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Grand Theft Auto III - The Definitive Edition

Final Score: 6/10

The Definitive Edition
The first part of this review will cover the quality of the remake provided in the Definitive Edition, the second part will cover some of my thoughts about the game itself.

Initially i bought the game about 1 1/2 years ago and i only now got around to playing it. That was mostly because since release it was, at least for me in an almost unplayable state. Even on a good computer the game ran very poorly, crashed often and had a lot of bugs and control issues that just made it not fun for me. I would've been better off with the original but they took that down so you have to spend 60 bucks on the definitive edition, or just get a ps2 and the game. But in all honesty, after the recent updates i have had no issues at all anymore. I never encountered another crash and had a stable framerate. The new QoL features added like modern drive-bys and shooting while walking enhanced the game like a remaster should.

It's just simply the fact that it was broken for so long. And that it barely qualifies as a proper remaster. The only thing really remastered is the visual style, which looks good but since they kept the old shape of the games i had troubles taking it seriously; back then on the ps2 the games tried to look as realistic as possible; nowadays with new standards for games the definitve edition looks like a bunch of toy figures in a toy city with toy cars. Literally as some NPC models are straight up cursed with the way they look and move. They could've at least added more details and newer textures. Or just went full remaster with modern graphics like some fan projects.

Additionally, most mechanics remain untouched. Weapons are still barebones and don't have a reload button. Speaking of buttons, you are still unable to fly a plane on keyboard. The buttons simply don't exist and you're not even allowed to map them. Despite GTAV and IV having functional aerial vehicle controls on keyboard. Mission briefs appear and disappear way too fast and cars still handle awfully.

The last thing i'll say about the remaster for now is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Apparently for the remaster, they were able to up the quality of the voices in cutscenes. Yet they didn't up the quality of all voices...? Outside of cutscenes and in free roam every word spoken still sounds like it's emitting from an old tv hooked up to a playstation.

So what is the take from all this? Charging 60 for a barely serviceable remaster is insane. I bought it on discount but still. These kind of things should not be encouraged and we should not further encourage the big game companies by buying their certified 60 dollar ports. If you have never played the game, and don't have any way of playing the original, then you should get this. But only on discount.

GTA III
GTA III tells the story of a mute criminal, Claude, who is betrayed by his girlfriend during a bank robbery, luckily escapes from the prison convoy and now seeks revenge in the criminal underbelly of Liberty City.

Liberty City is an iteration of New York City. It comes with three islands that gradually open up to you as the story progresses. On them, you can find collectables in form of hidden packages, which even grant helpful rewards. You can take on honest work as well; drive a taxi, fire engine, ambulance or even a police car to earn some cash on the side. Sadly, the cash you own is hard to spend. At a certain point in the game, i had a massed a fortune of over 2 million, without any way to properly spend it. You can only buy weapons at the gun store and uh.. yeah. That's about it.

The missions themselves come in the now typical rockstar form. You get a badge of missions by a certain character, that are somewhat connected. Intro cutscene -> gameplay -> rewards. These range from simple "Drive from Point A to Point B" without damaging all the way to "Steal a boat and take a plan down with an RPG to steal its contents". Guns and combat work but i never really found great joy in those, except for the sniper missions. There is just too little feedback from the enemies and your gun to properly make it fun. However, the missions in GTA III are amongst the most open. Especially the assassination missions allow for the most player freedom in how you approach them.

Side missions also exist in form of payphone missions, which are basically just normal missions but from a payphone, and offroad/RC challenges. These either have you going offroad in a timed challenge or driving RC cars to blow up as many cars as possible. They're fun but don't last long and they are only about 3-4.

The radio and world feel alive, especially since your actions in missions change how the gangs and people treat you, for better or for worse. After finishing the first "chapter" of the game and unlocking Staunton island Portland is basically hell and you can't enter, since all gang members shoot on sight. And since the game is coded in a weird way, the longer you fight them the more will spawn. So even if you only take out a few, as soon as you turn around you might just face a horde.

One of the complains i have found was simply that beside the missions there is not much interesting stuff to do. And that is OK. Because this game was the first of its kind, and for its time and what technology there was it is pretty crazy to see how it manages to tell an interesting and compelling story with a main character who doesn't speak, and have variable missions with how little they have.

I recommend everyone to at least give this game a shot once and just see where it all started. It is unfair to compare it to the newer games but i definitely think this one is most forgotten about next to Vice City and San Andreas. It's a good time.

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