A Modern Classic (Grand Theft Auto III (PC))

Member Name: joncr

Product:	Grand Theft Auto III (PC)
Date:	11/12/02 (343 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Best Game Yet, Great Story, Very Polished

Disadvantages: Poor auto-aim

I remember the first night I played GTA3, I went round to my sisters place to see her and ended up playing Grand Theft Auto 3 on her Playstation 2 until 2am when she insisted I left so she could go to bed. Yes, Its that addictive.

In previous version of the game you had a 2D overview of a city where you drove round the city scoring points for running down civilians and evading the police. Now there is much more depth to the game. You now play the game in 3D and can carjack any vehicle from a taxi to a police car and then run round the city like a crazed joy rider. Ok this is the same as GTA1 and GTA2 but think GrandTurisimo 3 with police helicopters, mob bosses, guns, pedestrians and a fully city map.

All this is before you attempt any missions. You are introduced to various mob characters who give you jobs. As you complete more jobs for one mob boss, they introduce you to an other wise guy who gives you more missions. As you do more missions and gain there trust they give more important missions. Eventually you become a "made man" - a fully fledged wise guy gangster.

Of course you dont have to do the missions, if your getting stuck on one try another bosses mission while you think about the tough one or go mugging to collect money. You can try ambulance runs, a job as a taxi driver or a fire fighter. This game has so many features that make you think "thats cool". There is no expense spared in the detail and everything is there for a purpose. Even some of the scenery can be used a ramps for insane jumps. These are replayed in slow motion and your jump length, number of flips etc are counted and you earn money for it.

One of most polished features is the radio stations. Mafia cars tend to have Double Clef Radio - the opera channel. My personal favourite. Even the radio adverts are funny.
Who can forget petsovernight.com where they post you pets. You can even get music CD's of the radio stations.
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br>The missions are well balanced in difficulty and I didnt find I had to repeat many more than twice. The secret it to plan. If you fail a mission once don't just blindly try the same thing again. Perhaps there is a reason why you failed.

For example, I had to drive the mafia bosses to the Dons house in a stretched lino but was always ambushed by several Yakusa trucks. When I finally made it to the Dons house there was two trucks parked infront of the drive blocking access. I then got bashed into oblivion by the rest of the persuing trucks.

Before restarting the mission, I decided to a do a dry run to make sure I knew the route and found that there was another entrance to The Dons mansion over the grass behind a block of houses. This made the mission much easier and I completed it immediately. This isn't to say the missions are easy, far from it.

The missions are hard but not impossible and they are designed to be challenging and increase with your experience. I always feel a sense of achievement and never feel cheated. The missions are all different so you dont get the feeling "Oh, its one of those missions is it". You never know what to expect. Something that might sound easy generally is not. The life of a mob man is full of double crosses and changing sides. This also means that the story developes as time goes on as you make new friends and old enemies.

I was given the job of driving for the Dons mistress and took her to a rave. While waiting outside there was a police raid and I had to drive her at high speed back from to the Dons. All the stereotypes are there. Old god father figures and Soprano's like stooges. Columbian drug lords and street dealers.

Old fans of the series will be impressed. The sick humour is still there and all the old weapons and some new ones. The only bad thing I can say about the game is that the auto-aim when on foot isnt very good but this is a slight blemish on what
I consider the best game so far on any platform.

I met the Marketing guys for GTA3 on holiday last year. Out of all the games they were working on they said this was the best and were prowd to put their name to it.

The game is the game that people will finally think that its worth buying a PS2 for. I can recommend this enough. If you have a PS2 get this game now. If you dont, get a PS2 and then GTA3. Its that good.

I really cant wait for the next installment - Vice City which will be full of Miami Vice pastel suits and everything cheesy about the 80's.

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