be extrapolated to popularity, thenGrand Theft Auto IIIand its sequelGrand Theft
Auto: Vice Cityhave each captivated more players than any other game of the
PlayStation 2 console generation. Anyone who has played these games can tell you the
reason why: the games brilliantly combine uniquely fun core mechanics with giving
players enough freedom in the environment that the game becomes an entertaining
experience players will enjoy much longer than almost any other action game.
In terms of production,Grand Theft Auto IIIis an example of a sequel done right,
and how sequels can take advantage of advancing technology to push their game design
to new places. Many game sequels incorporate more advanced rendering technology
and graphics merely out of a desire to improve the visuals of a game, and unfortunately
these enhancements often end up getting in the way of the original game’s play
mechanics.Grand Theft Auto III, by contrast, used technology to radically alter the play
experience and make the new game a lot more playable than its predecessors. By
changing the camera view from the top-down found inGrand Theft AutoandGrand
Theft Auto 2to the familiar racing game chase cam,Grand Theft Auto IIImade the driv-
ing experience a lot more intuitive and a lot more fun. While driving in the earlier
games was often frustrating since players could only see so far ahead of their vehicle in
a top-down view, with a chase camera players could clearly see the streets they were
hurtling down. The further addition of some relatively simple physics to the driving
model made the core mechanics fundamentally enjoyable in a way that had been miss-
ing in the previous games.
Believable Game-World...........................
From the very beginning of the series, theGrand Theft Autogames’ biggest hook has
been their realistic setting with which anyone who has driven a car in a city can immedi-
ately connect. Even with the particularly cartoonish graphics and top-down view of the
firstGrand Theft Auto, the idea of driving around a city, hurtling like a madman over
sidewalks or down alleyways, potentially running over pedestrians that get in your way,
smashing your car up in the process, and then stealing any car you might find, proved
uniquely compelling. Anyone who has ever been irritated waiting for slow pedestrians
to get across a crosswalk has probably wondered “What if I just ran them over?” Every-
one has fantasized about avoiding a traffic jam by popping the car up on to the sidewalk
like in an action movie. Anyone who has seen a fancy vehicle pull up next to them at a
stoplight understands the desire to just ditch your own car and take this better one.
These are all taboo activities that many people fantasize about on a daily basis. Surely,
they would never do them in real life, but in the safe context of a game-world where the
worst consequence is having to start your game over, who wouldn’t want to try it out?
And since the first twoGrand Theft Autogames were hits in their own right, we can
conclude that many players were willing to overlook the clunky driving mechanics so
that they could engage in these taboo activities.
Grand Theft Auto IIIis a model of how to truly evolve your game with a sequel. It
retains the exciting city-driving hook of the first games while fixing its viewpoint and
control issues, thereby making the game a lot more compelling to a lot more people.
Indeed, many of the design concepts found in the third game are also present in the
first, whether it’s the ringing telephones giving players their missions, the feel of a
476 Chapter 24: Game Analysis:Grand Theft Auto III