Grand Theft Auto III

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1725 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,253 out of 1725
  2. Mixed: 398 out of 1725
  3. Negative: 74 out of 1725
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  1. GravityVR
    Nov 21, 2021
    0
    Return the game to Steam!
    I loved this part with all my heart and soul, but you just take Rockstar and take it out of the store. I absolutely don't care about your remaster! How do you even know if my computer will pull this new trilogy (no)?! The third part was and remains one of my favorite parts of GTA, but you spoil that too! (appeal to Rockstar)
    My personal rating of the game is    Return the game to Steam!
    I loved this part with all my heart and soul, but you just take Rockstar and take it out of the store. I absolutely don't care about your remaster! How do you even know if my computer will pull this new trilogy (no)?! The third part was and remains one of my favorite parts of GTA, but you spoil that too! (appeal to Rockstar)
    My personal rating of the game is 10/10
    But until the game returns to the store, I can only put 0    … Expand
  2. lutteres
    Mar 20, 2014
    4
    GTA is probably one of the most iconic series in video game history, therefore, doesn’t need any introduction.
    Although, for those who lived under a rock for the past few years, I think it would be adequate to describe the GTA series as a Crime Simulator.
    So how does GTA 3 fit into the series? Is it still relevant? Is it worth the time and money? Or is it just a mere historical    GTA is probably one of the most iconic series in video game history, therefore, doesn’t need any introduction.
    Although, for those who lived under a rock for the past few years, I think it would be adequate to describe the GTA series as a Crime Simulator.
    So how does GTA 3 fit into the series? Is it still relevant? Is it worth the time and money? Or is it just a mere historical curiosity?
    Presentation:
    In terms of the graphics presentation, it has not aged well. Moreover, even for the time, GTA 3 was already a bit dated on the visuals department compared to other AAA PC games of the time. So expect pixilated textures, blocky models and robotic and clunky animations.
    Sound :
    In the sound department, GTA 3 is only satisfactory, the sound effects of vehicles and weapons are acceptable, and the soundtrack is what you would expect, but the voice-overs, despite above average, are on a lower quality format, which makes understanding people really difficult sometimes.
    Story:
    The player starts as a small bandit climbing thought the crime ranks selling its services to various mobster groups in an attempt to reach the American dream. Mix that with a bunch of "colorful" characters, and the compulsory revenge story, and you have the recipe for any other GTA game ever made. In other words, a bland and cheesy action flick full of clichés, stereotypes and dark "humor ".
    Ok, let's be honest , Rockstar can’t write anything good, just look at what they did to the Max Payne series.
    However, no one plays GTA for its “fantastic” narrative qualities anyway…
    Gameplay:
    If you played the sequels, you will know what to expect here. It’s the same basic mechanics but done poorly.
    The controls are surprisingly acceptable for keyboard and mouse, although the fixed camera when driving was a bit annoying.
    Also particularly annoying was the lack of a global map and the lack of permanent “locations hints” for Ammu-Nation and Pay 'n' Spray on the mini-map.
    In conclusion: GTA 3 might have been innovative for its time, but as it stands today, I cannot recommend it, since the sequels have done it bigger and better than what is presented here.
    But don’t get me wrong, GTA 3 is not a bad game; it’s just not a “unique enough” experience to justify its purchase anymore.
    So unless you’re a GTA fanatic, you’ll be better off keeping you’re GTA 4 installation, or try GTA San Andreas (the best GTA game for the PC in my opinion) as an alternative.    … Expand
  3. Shrimps
    Dec 22, 2020
    0
    GTA 3....simply put....hasn't aged well. At least the PC port of it hasn't. I've heard it's pretty good on PS2, so I reckon you should play that version instead. The steam version (which I am reviewing) is just terrible. While it's easy to run, the controls are horrid and the driving is just awful. The shooting is just plain bad and the game has an unappealing artstyle. I'll admit theGTA 3....simply put....hasn't aged well. At least the PC port of it hasn't. I've heard it's pretty good on PS2, so I reckon you should play that version instead. The steam version (which I am reviewing) is just terrible. While it's easy to run, the controls are horrid and the driving is just awful. The shooting is just plain bad and the game has an unappealing artstyle. I'll admit the soundtrack is good, the cutscenes are well done and I enjoyed the story, but besides from that, I'd say skip this one and go with Vice City.… Expand
  4. Gorbunov2004
    Dec 3, 2021
    0
    Не игра а кусок мусора. Выполнять тупые задания не интересно, у машин тупое управление от полиции невозможно уйти они откроют дверь машины и все задание провалено. В игре нет даже карты где что находится я что сам должен в однообразном мире искать. Все радиостанции мусор полный! Просто говно тупой высер.Не игра а кусок мусора. Выполнять тупые задания не интересно, у машин тупое управление от полиции невозможно уйти они откроют дверь машины и все задание провалено. В игре нет даже карты где что находится я что сам должен в однообразном мире искать. Все радиостанции мусор полный! Просто говно тупой высер.
  5. allwititnowsuck
    Feb 25, 2019
    3
    This game aged very poorly in almost every way, graphics even for it's times were bit dated, expect tons of pixilated textures,blocky models and questionable animations.
    As for sound:
    Most of sound effects are pretty bland, vehicles give me a feeling of listening to a stock sound effects, weapons sound like airsoft guns, explosions sound like cheap fireworks. Voice acting is one of the    This game aged very poorly in almost every way, graphics even for it's times were bit dated, expect tons of pixilated textures,blocky models and questionable animations.
    As for sound:
    Most of sound effects are pretty bland, vehicles give me a feeling of listening to a stock sound effects, weapons sound like airsoft guns, explosions sound like cheap fireworks. Voice acting is one of the worst i have ever heard in my live.With out subtitles i wouldn't be able to understand what characters are saying most of the time.
    Story:
    There is very little of the story, you are generic criminal, someone betrays you, you try to get back on the top and blah blah blah revenge at the end of the game.Stale,linear and uninspired storytelling, redundant missions and uninteresting characters.
    Gameplay:
    The game isn't rewarding at all, as you progress city gangs start becoming more hostile towards you, one of them doesn't even have a reason to do so.Lack of manual save forcing you to go back safe house doesn't really help.
    Map:
    First island is very mediocore, there's port, shops, junkyard and chinatown but other than that it's not very interesting.
    Middle island has many interesting design choices and it's the most interesting one out there.
    Last island is very dissapointing, yeah there's airport and dam but the environment is very minimal, closed tunnels and dozens of copy cat house's .
    Some locations metioned in the game does not appear anywhere on the map, things such as jail and location from the games intro, jail does not appear anywhere on map and location from intro is literally hidden under the third island which is really stupid considering the fact middle island could suit it perfectly.
    Overall the game did not age good in any way, replay value is bare minimal, visuals and sound design are both painfuly outdated, almost non existent story, stale characters, tons of clichés, stereotypes and "dark humour"(if you can call that a humour).    … Expand
  6. Poppeloppiluss
    Feb 9, 2015
    1
    This game is worth a bit more than 0 but since a lot of people have miss rated this game then i have to compensate and rate 0. The game was nice in a lot of aspects and a big new step in gaming yada yada yada, that it true. BUT, with capital letters. The game is so poorly made in my honest opinion for it's time (not judging the graphics, nothing wrong there). But the programming isThis game is worth a bit more than 0 but since a lot of people have miss rated this game then i have to compensate and rate 0. The game was nice in a lot of aspects and a big new step in gaming yada yada yada, that it true. BUT, with capital letters. The game is so poorly made in my honest opinion for it's time (not judging the graphics, nothing wrong there). But the programming is horrible. Literally ALL the gangs is shooting you on sight and you can't really free roam the game or complete certain side missions after a certain period of time since you will simply die. I think they messed the game up because of that. And the story missions needs to be completed in a strict order, which is not stated in the game in any point, in order to get 100% completion since some missions become unavailable if you don't complete them in a certain order. The whole game functionality seems extremely unnatural and wasn't even that good from the beginning. In a modern city full of a highly developed species as the human being and no one can swim. come on Rockstar, are your brain-cells functioning? And the functionality of the cars where a car simply catching fire and blow isn't how cars work in real life and the traffic is horrible. They drive into you and when you drive as an ambulance with the sirens on some cars simply just stop in front of you and block you which is highly illegal in real life and most people in GTA shouldn't be programmed to do that. All the drivers in GTA 3 must have gotten their driver license in a cereal box or the programmers was horrible at their job. I understand that somethings were a lot harder to do back then but the function of the content in the game is no hard thing to program with the frames they had to work with. To program a car blowing up like that or to change it to act like a real car in real life and not blow up for just falling over is a simple programming which doesn't require more than what they programmed. If they would have put some thoughts and time to develop the content instead of just focusing on the 3D graphics then this could have been a good game. The game was a big fuss simply because it was the first GTA game in 3D and everyone got kind of blind by that but from the first time i played through this game back in 2003 then i was already disappointed of the content because i got a really cheap feeling. Like buying a fancy box and when you open it, it is empty. That is the kind of impression this game had on me. A lot of things have become better and GTA V was a great game and well made in not just the graphics but also the content and the functionality of how the details work in the game. But this game is a shameful spot in the history of Rockstar in my humble opinion. My recommendations is to lay this game to rest for good. Never put it back into a console, just leave it on the shelf... or a box down in the basement or maybe throw Frisbee with the disc, then it will at least come in good use.… Expand
  7. Mike_Morhaime
    Jul 30, 2012
    0
    Since GTA3 when the series became a 3d game, it just went downhill very fast. I dont understand why every GTA gets rated so high, its just the same EVERY_TIME. You just drive around accept a mission and turn in a mission, and then comes some silly sequence. It would be a nice game, if the dialoge wouldnt be so terribly boring.

    GTA2 still stands as my favorite Gran Theft Auto, simply    Since GTA3 when the series became a 3d game, it just went downhill very fast. I dont understand why every GTA gets rated so high, its just the same EVERY_TIME. You just drive around accept a mission and turn in a mission, and then comes some silly sequence. It would be a nice game, if the dialoge wouldnt be so terribly boring.

    GTA2 still stands as my favorite Gran Theft Auto, simply because you just got points for Killing People and Setting Cars on Fire. Sadly that got removed from GTA, i would enjoy the game again if it had that in there, just because everything else is simply boring    … Expand
  8. VK0218
    Jul 15, 2013
    2
    In 2009, I played it for the first time. At the time, it was a great experience for a small town for a ride, but after I discovered that the game includes missions, the gameplay has become boring. I saw 1-2 fun mission, but could not really tie the game. In fact, there was no patience to play through GTA III, but was 1-2 on the experience side missions.
    - Let me also add that the PS2    In 2009, I played it for the first time. At the time, it was a great experience for a small town for a ride, but after I discovered that the game includes missions, the gameplay has become boring. I saw 1-2 fun mission, but could not really tie the game. In fact, there was no patience to play through GTA III, but was 1-2 on the experience side missions.
    - Let me also add that the PS2 console to control three times better than the PC     … Expand
  9. WillamS.
    Jun 23, 2004
    0
    It's way to laggy and it's very boring.
  10. AlexeySoltan
    Oct 14, 2021
    4
    boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring boring
  11. FORKES0607
    Dec 26, 2021
    0
    this is one of the worst games I've played and tried to pass i went through the game with great difficulty and I didn't like it at all
  12. Trunestor
    Jun 16, 2022
    2
    The game has not lived up to it's glory, and also never aged well. Never have I been so disappointed from a game that's made by Rockstar. How did it messed up so badly? As a kid I used to play Grand theft auto: Vice City. That game is masterpiece, even though Rockstar planned Vice city as a DLC of some sort to it's predecessor. Vice city wasn't a buggy pile of garbage, and it also didn'tThe game has not lived up to it's glory, and also never aged well. Never have I been so disappointed from a game that's made by Rockstar. How did it messed up so badly? As a kid I used to play Grand theft auto: Vice City. That game is masterpiece, even though Rockstar planned Vice city as a DLC of some sort to it's predecessor. Vice city wasn't a buggy pile of garbage, and it also didn't have as much terrible missions as III did. III is repetitive and malicious as hell. III is a moody and depressive New York, meanwhile Vice City is a colorful and a joyful memory. I cannot recommend this to anyone who never played it.
    2.5/10, very hardly fun at all, I wouldn't play this even if it's the only game I would have.    … Expand
  13. Hurutmester
    Mar 16, 2021
    1
    The people that came up with the 12 level ambulance mission are probably all psychopaths with no experience in game making. It's not just purely unfun, but also has the worst mission design I have ever seen. The AI and the driving experience is so bad, that the mission is literally unplayable. Cars just get spawned around you, they turn at max speed in impossible ways and they also changeThe people that came up with the 12 level ambulance mission are probably all psychopaths with no experience in game making. It's not just purely unfun, but also has the worst mission design I have ever seen. The AI and the driving experience is so bad, that the mission is literally unplayable. Cars just get spawned around you, they turn at max speed in impossible ways and they also change lane without any warning and only when you are behind them, so you can bump into them. The patients' AI is also trash, they gonna run into the car every single time, so you can fail the mission or lose 15 seconds waiting for them to stand up. Oh, and i didn't mention the fact, that there is a chance for the patients to just completely stuck inside a building at any point and there is nothing you can do about it. If you got this bug it's technically instant mission fail and you have to start all over again. Challenging games and missions are one thing, straight up unfun ones with **** mechanics are an other.
    For the rest of the game, well every single thing about it is bad, probably even for 2002. A lot of things just doesn't make any sense, the missions are boring even for GTA and the so called "gunplay" is miserable. I had the most fun doing the taxi missions, because at least the driving is slightly enjoyable if you don't have to do it for an hour, without any mistakes.    … Expand
  14. Rustayne
    Aug 25, 2021
    4
    I received more negative emotions than positive ones. The game has many disadvantages, which are simply unclear how they can be at all, but in general the game is normal, not good definitely, but it does not pull on bad.
  15. Nacho23
    Nov 17, 2021
    4
    Repetitivo, monotono y tetrico, con muchos bugs y problemas de IA para terminar algunas misiones, lejos de lo que fue vice city. Personaje que transmite nada al no decir ni una palabra. A mi no me gusto para nada
  16. BrutalPlayer
    May 12, 2022
    0
    I rate it as I remember I liked it. I basicly stole a car, made a ride hitting some people and thats it. I uninstalled. Boring game, that's how i remember it.
  17. aligunes
    Jan 30, 2023
    4
    The only thing I noticed is that it was beautiful in its time. I tried to play but it doesn't work. It's perfect for the year it was released, but it's not a re-playable game. Vice city is definitely better.

Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best PC Game of 2002
4
#4 Most Discussed PC Game of 2002
3
#3 Most Shared PC Game of 2002

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
93

Universal acclaim - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 20
  3. Negative: 0 out of 20
  1. FiringSquad
    84
    There’s more senseless violence in GTA3 than there are bleeps in an episode of "The Osbournes."
    Read full review
  2. netjak
    98
    The interaction between player and environment sets the bar so high for other games, that it is nearly inaccessible.
  3. GameSpy
    94
    It's a game you could play for weeks -- maybe even months -- and still discover something new every day.
    Read full review
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