This old GTA really wasn't as kickass as I had expected.
First off, I got this game just today. I played it for a while. The first thing I noticed were the pretty nice graphics, at least for it's generation. They suck now. When I actually got a chance to move around within the game, it seemed too "small" to me. It's just a feeling that I get when I play certain games, I guess it's because the field of vision is too big/small. I'm just used to Source games. Anyways, this was a lot worse (I'm not sure if that's the right word) than San Andreas. When you shoot someone in the head, it just pops off while tons of blood spurts out and the victim apparently remains standing for a second or two. The environment just doesn't have the look or feel of San Andreas. There's no topographical map (except for the radar) to help you pick the best route to go somewhere. Also, when you drive the cars, you can't freely look around. All those elements combined lowered the Gameplay to 4 out of a possible of 10. For the graphics, there is too much unrealism. Fires look like volcano eruptions. The textures are too "classic." The outdoors seems indoors. And the physics also are not as good as I'm used to. Rockets travel too fast. Molotov cocktails spread out flames over an area that is too wide. Lots of things are wrong with this game.
So, the bottom line is, this game is for extreme GTA fans or old-school gamers.