Grand Theft Auto III, players are never able to go inside buildings during gameplay, with
all interior interaction happening exclusively during cut-scenes. Lots of games have
certainly allowed players to go inside interior spaces, and this limitation is one of the
most obvious omissions inGTA3. Part of the problem inherent in developing a game
based in a quasi-realistic world is that players will crave more and more realism as they
play and may become frustrated when they reach the borders of the simulation. Yet one
can understand whyGTA3’s designers made that choice: given all the other systems
and content they needed to create, being able to also go inside structures would have
been a whole new headache and they would almost certainly not have had enough time
to implement them at a high quality level. Indeed,Grand Theft Auto: Vice Cityincluded
interior spaces but failed to implement them particularly well, making the interior sec-
tions some of the weakest and most frustrating parts of the games. InGTA3, deciding
not to let the players go inside was a wise choice, and once most players became famil-
iar with this restriction they understood the boundaries of the simulation space and
forgot about their desire to go inside.
Despite how much players are allowed to do in the game, it is interesting to note
just how few actions players can actually perform. The whole game is based around
moving through the environment, either in a car or on foot. Each mode is different, with
foot travel accomplished by pressing the left stick in the direction you want your char-
acter to go, while driving involves steering the car with the left stick while accelerating,
decelerating, or using the hand break with various buttons. Players are able to perform
attacks in either mode, on foot using either brawling or guns, in a vehicle through ram-
ming into targets (other vehicles or humans), or through shooting out the window
“drive-by” style. The interface for attacking is kept fairly simple, particularly when in
vehicle mode. When on foot with projectile weapons, auto-targeting is employed,
though the interface for this is one of the weakest parts of the game. Beyond world-nav-
igation and attacking, players are also able to pick up simple objects by running over
them; on foot these are items like money or weaponry, while in a car one can stop the
vehicle next to passengers to let them get in, if they are amenable. Each mode adds a
few more custom options: on foot, you can sprint and jump, while in the car you can
switch the radio station, honk the horn, or access custom vehicle features, such as play-
ing the game in taxi, ambulance, or fire engine mode.
For a game with such a wide range of player expressive potential, the above
mechanics are actually quite limited.Grand Theft Auto IIIcomes across as positively
simplistic compared even to standard modern first-person shooters, almost all of which
include features such as crouching, strafing and backing up, alternate weapon firing, a
complex inventory, and so on. Indeed, in terms of the sheer numbers of buttons players
need to use,Grand Theft Auto IIIis quite a bit more simple than most modern
action-adventures. It may not achieve what Brian Moriarty has referred to as the “des-
perately simple” interfaces of mass-market breakthroughs likeMystorTetris, but the
game does more to accommodate non-enthusiast users than most of its contemporar-
ies. The game provides its depth through players combining these mechanics and
improvising within the game-space.
Chapter 24: Game Analysis:Grand Theft Auto III 479