Throwback Game of the Month (January): GTA 3
As much as I love the modern GTA’s, you can’t beat the classic PS2 gen GTA’s. There really is something special about the game world’s of the PS2 gen GTA’s. Each GTA was based off a real location but with a huge fictional twist on them. The GTA cities were more themed around a real city but were their own game world, rather than the modern GTA’s being more of a one to one recreation of the real life counterpart.
GTA 3 was the first of the amazing PS2 trilogy, set in Liberty City, based off New York. Except it didn’t feel like a carbon copy at all of New York and felt like it’s own unique city and it really had this charm about it that has stayed with me for years. To the iconic geography of the game world map, to the same pedestrian character model that had his own catchphrases and personality. Seeing that green coated man shout out funny one liners, or seeing a guy in blue combat trousers knowing he will rob your car if he gets too near because he is the thief pedestrian, or seeing a woman with blond hair wearing red stockings knowing she is a prostitute all added to the charm of the city.
Seeing guys that look like they are from the men in black and running knowing it’s the Italian mafia. Why? Well because they were powerful, powerful because they all equipped shotguns which were incredibly overpowered and can even blow up your car. It made them feel powerful and distinctive. Seeing the triads all dressed in blue in Chinatown gun you down with pistols and being able to shrug it off and not take them that seriously because they just equip baseball bats and pistols. These are the kind of cheesy characteristics that made GTA 3 the game it was to me, and something that you will never get again.
GTA 3 was the first of the amazing PS2 trilogy, set in Liberty City, based off New York. Except it didn’t feel like a carbon copy at all of New York and felt like it’s own unique city and it really had this charm about it that has stayed with me for years. To the iconic geography of the game world map, to the same pedestrian character model that had his own catchphrases and personality. Seeing that green coated man shout out funny one liners, or seeing a guy in blue combat trousers knowing he will rob your car if he gets too near because he is the thief pedestrian, or seeing a woman with blond hair wearing red stockings knowing she is a prostitute all added to the charm of the city.
Seeing guys that look like they are from the men in black and running knowing it’s the Italian mafia. Why? Well because they were powerful, powerful because they all equipped shotguns which were incredibly overpowered and can even blow up your car. It made them feel powerful and distinctive. Seeing the triads all dressed in blue in Chinatown gun you down with pistols and being able to shrug it off and not take them that seriously because they just equip baseball bats and pistols. These are the kind of cheesy characteristics that made GTA 3 the game it was to me, and something that you will never get again.
GTA 3 also was the only GTA of the 3D era that really didn’t have any landmarks emulating the city it was based off. Liberty City on GTA3 felt more like it was it’s own fictional city, and for me I felt like GTA 3 was the most original for that.
The game had its problems though which I had forgotten about. The modern GTA’s do not suffer from these problems making GTA3’s problems feel so much worse now. Bad shooting controls was the first problem, or more so the bad camera angles when trying to shoot. When facing tougher enemies with the overpowered M16, if you couldn’t get the camera to swing around quick enough you’ll be walking around a corner blindly to quickly get mowed down. The sniper rifle was a must have because of that, meaning you could pick off them before they could see you so that you wouldn’t get torn to shreds by the M16. The M16 was a really powerful gun, as powerful as a minigun. It felt like a similar gun in this game with a large amount of recoil and not having auto aim on it requiring you to manual aim, which made it difficult to use at times but the enemies didn’t have that problem and would lock onto you wiping you out with it. The pro was that the AI would take a slight while to react and shoot you giving you a chance to get them before they got you… If you could get the camera to position correctly.
The game had its problems though which I had forgotten about. The modern GTA’s do not suffer from these problems making GTA3’s problems feel so much worse now. Bad shooting controls was the first problem, or more so the bad camera angles when trying to shoot. When facing tougher enemies with the overpowered M16, if you couldn’t get the camera to swing around quick enough you’ll be walking around a corner blindly to quickly get mowed down. The sniper rifle was a must have because of that, meaning you could pick off them before they could see you so that you wouldn’t get torn to shreds by the M16. The M16 was a really powerful gun, as powerful as a minigun. It felt like a similar gun in this game with a large amount of recoil and not having auto aim on it requiring you to manual aim, which made it difficult to use at times but the enemies didn’t have that problem and would lock onto you wiping you out with it. The pro was that the AI would take a slight while to react and shoot you giving you a chance to get them before they got you… If you could get the camera to position correctly.
Were you planning on getting all those hidden packages? Make sure you get them before you complete the first island Portland, because the Mafia end up hating you making it impossible to get anything in that area because you’ll just end up getting blasted away with the powerhouse shotgun. Yet another flaw, the Mafia was so dam overpowered! It was cool though because it made you fear going in that area, but it also made doing certain things impossible which sucked.
It was also pretty clear that the game was a low budget game in comparison to Vice City and San Andreas. You had a voiceless character, the voice actors were low profile, the dialogue didn’t take itself too seriously making the cutscenes very basic. There was no renown licenced music with very little tracks in general either, making the game to be low down on the production value. However It didn’t matter, and none of these problems really mattered which is why they weren’t remembered, and which is why I completely forgot about these problems. It didn’t matter because everything this game had achieved was so much more, the game was revolutionary, it changed gaming forever and was the first true 3D open world sandbox game where you could do what you want. I remember the old PS1 Driver games. GTA3 was almost like all your Driver prayers answered but more. I remember playing Driver thinking, wouldn’t it be awesome to take that car there, and then shoot all these people, and then shoot enemies? It was almost like what Driver wanted to be.
It was also pretty clear that the game was a low budget game in comparison to Vice City and San Andreas. You had a voiceless character, the voice actors were low profile, the dialogue didn’t take itself too seriously making the cutscenes very basic. There was no renown licenced music with very little tracks in general either, making the game to be low down on the production value. However It didn’t matter, and none of these problems really mattered which is why they weren’t remembered, and which is why I completely forgot about these problems. It didn’t matter because everything this game had achieved was so much more, the game was revolutionary, it changed gaming forever and was the first true 3D open world sandbox game where you could do what you want. I remember the old PS1 Driver games. GTA3 was almost like all your Driver prayers answered but more. I remember playing Driver thinking, wouldn’t it be awesome to take that car there, and then shoot all these people, and then shoot enemies? It was almost like what Driver wanted to be.
The 3D open world of Liberty City was full of charm and life, with things to do and wasn’t just a game world you could mess around in, you could also take it seriously, you could also do police and taxi missions if you wished, or do rampage missions or story missions. They made use of the actual space you had. Where as driver on the other hand tried to be an open world game, but didn’t have anything to do in it outside of the story missions.
You could do the unthinkable in GTA 3 and there were almost no limits at the time (apart from not being able to swim). It was a game that was almost shocking to some and raised a lot of news headlines of it being so violent. There was something satisfying about shooting random people and jacking cars and causing absolute carnage in an open world that felt alive at the time. Doing things you wouldn’t dare to do in real life, for some reason was so fun to mess around being a dangerous psychopath in a video game. It added something new to the gaming space. For me and to many, GTA 3 will be remembered forever, it changed gaming forever. Hats off to Rockstar. The first game of the fantastic PS2 Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, Grand Theft Auto 3 ladies and gentlemen.
You could do the unthinkable in GTA 3 and there were almost no limits at the time (apart from not being able to swim). It was a game that was almost shocking to some and raised a lot of news headlines of it being so violent. There was something satisfying about shooting random people and jacking cars and causing absolute carnage in an open world that felt alive at the time. Doing things you wouldn’t dare to do in real life, for some reason was so fun to mess around being a dangerous psychopath in a video game. It added something new to the gaming space. For me and to many, GTA 3 will be remembered forever, it changed gaming forever. Hats off to Rockstar. The first game of the fantastic PS2 Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, Grand Theft Auto 3 ladies and gentlemen.