Grand Theft Auto 3 Review
Played on:
PS2
Most people have now heard of Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar Games' huge PlayStation 2 hit that has now been ported to the PC. This game has gotten tons of awards on top of being easily the best selling game of 2001 on any game platform. If you haven't had a chance to experience GTA3, and you have the computer hardware powerful enough, then this third-person action game is almost definitely for you.
Some of the things that stand out in the first few minutes of GTA3 are: the unique visual style, plenty of cars to drive, tons of sounds and music, extreme violence, and an open-ended gameplay style that is unprecedented.
Grand Theft Auto 3 was ported to the PC in a fairly short amount of time (released roughly 9 months or so after the PS2 version), and the engine does a fairly good job of keeping the action going. The main thing that is disappointing is the game's unstable frame rate at higher resolutions on all but the fastest computers. My machine, an Athlon 1.2Ghz with PC133 RAM and a GeForce2 GTS, can only really maintain 30 frames per second or more at the lowest resolution possible (640x480 at 16-bit color) and with all the visuals turned down or off. Even then, it still drops to under 20fps in some of the heavier action.
The system requirements on the box seem misleading; on the "minimum" machine, with all detail and resolution turned down, the speed of the game's action lurched around sickeningly. It felt like it was dropping into slow motion at random intervals, making the game (especially trying to drive) mostly unplayable. This was on my backup computer, a 450MHz Celeron with a 16MB TNT 1 card and 128MB RAM, very similar to the posted minimum. In fact, I'd consider the "recommended" machine to be more like the real minimum requirements - 700MHz and a 32MB card with at least GeForce 2 MX speed.
There are also some confusing options in the game's display setup that, on many computers, make the frame rate very inconsistent and commonly unplayable. The problem is that they're named in such a way that you'd think they speed the game up, not slow it down. It could mean headaches and returns for a lot of tweakers and power users that don't read the manual. If they try and change these settings to what they think is best before even starting to play, it's a difficult problem to track down on your own, since they two options in particular seem like they run the game faster. On top of all this, there is a crash issue with NVidia cards and Windows XP (a very common combination, as well) that requires a download from Microsoft to fix. It's all notated in the Readme file, but it'd have been nice to have this fix on the game CD.
Despite all this, the GTA3 engine is still very powerful. Cities are full of life, with tall skyscrapers, beautiful lighting, and always people and cars around. After only a few minutes in the game you'll realize that the whole city is not being tracked and processed at once - only the things in your immediate visual range are being considered. Sometimes you can turn your back to a car, and when you spin around to look at it again, it's completely gone, or a totally different car may be in its place. While it's not anything huge, it does put a damper on the game's great immersiveness and atmosphere.
The control system has been changed fundamentally from the PS2 version (although those with gamepads who still want to use the PS2's control scheme can), with the mouse looking around like many PC first- and third-person shooters. Driving can be controlled via moving the mouse, but it is turned off by default, and for good reason - I found it almost impossible to control all but the slowest vehicles with the mouse. You can redefine keys all you want, with, say the arrow keys for driving, and completely different key/mouse bindings for your actions on foot. Gamepad controls can also be intermingled with everything else.
One thing that is particularly frustrating to me is the console-style save system. Many of the harder missions require you to spend five minutes driving around to get the mission started, only for you to die a several minutes into the action, making you lose (and repeat) up to nine or ten minutes of gameplay in some situations. Combine the fact that you can't save during a mission with repeating some of them ten or fifteen times for some missions, and it gets very frustrating. It'd have been nice to have a normal game save and load option - and for those who don't want to use it or think it makes the game too easy, allow an option to disable the in-mission saving and stick to the console-style system.
The most visually appealing element of GTA3's graphics is in the scale of the game, on top of the unique visual style of the characters. While any one specific object, building, or person probably won't be too detailed, it's how the whole thing is put together that makes it look so good. Most of the game's cars look excellent as well, with appropriate reflection and chrome effects.
GTA3 has a full night and day system on top of a weather system, which do pretty nicely in generating atmosphere. The realism of street lights at night really grabbed me, looking incredibly realistic. And while the rain itself looks ugly, other visuals that go along with the precipitation (puddles with reflections, the streaking effect of the city's lights) are great.
One thing that GTA3 has that seems fairly unique is a "trails" system - a sort of motion blur effect that you can turn on or off. I wound up turning it off after less than a minute, though. I thought the trails looked rather ugly on the PC compared to the PS2 version's trails (probably something to do with the resolution and motion-blurred picture on a TV), and also hurt the frame rate quite a bit. This is a feature that maybe could have used more work for the PC version, with possibly an adjustable slider to tweak the effect's subtlety.
Gameplay is where GTA3 shines. The game has so many things for you to do, powerups to get, and people to kill that you feel a bit overwhelmed at first. If you read the game's startup tips that pop up as you go, though, you learn the feel of the whole thing fairly quickly. You'll also figure out pretty fast what actions will get the attention of the local law enforcement. Either way, just traversing the city and exploring all the places to go is enough to keep one busy for hours.
When you're done with running around, it's time to do some missions. You start off working for the local Portland mafia, running a couple of errands and doing some odds and ends. This is only meant to get you acquainted with driving around the city, though; fairly soon, you'll be whacking people left and right. You receive missions from different people in the area, which keeps you moving and offers some interesting plot twists a little later.
Most gamers already know that GTA3 is a very violent game. It's not totally obvious to start, but the first time you accidentally run over 5 people, and realize how gruesome and realistic the event was, you'll understand. Then you might start doing it for fun. The sick and demented side of the player really comes out in this game, and there are many ways to indulge one's destructive impulses.
Speaking of that, sooner or later, you're bound to wind up with the local cops on your tail. Depending on the severity of your crimes, these guys start off only chasing you for a small while if they see you. Kill more people, or start killing cops themselves, and then you're in trouble. They'll bring helicopters, roadblocks, and SWAT vans at you, and will chase you around almost anywhere unless you can reduce your "wanted level". And if you go even further than that, then they bring the Feds in...
Most of your time in GTA3 is spent in a car. You don't buy cars, though; you can steal them right from a parking lot, but most of the time you'll just carjack something you like in the street. Most of the game's vehicles have a distinct feel to them, although some of the top-end sports cars are only slightly different in handling and speed. Either way, you will probably wind up with one or two "favorite" cars, which you can put to use later by saving your game (which will save one vehicle in a garage for you). It's not that big a deal, but it's nice to immediately have that Patriot (a Humvee, basically) available for a little bump 'n' jump.
As you traverse the city, you'll likely stumble across the game's extra missions. Separate from the storyline and doable at any time, they'll require you to drive passengers around in a taxi for fare money (much like the Sega game Crazy Taxi), take bleeding patients to the hospital, and even steal a police car to track down and kill vigilantes yourself. Also, some very impressive stunts can be performed with specific "unique jumps" located around the city. Launching off a ramp into a unique jump will give you a movie-style camera angle of your flight through the air, and bonus money if you can get over (or onto, depending) the designated piece of the level you're aiming for.
There are also "Rampage" missions where you are given a weapon with infinite ammo and a type of gang member or number of vehicles to destroy in a certain time. You can do these with pretty much no meddling from law enforcement, making them just plain gory fun. The best thing about GTA3's side missions is that some of them will result in permanent rewards, like a specific weapon or power-up sitting at your home base all the time. The ones that don't are generally so much fun to do that they're worth the effort anyway.
Some of GTA3's missions are particularly tough unless you figure out a specific trick to doing them; using that trick can make an impossible mission just downright trivial to do. While the game's open-endedness allows you to finish some missions your own way, a little more guidance as to how to specifically beat some of them would have really helped. The fact that GTA3 has no difficulty setting means that there's rarely relief for people who can't get past a mission (especially the missions required to advance the storyline).
On top of all this, the previously mentioned console-style save system is frustrating for many PC game players who have come to expect a "save anytime" option. While the game does have cheat codes that are all over the web, there should have been some sort of way to make the really hard missions easier without having to resort to cheats.
One of GTA3's best audio features is the radio stations that you can listen to in almost any car you're in. They sound very much like real radio stations, although they make specific fun of many things, from violent video games (hah!) to gas-guzzling SUV's. You'll even hear a couple of the game's main mission-giving characters on the radio as well. The music is all independently-made stuff, but it's pretty high quality and ranges from pop, to classical, rap, reggae, and trance. There's also a talk radio station, which results in some of the funniest things to come from the game, period.
The PC port of GTA3 also includes an interesting feature where you can import your MP3 music collection for use as a new radio station. When I first started using it, I thought it was a bit gimmicky and useless, since I could just play MP3's in Winamp with no in-game interruptions. But after a while, it really helped immerse me into the game even more, since it was just one more thing that was affected by the actual gameplay. And since you can create shortcuts to your MP3's in GTA3's MP3 folder (rather than having to make second copies of the files specifically for the game), it takes up basically no more hard drive space than before. It's definitely worth the effort of putting together a few really angry songs and just driving around destroying as much as you can.
GTA3 has some of the best voice talent in any game I've played yet. Portland's mafia guys - played by the voices of Michael Rapaport, Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), and Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix, Memento), sound great. Later on, you'll hear from Robert Loggia (Scarface), Kyle Maclachlan (Dune), and more. All of the game's main characters are acted very well, which in itself is pretty rare for games in general. The fact that they brought in movie stars with unique, easily-recognized voices is great - it makes the game's atmosphere more like an action movie in all the right ways and none of the wrong ones.
Just about all of GTA3's sound effects are exactly what you'd expect out of a game with production values this high. The people in the street constantly chatter with strange (and funny) sayings, sirens blare from a good distance away, and the vehicles all have distinct engine sounds. Some of the game's guns (the M16 and AK47, in particular) sound a bit tinny, but they're still functional.
In my recent Morrowind review I praised Bethesda's wonderful RPG title for having such an open-ended method of play. It's much the same here, except in a more action than RPG style. There are so many things to do on top of the game's actual main storyline, and you can jump into and out of the story whenever you wish. Combine this with the game's many ways for you to wreak havoc, and we have a revolution in gameplay for action games. Of course the first two GTA games have built up to this point, but it's GTA3's fully 3D world, excellent characters, and great graphics and sound that make it stand out.
While GTA3 doesn't seem to have much in the line of mod capabilities, there is still the MP3 radio station thing as well as player skins that you can edit. Maybe further down the road, more mod options will open up (but I wouldn't count on anything official from Rockstar Studios themselves).
A while back, there were plans for making the PC port of GTA3 playable online. And while that didn't make into the final version, it's still a great game that most players will enjoy for a good twenty to forth hours or more. Multiplayer modes would have made this game even better, but it seems Rockstar Studios didn't find it worth the time it'd have taken to finish it (plus, there's the chance they're planning a whole separate multiplayer GTA game for later). Despite its problems and lack of multiplayer, GTA3 is a wonderful title that'll keep you whacking gangsters and cops for weeks.
