OK so time fer yet another post on here and this one is on a video game and I decided to look at one of the most influential and grounbreaking games of the 21st century, GTA III. So let's give this un a closer look.....
Right so a little bit about the story of the game as its single player campaign is largely story driven and it begins with its main (and only) playable character, the mute Claude, an ambitious criminal who is left for dead by his girlfriend, Catalina (voiced by Cynthia Farrell) after a bank robbery. As a result Claude is arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison, however he is freed on his way to prison and escapes with another prisoner, 8-ball and they make it to a safehouse. 8-ball later introduces Claude to the Leone crime family lead by Don Salvatore Leone (voiced by Frankie Vincent), his Capo Tony Cipriani (voiced by Michael Madsen) and also Salvatore's son, Joey Leone (voiced by Michael Rappaport) whom he starts to do jobs for. Claude also during this also finds himself fighting against the Colombians who are being lead by Catalina as they look to distribute a drug. Claude also finds himself in a sticky situation when Salvatore's young wife, Maria (voiced by Debbie Mazar) takes a liking to Claude and as a result Salvatore sets a trap to have him killed but Maria saves Claude just in time and they flee together. And its from here where Claude starts to branch out and work with other criminal gangs such as the Yakuza, a corrupt cop Ray Machowski (voiced by Robert Loggia) and also a media mogul Donald Love (voiced by Kyle McLachlan). And from this point onward Claude continues to make his mark in Liberty city (where the game is set) and also work towards getting revenge on Catalina.....
There is no doubt that GTA III remains one of the great landmarks in video gaming and it also took the game's series into 3D gaming after the primitive 2D graphics of the first two games. The game also takes on the open world "sandbox" type of gaming which would as a result also become hugely popular in the gaming world, where the player can roam freely around the game's big open ended environments. But GTA III also suceeds in telling a compelling story which is driven by a great voice acting cast, featuring numerous high profile American actors which at the time was in itself quite groundbreaking (although it might not be strictly speaking the first game to do that). So it was no surprise that the game went on to become a huge critical and commercial success although it was also a game that gained much controversy due to the violent nature of the game and even its sexual content.
Gameplay wise the game itself a real pleasure to play as the control system is pretty easy as the player can alternate between being on foot and also driving cars, which is of course the staple of the game in that Claude break into most cars (although he occassionally may find ones that are locked and also some have car alarms which sound off). There are also a large variety of cars that Claude can drive and he can drive other vehicles such as trucks, ambulancesThe game also features a wanted level meter which will raise with the more crimes that Claude commits, which would start off with the police on foot beating Claude and if they get him on the ground or stop him while driving they arrest him and as the wanted level rises (as it goes from one star up to six) the FBI and the army will also become involved. Claude also can make money from his missions, which tends rise higher as the missions go along but he can also make small amounts of money by killing pedestrians or even taking a taxi and doing a taxi mission to pick up and drop off passengers. During the game Claude can also stop off at safehouses throughout the city, which allows the player to save their progress and during which the game will advance six hours ahead. Claude can also while driving can also listen to the radio and there are a number of radio stations to listen to. And lastly Claude can travel by train as well although this is pretty limited in where Claude can go as it takes him only to certain points in the city.
The game also features a pretty simple combat system where Claude can perform hand to hand melee attacks and he has access to a wide selection of weapons such as handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, uzis, rocket launchers as well as melee weapons such as baseball bats, molotov cocktails and hand grenades. Claude can use these weapons to wreak havoc on cars and blow them up, which will also attract the attention of the police and other law enforcement authorities. Another feature of the combat system is also drive by shooting as Claude while driving can aim his gun and take out pedestrians or targets during missions. The weapons in the game can be purchased through firearms dealers as well as taken from dead enemies, which can allow Claude to pick up more ammo. In addition to the combat system, Claude's health is measured in numbers up to 100 and he also can gain body armour as well which is ranked the same way, which will go down of course when he takes fire from enemies.
Moving on to the game's graphics well they are pretty impressive for their time especially given the game's open world environment which is pretty big and varied and Liberty city is split into different districts and areas. The character models are by today's standards a bit crude but for their time they are quite good and they are more impressive than the cruder ones that featured in GTA San Andreas.
The game also features an excellent although slightly limited soundtrack, which would be a feature that would be expanded in the later games of the series and there are various different radio stations. The stations include the likes of Flashback FM, which consists of the songs from soundtrack of Scarface that were written by Giorgio Moroder. Then there are other stations such as Kjah radio, which features reggae music, Rise FM, which is rave and trance music (pretty cool channel actually especially when you drive fast!) and there is also a classical station called Double clef FM. And lastly there is a radio talk station called Chatterbox FM headed by Lazlow, who is a jumped up and somewhat arrogant radio chat show host who ends aruging with most of the callers. The station also features another talk show host, Fernando Martinez who offers a marriage therapy service to callers but its actually just an excuse to persuade the callers to committ adultery!
And last of all there is the game's voice acting which is excellent and features a number of high profile actors such as Frank Vincent, Michael Madsen, Joe Pantoliano, Kyle McLachlan, Debbie Mazar, Michael Rappaport and Robert Loggia. The game also features some fun bits of dialogue as well such as Michael Madsen's character, Tony Cipriani, a mob capo who despite his status is continually nagged by his mother. Cipriani in the game uses Claude to fight against the Triads and in one mission he leaves a message for Claude which Madsen reads as a voice saying "Nobody! I mean NOBODY messes with Tony Cipriani!!". And then there is Robert Loggia as the corrupt cop Ray Machowski (a take on the Wachowski brothers surname maybe??) who he get's Claude to do his dirty work. And in one scene he says to Claude about one of his targets "I want him sleeping with the fishes! Not eatin with them!".
So as for the game's flaws..... well GTA III does some have issues and the first one that comes to mind is that the game's targeting system is a bit of a pain as Claude at times has to stand still to auto-aim and fires his gun, which can really slow him down. This also makes combat in certain missions quite difficult particularly in the missions where Claude will take alot of enemy fire, which means he can be killed quite easily. The game's AI can also be a bit buggy at times and the game's camera view can also be a bit of a nuisance, especially at times when Claude reaches a safehouse and it changes angle when he tries to enter the safehouse. Another issue is also the lack of checkpoints during missions as if Claude dies or is arrested during a mission you simply have to restart the mission again. The game's audio is also at times a bit subpar as the game's cut scenes can sound a tad muffled and the dialogue on the street is also pretty compressed sounding. The game could also have benefited from a bit more variety in the music that features on it and despite the inclusion of the songs from Scarface there aren't any other readily noticeable tracks on here and the others are more obscure. But that all aside its still a great game.
So that's it for my look at GTA III which remains one of the great modern classics in gaming and is certainly worth checking out time and time again after nearly 15 years.
And with that I shall leave you right there.
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