The original GTA is great fun for adults, but don't expect a lot of depth.

User Rating: 8.1 | Grand Theft Auto PC
The original GTA was released in 1997, with the first city freely available as shareware. Grand Theft Auto spread like a Paris Hilton tape through the internet due to the rebellious subject matter and completely original concept. Never before had a player had such freedom of movement throughout a game.

For the first time in a game a player did not have a scripted path to follow. Instead, the player was placed into a city with the ability to do anything. From a top-down perspective, the avatar could run or walk in any direction of 360 degrees, punch, belch, fart, shoot (if equipped), enter a vehicle, and exit a vehicle. While there are certain scripted missions the player had the option of completing, it was just as much fund to grab a car and drive around mowing down civilians and being chased by the cops.

Graphics: Grand Theft Auto had poor graphics at a time when Quake had been recently released (1996). However, it did support high resolutions to afford a larger view of the city. Still, the characters were tiny sprites and the cars looked like matchbox versions of their inspiration.

Sound: Grand Theft Auto set precedence for its sequels. Each car had its own radio station that could be dialed in, though as a pedestrian there is no soundtrack. Instead, the game offers the sounds of the city, and does a pretty good job in this regard. At all times there is the steady sound of traffic. You can hear the footfalls of the character, and other characters shout, "Hey, watch it!" when you bump into them. The trains and buses also have great sound effects.

Gameplay: The original GTA allowed the player to become a free-agent criminal in a massive city. You moved through cities by completing missions assigned to you by the various crime bosses. More dangerous missions netted more points. After accumulating a certain amount of points, you were then able to move to the next city. Each city had its own character, mimicking cities from New York to Miami. The population of cars, items, missions, and people have a different flavor in each city, but perform the same purpose. For example, the original city has normal city buses, but the Miami city has "Jesus buses", with large crosses painted on the roof. The missions are things such as, "Drive this car loaded with explosives to this destination" or, "Murder this guy that done me wrong." Of course, one shot kills you so killing another character can be tough. There is just enough variety and challenge to keep the player coming back, but do not expect a lot of depth to the game.

Grand Theft Auto was a completely novel game, a rarity even in 1997. The original is worth playing, since the interface is completely different from that of GTA III, which made the series truly famous, as long as you know beforehand that the game is more novelty than revolutionary. Rockstar Games allowed free downloads of the full version of the game the last I checked, so it is a true value, if nothing else.