In fact, it was with Grand Theft Auto 3, released by DMA Design in 2001 for the PlayStation 2, and released in 2002 in the PC version (in the same year, the studio became known as Rockstar North), that the history of modern GTA, as players know it, begins.

After the “flat” GTA and GTA 2, this game is made in 3D graphics, progressive for its time (using the RenderWare game engine), and provides unprecedented freedom of action. The success of the game was obvious: many specialized publications chose GTA 3 as “game of the year,” and it continues to be found in various lists of the most significant projects for the computer gaming industry.

GTA 3 contributed to the creation of many sequels, which turned out, perhaps, no worse than the original; many games have been made (and are being made now) that have absorbed the main features of the famous genre — freedom of movement across a large location (in this game this location is a decent-sized city), the ability to complete main and side tasks in a not so strict order, a mixture genres (shooter, car simulator)... Nowadays this style of gameplay is called a “sandbox” or an “open world game”. It must be said that GTA 3 was not the first game of this type, but it became one of the most popular. The love of players for GTA 3 has led to the fact that many amateur modifications have been developed for it: players replace old cars with new ones, edit parameters, change weapons and the appearance of the city.

The original GTA 3 is still in demand. In 2004, the developers released a version for Xbox (it was published in conjunction with GTA Vice City, adapted for Xbox, in a collection called GTA Double Pack): the version for Xbox differed from the others in having better textures and some other improvements (by the way, all these improvements later were transferred by fans to the PC version in mod format). In 2010, the game was released on Mac computers, and in 2011, in honor of the tenth anniversary of its release, GTA 3 was released on smartphones and tablets.

The setting of GTA 3 is Liberty City, created with New York in mind. Liberty is divided into two islands — Portland Island and Staunton Island; The city's location also affects the mainland, called the Shoreside Vale. Each of the three parts of the city is very different from each other in architecture, accessible transport, and criminal groups that control certain areas. Communication between parts of the city is carried out using hanging bridges, metro and underground road tunnels.

The time period for GTA 3 is considered to be 2001, that is, the same time when the game was released. The main character is a silent criminal named Claude (his name is never mentioned in the game itself). He is arrested and convicted while attempting to rob a bank. His accomplice, a girl named Catalina, set him up, leaving him after the robbery. While transporting prisoners, a police motorcade is attacked. Taking this opportunity, Claude and another prisoner named Eight-ball (8-ball) escape. They find a squalid room in one of the poor areas, which becomes Claude's first refuge in this gloomy city.

As the game progresses, Claude will have to meet many other criminals, including crime bosses of different statuses and ranks. It is noteworthy that many GTA 3 characters appeared in one way or another in subsequent games in the series: Toni Cipriani, one of the members of the Leone family who gives tasks to Claude, is the main character in GTA Liberty City Stories; Catalina, who betrayed Claude, appears as a minor character in GTA San Andreas, as well as Claude himself, who appears in several videos for an extremely short period of time.

It was from San Andreas that players learned the name of the hero, although this same fact contributed to the emergence of other doubts: is Claude from GTA 3 the same Claude Speed who was the main character of GTA 2? In response to questions from players, a developer from Rocktar noted: “Claude’s last name may or may not be Speed.”

As mentioned above, the genre in which GTA 3 is made, or rather a mixture of genres, involves freedom of movement throughout a large location (by the way, for the first time in the series, smooth changes in the time of day and dynamic changes in weather were implemented) and the completion of various tasks that are given to the main secondary characters to the hero. In addition to the main tasks that advance the plot, the game has many additional and optional missions, such as the opportunity to work part-time as a taxi driver.

Moving around the location is carried out not only with the help of your feet, but also on cars (there are as many as 50 of them in the game) and boats (four of them). There is also one plane in the game, which, according to the developers' answers, was made more as a joke; When creating a game about cars and shootouts, the authors did not think that players would be seriously interested in a flying vehicle.

Motorcycles, bicycles, and helicopters appeared in the following parts, but it is noteworthy that fans tried to implement this transport in GTA 3 on their own.

An impressively sized set of weapons allows you to effectively shoot members of enemy groups, or, if anyone prefers, ordinary residents. Moreover, this is the only part of GTA in which dismemberment of bodies is implemented — arms and legs fly off from people in a cartoonish way when Claude fires at them with a gun. This is not to mention the fact that in GTA 3 a player can freely, having stolen a car from a civilian or not so civilian, rush along the sidewalk, knocking down all passers-by on his way. Nowadays you don’t see anyone using such violence in games, and it’s not clear whether it’s good or rather bad, but at one time this game caused a lot of hype and scandals, the Rockstar company generally tried to create a scandalous image for itself.

It was rumored that some things from GTA 3 were cut, and this is true — each game at different stages of creation is deprived of interesting and not so interesting developments, but not all known data about cut content corresponds to the truth. For example, one of the characters cut from the final version, a homeless man named Darkell, allegedly gave Claude the task of dropping a bomb on the stadium; However, in the final version, this episode, along with Darkell himself, was cut due to the September 11 terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, debunking rumors in a recent interview, the developers said that the game has remained virtually unchanged since the terrorist attack, and many of the legends that have developed around it are nothing more than legends. Meanwhile, it should be noted that there are also quite a few real secrets in the game.

Players may or may not like GTA 3, may know little about it and treat it with indifference, but there is no denying the fact that it was GTA 3 that gave a huge boost to the entire series of games, allowing Rockstar to take its place as one of the largest and most influential companies in the gaming industry.

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