials that turn out to be quality of life additions and improvements off the groundwork that this game sets. Two handed weapons force you into tank control aiming in a game where enemies mad dash either away from or towards you before you can even get a proper shot on them, driver AI is utterly batshit insane and not in a fun "look how bad drivers are in New York" kinda way as they make truly insane sharp turns in an instant in lanes that make no sense for them to be doing so, and in missions where you're getting chased can rubberband towards you at speeds that would make older Need for Speed games blush. Cops can be straight up suicidal on two stars being so desperate to ram you off the road that they will run over other pedestrians and even their own forces as you get blamed for it only increasing the insane pressure.
Frankly the biggest killers for why I'm shelving this for now is the combo trio of no mission checkpoints/restarts, no accessible map, and the mission designs themselves. While GTA 3 starts out pretty simple at first and tries to ease you into how the rules of this world work, it all too quickly starts to throw you into the deep end with missions that purposefully do dickish shit to you that you have no way of expecting on a first run which only gets worse by the time you're on Staunton Island when the drives to mission starts and the drives on those missions get increasingly longer. Not having a full clear map also becomes incredibly frustrating in a game that has so many similar looking buildings and roads on first glance. While it's fun to eventually get down these layouts yourself by memory and know what turns you need to make without a GPS telling you (GTA IV and V really spoiled me on this regard and it's neat going back to the 3D trilogy games which didn't have it!), GTA 3 goes a bit too far on this by not giving you any accessible full map that you can just browse and look at to figure out a route to where you need to be. It's especially bad with stuff like Ammu-Nation stores or Pay 'n' Sprays not being marked on the map when you're either in a desperate hurry or just trying to prep before a mission.
While I love the old early PS2 visuals and vibe of the original release (or at least on PC, as close as you can get with a mod setup using SilentPatch, SkyGfx, and Project 2DFX bare minimum to fix massive technical issues and restore missing effects with the bad PC port), I think honestly I'll just wait at some point to grab the Definitive Editions when they're on sale again. While those remasters butcher the art style and color grading pretty severely and have major issues of their own, I think GTA 3 is the one that, gameplay-wise, would benefit more from the GTA V-styled controls and mechanics alongside having an easy mission restart and full map for me.
I just really wish GTA 3 was more fun to actually go back to and play because if you've played any of the games after this one, you're going to be used to so many things that you thought were basic essentials that turn out to be quality of life additions and improvements off the groundwork that this game sets. Two handed weapons force you into tank control aiming in a game where enemies mad dash either away from or towards you before you can even get a proper shot on them, driver AI is utterly batshit insane and not in a fun "look how bad drivers are in New York" kinda way as they make truly insane sharp turns in an instant in lanes that make no sense for them to be doing so, and in missions where you're getting chased can rubberband towards you at speeds that would make older Need for Speed games blush. Cops can be straight up suicidal on two stars being so desperate to ram you off the road that they will run over other pedestrians and even their own forces as you get blamed for it only increasing the insane pressure.
Frankly the biggest killers for why I'm shelving this for now is the combo trio of no mission checkpoints/restarts, no accessible map, and the mission designs themselves. While GTA 3 starts out pretty simple at first and tries to ease you into how the rules of this world work, it all too quickly starts to throw you into the deep end with missions that purposefully do dickish shit to you that you have no way of expecting on a first run which only gets worse by the time you're on Staunton Island when the drives to mission starts and the drives on those missions get increasingly longer. Not having a full clear map also becomes incredibly frustrating in a game that has so many similar looking buildings and roads on first glance. While it's fun to eventually get down these layouts yourself by memory and know what turns you need to make without a GPS telling you (GTA IV and V really spoiled me on this regard and it's neat going back to the 3D trilogy games which didn't have it!), GTA 3 goes a bit too far on this by not giving you any accessible full map that you can just browse and look at to figure out a route to where you need to be. It's especially bad with stuff like Ammu-Nation stores or Pay 'n' Sprays not being marked on the map when you're either in a desperate hurry or just trying to prep before a mission.
While I love the old early PS2 visuals and vibe of the original release (or at least on PC, as close as you can get with a mod setup using SilentPatch, SkyGfx, and Project 2DFX bare minimum to fix massive technical issues and restore missing effects with the bad PC port), I think honestly I'll just wait at some point to grab the Definitive Editions when they're on sale again. While those remasters butcher the art style and color grading pretty severely and have major issues of their own, I think GTA 3 is the one that, gameplay-wise, would benefit more from the GTA V-styled controls and mechanics alongside having an easy mission restart and full map for me.