A REVIEW on the GAME: GRAND THEFT AUTO 3(2001)(4/5 stars)
With the voice talents of:
JOE PANTOLIANO MICHAEL RAPAPORT
In the game Grand Theft Auto 3, your character is a man who has been betrayed, and left for dead by a partner in crime in Liberty City, where the only dirty word is hope. Now, he must restart his life by doing jobs for the local mafia, and meanwhile seek revenge on those who betrayed him.
The main idea behind GTA3 is to provide you with a new experience. You are seeing your character with a third person view of Liberty City - a seedy area where anything goes. You can pretty much just steal any car on the street you see, as long as you can catch it. Some really good cars are hidden, for example, there's a car that's just like a jaguar hidden in a car shop and you must break in to get it. There's a hidden tank, and tons more fun, but the main idea is just to provide you with fun. Some people say this game is too violent, and after all I heard, when I played it the first time I expected tons of gore. But, it's not the most violent game I've seen. I have seen worse. It's really what you do in the game that counts. For example, you can walk over to someone walking on the street, and get in a fistfight, kill him or her, and steal his or her money. Or you could sniper out people with a sniper rifle, a weapon to choose from among the many you can get in the game. But with actions come consequences, because the more you do, the more `stars' you get-the most you can get being six. For each star represented, is a higher level of police after you. Eventually, you can get helicopters, snipers, and all trying to take you down. So if you play the game like this, it can be very bad for people affected by games. The whole basic idea of the game is revolving pretty much around mafia jobs so yes, I wouldn't recommend it to children. But you can also take taxi jobs, firefighter jobs, and police jobs, hunting down criminals like yourself. So with this in mind, you can also become a good guy. Depends what you want to be. Another fun thing, is with most car racing games and such, if you want a new car, you have to go to the start menu and choose a new car (games like Project Gotham Racing, and Twisted Metal). But in this game, if you blow up your car, or simply want a new one, you just run over and pull someone out of his or her car, and steal it. Yes, agreeing with some people, this is kind of bad for people who are easily influenced to see things, so I don't recommend it to anyone who might look at this and think to themselves, I think I'll go hotwire cars!' :)
The graphics are very good, and the 3-D environment is very big for a game. You can travel by subway, car, plane, and more to 2 other cities near by (after you progress in the game). So just experiencing the environment is worth the price of the game. It's very realistic, and in some parts of town it's extremely seedy (you can guess what I mean). I think a few aspects like that could have been left out of the game, but I guess the publishers decided it would make it more realistic. Anyway, yes. I definitely do NOT recommend this game to children, for not only is there violence, but the jobs you do, and the city are both almost too realistic for any child to handle. But for older teens and above, the basic idea of GTA 3 is very fun. It's a great improvement on the previous games, and you can even change your third person view to the old above head view. The game's basically a mix between Max Payne, Great car games, The Sims, and The Godfather trilogy. It's simply one of the greatest game experiences I've ever had, and it is extremely addictive (thank goodness I'm not someone who can play games and lose track of time, I would probably still think it's the day I bought the game). Anyone who wants to experience this same feeling of a virtual 3-D world of sleek, stylish cars at your hands, taking out jobs for the mafia, and so many other fun things in this game, please play it. Just don't get too addicted, because beware-it's very possible.
Grand Theft Auto 3 is the very notion of what a game should be. The idea of a world where you don't really have to do anything- instead of having to crack levels by the same method (take most games for example, to beat the level you must figure out how to get to the bad guy, kill him, and win the game. And although you can choose how to fight them, you basically have to follow the whole level, the same way everyone else who plays the game does, left here, right there, watch out for that guy who pops out of the corner in 30 seconds, etc.) You can really explore Liberty City the way you want to. No standard level procedure. It's fully self-deciding on what you want to do, not what you have to do. That's what makes this game so enjoyable. Once again, GTA 3 is not a game for children but for adults. 4/5 stars. Play it, and I promise it will be one of the most enjoyable game experiences you've had in a long, long time.
JOHN ULMER-sk8boarder1088@aol.com
