Grand Theft Auto (video game)

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a computer and video game created by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and published by ASC Games in 1998. It is the first Grand Theft Auto game released, and is part of a series that would span seven standalone games, and two expansion packs for the original. See Grand Theft Auto (series) for more on the series and other games in it.

The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who can roam around the city freely. Various missions are set for completion, such as bank robberies, assassinations, and other crimes.

Gameplay

The original Grand Theft Auto is made up of a series of levels each set in one of the three cities in the game. In each level, the player has a target number of points to achieve, and five lives to attain the score.

The score counter doubles as a money meter; the player can spend this money on paint jobs and various other things. However, any money spent is of course taken away from the score, making the goal that little bit further away.

On obtaining the target number of points, the player must then drive to a certain location to complete the level, which allows progress to the next one.

Apart from that, the player is free to do whatever he wants. The player can just explore the city, cause death and destruction amid the traffic in the city, or steal and sell cars for profit, although completing a level will almost certainly require the completion of missions. Even in missions there is still some freedom, as usually the player is free to choose the route to take, although the destination is usually fixed. This level of freedom is not found in most action-based computer games.

Earning points

There are various ways in which to earn the points needed to complete each level.

Some points can be earned by committing various crimes, such as ramming cars (10 points each), and killing policemen (1000 each). The more serious the crime, the more points earned. More serious crimes attract the police faster. Another way to make money is to steal cars, and sell them at the many docks around each city. This will usually earn the player several thousand points.

These activities can give the player quite a number of points, but are very insufficiant compared to the millions of points needed to complete each level (unless the player has a lot of patience). Therefore, it is necessary to take on missions that complete a level. On successful completion of a mission, the player gets 'paid', a large amount of points. A typical payment is in the region of 50,000 points.

Also, after completing a mission, the score multiplier is increased by 1. The score multiplier is multiplied by the normal score, to get the points actually awarded. For example, a multiplier of 3 will mean that if you kill a policeman, you earn 3,000 points instead of the normal 1,000. This applies for anything points are awarded for, including the payment for completing a mission.

In the Game Boy port, score multipliers are handled differently. The player can collect floating "X"s hidden in each city, that automatically add a multiplier to his score counter. The first time one is picked up it says "×2", the second time it says "×3", and so on. This only affects points gained after acquiring the multiplier. The points the player already has are unaffected, so it is in the player's best interests to seek the "X"s as soon as possible.

Locations

The three cities in which the game is set are modelled after real cities, in terms of landscape and style. They are Liberty City (New York City), San Andreas (San Francisco), and Vice City (Miami).

Those three cities later became the settings for the games Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, San Andreas and Liberty City Stories, although in the second-to-last, San Andreas is expanded from a city to an American state, which contains three cities and 12 smaller towns of its own: Los Santos (based on Los Angeles), San Fierro (based on San Francisco), Las Venturas (based on Las Vegas),and 12 small rural villages.

The missions

In most cases, missions are started by answering telephones, although some missions are allocated on the spot, or are triggered by entering certain vehicles. Once a phone is touched, the player is stuck doing that mission until he passes or fails it, but with the cars it is different. The player is told "I've got a new job for you, if you want it. Otherwise get the hell out of my car." He then has a few seconds to jump out before that mission begins.

The payphones all stop ringing while a player is on a phone mission, but the mission cars are still available. By accepting a mission car mission the player can override a phone mission (failing it but without a failure notice) and do that mission instead, but a phone mission cannot override a car mission as the phones stop ringing.

At the start of each mission, the player will be given a series of instructions he must follow. The instructions are given in stages, so the objectives can change in a given situation.

Many of the missions involve tasks that can be completed at the player's own pace, so the player can take a leisurely pace, and observe the traffic laws, although there is always a temptation to cut corners. However, sometimes the game imposes time limits on mission completion, or there may be people giving chase, such as enemy gangsters, or the police, forcing the player to cut corners, to get to the destination on time and/or evade the pursuers. This means running red lights, driving on the sidewalk (risking running over pedestrians), and finding shortcuts.

The police

Whilst the cities have other emergency services, as a criminal you are more likely to notice the local cops.

The police are constantly on the lookout for criminals. The player has a 'wanted' level, which reflects how much attention the police give him. At the start of the game this is at zero and the player is ignored, but when the player commits a serious crime, the police give the player more attention, and the wanted level increases, up to a maximum of four.

At wanted level one, the police tend only to give chase if they are in the area anyway, whereas at four, the police send everyone available to the player's location. At wanted levels of three and higher, the police set up roadblocks on major roads, manned by officers who shoot on sight (with pistols for a wanted level of three or machine guns for a wanted level of four). The more crimes the player commits, the higher the rating goes. Also, sometimes the player automatically gets noticed, if a mission leads to someone calling the police, or in the case of bank robberies that not surprisingly put the police on full alert.

The police's aim is in general to arrest the player, although they will not hesitate in shooting at him or trying to ram him off the road in the desperate attempt to stop the player, and they get more trigger happy the higher the wanted level. On arrest, the player is dropped off at the nearest police station, losing all his weapons and armour and half of his score multiplier, but the wanted level is reset back to zero.

The police are very determined to catch the player, but they can be evaded. Dotted around each city are a number of respray shops, where your vehicle can be resprayed, or have the license plates changed, to disguise it. This makes the police think you are someone else, even if they see you enter the shop, although this does cost money (i.e. points). The higher a player's wanted level, the more points it costs him to have his car re-sprayed or plates changed.

Pickups

In the game, there are a number of objects to pickup, that are contained in crates, and in fact this is where all the player's weapons are obtained.

Weapons

The Pistol is a rather uninspiring weapon, but it is the most readily available. It fires shots one at a time, and whilst it is good enough against individuals, is not very useful in destroying vehicles.

A Machine gun is quite a step up from the pistol, allowing rapid firing, and can destroy most cars in seconds. The availability of machine guns is more limited than pistols.

The Flamethrower is very destructive, and highly effective, but it only has a short range. If it is used to destroy cars, this short range means that there is more risk of being caught in the explosion. The advantage of the flamethrower is a tripling of the points that would normally be awarded for killing people and destroying cars. With the flamethrower you are able to fire over car wrecks, so you can use a car wreck as a shield against bullets.

The Rocket launcher is one of the most destructive weapons, that can destroy most vehicles in a single shot, as well as causing a large explosion that could kill more than just the original target. This can be a downside, as if the rocket accidentally hits something close to the player such as a pedestrian who walks into the line of fire at the wrong moment, the player can get caught in the explosion.

Body armor is not a weapon, but is very useful in combat. Normally being shot once is enough to kill the player, but body armour will protect from three shots before its protection wears out. On the Game Boy version, the body armor protects the player from a whopping ten shots.

Powerups

Some of the powerups are self-explanatory, such as the extra life and (bonus) multiplier increase. However, there are some more interesting bonuses, that deserve more of a mention:

The Police Bribe is useful if the police are looking for the player, as it reduces his wanted level to zero, in a similar manner to going to a respray shop, so they suddenly ignore him. However, once a Police Bribe has been picked up, it's gone forever, so the player has to weigh up the odds of taking it straight away for convenience or going all the way to a respray shop to save it for a later mission when they have greater need of it.

On picking up a Kill Frenzy (called a Rampage in later games), a timer starts counting down; the player must obtain a certain number of points within this time and is given a weapon to do this with. This encourages the player to cause carnage by blowing up cars and killing people, attracting the attention of the police. This increases the challenge, as the player has to avoid (or kill) the police while getting the points. Although killing the police earns more points than killing civilians, the police will then be after the player, and he may have a weapon, such as a rocket launcher, that is unsuitable for killing the police as they close in.

If the player is successful, he gets a monetary reward, and in addition his wanted level is reduced to zero, so the police ignore the player despite the incredible destruction he just caused. This provides an incentive to complete the challenge, particularly as failure will leave the player with whatever wanted level he had acquired, often quite a high one due to the killings and destruction usually involved in an attempted killing spree.

These missions sometimes provide the player with a vehicle to complete the frenzy. These include tanks, and trucks with remote control cars in them packed with explosives.

The Speed Up and Car speed up powerups are similar, in that the former allows the player to run faster, whilst the latter speeds up any cars the player drives. Both of these are therefore useful if the player is in a hurry, and as a secondary benefit will allow the player to complete the game faster. The Car speed up powerup does display one disadvantage - the cars, being far faster than usual, are harder to control and are more susceptible to damage with high-speed impacts, increasing the risk of the car exploding - with the player inside.

The Get Outta Jail Card, unlike the other powerups, is not used immediately. Instead, it is used when the player is arrested, and means he keep any weapons carried, as well as the score multiplier.

Vehicles

In the game, there are a large number of vehicles, each with their own characteristics, from fast sports cars, to slow but resilient trucks. These can be stolen by throwing the occupant onto the street, or breaking into those that are parked. Some vehicles are also provided in missions, or hidden in various parts of each city. Also, each city has a train service, that allows players to quickly reach certain areas there.

Much of the traffic of each city consists of cars of various sorts. These vary considerably in speed. The more sensible cars are fairly slow, and have appropriate names such as the Bug. The sports cars however are much faster, and have names like Jugular which reflect their more adventurous nature. These are more suitable for high speed chases, whereas the slower cars are more suited to missions with no time-limit. Vans are also similar to cars as well, although they usually are at the slower end of the scale.

Some of the vehicles are longer and more unwieldy than cars. These include limousines, buses and coaches, but the biggest of these is the tanker truck. Due to their bulk each one takes a long time to speed up, or slow down, and they have similar difficulties in turning, having a wider turning radius. This bulk also gives such vehicles more pushing power, making them ideal for ramming cars out of the way, and also makes them very difficult to ram. They also tend to be more resilient, taking more damage before they are destroyed.

In contrast, motorbikes are small and much more maneuverable, with a smaller turning circle, and are able to speed up and slow down very quickly. They also tend to have high top speeds. Their lack of bulk, however, means that they are more vulnerable. They can take less damage, and are easier to ram, whilst having very little ramming power of their own, and a violent enough collision can throw the player off the bike (in the Game Boy version the player was never thrown off the bike).

Some vehicles, however, such as ones given for missions, may be more sensitive to damage, such as ones loaded with explosives.

The emergency services also have vehicles, that can be stolen. Fire engines are large vehicles, similar in handling to tankers. They are called out whenever there is a fire, usually as a result of an explosion. Ambulances are similar to small vans, and are called out in the case of someone being injured. Both of these are frequently the result of the player's actions. Finally the police in their squad cars are called out to chase criminals, the player in particular. Unlike other drivers, the police cannot be simply thrown out of their vehicles, but their cars can be stolen if their drivers are killed or lured out of their vehicles. None of these vehicles can have their plates changed to reset the wanted level.

One exception to this is the tank. This, as would be expected, can simply drive over other vehicles on the road, and cannot be rammed by other vehicles. It can take a lot of damage before being destroyed, although it isn't quite invincible. Tanks are very rare, and are usually hidden, on levels that have them.

Ports

The original Grand Theft Auto was first available for DOS, and then later ported to Microsoft Windows, Sony PlayStation, and Game Boy Color. Surprisingly, the Game Boy Color version was unabridged, which was quite a technical achievement due to the sheer size of the cities, converted tile-for-tile from the PC original, making them many times larger than most Game Boy Color game worlds were because of the handheld's limited hardware. To cater for the target younger generation, however, the game was heavily censored, with gore and swearing removed.

Controversy

The game, with its violent subject matter, generated a great deal of controversy. However, this was deemed to be intentional, and was the first game known to have been publicised in such a way. Take 2 Games, the publishers of Grand Theft Auto, hired publicist Max Clifford to generate an aura of controversy about the game in the local media. As a result, politicians stepped into the foray. Whatever the impact on game censorship and the perception of video gaming, the publicity worked - the title was hugely successful simply because those attempting to ban the game were inadvertently generating publicity for it. This has been a known and recognised phenomenon of violent video games ever since.

Miscellanea

One of the hidden Easter eggs in the game is the now famous "Gouranga" bonus, given for swiftly killing an entire group of Hare Krishna monks.
The parts of the cities are based on their real-life counterparts, such as Liberty City's neighborhoods. There are neighborhoods like the Brix, which is based on The Bronx, and Brocklyn, based on Brooklyn. Vice City has a similar setup, featuring districts such as Vice Beach and Banana Grove, which are based on Miami Beach and Coconut Grove.
El Burro, the man players would take missions from in the second part of the San Andreas missions, also appears in Grand Theft Auto III. He is the man that provides jobs in Portland island, Liberty City, and is the leader of the Puerto Rican Diablos gang.
Head Radio is one (if not the only) original station in the game to remain featured in the Grand Theft Auto series. Aside the original GTA, and it was also a station in Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto III and Liberty City Stories.
The Track "Grand Theft Auto" has been featured on Lips 106 in Grand Theft Auto III and is also the tune that you hear in Vice City after the Commodore 64-style computer boots up.

Footnotes

The name Jugular is the game's take on the Jaguar. Quite a few of the cars have such names, such as the Bug, a name based on the VW Beetle, and the Mundaneo, a take on the Ford Mondeo but giving a sense of it being "mundane". Also the "Cossie", which was a performance car inspired by the Escort Cosworth with its whaletail spoiler.

External links

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