There is no denying the impact that San Andreas and Vice City have had on sandbox games throughout the ages. However, you cannot have those two without the original game. Grand Theft Auto 3 is obviously not the first in the series, but what was a 2D overhead game turned into a 3rd Person free roaming game where you go on missions in order to help take over the city for the mafia. This game opened up an entirely new world, literally, for gamers. GTA3 became the Doom of sandbox games with its very large, detailed open world gaming. While it didn't have all of the shops or houses interior, there is still a lot to do all around the starting city.
As you progress through this game, going through harder and more detailed missions, you'll start to open the world up more and more. If you commit crimes like stealing cars, killing people or causing mayhem too much, you will start to grow more visible to the authorities. In the beginning of the game, you aren't able to fill up your wanted level all the way, but once you go through the game, you'll start attracting the attention of the armed forces. The more authority you attract, the bigger their vehicles get. They'll go from squad cars all the way up to armored vehicles and helicopters.
All of this adds to the difficulty of the game, which can have some very complicated and difficult timed missions. There are also some extra missions you can do when you steal a taxi or a police squad car. There is even a van in the middle of the city that you can get into and start controlling remote little trucks armed with bombs.
Some of the best things about this game aren't even involved with the gameplay itself. Once you get into a vehicle with a radio, you can either listen to rocking tunes, which can be customized with your music in your PC, or you can listen to the talk radio. The talk radio is some of the funniest, most nonsensical sketch comedy there is. Whether it be the interviews or the commercials that satire American culture in some very crude ways. These are just some of the engrossing elements of this game that get you involved in the game.
Then, there are the cheats and the mayhem you can cause throughout the city. If you don't care whether you get arrested or die, as you wake up outside the hospital or police station without your weapons. This means you can use the weapon cheat to get as many guns as you want and just start shooting people and cars. You can steal cars and run them into people, run them into other cars for nice big explosions. This also goes for the grenades, rocket launcher and the molotov cocktails. Some people just play this game to see how long they can survive against the police and the authorities while you destroy as much as you can. It's one of the original games where this was possible. The cheats just add a nice little replay element to the game and allow you to have fun with the world you're in. Anyone who has played these games know these joys.
While the later iterations and the copycat games are objectively better with the Saints Row Series and later installments of GTA itself, this game still has plenty of charm to love. It is hours of fun gameplay as well as a sandbox world that never stops spawning new NPC's that speak nasty lines and attack you for no reason. This is the first installment of a brand new world that only got more beautiful as time went on and it's fun to go back to see where it all began. It can be glitchy and crude, but it's carefree fun for anyone wanting to take their anger out on some randos. Just don't go into the water, that's our drinking water.
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