Pros: Huge amounts of fun, good graphics, replay value.
Cons: Pushing the M rating like none other, episodic plot
The Bottom Line: A violent, antisocial, incredibly fun offering from Rockstar. A must have for mature PS2 owners. No kiddies though. This will warp their minds.
Action_Snark's Full Review: Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 3 for PlayStation 2
Return to Castle Wolfenstein? *pfft*
Quake 3? meh.
Duke Nukem 3d? Booooorrrrriiiinnnnnnggggggg......
Soldier of Fortune? *Snore*
You're probably wondering what the above statements mean, correct? Well, the games listed above are Teletubbies-esque pablum in comparison to the amounts of gore, sex, and violence that Grand Theft Auto 3 (GTA3) beams directly into your little birdy brain every time you turn it on.
A very unique offering from Rockstar games, GTA3 is the capstone to the already wildly successful Grand Theft Auto trifecta. Anyway, enough patter, time for ye olde Patented Action Snark Rundown of GTA3
Plot: Well, the game has a plot, but it doesn't. Your character is nameless and voiceless, and exists only for the purposes of profiting from the suffering of others. While having a nonentity as the protagonist seems to be a crippling blow to the game's plot, it's really not. With no character to play, the gamer is free to invent a persona that they can step into every time they play the game. Anyway, the plot is episodic on one level, and fairly broad on another. As your character, you escape from a paddy wagon, and are thrown into Liberty City's seedy underbelly, trying to carve a niche for yourself. The plot is spoonfed to you through mission briefings, and comes in dribs and drabs. Missions are connected, and as you complete missions, you drive the overarching plot of intrigue, mafia war, and violence ever forward. Plot scores a 7 out of 10, for being episodic and potted, but not forcing you into a linear path.
Graphics: Rockstar's highly tasty Renderware platform is put to good use in GTA3. You are turned loose into a cityscape roughly 30 square blocks at a given time. Buildings, streetlights, pedestrians, and all the detritus that you would expect in a decaying urban landscape are faithfully rendered, and rendered well. Character models are somewhat lacking, but the game's primary focus is elsewhere, so this shortcoming can be overlooked.
Damage effects are a big star in this game. In the course of your exploits, you'll blast, burn, bomb, and pretty much maul several locations, vehicles, and people. Vehicles react quite realistically to damage, with windows breaking, panels denting or even falling off, and smoke and fire effects, all done very well.
The game has a somewhat 'comic bookish' graphical feel to it, but all the graphics are pulled off with aplomb and are very well done. It's no FFX or MGS2, but GTA3 is still a very pretty game for what it does. Graphics rate an 8 out of 10 for being solid and well done, but nothing exceptionally eye-popping as far as PS2 fare goes.
Sound and Music: Sound ingame is decent. Much of the sound in actual gameplay is limited to roaring engines, gunshots, explosions, and screams. These are all well done, but there's only so much that can be done with sounds of this nature. Mission briefings are done with voice-overs in in-engine cinematics. The voice acting is pretty good, and all the characters have humourously cliched voices.
The main source of music in the game is the car radios of vehicles you steal. All these stations are ripe with dark humor and some surprisingly good music. Inane DJ chatter and cliched songs are the order of the day for GTA3 radio, but the commercials for outlandish products make it worth listening alone. The music is not super great, but it has provided me with a constant source of chuckles while playing.
Sound and Music garner a 8 out of 10 for being another piece of the puzzle that fits in just right, without being anything amazing.
Gameplay: Ah yes, gameplay. In short, GTA3 is one of the most fun, antisocial, destructive games I've ever laid my grubby little mitts on. You must complete missions handed down to you from various criminal figures to drive the plot. However, you are in no way obligated to advance the story by completing a mission unless you feel like it. Completing missions garners a hefty cash reward to you, and will sometimes unlock new areas and weapons. If you want to blaze through the game, doing all the missions as they come, you can do so. However, you're also free to simply tool around Liberty City, perhaps engaging in a bit of petty crime or any other activity that suits your fancy.
All the action takes place from a third person view, which can be scaled to place the 'camera' at various heights and distances from the protagonist. A lot of action in the game revolves around either driving, or killing. Cars are easy to obtain (simply carjack the first one that strikes your fancy), and control pretty well. Cars will react to damage, as well as changing climate conditions (handling will degrade markedly on wet streets, etc.). The driving system is well implemented, being simple and intuitive, without sacraficing much versatility.
The other half of the action takes place with your character on foot. Here, you must rely on your fleetness of foot, and your trigger finger. You can weild an impressive array of hardware, including everything from baseball bats to LAW rocket launchers. My only gripe with otherwise stellar gameplay comes in this area. Your field of vision is limited, and it gets very hard to turn your character to face an enemy in the heat of battle. You have the ability to 'lock on' to targets with some weapons, but the lockon system is a bit clunky in my opinion. Your character will lock on to whatever enemy is direcly in front of him, but there are some problems, espescially if you're trying to pick a person out of a crowd. (Eg, if I want to assassinate a Mafia Don, I want to be shooting at him, not his bodyguards.) This problem can be solved by using the most destructive weapons you can lay your hands on, but it's still an annoyance.
Also, there are several very unique aspects of gameplay in GTA3 that I feel I need to touch on:
Wanted Level: Your 'wanted level' determines precisely how tenacious the police will be in trying to run you down. The more and worse crimes you commit when the police are around will increase your wanted level, and the cops will hunt you ruthlessly. This is a great mechanism for preventing you from going on senseless rampages. (While fun, they make the game very dull after a while.)
Turf: Certain areas of the city are controlled by various criminal syndicates, not all of them friendly. It is important for a player to know what areas are safe, and which are not. Nothing is worse than fleeing from the police only to be met by a hail of gunfire from a rival mob.
The 'Turf' concept is a great way to add some realism to the game, and it really makes the gameplay far more interesiting.
Blood, sex, and violence: Ok, this game is about as violent and bloody as it gets. You're financially rewarded for making random citizens bleed, and are encouraged to use excessive force at every turn. Also, there are some pretty frank depictions of sex, and a lot of off color references and allusions. Add that to the amount of gore that characters spew out when you violate them with bullets and explosives, and this game really pushes the M rating to the limit. A lot of people find this distasteful, but the violence should be taken with a grain of salt. This is not a game for the kiddies, and should be treated as such.
Overall: Ok, after loads of rambling from here to there and back again, we reach the end of my rant. GTA3 is most definitely one of the most fun games I've run across on the PS2. It consistantly occupies the PS2's disk tray, while my copies of Final Fantasy 10 and Grand Turismo 3 gather dust on the shelves. The gameplay is frank, mature, and violent, but also loads of fun. If you're looking for a game that will offend upstanding Christians as well as being a hoot and a half to play, this is the one. This game is quite simply a must buy for any mature, discriminating PS2 owner. Overall, GTA3 gets a perfect 10 out of 10. Despite a lack of bling bling eye candy or a deep plot, GTA3 will provide weeks of antisocial, knee breaking fun.
Special Feature: Ok, this is a rather rare specail addition to this epinion. After many hours and many beers, I have finally created what I consider to be the greatest drinking game of all time: Dead Man Walking.
The equipment is simple: A good bourbon, such as Jack Daniels, a ready supply of good beer, (I recommend Newcastle Brown Ale or Guinness Draught) and a PS2 with a copy of GTA3 handy.
Your mission: Get skunk drunk while trying to cause as much mayhem in Liberty City as possible. Each player begins their turn by taking a shot. They then activate a mission, and play through it. For every person they kill, they must consume a drink of beer. For every vehicle that is detonated, another shot is consumed. A player's turn ends if they are apprehended by police, killed, or complete the mission. Bonus points (and drinks) are awarded(or inflicted) for getting your wanted level beyond 3 stars. (1 drink per star above 3.)
Trust me, this game has become a perennial favorite of my alchol chugging friends and I. Enjoy, with my compliments.
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