How Grand Theft Auto III Pioneered Open World Games | Game Changers
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VOICE OVER: Riccardo Tucci
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we're looking at another installment of “Game Changers”, the series where we discuss the video games that changed everything. Today, we'll be talking about Grand Theft Auto III. The first fully 3D game in the franchise, “GTA III” wrote the book on what it means to be an open-world game; but how did it do this?
Script written by Caitlin Johnson
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at another installment of “Game Changers”, the series where we discuss the video games that changed everything.
Today, we’ll be talking about “Grand Theft Auto III”. The first fully 3D game in the franchise, “GTA III” wrote the book on what it means to be an open-world game; but how did it do this?
The first two “GTA” games were revolutionary in their own way, particularly the first one. A glitch in the code for a cops and robbers prototype game originally called “Race’n’Chase” made the cops relentlessly pursue the player, a formula so fun it created “Grand Theft Auto”, one of gaming’s most enduring franchises. And the cops aren’t the only thing in that game that have become series hallmarks. It introduced all the core locations – Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas – while its expansions, set in 1960’s London, explored Rockstar’s ability to write period pieces. But pioneering as the first two games were, they don’t have anything on “GTA III”; this was a game so revolutionary that its effects are still widely felt throughout the entire industry, pioneering the brand-new genre of video games.
What the true first open-world game was is up for debate, but when we think about modern game design, we have “GTA III” to thank. Large, sandbox environments; detailed maps; destructible assets; a wide variety of missions; and a cinematic story are all traits that still exist across contemporary open-world games that have their origins in “GTA III”, which did all of those things at once in a way no other game had before. You could go out into a fully rendered, 3D environment to blow up cars and wipe out whole streets of pedestrians. It was destruction on an unprecedented scale, and something often taken for granted in modern games.
It was also incredibly cinematic. The first games did have stories, but the 3D era brought the ability to shoot a video game cutscene like you were shooting a movie. Nowadays, Rockstar is famous for how movie-like its games are, drawing from genres and styles throughout cinema. But this was a new thing in 2001, and “GTA III” was one of the earliest movie-like games that had powerful drama, a cohesive story, and serious character beats in amongst all the wacky, destructive gameplay. Like other “GTA” games, Claude finds himself working for a variety of criminals and shady characters, exploring the underbelly of Liberty City in gloriously grimy 3D. The story and the graphics, which were some of the best around at the time, as well as the gameplay itself, coalesced to make “GTA III” the critically lauded title we remember it as.
It was widely acclaimed by anybody who had an opinion about video games as one of the most innovative, breath-taking, and fun games to ever hit the PS2 – and when the PS2 remains the best-selling video game console ever, that’s high praise. And though “GTA III” wasn’t as mature as the movies it was paying homage to, it was still a watershed moment in gaming; video games were here to tell important stories about the modern world, and they were here to stay.
“GTA III’s” legacy is profoundly felt in many triple-A games today. Rockstar’s open worlds are some of the best in the business beyond “Grand Theft Auto”; we definitely wouldn’t have the outstanding world of “Red Dead Redemption II” without Liberty City first. But its influences are more niche than that: there’s an entire sub-genre of destructive, open-world games about criminals and car chases, often amazing games in their own right. The likes of “Saints Row”, “Mafia”, and “Sleeping Dogs” stand out as titans in the genre, and “GTA III” had to walk so that all of those games could run, whether they were made by Rockstar or not. And most of these games probably weren’t made by Rockstar because Rockstar today doesn’t release games anywhere near as frequently as it did in the 2000s. Instead, another giant video game company has taken on the mantle of churning out open-world releases: Ubisoft.
This is where “GTA III’s” legacy takes a turn, because most people are getting sick of Ubisoft’s sprawling, bloated, open-world games, many of which borrow directly from “GTA” but aren’t half as good, like “Watch Dogs”. Though Ubisoft’s desire to keep making open-world games can be traced back to the success of “Far Cry 3” in 2012, the formula still wouldn’t exist without “Grand Theft Auto III”. When a huge number of games now take the idea of an open world for granted and assume it’s something they need to have regardless of if it’s done well, you might begin to wonder whether “GTA III” changed things for better or for worse.
And its influence is felt outside of video games, too, particularly in the endless cultural debate over whether video games cause violent behavior. Many people, both within and without the industry, thought the game was crude, offensive, over-the-top, and any number of other complaints because of its gruesome and occasionally lewd content. But frustrating as the “violent video games” debate is for gamers, the controversies that have plagued “Grand Theft Auto” from the beginning, including “III”, have led to research proving time and time again that the link does not exist. Video games don’t cause violent behavior, and in fact, it’s even been suggested that video games like “GTA” encourage people to stay indoors and play games instead of going out and committing crimes. But if people hadn’t accused “GTA III” of causing real-world harm, it never would have been proven that it doesn’t.
“Grand Theft Auto III” may have caused offense when it came out and spawned an abundance of inferior copycats, but it remains a technical achievement like no other. Admittedly it doesn’t hold up as well as “Vice City” and “San Andreas”, but it laid the groundwork for those games and hundreds more to become so popular and successful. That’s why “GTA III” changed everything.
Game Changers: Grand Theft Auto III
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at another installment of “Game Changers”, the series where we discuss the video games that changed everything.
Today, we’ll be talking about “Grand Theft Auto III”. The first fully 3D game in the franchise, “GTA III” wrote the book on what it means to be an open-world game; but how did it do this?
The first two “GTA” games were revolutionary in their own way, particularly the first one. A glitch in the code for a cops and robbers prototype game originally called “Race’n’Chase” made the cops relentlessly pursue the player, a formula so fun it created “Grand Theft Auto”, one of gaming’s most enduring franchises. And the cops aren’t the only thing in that game that have become series hallmarks. It introduced all the core locations – Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas – while its expansions, set in 1960’s London, explored Rockstar’s ability to write period pieces. But pioneering as the first two games were, they don’t have anything on “GTA III”; this was a game so revolutionary that its effects are still widely felt throughout the entire industry, pioneering the brand-new genre of video games.
What the true first open-world game was is up for debate, but when we think about modern game design, we have “GTA III” to thank. Large, sandbox environments; detailed maps; destructible assets; a wide variety of missions; and a cinematic story are all traits that still exist across contemporary open-world games that have their origins in “GTA III”, which did all of those things at once in a way no other game had before. You could go out into a fully rendered, 3D environment to blow up cars and wipe out whole streets of pedestrians. It was destruction on an unprecedented scale, and something often taken for granted in modern games.
It was also incredibly cinematic. The first games did have stories, but the 3D era brought the ability to shoot a video game cutscene like you were shooting a movie. Nowadays, Rockstar is famous for how movie-like its games are, drawing from genres and styles throughout cinema. But this was a new thing in 2001, and “GTA III” was one of the earliest movie-like games that had powerful drama, a cohesive story, and serious character beats in amongst all the wacky, destructive gameplay. Like other “GTA” games, Claude finds himself working for a variety of criminals and shady characters, exploring the underbelly of Liberty City in gloriously grimy 3D. The story and the graphics, which were some of the best around at the time, as well as the gameplay itself, coalesced to make “GTA III” the critically lauded title we remember it as.
It was widely acclaimed by anybody who had an opinion about video games as one of the most innovative, breath-taking, and fun games to ever hit the PS2 – and when the PS2 remains the best-selling video game console ever, that’s high praise. And though “GTA III” wasn’t as mature as the movies it was paying homage to, it was still a watershed moment in gaming; video games were here to tell important stories about the modern world, and they were here to stay.
“GTA III’s” legacy is profoundly felt in many triple-A games today. Rockstar’s open worlds are some of the best in the business beyond “Grand Theft Auto”; we definitely wouldn’t have the outstanding world of “Red Dead Redemption II” without Liberty City first. But its influences are more niche than that: there’s an entire sub-genre of destructive, open-world games about criminals and car chases, often amazing games in their own right. The likes of “Saints Row”, “Mafia”, and “Sleeping Dogs” stand out as titans in the genre, and “GTA III” had to walk so that all of those games could run, whether they were made by Rockstar or not. And most of these games probably weren’t made by Rockstar because Rockstar today doesn’t release games anywhere near as frequently as it did in the 2000s. Instead, another giant video game company has taken on the mantle of churning out open-world releases: Ubisoft.
This is where “GTA III’s” legacy takes a turn, because most people are getting sick of Ubisoft’s sprawling, bloated, open-world games, many of which borrow directly from “GTA” but aren’t half as good, like “Watch Dogs”. Though Ubisoft’s desire to keep making open-world games can be traced back to the success of “Far Cry 3” in 2012, the formula still wouldn’t exist without “Grand Theft Auto III”. When a huge number of games now take the idea of an open world for granted and assume it’s something they need to have regardless of if it’s done well, you might begin to wonder whether “GTA III” changed things for better or for worse.
And its influence is felt outside of video games, too, particularly in the endless cultural debate over whether video games cause violent behavior. Many people, both within and without the industry, thought the game was crude, offensive, over-the-top, and any number of other complaints because of its gruesome and occasionally lewd content. But frustrating as the “violent video games” debate is for gamers, the controversies that have plagued “Grand Theft Auto” from the beginning, including “III”, have led to research proving time and time again that the link does not exist. Video games don’t cause violent behavior, and in fact, it’s even been suggested that video games like “GTA” encourage people to stay indoors and play games instead of going out and committing crimes. But if people hadn’t accused “GTA III” of causing real-world harm, it never would have been proven that it doesn’t.
“Grand Theft Auto III” may have caused offense when it came out and spawned an abundance of inferior copycats, but it remains a technical achievement like no other. Admittedly it doesn’t hold up as well as “Vice City” and “San Andreas”, but it laid the groundwork for those games and hundreds more to become so popular and successful. That’s why “GTA III” changed everything.
