Grand Theft Auto III review: The most influential game of all time?

With Rockstar Games' sprawling entertainment monolith Grand Theft Auto V having just hit the shelves, what better time to revisit the company's seminal games trilogy Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas? With a new generation of consoles about to arrive, these modern classics may be showing their age, but little of the black humour, legendary style or downright ridiculousness has been lost with time.

It's 2001. Four years ago, a small games company called DMC Design created an obscure little video game called Grand Theft Auto, in which you played the role of a young criminal on the road to notoriety. While the technology was rudimentary and the style crude, the game fundamentally challenged the way video games were thought of at the time. You could explore a large open world, stealing cars, running people over and even killing police officers. Games weren't just for kids anymore. This was something else.

The game sold well enough to merit a sequel, but it wasn't until GTA III that things really changed. In 2001 DMC, now known as Rockstar North, reimagined GTA as something more than the 2D shooter they had released four years ago. Setting the game in modern Liberty City, a mock up of New York, the developers utilised the processing power of the PlayStation 2 to create a living, breathing 3D world full of violence, criminals and dark satire. Playing as an unnamed protagonist, players were tasked with moving up the criminal ladder by completing jobs for a variety of colourful characters, all the while following an ultimately overarching storyline to take revenge on his girlfriend, who had shot him and left him for dead.

It was easily the strongest and most stylish story of any GTA game at the time, and on its own it would have made a decent video game. But Rockstar wanted to give GTA III something few other developers had even considered possible: a fully open 3D world. Players could totally ignore the story and simply explore the vast City of Liberty, pausing as they wished to complete side quests, steal fast cars or open fire on a street of crowded civilians with one of thee variety of firearms the game provided.

This was something never done before, but endlessly emulated afterwards. Unsurprisingly, this freedom caused controversy; killing a cop or hiring a prostitute were not exactly common features of the video game landscape at the time. Even so, the game sold millions and, as the first ever open 3D world, was phenomenally influential. Without GTA III, there would be no Saint's Row, Assassin's Creed or Crackdown. More importantly, there would be no more GTA games.

But how does this fondly remembered classic stand up to today's games? Surprisingly well. While the graphics have been bettered hundreds of times over since the game's release and the driving and shooting mechanics now seems slow and clunky, the game is still brilliant fun to play and retains the comic touches given by it's fabulous cast of characters. Even so, every GTA game that came after has improved upon GTA III, and if you're new to the series you'd do better starting with GTA IV or the just released GTA V. But if you're a fan of the series and haven't yet played GTA III, what are you waiting for? A true classic.

8/10