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Grand Theft Auto III ps2 Game Reviews
Grand Theft Auto III
Critic Score
Metascore: 97 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.6 out of 10
based on 56 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 264 votes
Read user comments
Rate this game

Players are put at the heart of their very own gangster movie, and let loose in a fully-realised 3 dimensional city with a cast of hundreds, 50 plus vehicles, ranging from sports cars to ice cream trucks and from boats to buses, 3 hours of music, including opera, reggae, house, drum and bass, pop and disco, and a huge array of street ready weapons. [Rockstar Games]

PUBLISHER: Rockstar Games
DEVELOPER: DMA Design
GENRE(S): Action
PLAYERS: 1
ESRB RATING: M (Mature)
RELEASE DATE: October 23, 2001

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Into Liquid Sky
An insanely deep game that offers a lot to do outside of the 70+ missions. If you understand that it's just a game and that these selfsame actions are not healthy in the real world, you'll enjoy a well-developed world disguised as a deviously fun game.
Read Full Review
100
EuroGamer
A luscious, sprawling epic of a game and one of the most complete experiences I have ever encountered. If this is what I've waited a year to see on my PS2, then I would have waited ten. Magnificent.
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100
Hot Games
If a copy of dis game should happen to fall off a truck somewheres in yas naybahood, pick it up. It's an offer you shouldn't refuse, capice?
100
Maxim Online
It's lacking any social conscience but loaded with replay value, so it'd be very disrespectful to leave this one out of your collection.
Read Full Review
100
Game Chronicles
By far the best game you could ever get for your PS2. This game is reason enough to buy a PS2 even if you never buy another game. Sure, it's dark and dirty, and maybe even a bit evil, but we’re all consenting adults here.
Read Full Review
100
AceGamez
An amazingly huge, free-roaming, entertaining game that will last you for ages and is a must-have for everyone old enough to own it.
Read Full Review
100
GamePro
Greatly improved in GTAIII is the stunning visual and sound package.
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100
Cinescape
Liberty City looks phenomenal and there's plenty of life and atmosphere that impresses. The different textures, solid framerate and incredible diversity make this one of the most impressive PS2 games yet.
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100
Games Radar UK (Pre-2006)
Almost immediately after your first play you'll realise that underneath the cloak of controversy that will forever shadow GTA3 sits a truly special, groundbreaking and brilliant game. You'll love it.
Read Full Review
100
GameShark
So good I have no idea where to start. The graphics? Superb. The music/sounds? Perfect. Is it fun? Hell yes...To be quite honest, this is the most interesting and fun game I have ever played.
Read Full Review
100
PSX Nation
Simply put, Grand Theft Auto III is the best game to be released in the past two years. Possibly the best to be released in the past ten.
Read Full Review
100
Game Revolution
Just about the best game yet released on the system and one of the most impressive console titles we've ever seen. And I ain't blowing smoke up your tailpipe.
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100
Play Magazine
Freedom is the name of this game, featuring a downtown playscape so massively intricate that players can literally do whatever they want, whenever they want. [Feb 2002, p.58]
100
Official U.S. Playstation Magazine
The most innovative, outlandish, brilliant video game I've ever seen. [Jan 2002, p.126]
100
GamePen
The voice acting is simply amazing. Unlike most video games, much of the voice acting is done by fairly famous names, including Joe Pantoliano, Michael Rapaport, Kyle MacLachlan... Each delivers some of the best voice acting found in anything animated, let alone video games.
100
All Game Guide
From the eight professional-style radio stations to the variety of mission objectives and hidden goodies, GTA III is packed with high production values and oozing with addictive gameplay.
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100
Total Video Games
One of the best videogames experience we've had in a very long time. It’s not about the blood, or being able to indulge in illegal activities, although amusing, the simple fact is that GTA3 is so playable.
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100
Adrenaline Vault
In what could be billed as "the complete criminal experience" this game delivers in every category with jaw dropping graphics, stunning sound effects, a unique musical score that's presented with countless hilarious commercials through your car's radio, and a relentless AI that will hunt you down whenever warranted.
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100
Core Magazine
The incredible versatility of the gameplay, coupled with stellar sound and visuals, make this game nothing less than sheer bliss on a DVD.
Read Full Review
100
FHM
Incredibly addictive.
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100
Yahoo! Games
It's funny, well built and almost flawless in terms of game-destroying problems.
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100
Cheat Code Central
With almost unlimited possibilities, a winning story, funny moments (even if a little dark or mature), easy on the eyes graphics, and a kickin' soundtrack, how can anyone argue with this title? It stands tall among the great legends.
100
Gaming Age
Silent Hill 2, ICO, Devil May Cry, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 are all must have titles in their own right, but with that said, I've had the most pure, unadulterated fun with Grand Theft Auto III than any other title this year.
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100
G4 TV
An amazing experience, resulting in a classic crime drama on par with "Heat," "Goodfellas," or "Casino."
Read Full Review
99
Gaming Maxx
From the moment I tried out this game I was hooked. This game is all it's cracked up to be.
Read Full Review
98
TotalGames.net
A remarkable achievement of proportions we never imagined possible. It has single-handedly changed the way we see all videogame entertainment and the repercussions it should have for the industry are staggering. In one fell swoop your entire games collection has become obsolete, all other games seeming pathetic attempts to waste your time.
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98
Game Over Online
A masterpiece on so many different levels, and this review is barely able to convey my sheer respect for this game.
Read Full Review
98
netjak
Expect dozens of hours in the game, with an almost endless replay value.
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98
Voodoo Extreme
The end-all, be-all of console action games. Period...For me GTA3 is the best action game I have ever played on a console system and I highly recommend it to adults (the intended audience of this game) who know the difference between good and evil.
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97
PSX Extreme
The gameplay is absolutely phenomenal, as this is single-handedly one of the most environmentally open games since "Midnight Club" and "ATV: Offroad Fury."
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97
GamingTrend
This is game design at it’s best.
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97
TotalPlayStation
This game is the absolute personification of what free-roaming means. You can do damn near anything you want, and more often than not you'll be rewarded for it. Sounds fun, doesn't it?
Read Full Review
96
IGN
A massive scale operation that just gets better and better as players dig into it, even though its gets ridiculously difficult at points.
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96
GameSpot
While the violent nature of the game will surely turn some people off and kids simply shouldn't be allowed anywhere near it, GTA III is, quite simply, an incredible experience that shouldn't be missed by anyone mature enough to handle it.
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96
GamingWorld X
I did like the variety of the characters, yet I wished that there could have been more of a variety.
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95
Game Informer
The environments of Liberty City are stunning in scope and detail, dwarfing anything I've ever seen, and your choices are endless. [Dec 2001, p.87]
95
GamerWeb Sony
A pint of blood, a teaspoon of decapitation, and a helluva lot of violence makes the perfect evil action game.
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95
Gamers' Temple
A benchmark game that future games will both try to imitate and be judged against as well.
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95
GameCritics
The greatest part of GTA3's open-ended nature is the choice to conduct your character as you want. Feeling good? It's possible to complete the game without harming one innocent person. Feeling bad? Hell, my game's body count statistic just passed one thousand.
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95
Playboy
You don't know the meaning of the word surreal until you've stood in the rain, beating a pimp to death while opera music provides an eerie chorus.
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95
Happy Puppy
From the music on the radio to the individual sub-missions that make up a large part of the game, GTA3 pulls it off with amazing ease.
94
AtomicGamer
Multiplayer modes would have made this game even better, but it seems Rockstar Studios didn't find it worth the time it'd have taken to finish it (plus, there's the chance they're planning a whole separate multiplayer GTA game for later). Despite its problems and lack of multiplayer, GTA3 is a wonderful title that'll keep you whacking gangsters and cops for weeks.
Read Full Review
94
Inside Gamer Online
One of the greatest games of all time. Although there will be many political battles over this game for a long time, Grand Theft Auto 3 won’t be pulled from shelves.
Read Full Review
94
Absolute Playstation
The control is infallible.
Read Full Review
94
Electric Playground
Rockstar Games has done the unthinkable, turning murderous greed into an honest to God art form with Grand Theft Auto 3.
Read Full Review
94
GameSpy
A fantastically designed and fun game that’s one of the most absorbing, entertaining titles released in a while. It gets better and better with every single day, as you continue discovering new little features here and there.
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93
Electronic Gaming Monthly
GTA3 gives you the freedom to do enough to fill 10 games. [Jan 2002, p.206]
90
DarkStation
After a while it can get tedious, but while it lasts it is excellent to play before going out before you feel the need to go back to something like FIFA or Bust A Move.
Read Full Review
90
Armchair Empire
A technical masterpiece...One of the most impressive aspects of the game is the sheer massive geographical completeness of the environment combined with the overall sense of freedom and open-ended goodness.
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90
Gamestyle
The handling is excellent whether you are driving or on foot, the dual shock controller and control system sit nicely in your hands and the whole thing feels natural.
Read Full Review
90
Gamers Europe
The game is completely open, and apart from the first couple of compulsory missions, what you do is up to you.
Read Full Review
90
Cincinnati Enquirer
There are dozens of hours of gameplay here, with 80 main missions and countless optional side missions such as drag racing for extra cash or carjacking cabs.
Read Full Review
90
GMR Magazine
A phenom in terms of gameplay and sales. [Feb 2003, p.92]
88
Gamer's Pulse
The random beatings you can inflict on people always makes for a good laugh when you’re with friends, and the versatility of this game provides you with the best of all worlds.
Read Full Review
84
Gamezilla!
While the game certainly has a flair for the illegal, the graphics are just average. Characters all look underworldly, but they also look to remedial and blocky.
Read Full Review
80
Next Generation Magazine
Adding to the frustration is the fact that your targeting system is practically useless, and the vehicle physics model is annoyingly floaty. [Jan 2002, p.78]

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 264 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Matthew C. gave it a10:
I'm only 10 but i like all GTA games and this is the first GTA game i ever played and it's awesome!!!! I'm getting a PSP and GTA Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories for my birth day which is in less than 2 weeks. This is a Must have game!!!

Steve S gave it a10:
The fact is, GTA III is the video game equivalent of Nirvana's Nevermind. This is the one that broke the mold and changed the entire industry. Love it or hate it, you have to appreciate the fact that GTA III is just as important as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Pac-Man or Space Invaders.

Tim G gave it a10:
Who cares about the controversy?!?!?! Get to grips DASHEL J its a game and probably the bet I've ever played on so stop whining!!!

Jesus C. gave it a7:
It's a decent game, but it's also a little stale a little more than 4 hours in.

Dashel J. gave it a3:
Grand Theft Auto III and its successors comprise the worst examples of controversy mistaken for ingenuity that the gaming industry has ever seen. If you block out the hype and the imbecilic reviews in an honest attempt to judge this game for what it is worth, you would surely arrive at a score no more than 2 or 3 points higher than the one I have submitted. Beyond the initial draw of 'something unexpected' and the occasional recurrence of a shamefully base desire to clumsily, chaotically, and downright ridiculously murder heaps of random clones wandering the drab streets of Liberty City, I can think of nothing worthy of praise in this over-inflated piece of trash.

Akeem G. gave it a10:
Out of all the grand theft auto games that have been made this one has the best atmosphere. Staunton, Portland, and Shoreside Vale are still the best places to be out of all of the grand theft auto games.Another couple of things that makes this the best grand theft auto is the fast paced action that goes on when you decide to go beserk on the cops.The cops in this game are more ruthless than any other cops in any other grand theft auto game, hearing them yell stuff like GET DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!! at you all the time really makes you excited.Plain and simply said,this is the most fun grand theft auto game around,I just wish that there wre some hunter helicopters and army Jets to fly though.

John S. gave it an8:
This game is pretty good, but not perfect. Good use of open-endedness though. Cool Am Ivan, there is no Boggsville. Theres a ghost area that was used for the opening act of GTA 3, but it isnt solid and can be gotten there by dodo going north of shorside vale. There is no blacksmith and no swords and no boss battle there. Don't believe this liar. And the game doesn't suck, either.

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