It was Christmas 2001. My mom took my brother and me to the
Walmart near our house and picked up the Playstation 2, wrapped in brown
packaging paper, which had been put on layaway until our gift exchange on New
Year’s. But my brother received an NCAA football game from my grandparents a
few days prior, and in my grubby mitts was a shiny new copy of Grand Theft Auto
3. I insisted we travel to pick up the new console right away.
And, within hours, I was transported to the expansive (and
inappropriately violent) world of Liberty City. It was a far cry from the small
confines of GTA2 on my original Playstation, a game that was inexplicably rated
Teen and thus deemed appropriate for my age level by my parents. GTA3 was a
hard Mature, but for some crazy reason that still isn’t clear to me I was able
to convince my parents I could play it. What followed was my introduction to
true 3D gaming, and the narrative potential of the medium that continues to
inspire me to this day.
What a strange thing, then, to replay the game almost 15
years later, and to realize just how far game design has come in that decade
and a half.
If you follow me on Twitch, I’ve been spending many an
evening becoming reacquainted with Liberty City. Here are some things I’ve
learned.
3D DRIVING WAS STILL A GIMMICK
Many of the early missions in GTA3 have you drive around the
block, pick someone up and a cutscene plays. This was groundbreaking gameplay
in 2001, when we’d been confined to cars or on-foot action in nearly every game
imaginable. Only Driver 2, which had woefully inadequate on-foot action (you
couldn’t even shoot!), had attempted this level of immersion before. Only when
you’ve completed errands for the mob, and 8-Ball’s explosive-related skills are
required in “Bomb da Base,” do the mission structures start to open up and
become something special. Everything before that is fetch quests.
RAMPAGES SUCKED
GTAV puts you in the shoes of a rage-fueled Trevor Phillips
for its “rampages,” which are just mini-missions all about mayhem. GTA3 locked
your choice of weapon, and spawned dozens of manic enemies on the screen at
once. Couple those mobs with some truly abysmal targeting controls and you’ve
got a recipe for disaster.
THE OVERWHELMING NOW MUNDANE
Remember when it seemed like that drove to Joey Leone’s
garage from your safehouse took ages? It really took about 45 seconds. The timers
in GTA3 seemed way too fast at the time to get from one end of Portland to the
next, and I was dreading playing El Burro’s “Turismo” and “Big n’ Veiny”
missions again because they were such a chore in my youth. But whether it’s
because I’ve had more 3D driving practice or the complicated routes in
current-gen open-world titles have hardened my reflexes, getting around
Portland is a breeze.
ONE-NOTE CHARACTERS
Because GTA3 launched a series of look-alike games set in
the criminal underworld, and it was called a “Mafioso masterpiece” upon its
release, it’s easy to remember the game as a large step forward in videogame
storytelling. The game is the ancestor of a title in GTAV that gave us multiple
protagonists, leading wildly different lives on different socioeconomic plains,
right? But that would be the wrong thing to remember. GTA3 is full of one-note
and, frankly, racist and chauvinistic characters. Perhaps the complaint is
unfair, given that the source material that inspired the game (gangster and
heist movies) were full of one-note, racist and chauvinist characters, but this
is not a major step forward in any way. It’s a simple revenge tale that
consists of escalating gang violence that quickly turns allies on all three
islands against you.
CHATTERBOX IS AS GREAT AS EVER
The talk radio stations in the GTA franchise have a long and
stories history that can be traced to Lazlow and the Chatterbox program in
GTA3. While other features of the game have aged poorly, as you’ve seen above,
Lazlow’s program retains its biting social commentary and inventive guests and
callers. Though the track is woefully short by today’s standards, and would be
laughable in the 70+ hour campaign that is available in GTAV, it’s still
laugh-out-loud funny for its entire running length and features more memorable
moments than any other game in the series.
THE THREE ISLAND DESIGN IS THE WAY TO GO
Complained about heavily when the game first released, and
in its subsequent sequels, the idea of revealing the map in waves to the player
in GTA3 is undoubtedly a feature that should be reinstated at some point in the
franchise, in order to preserve an element of whimsical discovery and a feeling
of accomplishment in progressing through the game’s narrative. I’ve spent
nearly 10 hours back in just Portland, and I’ve discovered paths I didn’t know
existed when the game released even now. There’s something to be said for
becoming intimately acquainted with areas of the map, then having the window
expanded as you accomplish certain feats in the game. Yes, it’s fun to drive
anywhere you want to at the beginning of GTAV. But none of the areas of the map
feel special as a result of this freedom, in the same way Francis International
Airport, the docks and other areas tantalized you on the Playstation 2.
That’s it for now. I’ll continue to add to this post as I
play through Grand Theft Auto 3, and eventually Vice City (it’ll be awhile
before I tackle San Andreas, and I did so a couple years ago on my Xbox 360,
anyway, so the urgency isn’t really there for me). If you’d like to follow
along on my nostalgic adventure, follow twitch.tv/kiphillreporter.
