Grand Theft Auto III — The Definitive Edition

Is it still worth playing in 2026?

The Grand Theft Auto franchise is one of the most defining series in the gaming industry. It kicked off something groundbreaking for the industry. But did the game age well in terms of mechanisms, and did the engine update make it fresh? We will dive into that today.

Grand Theft Auto III did something groundbreaking

Grand Theft Auto III was originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, later ported to PC. The Definitive Edition was released in 2021, 20 years after the original game, using Unreal Engine. The game was developed by Grove Street Games, and released by Rockstar Games.

Back then Rockstar didn’t know, but they made something revolutionary, which would reshape the gaming industry later. The game introduced freedom. You are free to kill cops, people, anyone. Steal cars, just run around, drive around. The game basically allows the player to do anything the game allows.

The game takes place in 2001, in the city of Liberty City. We play as Claude, a criminal, who tries to survive in the criminal world of Liberty City.

In the opening, Claude, and the game’s main antagonist Catalina, robs a bank, where Catalina betrays Claude, and leaves him for the police to deal with. This betrayal is the foundation of Grand Theft Auto III. From this point on, Claude is ready to kill anyone who gets in his way, and this is showcased throughout the missions he’s given. He’s basically a silent hitman. I say silent because he’s the only protagonist in the 3D and HD universe to not have a Voice Actor. Claude is also a returning character in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

THREE ISLAND — THREE ARCS

Like I mentioned, the game takes place in Liberty City. Liberty City has three main islands, which we unlock throughout the story. All of these islands can be a separate arc in the game, because of how important and different they are.

First is Portland. This is where we start the game, and the easiest island. For a while, the whole island will be passive towards Claude, so best to do some side missions to do until that happens. For example, the paramedic mission. Why? Because if a hostile gang starts shooting at Claude, the vehicle will blow up sooner or later, and these emergency vehicles are not repairable. Problems like these show that the difficulty scale is really bad, and feels really rushed. With straightforward missions, and rushed difficulty scales, the game becomes really hard quickly. Some would even argue that some side content should be done before doing the story. The second island will all be unlocked later because of the bombing in the opening scene that connects Portland and Staunton Island.

Staunton Island is the second, and the biggest island in the game. Because of it, it features more side content than the other two islands do. The island though is not welcoming. It’s hostile immediately. Colombian activity, later other gangs will become hostile towards Claude. The island is very easy to navigate, because the roads are mainly long straights. This makes this island better to do the paramedic side mission on because of the gangs’ hostility against Claude. The last island will unlock later, in a main mission, where we will have to visit Shoreside Vale.

The last island in the game is Shoreside Vale, a small, but difficult island. It’s hard because of its layout, which makes the navigation frustrating. Another reason is because the most important roads of the island are controlled by Colombians. This is their territory after all. There are also other gangs present, but they remain passive throughout the game. This is the island that I wouldn’t recommend for the paramedic mission because of the hostile activity. Other side contents are doable. I do think that this island is underused. Not many missions, it’s more of an endgame island than a regular island.

All three islands have separate safehouses for Claude. The players can save their progress here, which is the normal thing to do. But because of The Definitive Edition, autosaves have become available. The game saves when a mission starts, ends, and if a side mission like paramedic, firefighter, vigilante and taxi is finished. I think that it’s a positive change for the game, because it’s more convenient than saving after every mission in case the player dies and has to restart from the safehouse.

The safehouses also come with garages for the player to store vehicles in. This becomes more important in San Andreas, so not really in usage. Still, there are other things available at the safehouses. Collecting all hidden packages, and complete vigilante, firefighter, and paramedic all unlock weapons, bribe stars, health, and adrenaline pickups for each safehouse.

SIDE CONTENTS FEELS REWARDING

Like I mentioned, the game features side content. And there is a lot of it. Meanwhile in the main missions all you need to do is kill this and then kill that, repeat, the side content offers a wider variety of things to do. You need to do 60 firefighter saves, and vigilante kills. They give a flamethrower and 6 bribe stars for the player. 12 levels of paramedic mission, which rewards the player with health, and adrenaline pickups, as well as infinite sprint.

You can also do rampages. There are 20 of them. These give you a specific challenge to do, like kill 20 Triads with AK-47, or run over 20 Mafia with a car. Some of the rampages are really unfair, though. There’s one I really struggled with. You need to kill 20 Colombians with a flamethrower. This means using a close-range weapon, against a gang using AKs. Thankfully, this is doable with the use of a tank, because for some reason, the game counts tank kills as flamethrower kills. Rampages are only present in Grand Theft Auto III, and Vice City. San Andreas dropped rampages. Later, Grand Theft Auto V used it again, in a different way.

The flamethrower rampage — Even with tank it’s hard

I mentioned hidden packages. There are a total of 100 of them, scattered around the three islands. Every tenth hidden package unlocks a weapon at the safehouses. All 100 of them can be found, most of them are hidden in obvious places, but there are some harder ones.

This game started off Stunt Jumps, which is a returning element in the franchise. Luckily, you only need to do 20 of these jumps here. Each island features either 4 or 8 stunt jumps, which is fair. They are also easy to do, you just need a quick car. Each one rewards the player with money.

The game has an Import/Export list, which is present throughout the 3D universe. You need to collect certain cars the list gives you. There are three lists in total. Two on Portland, one on Shoreside Vale.

Portland has a Civilian and an Emergency Vehicle list. Civilian cars are easy, most of them are common, and found in specific locations. On the other hand, Emergency cars are vehicles like paramedic, firefighter, and police vehicles. It’s annoying because some of them either need a deep progress in the story, or 5–6 wanted levels. This was the part I got stuck the most on. The civilian cars give $1,000 each, emergency vehicles give $1,500 each to the player.

Shoreside Vale has only a civilian car list. These cars are more expensive and some of them are harder to find, but it’s easy in general. Each vehicles gives $1,000 to the player.

The game features telephone missions. These are all found on the three islands, and are given by gang leaders. One of these missions is hidden, so you have to listen to the phone ringing to find it. These missions are making some gangs turn hostile against Claude. They don’t really give rewards other than money. This only returns in Vice City, San Andreas dropped it.

RC Toyz are well hidden side missions to do. They are quick, easy and fun. In each one, you have to blow up a certain gang’s cars they drive around the area. There isn’t a minimum set, so just do as many as you like. and you get paid based on your performance. Like the telephone missions, this is present in Vice City.

One of the most annoying, but fun side missions is the Off-Road Challenges. There are four of them. Some are easy, some are frustrating. It’s not frustrating because of the mission design, but because of the car physics. Before going forward, let’s talk about it. The vehicle physics are bad in this game. Some vehicles are immovable, while others flip over from small bumps. I failed the paramedic mission countless times before finally doing it. This also affects Off-Road Challenges. You have sensitive cars across mountains and hills collecting checkpoints. Completing them rewards the player with money. Strangely, these missions count toward the “Missions Passed” stat in the statistics menu.

The Taxi missions aren’t hard, but boring. You need to drive 100 passengers to different locations around the city. It’s not the most rewarding mission, but it’s better than nothing. It gives a unique, fast, and more durable cab, the Borgnine Taxi at the Harwood Taxi company.

THE GAME DIDN’T AGE WELL

We got to talk about the engine. It’s Definitive Edition, so there was an engine upgrade. On paper, that should have helped refresh the game for modern platforms. In practice, it really doesn’t. Other than some upscailing, most of the game looks worse than the original. Some character models seem more detailed, but others look uglier. The cars look exactly the same as 20 years before, so the changes don’t really feel there either. At launch, the game was unplayable, because of the rain effect. It was disturbing and hurt players’ eyes.

The game is full of bugs — Fence broke out, stuck in the ground and can’t get past it

There’s also a huge view distance issue, which will be present in the trilogy. You can see the whole map, no matter where you stand. It doesn’t make much sense. In the original, if you had fog and distance, the areas hid away, and now it’s just there.

Some of these issues were patched, but the game is still bugged to this day, and most of it will never be fixed.

Claude also has some gameplay issues. He’s too fragile. He dies easily, while the enemy gangs are much stronger than him, especially the Mafia and Colombians. They can knock Claude down and keep shooting him, or wait for him to get up and knock him down again. He also can’t swim, which makes him and Tommy Vercetti the only two protagonists in the series that can’t swim.

There’s also a small little annoying issue, which is the scoped weapons. Once you zoom in, the sensitivity becomes much faster. It’s uncomfortable and I have to lower my mouse DPI every time I try to aim with them.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, as much as I hate to say it, but this game is just not worth it as a full 100% experience. Time didn’t really favour the game. Too many flaws, and the Definitive Edition makes some of them worse. The story feels rushed, while the side content is trying to compensate by overwhelming the players with the amount of things to do in order to do a 100% completion. The launch was surrounded by too much drama because of the bugs, and the technical issues, and the truth is, it still has some major problems. The game also aged poorly because of the mechanics and its straightforward mission designs.

If you only want to play it for the main content, I can still recommend it, because it’s the final chronological piece of the trilogy that helps tie some things together, but if you want to do everything else, I wouldn’t recommend it. The original is still better than the Definitive Edition one.