Grand Theft Auto (PlayStation) Review

Unlike its modern counterparts, Grand Theft Auto had a more Arcade-friendly attitude. There isn't a story to talk about here. The player takes the role of a small-time criminal, who is tasked by some big-time ones to gather money, by any means necessary. Aside from the simplistic "cut-scenes" (basically slightly animated still images) before each chapter, where the various crime lords will explain the deal to you, there isn't something else to talk about in terms of plot. In other words, whether in Liberty City, Vice City, or San Andreas (yes, the three different cities of the 3D trilogy), your role will be to do quests, destroy property, kill, steal, and other similar good deeds.

This won't really hold your hand. Once you enter a chapter, you aren't given much to work with. Then again, you are completely free to do whatever you want. The best way to gather money is by doing missions. Go near a flashing payphone, and follow the text-only instructions, with missions ranging from "go to X and kill Y" or "go to X and steal Y," to something a bit fancier, like for example driving a truck full of explosives. Besides those, however, one can simply roam around, and do all sorts of things. No, actually that's a lie. There aren't many things to do. Exploring mostly means driving around aimlessly, collecting weapons and so on, and occasionally finding a quest by entering the right car, or something along these lines. In other words: stick to main missions.

Like pretty much all GTA titles, you have total freedom, however, how many cars or buildings can you blow up before getting bored? How many pedestrians can you run over or torch before it all loses its "charm?" How many car chases with the Men in Blue does it takes for the whole thing to become tedious? Even missions, which are a bit more creative, follow two-to-three main concepts, so they too can get a bit repetitive after a while. There are more issues than those, however, with the most important one being the perspective.

You are meant to move around very fast, but the bird's eye view-camera is way too close to your vehicle, which means that players will bump all over the place, be it walls, signs, or other cars. This will happen pretty frequently. It gets annoying, very fast and mars the fun factor by a lot, especially during high-adrenaline car chases. Sadly, there are more flaws to talk about. The fact that once you fail a mission you can't repeat it; the small weapon, vehicle, and mission variety; how each chapter overstays its welcome, or, finally, how bad the game becomes once you are on foot. As a whole it isn't terrible, but truth be told, it should be viewed more as an important piece of video game history rather than a title worthy of your time. It's basically a great template, for the far better experiences that came after it.

If there's one thing where Grand Theft Auto is great, that would be how immersive it is; how it really manages to make one feel as if he/she is truly walking the street of a large, dirty metropolis. The visuals are nothing to write home about, but the ambient sound does wonders. Pedestrians shout and curse (this is a New York city clone, after all), you always hear the distant hubbub, and once inside a vehicle the audio track that plays simulates a radio station perfectly. Those spoiled by later instalments won't be impressed by the size of the audio track (or the fact that there's only one station), but for the time it was quite the addition.

It should be noted that this isn't a case of a good game that has been surpassed by the far improved later entries being better than this. This was never that good to begin with. Aside from the novelty of playing a criminal who is set lose on a large world to do… whatever, this is mostly a bundle of frustration, served along some slightly fun moments. Finally, like pretty much all GTA games, one should not solely focus on completing missions. You are advised to run around like crazy, experiment with the limits of the world, and even unlock cheats and just go bonkers. Embrace the chaos.