Grand theft auto three and Grand theft auto vicecity coming together in a bundle can only be thought of as a dream come
GRAND THEFT AUTO THREE REVIEW:
Rockstar is famous for making the Grand theft auto franchise. Although the original 2D Grand theft auto games didn't really do it for a lot of people, thanks to the cluncky controls, difficult and frustrating missions and required you to go from point A to point B in a ridiculous amount of time, and the graphics were pretty bland. Throw in the frustrating over the top of the character camera angle and it made a mediocre game. Thankfully, with Grand theft auto 3, Rockstar has totally reformatted Grand theft auto 3 and has made an instant classic. I don't know where to begin with them gem.
The best aspect of Grand theft auto 3 is the fact that the entire game is open world. You can do what you want, kill who you want, and create as much havoc as you want until your heart is content, which will take dozens upon dozens of hours thanks to the satisfying amount of things to do. Since the game is open world, you don't really have a time limit and there's no real rush to do anything, even if a guy tells you to meet him some place in 10 minutes.
In Grand theft auto 3 you play as a nameless talkless guy who doesn't really have any personality. This is about the only negative to the game. It must be just me, but I really hate developers who make main characters without a name or personality, it really kills a lot of the tension out of the game and although developers want you to care for other characters in the game, all it really does it make you mad that you have to put up with a main character for the entire game who doesn't say anything. Luckily, the story is very engrossing and revolves around you getting set up by your own partner as you rob a bank. As you attempt to cross a bridge, a local gang, the Columbian Cartel, break one of there people out and you just follow them for the heck of it, I gues the nameless guy thought it as a free ride. Either way, before you know it, you start working for the Mafia and as you progress through this lengthy game which will take you about 20+ hours and that's if you just stick to the main story (which is almost impossible to do), you will have worked for every major gang in the city. From the Mafia to the Columbian Cartel, to the Yakuza, you work for them all.
The place where all of this takes place in, is the stunning Liberty City, which is extremely well done and makes you feel like your in a real city. Nice touches such as: pedestrians who react to what you do and who are downright hilarious to listen to, traffic that is realistc, other crimes that happen in the city are caused by pedestrians and the cops react to other people besides you, even police chases when you think the cops are after you, you find out that there after some one else. Other nice touches include: gangs that fight eachother and the ability to steal just about any car you want. That's right, you can jack pretty much any car, just walk up to the car, you don't even have to be that close and just hit the Triangle button and then you will automatically go towards the closest car and jack it. Some people won't be happy when you jack their car and will try and get it back. Even more realistic, some people will try to jack your car while your just sitting their.
The campaign that you go through has a huge variety in the missions you do. Basically it works like this: you go to the person your working for, have a short cutscene introducing the mission and then you go out and do it, come back and then get your reward which is usually money.
The mission design is very well done. Some missions have you tracking down a guy and killing him, while others have you going out and shooting up a gang. All of it lots of fun, although the game is at it's best when your just running around and doing pointless killing spree's
Of course, what is a city without stores to get stuff from. Early on, you can get weapons from Ammunation which as you progress, there's more weapons to choose from. At first, all you have is some wimpy pistols, but as you progress, you will unlock the: uzi, rocket launcher, AK-47, shotgun, flamethrower and lots lots more. The weaponry isn't small and it's extremely satisfying to use them, especially in a mindless police chase where your just trying to survive long enough while cops are coming at you, while you kill tons of civilians and cops just for fun. It's insanely fun at that. This is really the best part of the game.
In order to save, you have to go to your garage, which you can also put your car in the garage to, to save when you turn off your PS2, or just to repair it. It's like a glitch or something, but you can repair your cars if you drive them into it and then let the shutter go down, if you walk back in, the car will be in perfect condition. This is a nice touch or a nice glitch, mainly because if cars, trucks, vans, or any other vehicle takes to much damage, they will explode.
Everything you need to find in Liberty city can be found on a conveniant map in the bottom right screen. All of your contacts, important places, such as when you lose health, how you can go to a hospital to get your health back, is really nice touches.
Lets say though, that you get picked up from the police, or "busted" as they say in this game. You basically wind up in the closest police station and have to pay $100 in bribary to be let back on the streets. If you die by an explosion or gunfire or as the game calls it "wasted", then you end up in the hospital and have to pay $100 for hospital bills. Simple enough.
Liberty City is meant to represent New York City and for the most part it's a good representation. Liberty City is set in 3 different islands and each one has their own distinctive features. Portland, the place where you start, is the slums of the town and represents Queens and Brooklyn. The coolest part is, is the nice touches such as the: hookers, gangsters, and low lifes that can be found there. The 2nd island is called Staunton Island, basically it's a good representation of Manhattan. All of the businessmen, high rises, and central park can be found here. Of course, you have to advance far enough to get to Staunton Island. The 3rd island is Shoreside vale, basically the suburbs and country life, although it does have a small town in it. It also has an airport tucked away in this little suburban island, but don't expect anything remarkable, mainly because you can't fly these planes but maybe for 10 seconds at the most.
To advance to the other 2 islands (Staunton Island and Shoreside vale) you have to advance through the story, like I said and then the bridge will be restored, since it got destroyed at the beginning of the game when the Columbian Cartel got one of their people back.
You can also ride boats, although the waters are pretty dead, some of the missions does take place in the water. Still, it's a good way of transportation if you need to go from point A to point B, you can also take the subway if you want to. The subway is pretty cool, since it stops off at 1 place on each of the 3 islands. Still, you need to advance far enough to get this. You can also drive your car through these underground tunnels that connect each of the islands. So getting around this huge city shouldn't be a problem.
The graphics in the game is pretty good. Liberty city looks fantastic, but character models are super blocky and the textures on the character models are really bland too, but still the city looks great. The physics also shine too. Whenever you crash, the impact looks great and your car will start to get smoke, heavy smoke, and then burst into flames if it crashes to much, although some cars can take more than others. The fire truck for example, can take a ton of damage, while a little sports car, while it's fast, can't take but a few hits.
Since the police can be a big problem in this game, there is icons that will lower your wanted level. The wanted level works like this: 1 star: they will simply chase you, if you steal a car or something small, they will go away after a while. 2stars: It takes forever to make them go away and they are more persistant. 3 stars: a helicopter is adde to the chase and the chaingun it has can easily tear you apart or rip your ride to shreds. 4 stars: SWAT and police vans come after you. 5 stars: FBI comes after you. 6 stars: The military and tanks come after you. If a tank even touches your ride, you'll die. Some missions will automatically trigger 4 or 5 stars, so you'll have to pick up the icon that's hidden in alleyways and whatnot to make the cops go away.
Grand theft auto 3 has some of best radio stations ever put to a video game. No matter what type of music you like, you will find it here. Throw in a talk radio station that is so hilarious that I just turned on Grand theft auto 3 just to listen to it, will make you love the audio department. But it gets better, the voice acting is top notch and the weapon sounds are surprisingly good, making this a great title, audio and sound wise.
Grand theft auto 3 is one of the few games that I love to cheat in. No matter what you want to do, have lots of weapons, health, armor, even a tank for yourself to run around in and destroy stuff to an incredible degree is all at your fingertips. Of course there's more. You can even make civilians run after eachother with weapons and kill eachother, or just run and kill you.
There is one problem with the gameplay though. Although theres tons of different types of camera angles, some of them get in the way, but the targeting is pretty frustrating. It's a small complaint when you look at everything else though.
As if Grand theft auto 3 didn't have enough replay value with it's killing sprees and lengthy, yet highly replayable campaign, you can also go on taxi missions, police missions and try and chase down and kill criminals, or find hidden packages that's scattered around Liberty City. There's 100 in all and every 10 you get will give you weapons that respawn at each of the 3 garages you have. It's really cool to have a rocket launcher that keeps respawning every time.
Grand theft auto 3 is a lot of things. It's a ton of fun, highly addictive, must play, but most of all, it's just an instant classic. It's also pretty innovative and revolutionary, some other developers have tried to make the open world environment like Grand theft auto 3 but just aren't as successful and it just isn't as much fun.
GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICECITY REVIEW:
Grand theft auto Vicecity is the follow up to the successful and very entertaining yet mature, Grand theft auto three. Just like its predecessor, the game gives you lots of freedom, to go where you want in a large thriving city and do what you want. Although there are no limits to what you can do, there is a story you have to follow if you want to open up the rest of the city. Grand theft auto Vicecity is non-stop and its story is very well done along with some of the best radio stations and voice acting around. Throw in some solid graphics and you have one of the best video games since Grand theft auto three.
To back up a bit, Grand theft auto Vicecity takes place in the 1980’s. 1986 to be exact. It also takes place in a fictional Miami, Florida called Vicecity. Rockstar really did a number recreating Vicecity and it’s one of the most accurate recreations of a city I’ve ever seen.
The protagonist of Grand theft auto Vicecity is Tommy Vercetti who is my most favorite protagonist in any video game. He is one smooth talker with great voice work that is really well done. It’s very interesting because the Grand theft auto three guys didn’t talk at all, so it’s really cool to see Rockstar opening up and they definitely opened up with a bang, as this is one of the best protagonists ever made. Tommy rides a very fine line between a tough guy and a jerk and he’s on the tough smooth talking side. The story starts off very strong with a drug deal gone wrong and Tommy having to give Sonny back his money that was stolen. This super long adventure will take you about 20 hours to find out what happened and that’s if you stick to the main story, which is pretty tough to do with everything else to do.
Grand theft auto Vicecity has lots of options to do. For starters, you can now walk into lots of different stores and even rob a store if you want, keep in mind though, that the cops will be on your tail after this happens. Vicecity is streaming with things to do, although for about an hour, only part of the city will be open to you. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself just running around and killing people instead of sticking to the main story as its very tough not to want to do the “killing sprees” that were so famous in Grand theft auto three. As you progress through the story, you can also open up optional people to go to and work for to get money and can even buy property such as houses and hotels to save at and even get weaponry at. Vicecity is actually a bit smaller than Liberty City in Grand theft auto three, but don’t worry, there is way more to do and the city is even more thriving than before. Vicecity still has those hidden packages to collect which will give you weapons that can be found at your hideout. There’s an endless amount of stuff to do making this a game you will be playing for many months to come.
Grand theft auto Vicecity is just overflowing with funny characters. From the lines of the porn fanatic director you run into to Kent, an idiot who hangs with important people, the characters all have distinct personalities. Even the civilians you run into are brilliant. Their dialogue is very funny and even the police say some funny lines such as: “Don’t make me run” or “If you make me run I’ll get all sweaty”. Simply put, the characters are even more colorful and funny to listen to than in Grand theft auto three.
Grand theft auto Vicecity has been upgrades from Grand theft auto three in just about every way. The targeting system has totally been reworked to now be much more user friendly and locks onto the nearest target. A big problem with Grand theft auto three was whenever you targeted a person; you would sometimes target an innocent civilian instead of a cop or gangster you had to kill. This time around, whenever you target, it’s always and important target or someone you need to kill.
The graphics are pretty solid. While not as remarkable as other Playstation 2 titles, the graphics are still pretty solid. The car animations when you’re driving them have all been upgraded to make them much more realistic when you hit something. Vicecity looks great and has distinct places, such as: the downtown area, which is very well detailed with skyscrapers, the ghetto areas of Little Havana and Little Haiti that are really gritty, and the bright and colorful tourist attraction of Ocean Drive. All of it really works and looks great, but character models aren’t all that great. There somewhat blocky and the hands look like claws. There’s also some serious clipping with the guns characters are holding, it will just go right through their hands. Still Vicecity looks great and this is definitely not a title you are going to play for graphics.
The missions you do in Grand theft auto Vicecity are pretty varied. Rarely will you just have a boring go and kill this guy and come back kind of mission. It will consist of destroying this guys place, starting a gang fight by dressing up as the other gang to confuse your enemy which is for the most part, the Haitians. The missions are lots of fun and have been an upgrade to Grand theft auto three, although some of them are a bit straightforward.
If you haven’t noticed by now, Grand theft auto Vicecity is set in the 1980’s, which means that everything is 80’s. From the cars to the clothing, everything is 80’s style, even the fantastic and very memorable radio stations. Speaking of clothing, Tommy can now change his attire. As you progress through the game, there will be more attire you can change into. At the start it’s just a business suit, but as you progress you can also change into a gangster, golf clothes, and much more.
Grand theft auto Vicecity is covered in water. Since it’s a fictional Miami, there are lots of boats and docking bays, thus making the water’s way livelier this time around. Although you still can’t swim in the water, you can however drive lots more boats in a livelier river/ocean. A big problem with Grand theft auto three was the water was just way to boring. There wasn’t anyone in there and it was dull to drive around in. This time though, it’s very lively and you can even jack other people’s boats. You can even get eaten by a shark if you’re not careful! Boats come in all shapes and sizes, from the small ones to huge vessels and you can drive them all, some you can even win and race in the waters with speed boats.
Motorcycles and more cars have been added. Sine this is the 80’s the cars have a more 80’s blocky look to them and you also have motorcycles you can ride around. These are surprisingly crisp to drive and there are a few different ones. From your fast racing bikes, to dirt bikes, to even Harley bikes, you can drive them all.
Grand theft auto Vicecity has some really impressive weaponry. A lot of the weaponry has been changed in both looks and powers and now you even have more pistols, shotgun, machine guns, and even a chainsaw! There’s lots of variety and it’s nice to see this, since the guns in Grand theft auto three could get a bit repetitive after a long while.
But where Grand theft auto Vicecity truly shines is in the sound department. Vicecity has hands down, the best radio stations ever found. With over 8 hours of licensed 80’s music, two talk show station and Oscar worthy voice acting, it would be a crime for this not to be the highlight of Vicecity. Even the weapon sounds, which weren’t all that great in Grand theft auto three, are now superb and the 3 different shotguns all sound off with a loud BANG!
Grand theft auto Vicecity is the kind of sequel to a fantastic game you would want. It improves on pretty much everything and why settle for mediocre titles like The getaway black Monday that is a bit worse than it’s predecessor, when you could be playing games like this that just keep getting better and better as it goes. There really are no negatives to Grand theft auto Vicecity and if you like the art of video games at all, you simply must play this title.
If my reviews haven't stated it yet, you need to play both these games. If you've missed out on them both, then just get this double pack, you'll be legally insane if you don't as Grand theft auto three and Grand theft auto vicecity pretty much rejuvinated what is my favorite type of genre: freedom to do what you want. Enough said.