Image © Rockstar Games.
Reintroduction to GTA III:
Nostalgia has a special way of taking us back to our childhood. When we look back on history, Grand Theft Auto III is one of the most influential and important games that changed the gaming industry forever, without this game we may not have gotten games like Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2, Spiderman, and other fan-favourite games.
I can still remember the first time I saw this game, I was very amazed by it because I didn’t think games like these existed. The game didn’t restrict the player and hold their hands and lead them from point A to point B. It introduced a level of freedom and immersion, unlike any other game of its time. Sure the graphics look bad now but of course, it would look, what else do you expect from a 23-year-old game? Even at that time looked GTA III mind-blowing.
Rockstar's Bold Leap: Birth of Liberty City:
It was released on October 22, 2001, for the PlayStation 2, it was developed by DMA Design, which later became known as Rockstar North and was published by Rockstar Games. This game took the world by storm and sure it was middle in some controversies but there's one thing you need to know and that is that GTA games are a parody of the real world. They’re known for their satirical and exaggerated portrayals of various aspects of society, which include politics, media, media, celebrity culture, crime, and consumerism. GTA games use humour and irony to highlight and critique various social issues and cultural norms that exist in modern society.
Rockstar’s critically acclaimed game immersed the players into the chaotic streets of New York-inspired Liberty City. It was the first game that pioneered the open-world 3D game in the franchise. It introduced a detailed and well-designed 3D world that no other competitor at that time could match. It marked a significant leap forward in the open-world genre.
GTA III's Memorable Soundtrack:
The game also featured a diverse soundtrack that featured different genres of music like hip-hop, rock, pop, electronic, and even classical music like jazz and original compositions. It had nine radio stations, with a total of 54 songs. It also had a radio station called Chatterbox FM, a non-stop talk show hosted by Lazlow Jones. He interviews various eccentric characters like Fernando Martinez, who is a flamboyant and overly passionate “love doctor” who gives very dubious relationship advice. Reed Tucker is a conspiracy theorist who believes in and discusses various government conspiracies and alien abduction. Donald Love, who is a wealthy and very ambitious businessman with dubious morals, discusses his ventures and schemes. And the callers, various eccentric and bizarre individuals who phoned into the show, ranging from conspiracy theories to disgruntled citizens discussing taxes, activism, etc. This made the atmosphere of Chatterbox FM very chaotic and very humorous.
Cinematic Crime SAGA and star-studded cast:
The game featured a cinematic story that was full of crime, betrayal, and revenge. It also featured a star-studded cast that included Frank Vincent as Salvatore Leone, Michael Rapaport as Joey Leone, Debi Mazar as Maria Latore, and Michael Madsen as Toni Cipriani. It also featured motion-captured cut-scenes which was a significant advancement at that time.
GTA III's Innovative Open-World Gameplay:
Another key innovation that I would like to point out is its non-linear gameplay structure, it also offers players a variety of side content like taxi missions, vigilante missions, paramedic missions, and firefighter missions where players could earn rewards for completing the tasks. RC Toyz Missions where players could operate RC cars to achieve specific objectives like blowing up cars, etc. Off-Road Challenges, Pay Phone Missions, Unique Stunt Jumps, Export/Import Missions, and Rampages. Players could drive a plethora of vehicles from sleek sports cars to SUVs and boats, to rugged trucks and mini-vans, and even tanks. Players can “commandeer” any vehicles they want and explore Liberty City, the game also offers players a wide variety of weapons to arm themselves against their enemies, from baseball bats to pistols, from shotguns to assault rifles, from body armour to grenades, molotov-cocktail, flamethrower and even the rocket launcher. Players can engage in intense shootouts with rival gang members, or the police. We grew up rampaging across Liberty City, dodging the police with a 6-star wanted level and how incredibly frustrating it was to lose it. All of these innovative features not only helped to make this game a wide success but also created memories that we still cherish.
Claude's Journey through the Liberty City:
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: I will discuss the plot of GTA III ⚠️
Before we jump into the plot of GTA III, I know looking back at it, the plot was pretty basic and bland but from 2001’s standards it was considered as a significant advancement compared to the industry standards at that time.
GTA III’s cinematic story is filled with crime, violence, corruption, moral ambiguity, and vengeance. It is set in the New York-inspired Liberty City in 2001. We are introduced to Claude, the mute protagonist at the beginning of the game. He tries to navigate through the underworld of the city in pursuit of vengeance against his ex-girlfriend Catalina. She betrayed Claude and left him for dead in a bank heist during the opening sequence of the game.
But by a miracle, Claude survives the betrayal, but he is arrested by the Liberty City Police Department and was convicted of all the charges and is sentenced to ten years in prison. But while he was being transferred to the prison in Portland View, the police convoy was attacked by the Colombian Cartel on the Callahan bridge. The Cartel abducts the Old Man and flees, giving Claude and 8-Ball, a fellow convict to escape. But the Cartel placed a bomb on the bridge which detonated, destroying the bridge. Claude and 8-Ball survive and move to Luigi’s Sex Club 7 looking for gainful employment. He does various jobs for Luigi Goterelli, the owner of the club, Claude is introduced to Joey Leone, the son of Salvatore Leone, he performs various jobs for Joey ranging from car theft to contract assassinations.
Joey introduces Claude to Toni Cipriani and asks him to chauffeur him around the city and work for him. Claude impresses the Mafia by completing various jobs given to him by Toni. But Claude becomes more and more embroiled in the Leone Family affairs, which makes him an enemy of the Triads. Claude continues to impress the Leone Family’s hierarchy and soon is introduced to the Don himself.
Don Salvatore Leone who apparently “sees nothing but good things” for him, tells him to chauffeur his wife Maria Latore, he then tells him to wack the mole Curly Bob who is selling Leone Family Secrets to the Colombian Cartel for a drug that’s flooding the streets of Liberty City called SPANK. Salvatore orders Claude to blow up a freighter which was being used as a factory for SPANK.
All was going pretty well for Claude, he quickly impressed the Leone Family and made a good amount of money but here’s how things went down the hill for him.
Maria blabs to Salvatore that she and Claude are an “item” when in reality they aren’t. So in his paranoia, Don sends Claude to pick up a car parked on the block from Luigi’s club in reality the car was rigged with a bomb that would explode the moment Claude entered it. Maria pages Claude to meet her at a small pier where she explains this to him and informs him how Salvatore wanted to avoid an all-out gang war and wanted to make peace with the Colombian Cartel by offering Claude as part of the deal. Claude meets Maria’s friend Asuka Kasen and all three of them flee to Staunton Island.
Asuka Kasen is not only Maria’s friend but she is a co-leader of the Yakuza, she asks Claude to prove his ties with the mafia are truly broken by assassinating Salvatore. She then asks Claude to kill the other people who were causing her grief, and she introduces him to her brother Kenji Kasen, the co-leader of the Yakuza and Ray Machowski who is a corrupt cop working for the Yakuza.
Claude does various jobs for Kenji, which include settling casino debts and freeing a man from prison. He helps Ray in his attempts to remain discreet to avoid getting caught by Internal Affairs who were gathering incriminating evidence against him. The CIA was targeting Ray because they had a vested interest in SPANK and they didn’t like Ray interfering in the Cartel’s operations. But eventually, he became a marked man and he had to flee the city by the airport.
Claude works for King Courtney, who makes him attack Diablos but in the end, he is betrayed by King Courtney, who tries to kill Claude by leading him to a parking lot in Bedford Point where he is ambushed by SPANKed-up psycho suicide bombers on order from Catalina. He then works for Donald Love, a wealthy businessman who gives Claude various jobs which include freeing the Old Oriental Gentleman we saw getting kidnapped by the Cartel at the beginning of the game and killing Kenji Kasen, the co-leader of Yakuza to provoke a gang war with the Cartel for his selfish interest. Here in this mission, we can see how cold and ruthless Claude has become. He has no allegiance to anyone even to the Yakuza who didn’t betray Claude. He is willing to kill anyone if the price is right and kills anyone who gets in the way of his goals. He only cares about himself even if it leads to almost all of his “allies” ending up dead. He feels no guilt or remorse for his hand in their deaths.
Asuka who is unaware of Claude’s betrayal, launches an attack on the Colombian Cartel-controlled construction site and begins to torture the co-leader of the Colombian Cartel and Catalina’s new lover Miguel, into giving Cartel secrets. Asuka sends Claude to do various jobs for her that would hurt Cartel operations, which include stopping the selling of SPANK and stopping them from stealing a shipment of SPANK.
When Claude returns to the PANlantic Construction site only to find Maria missing, Miguel and Asuka dead, and a ransom note from Catalina demanding $500,000 in exchange for Maria and the ending of GTA III begins.
Claude goes to the Cartel Mansion in Cedar Grove with the money where he is ambushed by Cartel. He escapes the mansion and destroys the Chopper which was piloted by Catalina, thus finally killing this mad woman once and for all. Her death indirectly saved Liberty City from descending further into chaos.
Claude’s fate after the events of GTA III is left ambiguous just like Donald Love’s fate. And when the question regarding his fate was asked to Rockstar back in 2011, they responded with “He certainly isn’t dead. What else became of him, we don’t know.”
How GTA III Blurs The Line Between Reality and Fiction:
We see how the game thrusts Claude right into the very heart of the criminal underworld of Liberty City, how he navigates through it all and ends up becoming a cold-blooded ruthless criminal.
Betrayal is one of the most common themes in the game, Claude gets betrayed thrice in the game, first, he is betrayed by Catalina, second time he is betrayed by Salvatore Leone, and third time he is betrayed by King Courtney. But it’s not like Claude was a saint, even when he was working for the Leone family, at the same time he was working for El Burro, the leader of the Diablos gang, showing how he has no problem working for the enemy if the money is good and how he has no sense of allegiance to anyone. And in this business, you can never fully trust anyone.
One of the things that drive everyone in this city is their lust for power and control, everyone from ambitious crime lords to corrupt politicians and corrupt cops, even the corrupt CIA and Internal Affairs. The struggle for power amongst the various factions in the criminal underworld of Liberty City is very evident throughout the story.
GTA III is a parody of the world we see, it shows these corrupt and power-hungry individuals in a satirical light, showing their absurdity and the destructive consequences of their selfish self-serving actions.
Liberty City is often depicted as a decaying urban landscape that’s rife with crime, corruption, poverty, and social degradation. Colombian Cartel and Uptown Yardies are pushing SPANK in the streets of Liberty City without worrying about the devastating impact it would have on the residents. Maria who is an avid drug addict has destroyed her life due to her addiction problems which only grew worse over time. Curly Bob, another drug addict who sold the Leone Family secrets to the Colombian Cartel for SPANK. In the mission “Kingdome Come” you can see what SPANK did to those suicide bombers. And the CIA has a “vested” interest in the Colombian Cartel’s operations. Doland Love provokes a full-blown gang war between the Yakuza and the Colombian Cartel why? Because nothing drives down real estate prices like a good old-fashioned gang war. All of these elements add to the gritty realism of GTA III, it stresses on the darker aspects of urban life and the challenges faced by the residents, effectively blurring the lines between real life and the game world.
A Timeless Classic That Changed It All:
In conclusion, GTA III was a groundbreaking game not only for Rockstar but for the gaming industry as a whole. This game had a tremendous influence on the gaming industry and it paved the road for all of the future games. Even though the game’s graphics have aged poorly and are not good compared to modern standards but doesn’t mean the game was bad. As we look back on this game in 2024, it’s clear that GTA III is one of the most important games in the history of gaming.