I've never much cared for games consoles. When it comes to gaming I always preferred to sit down in front of the old PC. That was until…GRAND THEFT AUTO 3!!! Hmm, I suppose I should clarify that a bit; that was until…I GOT A PS2 AND A COPY OF GRAND THEFT AUTO 3!!! There, that's better.
GTA3 is, quite simply, one of the best games I have ever played! "Surely you are exaggerating?", I hear you say! Well I'm not and…don't call me Shirley. Ugh, I can't believe I wrote that!
Sooo…why is this game so great? In the words of William Wallace, "FRRRREEEEEDOM!!"
This game allows you to do pretty much anything you want to. I suppose I should start at the very beginning in case there are people reading this who have never heard of GTA3. Basically, you play a small time crook who, at the start of the game, is in the middle of a bank robbery. He is betrayed by his girlfriend who shoots him and leaves him for dead but instead he is picked up and arrested by the police. Whilst in transit to jail a road accident gives our hero the chance to make his bid for freedom and he escapes. This is where you, the player, take control. You start off by stealing cars and doing some small time jobs for the local mafia in order to earn money and make a name for yourself in Liberty City. As the game progresses you start taking on missions from other crime factions in the city, ranging from Jamaican Yardies to Japanese Yakuza.
There is a story line and in order to complete the game you have to progress through the game in a linear fashion, following orders and doing the mission. Doesn't sound like freedom, eh? Don't worry because the missions are only a small part of the game. There are dozens of side missions in the game, tons of secrets to discover, races to enter and other jobs you can take to make some money. For example, stand in front of a police car, drag the cop out of his car and beat him to a bloody pulp with your baseball bat and drive off in his car. With the simple touch of a button you can enter 'Vigilante' mode and cruise the streets looking for criminals. What do you do if you see one? Squish him good! You also get a couple of thousand dollars for your trouble. If you steal an ambulance then you can pretend you are George Clooney and cruise the streets as a paramedic.
If that doesn't tickle your fancy then you can steal a fire engine and pretend you are -insert famous celebrity fire person here- and earn money by putting fires out. Hurrah! Or, if you are a sadistic psychotic, you can cruise the streets and mercilessly run down pedestrians, kill old ladies and steal their cars or just drive down to the red light district and pick up a…nice young lass.
The AI is fantastic and the police and whatever local gangs you may have pissed off will do their best to put you out of commission. The police will rarely lose your trail in a high speed pursuit unless you are really cunning.
The graphics are incredible. No other word to describe it really. Incredible.
All in all this game is the Muttz Nuttz! That is to say it is well worth spending £45 on. Even when you have completed the main game there will still be a hundred other things for you to do in the game. There are a few glitches in the game, such as cars occasionally disappearing when they leave your line of sight or…well that's it actually. Buy this game…now!!
James Coghlan
