Grand Theft Auto 3 By Teddy Vath
“Grand Theft Auto” has to be one of the most controversial games of all time. I chose for this week’s retro review the first one that brought the “Mature” rating to a new level: “GTA 3.” This game made by “Rockstar Games” was desired by eight-year-olds alike.
Playstation 2 graphics are now known as ancient, but “GTA 3” still retains a good mix of colors with a constant blur effect on all the lighting. It wasn’t too annoying, but some people may find it a nuisance to look at all the time. Though the characters were quite blocky, it fit the art style very well. The character models for the pedestrians were very repetitive. Now I’m just getting picky.
The sound was great. All the gun shots, shotgun blasts, roaring rocket launchers and tanks were awesome. Some things don’t amount to the blend of police sirens, helicopter blades above, gunshots, molotov cocktails and cops screaming “Get down!” When you get in a car, the radio stations are hilarious. There isn’t a single bad station to choose. Your choices range from techno to talk radio. The sound of smashed cars and screaming people being run over also adds a new dimension to your radio.
The whole point of the game is to move up in the gang world of Liberty City. The three islands contain mostly different gangs, so your missions are nice and varied. There is no sense of boredom with “GTA 3.” Running over people and ramming cop cars never gets old when you don’t feel like doing missions. It’s hard to run away from the police when you reach three out of six stars on your wanted meter.
The missions have their own level of difficulty. Obviously, they become harder the farther you are in the game.
But they keep the fun factor that exists in roaming around as a vigilante without a cause. It’s fun when you start working for other gangs that hate the others that you just worked for.
Stereotypes flow through “GTA 3” like beer through the drunken hobo you just ran over. The pimps have their silky purple pimp style hat, jacket and pants. The prostitutes have their blouses open, making them look whorish. The Mexican gang members have the thick “Maaiins” in their speech. It is slightly disgusting how bad it is in that sense.
Aside from the large weapon collection, the other part of this game that I want to talk about is the cars. The weapons work like they do in any other game, but there are tons of different cars in this game. They range from sports cars to delivery trucks and even tanks (if you get enough stars on your meter). A delivery truck is top-heavy and hard to control at high speeds. The sports cars are light and have incredible speed and brakes. Those Grand Marquis taxi cabs have some of the worst suspensions in the game. The driving is very realistic.
There is a reason that there are multiple mimics of “GTA 3” and why so many games are based on cars: it is a consistently fun game. That is what makes any game a keeper. For $7, it’s a steal. This game will be around forever. The bottom line: “GTA 3” for Playstation 2 gets a 9.5/10.