The multiple button presses required mean you have to take your eyes off of the action to see what you're pressing, which more often than not results in crashing your car into a wall (a problem exacerbated by the floaty handling of GTAIII's cars) or taking too long to fire your weapon. It's straightforward enough, but in the heat of the action, the lack of physical feedback makes completing missions unnecessarily difficult.įor example, in one mission, you have to chase down a gang member, shunt his car with yours, and then get out to finish the job with a pistol to the face. When driving, it changes to simple left and right buttons for controlling your car.
On foot, there's a virtual analog stick for controlling your character. Each action is represented by an icon, such as a car door for jacking a car or a bullet for firing your weapon. Overlaid on the action are virtual touch-screen buttons, which change depending on whether you're driving or on foot. While the solution Rockstar has implemented tries to make the best of the situation, it highlights how easily a great game that wasn't designed for a touch interface is made less enjoyable. Sadly, enjoying these elements to their fullest is hampered by the touch-screen controls. Outrunning the cops or revelling in a five-star wanted rating and watching an ever-increasing squadron of tanks and helicopters attempt to chase you down is immensely satisfying.Ĭlaude loves nothing more than playing chicken with a 747 in his Ferrari. It can be even more fun when the fuzz gets involved. Fancy jacking a car and mowing down a bunch of helpless pedestrians? How about grabbing a rocket launcher and watching stuff burn? Or maybe you're just in the mood for a quiet drive through the city, watching its many citizens go about their daily business as you listen to the excellent radio? It's all yours for the taking, and it's a hell of a lot of fun. You need to play through certain missions to unlock other sections of the city or new items, such as guns and vehicles, but because this is an open-world game, you can choose to ignore them and simply use Liberty City as your destructive playground.
The story does a fine job of keeping the disparate missions tied together, with your job as a gun-for-hire giving you an inside look at how each gang operates and the mounting tensions between them. Multiple crime bosses seek out your skills as you progress, and you can complete their tasks in whichever order you please, giving you a host of options. You won't be working for just one gang, either. Though there's some repetition in the latter half of the game, there's a huge variety of missions on offer, with excellent narrative and voice acting that's as much about love and romance as it is a gritty crime drama. These include performing simple fetch quests, tailing rival gang members in a car, and assassinating foes. Scattered throughout the city are missions in which you take on tasks for a criminal gang. How you go about that is largely up to you.
After being freed in an explosion-filled action set piece you're set loose on the city, looking for work and aspiring to rise up the hierarchy of the criminal underworld.
You play as a small-time criminal who is betrayed by his partner in crime in a bank heist. Crime is widespread, fuelled by a corrupt police force and government that turns a blind eye to the city's vast criminal underworld. It's not the kind of place where you'd want to wander the streets alone at night or even in the middle of the day. Now Playing: Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition Video Reviewįor the uninitiated, GTAIII is a 3D open-world action game set in a fictional metropolis known as Liberty City, which is loosely based on New York City. By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's