5

4 /5

Rockstar Games once again invites players to "explore their inner criminal" with this release of Grand Theft Auto III for the PlayStation 2 console. This violent, mission-based driving game has the player resuming the role of a cold-hearted street thug making his way up the ladder of underworld gangs and organized crime. With over 50 different types of vehicles on the busy city streets, sports cars to SUVs, taxi cabs to 18-wheelers, and even ambulances and cop cars all there for the taking, a wide variety of outlaw adventures awaits.

After leaving San Andreas and going on a crime spree throughout the country, Claude Speed and Catalina head to Liberty City for a life of crime. During a bank heist, Claude is betrayed by Catalina and her Colombian friend Miguel, and he is shot by her just as they are leaving the scene of the crime. Claude fully recovers....in a prison cell. However, while being transported to a prison, Colombians ambush the prison van for an inmate riding with Claude. Claude and his friend, 8-Ball, escape in the process. Now it is time for revenge. Claude slowly rises through the ranks of the local gangs, gaining trust from local mob bosses and turning on others. Claude gains influence, trust, and most importantly, money along the way. It is time for Claude to rise from the dead and get revenge for what Catalina has done.

As opposed to the previous games, Liberty City is the only city the player can explore in the game. The game puts more emphasis on the story, displaying cutscenes before each mission. In order to complete the game it is necessary to perform all the main story missions; however, the player often has the choice between several missions at a given moment. The missions include chases, races, short third-person shooter sequences, as well as various mini-game-like activities. Outside of the missions, the player is free to explore the city and undertake sub-missions, for example working as a taxi driver, delivering sick people to the hospital in an ambulance car, etc.

The setting of Liberty City is made up of three districts and in all, Grand Theft Auto III offers 72 different missions, many of which can be played in any order. As the player's character completes jobs available in one part of the city, other areas and assignments open up to him. Along with this purposeful design of a non-lineal storyline, many other features popular in earlier versions of the game return in this release as well, including a diverse variety of deadly weapons, busy streets full of self-involved pedestrians, and eight different radio station soundtracks to listen to while inside the vehicles.