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| Playstation 2 Preview |  by Ben Silverman |
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| Category | Action | ||
| Preview Date | 8/01 | ||
| Planned Release | 10/01 | ||
| Publisher | Rockstar Games | ||
I'm now plotting out a way to get arrested for Grand Theft Hog. Or maybe Grand Theft Any Bovine Animal. Is cow tipping a felony?
Now don't ask me why the folks at DMA have spent so many years working on Grand Theft Auto instead of, say, Grand Theft Horse, because I can't tell you why. But what I can tell you is that they've pretty much cornered the market on free roaming, adult-themed carjacking mafia games. And come October, the market is going to simply explode.
Published
by Rockstar games (who scored big PS2 hits with Smuggler's
Run and Midnight Club),
Grand Theft Auto 3 stole the show at E3 2001 with its impressive graphics,
tight control and hysterically fun gameplay. We're happy to report that the
game has come a long way since then and is shaping up to be one of the hottest
games to hit to PS2 since its launch. Are we excited? You can bet your hog,
sow or boar on it.
Unlike the somewhat shallow stories in the earlier games, Grand Theft Auto 3 throws you into a well-constructed plot filled with all manner of mafia lowlife. After your girlfriend turns traitor and sends you up the river, you luck out when the van transporting you to prison is the subject of an ambush. Along with 8-ball, a demolitions expert, you suddenly find yourself free to exact revenge on the 'friends' who traded your life for a bigger cut of the profits. Your starting point is with Luigi, the local mafioso who gives you a shot at some cash by supplying you with work, though over the course of the game you'll run into various other scumbags to break bread with. Think The Sopranos meets Gladiator.
The basics are the same. You roam around taking on missions, which eventually open up more of the story and more of the city to explore. Some of the missions are actually time-of-day specific; if you don't get it done on time, you'll have to wait 24 hours. But that's not a problem since you can always pick up a side mission. The story itself features a whopping 60 missions, though there are plenty of side missions to take on, totalling around 100.
The biggest and most obvious change from past iterations is the move from the strictly top-down gameplay to a three-dimensional world. DMA has spared no effort by creating a robust, vibrant, intricately detailed playpen in Liberty City. With full day/night cycles, hordes of various pedestrians, real traffic, and working transportation like trains and ferries, the environment is lively and immersive. And you'll be able to enjoy this new world with multiple camera angles...including the old fashioned top down cam from the past.
But why take public transportation when you can drive? Thankfully, the core gameplay from earlier games is kept intact. You can operate just about any vehicle you come across, from run-of-the-mill boxy cars to high speed sportsters. See that school bus? Go nab it. Need to cross a river? Go hijack that boat. With over 50 different operational vehicle types (as well as variations on each), there's plenty to test drive.
Want even more depth? When you steal a taxi, you can then actually pick up passengers and drop them off to make extra cash. Grab a cop car and you can chase other criminals down, take 'em back to the station and get paid. You can even jack a fire truck and put out fires around town for extra bread. None of this is essential for completing the single player story - it's just in there because, well, it's cool.
That's also a good word to describe the driving itself, which is a mix of real-world physics and arcade accessibility, much along the lines of the original Driver. The various vehicles handle differently, but the overall control is tight and responsive.
What kind of Grand Theft Auto game would it be without guns? You'll have access to a ton of firepower, from pistols and shotguns to flame throwers and sniper rifles (with full zooming, of course). You can even pull off drive-bys using the uzi. Nothing like exacting revenge without having to parallel park.
Indeed, this is not a game for the young-uns, and Grand Theft Auto 3 will most assuredly be an M-rated title. But thanks to the strong story and exciting gameplay, it's not a one trick pony.
At a recent Rockstar event in Tuscon, I had the pleasure of hopping aboard a beta version of the game. At one point I swiped a Humvee, smashed it into a few pedestrians, escaped the burning vehicle just in time to greet the brigade of cops who arrived to make an arrest, sprayed the boys in blue down with a few rounds of uzi fire, stole a taxi sideswiped by my ex-Humvee, then proceeded to collect a few fares as a cabbie while being chased by the now furious cops. The whole experience was exhilarating and, more importantly, about as much fun as I've had with the PS2 since the thing came out.
Will the end result deliver? If the recent builds are any indication, the
future looks golden. Just make sure to hide your Any Bovine Animals until October,
because I'm looking to bust a 487 in the meantime.
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