What rewards were to be had from the side activities? Which were the most fun? Which were the least? Which vehicles made travelling around Liberty City easier? How could you make life more entertaining whether it was through weapons, cars and other luxuries? To a large extent, Grand Theft Auto 3 pushed you to set your own goals even as it offered a traditional (by today’s standards) campaign and side missions. You really had to figure it all out for yourself, right down to the beating heart of the Statue of Happiness. Much of this could be pinned on technology but while waypoints and directions were still very much a thing, Grand Theft Auto 3 didn’t try to hold your hand and explain everything the game had to offer. Though the game did keep a check on the stuff completed in terms of percentage, not everything was super obvious or laid out. Those are only a handful of things that could be done. In one of the cooler twists, it was possible to steal a police car and head to different crime scenes, doling out some vigilante justice. Hijacking an ambulance let you take victims to medical facilities while stealing a taxi allowed for ferrying passengers while getting paid. Players could also hijack different vehicles and partake in side-activities that weren’t clearly outlined or obvious. Players could run around, blowing things up and killing cops to raise their Wanted level, testing the game’s attempts to kill them in as bombastic a manner as possible. However, the real appeal lay in pushing the boundaries of what was essentially an enormous virtual playground. Protagonist Claude could embark on a bloody story of betrayal and revenge. There was Liberty City and all the intrinsic vices that lay dormant. In Grand Theft Auto 3, there were no fixed levels per say. This was on top of the base story with missions like rescuing hostages and assaulting baddies. One neat little twist was being able to arrest enemies which would change people’s impression towards you. Citizens could be conversed with, crimes could be stopped, side missions could be partaken of and there were even some indoor areas to explore. Urban Chaos had a set number of levels but these were large maps that the player could freely move in. There was Mucky Foot Productions’ Urban Chaos, a game about Union City PD officer D’arci Stern and her attempt to pull a chaotic city back from the brink. “To a large extent, Grand Theft Auto 3 pushed you to set your own goals even as it offered a traditional (by today’s standards) campaign and side missions.”įor the record, open world games had been around for a while before Grand Theft Auto 3. There was that idea, that concept and that facilitation of our deepest, darkest desires in video game form that just didn’t seem possible until then. When Grand Theft Auto 3 first rolled around, what did you first feel? Did you feel like the world was coming to an end and that this was it? Did you think this was the pinnacle of gaming and nothing else – past, present or future – could top it? Maybe you wondered how such a game could be good with its gratuitous violence and foul language? It’s all a matter of perspective and values, honestly.īut when we first booted up Rockstar’s 3D open world title, there was an innate feeling that had overridden everything else.