GTA3 Old school mayhem
by Wuphon's Reach
Initial impressions:
Because GTA3 was the first 3D version in the series, it feels rudimentary in places. Especially if you've played GTA:SA and have gotten used to that level of polish. Some examples:
- Pistols and other weapons have an extremely limited range in GTA3 compared to GTA3:SA. I think this is due to the shift from being a top-down 2D game to being 3D (in fact, you can play GTA3 in top-down mode). Pistols are only good for about 1 car length, and trying to do a drive-by with the Uzi requires that you be half a car length from your targets. With the weapons in GTA3:SA, I was able to score kills from half a block away instead of having to be standing on each others toes.
- No control over the camera when driving. In GTA3:SA, I was able to set things up so that holding down the right-mouse would let me slew the camera around. In GTA3, you don't have that choice at all. That will take a lot of getting used to.
- The game play elements that are in GTA3 are mostly present in GTA3:SA. Money, wanted stars, police bribes, picking up hookers for health regen, unique stunts, etc. are pretty similar across both games. But there are no burger joints, or exercise, or dates, or bikes, or motorcycles, or custom clothes, just to name a few things.
- Radio song selection is a lot more limited then GTA3:SA. Most stations only play 5-7 different songs (Game FM and MSX FM have 10-11). The talk radio in GTA3 is also very limited with Lazlow as the only radio host (with only 6-12 different callers / guest segments). Rockstar addresses this a bit in Vice City and San Andreas has a much more diverse playlist.
So overall, I do suggest playing it. But if there are optional missions that you can't beat ("Big 'n Veiny" is one of the stupid-hard ones), don't get hung up on it if you can bypass it completely or if you have to use the cheats to do it. Do what you can, enjoy the story, save your sandbox play energy for GTA3:SA.
Starting out suggestions:
As always with GTA, the first mission is generally not optional, so head to the safe house, then take 8-ball to Luigi's, then go back to the safe house and save the game. After that, you can do a lot of free play on Portland, without anyone shooting at you. Go grab some wheels and plan on spending 1-3 hours just going around the island, learn the lay of the land, get used to thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif controls, and trying out different things.
Looking for hidden packages is a good first step, as each one gets you a bit of money and forces you to learn the alleys and layout. Print ohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifut a map, grab a highlighter and start checking them off if you care about the 100% completion. Or even if you just don't want to go crazy. The main reason to get at least 20 packages before you finish Portland is so that you'll get some weapon spawns at the hideout (Pistol at 10, Uzi at 20). There are 33 hidden packages on Portland.
Doing the unique stunt jumps is another very good option for making early cash. You'll want to grab a fast car that you can control and tackle most of the 7 jumps around Portland (the 8th probably requires that Staunton be unlocked).
Taxi, Ambulance, Fire and Vigilante misshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifions are also possible money http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifmakers early on. These alshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifo force you to learn the map and figure out http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhow to get from A to B quickly. Do spend the time to save 35 patients in the ambulance, even if you never manage to get past level 3 or 4. The count is cumulative, so you could just do the level 1 ambulance mission twenty times. The reward for 35 paramedic missions is a health icon at your safe houses. The vigilante missions are useful in GTA3 for getting police bribes to spawn at your safe houses.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
One option that I never played with is the "TOYZ" missions, where you use a remote control (RC) car to blow up gang cars. There are (2) TOYZ vans parked in out of the way places in Diablo and Leone territories.
I would suggest that you don't start into too many missions until after you've tackled at least some stunt jumps, collected 20-25 packages, and have done the 35 ambulance patients. Later on, you will find more and more people wanting to shoot at you as you drive down the street, so it gets harder to do side missions. Plus it gives you some early money and supplies at your safe house.
Bugs:
Unfortunately, if you run into the "yellow car" issue (as I did), you'll have to download a cracked EXE. Rockstar's QA department is extremely clueless and the version on Steam is buggy as a result. Normally, I don't suggest this, but Rockstar has failed to fix the issue after almost a year and it's the only way to get a working product.
Total playtime:
Depending on how hard you chase the elements required for 100% completion, I estimate that you can play most of GTA3 in about 25-40 hours total. If you're less of a perfectionist / explorer it will be closer to the 25 hour mark. A rough estimate is 10-15 hours to finish Portland, 6-9 hours to do Staunton and 3-5 hours for Shoreside Vale. (I'm about 18 hours in and about 3/4 done with Staunton. I figure it will take me only another 8-10 hours to finish everything I want to do.)
The main reason that you spend so long in Portland is that you're learning the game, learning the map, doing a lot of optional side missions (fire, ambulance, police, taxi, ToyZ, rampages), collecting packages and doing stunt jumps. Once you get to Staunton, a lot of things will already be known and repeating the process on Staunton goes a lot faster (and Shoreside Vale will go even faster).
As I said before, this is not the GTA3 game that you'll want to spend a lot of time in. Save your goofing around time for San Andreas, which offers a much richer experience.
Spoiler links:
IGN's Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2) main page
Unique Jumps Directional Guide (YuGiOhFm2002 & YuGiOhAngel, 2007, PS2)
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