The Blueprint
Your nameless, voiceless character begins the game double crossed and left for arrest or death, whichever comes first. His climb up Liberty City's crime ladder begins the moment he breaks out of a police van with fellow convict 8 ball and the player is told to jack their first car. With a GPS map to keep in sight, a radio to fidget with, an open city at your helm, and a deadly weapon at your disposal, the game is officially underway.
GTA 3 is played out through a set of branching storyline missions provided by crime life hotshots wanting you to do their dirty work. You'll build a name for yourself, ironic yeah, and the amount of available missions to choose from will continue to grow. Each mission progresses the story and builds an intriguing narrative of crime life in the big city, which is inhabited by a crowded cast of colorful law-resisting characters.
Liberty City itself is broken up into three diverse districts, and is established extremely well for a fictionalized metropolis without any glaring influences. You get the feeling that this is the New York City of this game world without it directly aping any of New York's landmarks. It's quite impressive, and Liberty City's balanced design is perfect for a game that steals scores of hours from the player.
While it's easy to see what makes GTA3 such an important and celebrated game, it tends to fight a losing battle with unnecessary frustration. Matters are made exponentially tougher by an archaic health system, weak weapon targeting, and an overall sense of clumsiness. Mission progression and sandbox dickery are limited by the gameplay design, but it certainly doesn't ruin the game, just hinder it. Otherwise, GTA3 stands tall as a contemporary classic.