Grand Theft Auto Retrospective

Written by Adam Woolcott  on November 02, 2005

Specials: Curl up with some Hot Coffee and get educated, GTA style.

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Capitalizing on Success
Rockstar Games admittedly didn't expect Grand Theft Auto III to become the monster it was. At the time most figured it would remain a niche title in a business where linear games ruled the day. But instead it became a cultural phenomenon and became the PS2s best selling and most important franchise. A PC version of GTAIII shipped in the summer, but the rumored Xbox conversion wasn't anywhere to be seen. Instead, Rockstar North, formerly DMA, went forward with a sequel...err, more like a prequel. Dubbed Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, this version of GTA took what was great about GTAIII, added in the now-trademark satire of an entire generation, beefed up the narrative, and turned the game into an even larger success than GTAIII was.

Taking place in the 1980's, Vice City took advantage of the era in many ways. Not only was the city and townspeople modeled like the yuppies and druggies of the 80's, living the life of excess, Rockstar teamed up with Sony Music to compose a soundtrack of some of the 'finest' music of the decade, up to 1985, for the ultimate history lesson. Not only that, Vice City got one of the largest soundtrack collections in history, spanning seven CDs that contained nearly all the music from the game (a few here and there were left off). While GTAIII could be considered a parody of the modern era, its ability to create an amusing, satirical world really shined with VC, since it was modeling an era most of us have long forgotten or weren't even born at the time. Vice City turned out perfectly, and stands as one of those games that transcends the medium of video games and became just a great piece of entertainment, one that drew in even more to experience what made Grand Theft Auto great.

While Vice City technically had little different than its predecessor, there were many changes and enhancements. All the usual things from GTAIII were included, but the newest wrinkle was businesses. If you could afford them, main character Tommy Vercetti was able to buy numerous establishments, from a night club to a strip club, and do missions for each one, which netted money for the Vercetti fund. Speaking of Tommy, Vice City actually made for a superior storyline compared to the previous game, since Rockstar North opted to make the playable character that was not a mute, adding depth to the Scarface-esque tale. Voice by Ray Liotta, Tommy was a ruthless mobster out of jail and on the loose in Vice, rising to the top of the organized crime ladder. Firmly tongue in cheek, VC felt much more movie-like than GTAIII, and mixed in with all the gameplay touches, as well as the perfect satirical homage to the 1980's, GTA Vice City became even more beloved than what shipped 1 year earlier.

Reinventing the Wheel
It would be 2 years before the next GTA, however the franchise wasn't taking a rest. Instead, the biggest PlayStation franchise finally made a move to green, and released on the Xbox. Dubbed Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack, this release saw both GTAIII and Vice City packaged together for one $50 price tag, and though it featured little than more improved graphics and a custom soundtrack option, the game was a huge success on Microsoft's console as well. A PS2 version of this Double Pack also released at the same time, but was merely just the old versions packed together for those who hadn't played them yet. These moves kept the series in the limelight, while Rockstar North went to work on the final installment of the current trilogy. After Vice City, nobody could be blamed for wondering what else could be done on current technology Ц even Rockstar felt, at least in 2002, that VC pushed the PS2 as far as they could take it, and the more ambitious vision would have to wait for the next generation. Little did anyone know that this would be incorrect, and the best was yet to come for Grand Theft Auto.

Rumors swirled about what the 3rd PS2 version of GTA would be about Ц one rumor said the game would be called Sin City and take place in 1970's Las Vegas, while others thought it might be GTA Tokyo or some other strange thing. It turned out to be the most obvious choice Ц San Andreas. After all, both GTAIII and Vice City have followed the formula of GTA cities, so San Andreas was the next logical step. However, in this case, San Andreas was not a city...it's a state. Instead of one large city, San Andreas was three distinct towns Ц and that's not counting the massive countryside between them. San Andreas turned out to be absolutely huge Ц three times the size of Vice City, all on one single layered DVD. At the expense of an intense graphics engine, like the previous two games, Rockstar North instead crammed as much into the game as possible, giving you a nearly endless adventure game that went way beyond previous Grand Theft Auto games.

Almost everything about GTA was changed or fixed up. Yes, the game was basically the same idea of a free-roaming, living city, but many things were changed. Thanks to an in-depth skill system, your abilities improved with constant use Ц if you shot a particular gun a lot, it would get stronger and in some cases, you could dual-wield them for double the damage. Your ability to drive and fly also improved as you went along, and main character Carl Johnson could make his swimming skills better. Yes, after two GTA games where hitting water meant death, San Andreas let you swim, and not just for show, as there was plenty of things to in water and underwater, many depending on your swimming skills.

Most important, however, was the development of CJ. While Vice City introduced the idea of changing clothes to evade police and whatnot, San Andreas took it a step further, letting an individual player customize CJ in many ways. The game included a multitude of clothing options, from shirts to pants to the color of CJ's watch. You could get a specific haircut, or a particular tattoo as well. You could even dictate CJ's build Ц thanks to a new food system, CJ must be fed sometimes, and if you pig out, he'll turn into a Cartman-like fat ass. But if you eat right and spend time in one of San Andreas's gyms, CJ will end up being super buff. These things dictate the game itself Ц naturally overweight CJ will have some trouble running from stuff while fit CJ blazes by in evasion. But the engine is flexible enough that almost everyone who plays the game will have a different CJ.

Of course, like past GTA games, there's a fine storyline hidden. At first, it plays out like a Gangsta-rap era ghetto experience, with CJ trying to escape the life of the inner-city of Los Santos, but after a while, it becomes the typical GTA, full of satire and offbeat characters (Toreno is God) Ц and features the returns of old favorites when the game takes an Ocean's Eleven approach mixed with mafioso theme. It eventually does come full circle but either way you get a truly epic storyline. Carl Johnson is without question the most charismatic and entertaining character of the PS2 trilogy, which makes the story even better. Using a mix of known and unknown talent (from Young Maylay playing CJ perfectly to Samuel L Jackson playing crooked cop Frank Tenpenny), San Andreas was a massive success. Like Vice City, the soundtrack was also excellent, capturing the early 1990's music scene perfectly, thanks to a horde of hip-hop and alternative rock/grunge, which of course dominated the era. An ensuing 8 disc soundtrack shipped, but unlike VC, you had to buy the whole thing rather than individual CDs. Once the hubbub died down on PS2, the game shipped earlier this summer on both Xbox and PC. Just recently, Rockstar issued a 'Special Edition' of San Andreas for PS2, which includes a special prologue and the Sunday Driver documentary.

Portable Theft Auto
Though all the hype is centralized on the PSP-exclusive Liberty City Stories, which takes GTA back to its Liberty City roots, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has shown its face on portables before. The Game Boy saw versions of the first two GTAs, which were fairly competent ports, mostly because the 2D overhead view worked well for the systems. They were a bit scaled back from the console and PC versions, but at the time it was pretty good.

After the explosion of GTAIII, it was once announced that a version would head to the Game Boy Advance. Some screenshots implied that it might be a 3D version like the consoles, but many naturally questioned to the architecture of the GBA in terms of 3D. However, with games like Need for Speed Underground bringing 3D gaming to the system, anything was possible. However, this never came to be, as Destination Software, the original devs, went under, leaving Rockstar holding the bag. In 2004 though, the same day as San Andreas hit, a GBA version finally shipped, titled Grand Theft Auto Advance. Digital Eclipse was the crew behind it, and no longer was it a 3D game Ц even if that was not guaranteed the first time. Instead, GTA Advance was done in old-school overhead 2D style, with a special 'zoom' effect in certain places to appear in quasi-3D. Fans of GTAIII would be pleased to see that GTA Advance took place in Liberty City, with some added areas not in earlier versions of the city. Unlike the console versions, however, the storyline was more pedestrian, so it never really hit it off with consumers like those you could get on PS2.

Controversy!
Given the game is called Grand Theft Auto, you obviously can realize that there's a lot of...seedy stuff going on. And this has caused more than a few episodes of controversy Ц one recent episode put the franchise in serious jeopardy, even. When the original game hit, there was a buzz about the violence and carjacking, which led some folks to flip out. To counter, original GTA publisher ASC Games not only had a Mature rating on the box, they also included the same advisory warning that you see on explicit music, as to further along the fact that yes, this game wasn't for kids. That died down after a while, and nobody cared, mostly because the game got mediocre reviews and didn't sell all that well. In short, there's no attention in getting worked up about a game few cared about. However, when Grand Theft Auto III hit it big, things changed. First it was the ability to fornicate with prostitutes that got everyone worked up, and then some news outlets thought you actually earned points for kills, which of course is untrue. Then wacked-out teenage kids started to blame their own actions on the game, which further sent the game down the spiral.

It wasn't until San Andreas hit that things really got touchy. Not even mentioning the uproar about an African-American character living in the ghetto spitting out racial slurs every 10 minutes, the usual violence and hooker stuff started again. But until this summer, it was all talk. Then Hot Coffee hit. First exploited on the PC version, this 'mod' allowed a player to engage in sex mini-game with one of CJ's girlfriends, though it was crude and apparently people remained dressed in San Andreas. Rockstar denied they had anything to do with it, blaming hackers for developing the mod, and for a while the talk died down. Until of course, it popped up in the PS2 version. Even though it required an Action Replay and various tricks no normal person would bother with, it still existed, and it turned out that Rockstar 'hid' the code for the game, expecting nobody to actually find and exploit it. This decision cost the company millions. The ESRB changed the rating from Mature to AO, and numerous retailers pulled the game due to their no-AO stance. Thus, Rockstar took every copy of the game for PS2, Xbox, and PC, and just recently put out versions of the game without the Hot Coffee code, so it could retail as a Mature title again. The Xbox and PC versions were normal re-releases, but as mentioned earlier, the PS2 version became a СSpecial Edition' release.

Even though the Hot Coffee thing has died down, it hurt Rockstar's image badly, and the amount of money lost by the company and the industry didn't help. The franchise was already a hot-button issue, but you can be almost assured that the scrutiny for upcoming games will be intense. One can only imagine the amount of eyes watching the release of Liberty City Stories just for the chance to dig in and find something to rally behind. Let's hope Rockstar has learned their lesson, even if it was a most bizarre lesson to learn.

Finale
Like the protagonists of the games, the Grand Theft Auto series had to climb the ranks slowly to become what it is today Ц an influential franchise that has spawned enough copycats to choke a Forelli, but at the same time one of the most controversial. One can only wonder what is next for the series after Liberty City Stories Ц with the next generation on the way, one could expect bigger cities, better graphics, more realistic AI, pedestrians who live unique lives, and the same irreverent style that made GTA what it is. Who knows, perhaps when we next see Grand Theft Auto on a console it will not be merely a city or a state...but instead an entire country or world!