Hookers, pimps and carjackin (Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2))

Member Name: ItTakesMore

Product:	Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2)
Date:	30/06/02 (792 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: gameplay

Disadvantages: none

If your one of the few that haven't heard of this game then i'll fill you in some. Grand Theft Auto 3 has you in the role of a con that just escaped out of prison with his buddy in Liberty City. Liberty City sort of looks to be based off of New York and is loaded with typical big city sites and sounds including various seedy bars, hookers and pimps. The idea of the game is to rise in the life of crime by doing various crimes for various gangs and the Mafia all found in Liberty City. The gangs are pretty much your stereotypical Hispanic and Asian gangs along with a Mafia which seems to almost spoof TVs Sopranos. Now because the stereotypical nature of some of the gangs im sure there's bound to be some people that are gonna be offended. All I have to say to those people is take a look at reality. Those types of gangs exist in big cities whether you like it or not. They also exist in the game as well. Only idiots will believe all the stereotypes.

Now for the gameplay. Gameplay here is similar to the previous 2 titles except the game is now played via a 3rd person behind the character viewpoint like in Tomb Raider. The game of course plays nothing at all like the Tomb Raider series. Like I mentioned before, you must rise through the ranks of crime by taking various jobs for gangs and the Mob. These jobs can range from assassinations to planting car bombs and dropping off hookers to the policeman's ball. Interesting stuff huh?

Now what would Grand Theft Auto 3 be without its trademark carjacking? Not the same im afraid. Yep, no cash to buy your own wheels here so you need to make do and carjack your rides. You can car jack anyone here, innocent bystanders, gang members, taxi cabs, police and fire dept and even a tank. Once you steal your wheels its all up to you what to do. Feel like blowing off some steam? Go steal a car and run over a few people. Killing people of course will drive your wanted meter right up and get the police huntin
g you down. Get the wanted meter up high enough and you'll soon find the Feds and Military on you though. Those are fairly tough to get however but the challenge in seeing just how bad you can be is great fun.

Besides just stealing your ride, you can also take up various career choices for cash as well. Emm well not really but stealing the right wheels will open up various side jobs. For example, steal a police car and you can open up the Vigilante missions. Here you must find and kill the criminal before times up. Or if you steal a Taxi you can open up the taxi missions where you must pick up and drop off people to their destinations in time. The taxi missions feel alot like Sega's own Crazy Taxi and will probably interest fans of the Sega classic if you don't mind the violent theme.

Now, when your not using your car as a deadly weapon, you can also pick up a variety of other deadly toys including baseball bats, uzi's shotguns, flame-throwers, firebombs and everyone's favorite sniper rifles. Im telling ya, there's nothing more satisfying then tossing a firebomb or unleashing a wall of flame from a flame-thrower onto a busy intersection or crowd of people. A great way to drive your wanted level up too.

Liberty City, what a place. Amongst the population you'll find all sorts of life walking down and driving through its streets. Gay construction workers walk about telling you to go to the YMCA, old people, cab drivers and pimps. If your feeling a little low on life you can always pick up a hooker and take her into a dark ally someplace to get um a little refreshment. You'll start to notice the car begin to shake and your life meter go up and your cash go down. When the lady of the night is done, the car will stop shaking and she'll get out and walk away with your hard earned cash. Of course if you don't want to part with your cash, you could always beat her to death and take it back when your done.


it has perhaps some of the finest graphics i've ever seen on the PS2. The city is huge and filled with people and cars. The frame rate runs around 30 frames per second with an occasional dip. Nothing too bad though and is quite excellent considering the size of the city and all that's going on onscreen. Textures and character models look great, although there could have been a little more variety in the character model skins. For example, there's only 1 type of pimp or construction worker walking around so it looks like there's several of the guys clones walking around. This is probably due to the fact that all the details and textures int he game have maxed out the PS2 VRAM. From what I understand though, an XBox version is in the works which fixes this with better character variety. Car models look great as well. They may not be up to Grand Turismo 3 quality but given just how much is going on that's understandable.

Another really cool graphical touch is the games ever changing time and weather. You'll notice day turning to night and back again, rain will begin to pick up, fog will roll in. The effects look simply amazing and add alot of realistic feel to the game.

Overall im very impressed with the graphics in GTA 3. Rockstar games has done a great job here and has come a long way from the microscopic graphics of the first 2. And by the way, if you preferred the view point in the first 2 games then you can set the camera view like it was in those games to get a more nostalgic feel if you like.


This game has got to have some of the coolest sound i've ever heard. The sound effects are all superbly done and the voices are all extremely well acted. The real star of the show though is the games many radio station. Yep, when you steal a car you can actually tune in its radio to various stations. Stations include classical, reggae, hip hop, 80 pop and my favorite, talk radio with host Lazlo. This g
uy is just too funny and has various callers and guest ranging from a kung fu wannabe geek to a guy that likes to get spankings from his nanny. And what would radio be without commercials? pretty boring in this game. Here you get various ads such as one for Liberty City Survivor, and a lawyer who tells people to sue their boss and offers to teach people to throw themselves in front of a bus and act like their hurt. Pretty far out stuff but very funny nonetheless.


While the control isn't quite up to the quality of the graphics and sound, it still remains very good. Cars all control pretty much perfectly as does your character. What's the problem? The aiming. When in a fire-fight things can get pretty hectic and aiming at your enemies can prove to be pretty taxing at times. While its not bad when trying to target 1 or 2 people, when enemies start to gang up, it becomes a problem. I really hope Rockstar Games fixes this annoying problem if they decide to release the game on XBox or when they eventually release a part 4. Not bad but needs a little work.


Overall Grand Theft Auto 3 is a superb piece of software. Rockstar has done an amazing job here. I would highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun game that will last them awhile to play though. Even when you beat the game its simply fun to just pick up and play to drive around and cause a little mayhem. I must stress to parents that this game is not for children and should not be purchased for them. Also, there's alot of stupid people out there blasting this game for its violent content. Come into reality, this is a game and not real life. Just because its amusing tossing a firebomb into a crowd of people or carjacking here is fun, doesn't mean its something I want to do in real life. In real life its wrong. This is a game and doesn't make me feel violent or doesn't desensitize to real violence. If your going to take a fit over the content of the game th
en go ahead and make yourself look clueless and stupid. Its a game and not real. Anyway, great job Rockstar, im really looking forward to another sequel.

Summary: