Gameplay – 6 (there’s only so much mayhem you can do / no save options / no mini map / plays too heavily on points / immersive world though)
Graphics – 6 (serves its purpose however the three cites do look like the same save the colours)
Sounds – 9 (the highlight of this game by a long shot / needs a little more voice acting)
Value – 9 (plenty to do if you can manage to work around the system)
Tilt – 4 (the limitations are too much for me to handle)
Actual score: 6.3
When I was a wee lad some many, many moons ago, I was a big fan of those matchbox cars. Also I was a huge fan of Lego, in particular the city and space themes. Referring to the city theme, it’s an awesome feeling where you can build up your city – that is, adding roads, police / fire stations, hospitals, houses and so on all linked up in perfect harmony. Then grab that trendy roadster car and hoon the city like you own it. So when I first look at this game ‘Grand Theft Auto’, it’s like my dreams arrived in PC format. Well after giving it a fair wack, it’s not what my childhood dreams was made of – it was the nightmare where you are missing just one Lego piece to complete the car or couldn’t locate the right colour pieces for my grand house – basically, it’s ‘wasted’ as the game puts it.
The premise is a simple one – you are just a small fish in a large ocean. The crime syndicates are all bickering of whose cooler – you think you are cooler. You do jobs for them, earn cash, climb the ladder and ultimately become the big cheese. Yet the reality of this game is not about the storyline, it’s all about how much carnage you can create without dying or getting caught by the police. Similar to my intro with the guy driving the roadster – he wants to own the city, no matter what it takes.
The game takes place in three fictional cities being Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas. If you are not exactly astute, these cities closely resembles New York City, Miami and California. You start off in Liberty City, doing jobs for the crime syndicate then once you earn sufficient points, you move up the ‘ladder’ eventually unlocking the latter two cities. The jobs can range from stealing certain cars to robbery to killing people. Jobs can arrive in many ways from the telephone booths to talking to a particular person or even via the pager so there’s plenty of missions to complete.
The easiest way to travel between missions is via the car and GTA has an impressive collection ranging from The Bulldog to a Pickup to a Taxi and the list goes on and on. Seriously it’s a decent selection, maybe thirty plus or so (but no roadster). However you very quickly realise it’s not easy to locate the spot where you are meant to go to. Granted there’s an arrow pointing you in the general direction however that’s as far as it goes – again I state ‘general’ direction. My frustration builds up very quickly that the vast majority of times, I wind up being blocked by a dead end or drive into the water. There is a consolation to all of this nonsense that, in the physical package, you get a map for all three areas however using a physical map in this age is nothing short than stupidity.
The game is also based on points – that is, you cannot progress until you reach a certain number of points. So in the beginning, you need to earn one million points and progressively increase as you move further into the game to the maximum amount of five million points. To put it into perspective, earning one million points took me about two hours or so. This won’t be an issue if you can save the game however here comes another joke – you cannot save at all! The only time when you can save is when you have ended one part of the main mission and each main mission consists of around twelve missions on average. And to memory, I think the largest one consist of eighteen missions!
Yet the points can increase quickly once you complete missions for the man. It’s indicated by a multiplication symbol (x) and the highest is x5. Each mission scores an extra multiplier so basic maths tells you that completing five missions earns you the maximum multiplier amount. The game also plays on the number of lives. So you have five to begin with and you will lose a life if you die or get captured by the police. So the game plays on death vs glory – in death you can keep the multiplier but lose all your weapons however being captured by the police halves your multiplier yet keeps your weapons and resets the wanted level back to zero. Really, why am I talking about earning points? Is this an 80s game?
The game is viewed from top down and there’s nothing wrong with that at all – everything is reasonably detailed with all the cities having plenty of activity, buzzing actually. There are people doing their own business, ambulances arriving where an accident had occurred, trains passing by and so on. That’s a very nice touch as all three cities are never static. However, there is a downside to this – the camera angle. Before I go on, the manual explains that the game is being viewed by a ‘DMA News Chopper’ so that explains the overhead view. Again I have no issues with that however I do have an issue when the goddamn ‘camera’ bobs up and down like a yoyo. So when you speed up in your car, it pans out and when you slow down, it pans down. Now coming back to that ‘DMA News Chopper’, the person who’s viewing all of this has terrific zooming abilities…just fire that person – it’s causing more harm than good.
And controlling your car or on foot is another joke. Away with the mouse and in arrives the keyboard. I guess some of the big name games uses keyboard still (Tomb Raider for instance) however the controls are really weird. The person can turn left or right / backwards or forwards. However I do appreciate that moving backwards is a lot slower than moving forward yet when driving, it’s a complete and utter nightmare. I really don’t know what I was doing as my time was spent more on crashing into other cars (and scoring a whopping ten points) or buildings, or taking a dive in the water. Yet I do like the idea that some cars to move a lot faster than others however it’s more of a hindrance. And the icing on the cake goes to…timed missions. The developers really know how to piss me off.
However if there’s a strong point to this game it has to be the sounds – man it’s so good. You’ll hear plenty of horns honking, general chit chat and even has a decent Doppler effect when things pass by you. And if you want to do something really ‘special’, press the ‘tab’ key when you’re having a stroll. Yet the game’s radio station is absolutely awesome to listen too. It’s that good that I went on purchasing the official GTA 1 soundtrack – it’s really worth listening too.
So here we are in 1997 where you need a physical map to get around, plays on the amount of lives you have and earning points to move into the next section. I can understand this philosophy if I was playing a game back in the 80s (as there was a totally different mindset of how games should be played). I can also say it saves space as there’s only so much data you can keep on a floppy (as there were no hard drives back then). Yet moving forward to 1997, there’s no excuse for this poppycock.
Yet considering this game had a bit of a turbulence production cycle, similar to what Bethesda experienced with The Elder Scrolls 1: Arena back in 1994, it certainly showed in this final product – a complete confused mess. Heck, even the ‘crazed’ cops was a result of a bug in the program. Yet its strong points were the sound quality and the openness, meaning you can do whatever it takes to get the job done or simply cause mayhem, and that’s actually quite fun to do. However there’s only so much mayhem you can do before boredom / frustrations kicks in and it will, sooner than you realise.
One final note: this game reminds me a lot of Miami Vice for the Commodore 64, and that game was released back in 1986. So I guess my theory about playing GTA 1 is like playing a 80s game has some truth in it after all.