Series Review: Grand Theft Auto - Part 2

Game: Grand Theft Auto III
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: DMA Design
Release Date: 22nd October 2001

The first of many 3D Grand Theft Auto games, GTA III is the first game of the series to have many of the features that are taken for granted in modern games such as Vigilante, Taxi, and Ambulance missions, flyable aircraft, day/night cycling, weather effects, a mini map, drive by shootings, and smarter AI to name just a few. The game also featured 3 interconnected islands instead of 3 separate locations for gameplay, and more linear missions in which NPC's built trust with the player before giving them crucial missions.

Although there's no set pace for progressing through the game, the story is continued through taking missions from various contacts (more are unlocked as you complete further missions) until the overarching plot is resolved. Missions generally involve combinations of driving and shooting with other elements appearing less often.

One of the most notable additions to the series is the radio humour, with mock adverts and radio stations (mainly thanks to the involvement of Lazlow in the game). This was expanded upon in later installments of the series and has become a recognisable element of the games as a whole. This humour also continues to the characters and missions that the player encounters with various elements of political satire and references. There's a larger choice of weapons than any other series installment, with new melee choices like bats and knives as well as new types of gun.

Considering the game's 2001 release, there was an incredible amount of in game freedom compared to other titles of the time. A higher level of chaos than you could have imagined with GTA 2 was possible and with an even bigger city to roam, more characters to interact with and much more to do, it's not hard to see how GTA III became the basis for the modern installments of the game.

Graphically the game doesn't look so great thesedays, it can lose sharpness when the player is travelling at high speeds, and things take a while to "pop-in", but it still retains the atmosphere of a city. The graphics are good enough to be able to see what you're doing, and to recognise areas of the city and mission targets. One complaint of the game I have heard is that there's a lot of grey cityscape and not much else in its map, and it does at times feel like you're walled in by buildings. The advantage of this, however is that the game achieves the gritty, crime infested city feel that it's going for with the promotional material.

Soundwise, GTA III has a large library of songs on the radio, as well as adverts, speech and sound effects. I can't think of many times during the game when I was unimpressed and usually there's a few laughs to be had at lines of dialogue. Overall it's a fun sandbox game which was incredibly popular at the time of its release and to a degree still is. It introduced several elements to the series which are still in use today and although some aspects could have been better, it's a good template for the things that came after.

Rating: 84/100
Grade: B

Game: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Rockstar
Release Date: 27th October 2002

Vice City as a location is the opposite of Liberty City; a bright, vibrant and exotic locale where the rich folk of the GTA universe live. There's mansions dotted about the map, a golf course and several fancy clothing stores. For all of it's riches, Vice City has no less crime than any other installment of the GTA series. You find yourself ambushed in a drug deal gone awry, and needing to get back the money you lost. The only solution is to work your way up from the inside and work with those who ambushed you, before finally taking your revenge and exposing the island for what it really is.

Vice City's main gameplay is missions based, just like the other games in the series. You're allowed to free roam at any point outside of missions and there are other side quests and fun activities to find. There's not many additions to the gameplay from GTA III as it was built on the same engine, however you're now allowed to purchase companies which have associated missions and earn you money, and the police are a little more aggressive at times.

The story of this installment is one of the most impressive of the series, with regular twists and turns as it makes it way toward its ending. There's many characters who you interact with and for the first time in the series, it seems like you've got motives to be doing these favours rather than just blindly following instructions for whatever reason, as before. Cutscenes and voice acting in the game is good, with the first talking protagonist in a GTA game.

There's some missions in the game which I feel surpass those of GTA III, due to either new ideas or better execution of established ideas from previous games. There's a mission which involves planting explosives with a remote control helicopter which I found to be a particularly fresh idea for the series. There's still a lot of driving and shooting parts, but if there weren't I'd be disappointed.

Graphically the game is somewhat similar to GTA III, which does make it seem a little outdated when cars and buildings are looked at in detail. The brighter, more sunny style of the game helps towards a fresh feel for it., however. There's a lens flare effect that's used a little too often in the game for my liking which tends to put me off during missions or even when I'm just driving around. Soundwise the game's radio soundtrack doesn't feel quite as strong as that of GTA III; there's 2 talk stations which have less humour than Chatterbox FM, and the other music stations are a bit of a mixture.

Overall Vice City was more of a bright remodel of GTA III than a successor; it has good moments and an arguably better story than its predecessor but the fairly small map, slight adjustments to the driving style and lack of particular graphical improvement let it down somewhat. It's definitely worth a play though and I think Rockstar were right to issue the two games as a double pack on re-issue.

Rating: 85/100
Grade: B

Game: Grand Theft Auto Advance
Console: Game Boy Advance
Developer: Digital Eclipse
Release Date: 26th October 2004

Released 3 days before GTA: San Andreas in Europe, Grand Theft Auto Advance is almost like a 2D top-down version of GTA III with a different storyline. The place names are the same as those in GTA III, and from what I can tell, a lot of the same characters are involved. The story involves a gangster who is trying to get out of the city and away from the crime whose mentor gets killed as he's trying to leave. Vowing revenge before he gets out of the city, he takes on missions to find out who the murderer was.

The gameplay rather lets the game down, as I've said before about the series, most missions involve either driving, shooting or a bit of both. Unfortunately both of these elements of the game are pretty unenjoyable both compared to both the 3D installments of the series and even the earlier 2D ones. The driving features a camera which zooms out as you get faster, but when you hit other cars they roll over and do other strange tricks. Also if you take a corner too fast in a tall vehicle it's likely to lean over onto its side, but other than this the driving is similar to the other 2D games.

On foot, the gameplay is even worse; movement is controlled via the D-pad, weapons are switched with the select button, you can run with B and A is used attacks whether they're guns or melee. The problem here is that aiming is difficult, and with various foes attacking you it's almost impossible not to take damage. This makes the missions pretty difficult once they get to a certain standard. There's over 40 story missions in the game as a whole, which is a good number for a handheld version of GTA, but they do seem to be a lot of the same thing.

Graphically the game is less than impressive, I understand that it's on Game Boy Advance but at the same time vehicles literally turn into pixels when they explode, it's hard to see who's who on foot, and the map is difficult to use. The sound is alright on the game, with in-game radio clips (including a song from GTA 2 on Dreamcast), but disappointingly no voice acting. Overall this is a pretty poor experience, if only for the fact that Rockstar demonstrated they could make much better games for home consoles in the previous 2 installments. Compared to Grand Theft Auto on Gameboy Colour it's a little better I suppose, but that should be a given.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: D

Tune in next time for GTA: Liberty City Stories, and Vice City Stories!