It’s a known fact to most gamers that Grand Theft Auto games are like the benchmark of free world video games. Even random people who aren’t even gaming enthusiasts are aware of the existence of GTA. GTA is to the gaming realm, like what Popeye is to cartoons/animations. Over the years we’ve grown to appreciate their meticulous but rather exaggerated simulations depicting lives of criminals in the real world. The one thing that we think most gamers appreciate about GTA (besides the intriguing storylines) is the idea that they setup their games in a world that is seemingly real, where all the characters and locations are fictitious but as you’re immersed in the game for a moment it all feels life-like.
As Zimbabweans we are restricted access to some things due to financial constraints (open secret), and that means we can hardly (or ever) get the best experience of things. For the full gaming experience, it’s a no brainer that having a high-end PC is a must. Unfortunately for us, that’s a privilege most local households cannot afford. However, the bright side to this whole thing is that the GTA franchise deployed their most iconic games a very long time ago, and that meant that we (as a country) got to enjoy great games, on low spec machines.
GTA III – 2001
GTA VICE CITY – 2002
GTA SAN ANDREAS – 2004
Here is a brief review of the new Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy (released 11 November 2021) which was essentially developed as a remastered version of the three Grand Theft Auto games mentioned above.
While the whole world was anxious for a sequel or completely new game from GTA V (2013), Rockstar Games had something completely different in mind, a drive through memory lane.
Review
The news of the production of the Definitive Edition by Rockstar Games was only released a few months before the release of the game, which invoked a shock wave in the gaming world. Rockstar Games’ promise when they first hinted the release of GTA: The Trilogy, was that they’d remaster the three GTA games (GTA III, GTA VC, GTA SA) but without altering the feel of the original games. After reviewing the new edition as The Zimbabwean Perspective, we can safely confirm that they definitely made good on their promise. Replaying these games brings about immaculate nostalgic emotions because it’s all exactly the same, except for the graphical improvements. Without actually having an old copy of the original games you might not even notice the differences because it’s all basically the same. So is this a good or a bad thing? We say it’s exactly what we needed because we got to feel that same awesome GTA gameplay a second time, but with absolutely no significant changes. “If something is done right the first time, it’s best left untouched”, said someone.
So the question is: what changed significantly in the definitive edition?
Sharper graphics and improved in-game physics
Playing GTA in the past was one of the best experiences ever for a gamer because the way the player’s avatar mimicked a real human was uncanny. This was all fascinating for a while before time flew by and the gaming world’s trajectory began shifting really quick. We got game releases with modern graphics that made it seem like the game might just come to life. Although GTA games were our ‘roots’ as gamers, we slowly drifted away to more graphically realistic games, but of course these required higher spec machines so some just stuck with the older games because they had lower requirements (a zimbo’s dilemma). We might say that by releasing the Definitive Edition, Rockstar Games in a way had a vision to prolong the relevance and appreciation of the old Grand Theft Auto games by upgrading their graphics to match 2021 standards. This, of course, was not completely possible considering that they wanted the gamers to have the original feel of the game, they could not alter it too much. The results of their effort, in our opinion, was a moderately modern graphics game (not too bad, but not good enough to match today’s games) with better avatar motion. In conclusion, The Trilogy are playable games as per modern standards.
User Interface
Another notable difference is the improved in-game interface. It’s first noticeable in the game menu after the games loads preliminarily, and in the pause menu as well. This wasn’t necessary per se, but the change was a good touch considering that it doesn’t interfere with the actual game play itself. Even mission prompts and other on-screen statistics and notifications have a different look.
Auto save
Some gamers that played the GTA games on desktop in the past can testify about the horrible experience of having your machine shut down abruptly in the middle of a mission. It might have been because someone had mistakenly tripped over your power supply, or in most cases (for us Zimbabweans) there would be an abrupt power cut. The initial GTA games did not have an auto save feature, but instead the player had to travel to a safe house to manually save completed mission progress. This was extremely risky because if your game abruptly shut down during a mission, or soon after completing a mission, then that meant you’d have to start from scratch. This new edition came with an auto save feature that periodically saves mission progress as the gamer progresses with the main storyline.
Directions on map
Navigating your way around the GTA world in the old games was fun only when you’d played the game for a considerable amount of time. With time you eventually memorized the map by heart, but this took a lot of time. Getting to mission points took some time because as a gamer you had to both control your avatar as he walked or drove and make sense of the map inorder to find a suitable route to get to a location on the game. The definitive edition came with an awesome update whereby the best and shortest route to a location is highlighted on the map.
Conclusion
Most gamers had mixed feelings about this abrupt release. This was mostly because the initial release of the Definitive Edition had numerous bugs that included: motion instability, camera rendering issues, indoor rain (insane right!) and spelling errors. Some gamers with thin patience even flagged these games as unplayable and just completely gave up. After a few weeks however, Rockstar Games came through and released an update that patched most of these errors.
It wasn’t Rockstar Games’ finest work but in our opinion it was worth the try. The storylines of these three games are worth the constant appreciation through all generations and we felt that the Definitive Edition was a good way to introduce modern gamers to the older GTA games. In our experience as gamers, it has proven difficult to play a game with poor graphics after you have been a part of this era of incredibly high graphics games. The Trilogy paved way for today’s gamers to try out the old masterpieces without having to criticize graphics or poor avatar motion.
However, to be frank, this release was mostly accepted by the people that played these three games before.
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