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Nov 17th, 2006 at 13:05:47 - Grand Theft Auto III (PS2) |
I dislike this game.
I dislike it because it is extremely popular and because I do not find it entertaining. I do not find it entertaining because I cannot help but notice the crass seams that bind this rickety excuse for digital entertainment together and keep it afloat. I've always been wary of games with vast worlds to explore, it feels like a very cheap way to shove bad design down users throats and wash it down with a good chug of the old 'exploration as gameplay' routine.
I was and still am a big fan of Grand Theft Auto 2. And here is where the problem arises for me, every time I play any of its successors I find traces of the old game lurking beneath each element that they tout. I feel that if one were to write down the formal rules of both the games down on paper, they wouldn't be significantly different. However, the execution of the latter games ruined something for me. GTA2 had a very tongue-in-cheek and comical approach to its presentation, the mob bosses jabbered in nonsensical tongue, the voiceovers were hilarious, even some of the missions had a wry sense of humour about them. All of which made the actual gameplay(essentially killing people) seem somewhat dissonant and eerily syncopated.
GTA3 has these activities more or less as a matter of fact, and it takes a bit of fun out of it. I'm not a big fan of realism.
As far as narrative/characters are concerned I find the game to be populated by vapid, if not mindless, drones. The protagonist in GTA3 doesn't speak(at least he hasn't so far) and except for flipping someone off now and then, has all the emotional complexity of a doormat. Wait, I take that back, a doormat has more character, shows signs of age and experience.
From what I've seen of the cutscenes in Vice City, the protagonist has been given a speaking role. But enter gameplay mode and he's still the marionette that I so gleefully remember from GTA3. I'm probably taking far too many liberties with my impression of the game after a 45 minute session or so, but whatever.
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