Serpens007
Member
So, my first memories of playing GTA was with GTA2 on PC, a little before the PS2 was released and, for several years, was the only GTA I ever played. Nevertheless I loved GTA2, it has many flaws, but the missions in the game - and the free mayhem - were something that caught me and it was one of the first games I wanted to tackle every mission instead of just finishing or just releasing chaos on the streets of Anywhere City.
Now, flash forward a few years, and my new GTA to play was San Andreas on Ps2 and wow, how things changed! Both GTA 2 and SA had "respect" as a mechanic in the game, but for totally different purposes. It wasn't about serving different mafias to make your name in the city, SA was a story.
Around that time, I tried to go and play prior GTAs, but... I couldn't. SA made too hard to get used to the control of III and VC, so SA was my only 3D era GTA.
Then I played GTA IV, the Episodes, and V. Loved all of them, double dipped on V for PS3 and PS4. And the control on those games made it so much hard to even think to go back to GTA III and VC...
...Until I played Vice City Stories on my PS Vita!
VCS was a game I really, really loved, even losing total control over the camera didn't matter. After that I said fuck it, I will play GTA III and VC, one day.
Several great games happened, so I was kept away from them, until now. Seeing myself not buying new games for a while, and in fact buying old PC games that made me realise that for some reason now I can get used more to old games and old controls, I said "OK, nows the time!"
THE GAME: So, there was something about newer GTAs that despite loving them, they never quite scratched that itch that GTA2 left for so long. So, oh, my, god, was GTA III the place to find that. This game is exactly the middle point between the story driven GTAs and the over-the-top stupidity of the previous ones.
The story is really simple: you, Claude, and your girlfriend, Catalina, are longtime criminals. During a major heist, Catalina bretays you, shooting you and leaving you behind, ending in jail because of it. By luck, you get in the middle of a "rescue" from the Mafia, incident that sets you free. Starting from scratch, you need to get a job and make a name in Liberty City, which leads you to work for the Leone family in Portland. From there, you work for different gangs to earn your cash. All of this leads you to find your ex-girlfriend who tries to get in your way and kill you, unless you take her first...
The main draw here are the missions. They are much similar to those of GTA2, hell, there are even some of them that are really, really similar. For example, in both III and 2, there are a gang who have a weakness in their addiction to Ice Cream. So, you use an Ice Cream Van to blow them up ! Or the different Gang cars that you have to collect in one mission.
This may be a flaw for lack of creativity, but fear not, the game is full of great missions, from shootouts, to races, to beat-the-clock missions, to assassinations, etc. Some of the missions are hard to finish, and will require more than one try to beat. There's always a way, and it's up to you to find it. These missions will get you driving cars or a boat, taking down airplanes or blowing up apartments. Bottom line: there's little to no repetition in this game. This game is what GTA is all about.
Sometimes though, you'll have to suffer the AI. In one mission, I had to restart several times due to the NPC (that I had to protect) falling into the sea behind me. Or you'll have to start a mission again because of your vehicle turning over and getting destroyed.
As I said, there's always a way, and perhaps the collectibles in this game will help you! Collecting the Hidden Packages that are all over the city will grant you some weapons straight from your warehouse. The same way, completing sidemissions, like the Vigilante or Firefighter missions, will grant you bonus items in your safehouse.
Even without said bonus, the side missions are fun to do. Specially the Frenzy missions (thanks GTA2 for them!) for that pure GTA fun.
The gameplay is a little rough nowadays, but it is still fun. As I mentioned, it was hard to me to get used to the control back in the day after playing San Andreas, but now it was pure joy. Though sometimes I wish I had more control over the camera.
Other thing worth noting, is the radio stations. These are a classic from GTA, but in GTA III most of the music is not licensed, meaning there are unique songs for the game (mixed with classics, for example, straight from Scarface). This is another thing that I loved thanks to my time with GTA2. Playing that game for many hours, the radio stations like Funami FM, Rebel Radio, among others, are stuck in my head even today. Sure they're not as good as the licensed music in other GTA games, but, for me, this IS GTA music, a proper style for the game alone. And that is what I got from the stations of GTA III, pure Grand Theft Auto Style music, with many songs from LIPS 106, Head Radio, Game Radio, MSX and Flashback that are stuck now with me.
After finishing this game, I am sure bumped to go and play Vice City and a return to San Andreas after I beat it. I bought III, VC and SA for PS3 (along with the PS2 version of LCS for PS3 and PSP version of VCS for Vita) a long time ago, so they were/are sitting in the HDD waiting to be played. Sadly I think VC doesn't have the Michael Jackson songs? I'm not sure, but whatever.
So, next is Vice City, then Liberty City Stories to finish with a return to San Andreas... But I loved GTA III so much, that I had to write all of this.
TL;DR: If you don't know why GTA is so popular, go play this game and think is 2001.
Now, flash forward a few years, and my new GTA to play was San Andreas on Ps2 and wow, how things changed! Both GTA 2 and SA had "respect" as a mechanic in the game, but for totally different purposes. It wasn't about serving different mafias to make your name in the city, SA was a story.
Around that time, I tried to go and play prior GTAs, but... I couldn't. SA made too hard to get used to the control of III and VC, so SA was my only 3D era GTA.
Then I played GTA IV, the Episodes, and V. Loved all of them, double dipped on V for PS3 and PS4. And the control on those games made it so much hard to even think to go back to GTA III and VC...
...Until I played Vice City Stories on my PS Vita!
VCS was a game I really, really loved, even losing total control over the camera didn't matter. After that I said fuck it, I will play GTA III and VC, one day.
Several great games happened, so I was kept away from them, until now. Seeing myself not buying new games for a while, and in fact buying old PC games that made me realise that for some reason now I can get used more to old games and old controls, I said "OK, nows the time!"
THE GAME: So, there was something about newer GTAs that despite loving them, they never quite scratched that itch that GTA2 left for so long. So, oh, my, god, was GTA III the place to find that. This game is exactly the middle point between the story driven GTAs and the over-the-top stupidity of the previous ones.
The story is really simple: you, Claude, and your girlfriend, Catalina, are longtime criminals. During a major heist, Catalina bretays you, shooting you and leaving you behind, ending in jail because of it. By luck, you get in the middle of a "rescue" from the Mafia, incident that sets you free. Starting from scratch, you need to get a job and make a name in Liberty City, which leads you to work for the Leone family in Portland. From there, you work for different gangs to earn your cash. All of this leads you to find your ex-girlfriend who tries to get in your way and kill you, unless you take her first...
The main draw here are the missions. They are much similar to those of GTA2, hell, there are even some of them that are really, really similar. For example, in both III and 2, there are a gang who have a weakness in their addiction to Ice Cream. So, you use an Ice Cream Van to blow them up ! Or the different Gang cars that you have to collect in one mission.
This may be a flaw for lack of creativity, but fear not, the game is full of great missions, from shootouts, to races, to beat-the-clock missions, to assassinations, etc. Some of the missions are hard to finish, and will require more than one try to beat. There's always a way, and it's up to you to find it. These missions will get you driving cars or a boat, taking down airplanes or blowing up apartments. Bottom line: there's little to no repetition in this game. This game is what GTA is all about.
Sometimes though, you'll have to suffer the AI. In one mission, I had to restart several times due to the NPC (that I had to protect) falling into the sea behind me. Or you'll have to start a mission again because of your vehicle turning over and getting destroyed.
As I said, there's always a way, and perhaps the collectibles in this game will help you! Collecting the Hidden Packages that are all over the city will grant you some weapons straight from your warehouse. The same way, completing sidemissions, like the Vigilante or Firefighter missions, will grant you bonus items in your safehouse.
Even without said bonus, the side missions are fun to do. Specially the Frenzy missions (thanks GTA2 for them!) for that pure GTA fun.
The gameplay is a little rough nowadays, but it is still fun. As I mentioned, it was hard to me to get used to the control back in the day after playing San Andreas, but now it was pure joy. Though sometimes I wish I had more control over the camera.
Other thing worth noting, is the radio stations. These are a classic from GTA, but in GTA III most of the music is not licensed, meaning there are unique songs for the game (mixed with classics, for example, straight from Scarface). This is another thing that I loved thanks to my time with GTA2. Playing that game for many hours, the radio stations like Funami FM, Rebel Radio, among others, are stuck in my head even today. Sure they're not as good as the licensed music in other GTA games, but, for me, this IS GTA music, a proper style for the game alone. And that is what I got from the stations of GTA III, pure Grand Theft Auto Style music, with many songs from LIPS 106, Head Radio, Game Radio, MSX and Flashback that are stuck now with me.
After finishing this game, I am sure bumped to go and play Vice City and a return to San Andreas after I beat it. I bought III, VC and SA for PS3 (along with the PS2 version of LCS for PS3 and PSP version of VCS for Vita) a long time ago, so they were/are sitting in the HDD waiting to be played. Sadly I think VC doesn't have the Michael Jackson songs? I'm not sure, but whatever.
So, next is Vice City, then Liberty City Stories to finish with a return to San Andreas... But I loved GTA III so much, that I had to write all of this.
TL;DR: If you don't know why GTA is so popular, go play this game and think is 2001.