Grand Theft Auto 3 lets you explore the fully realised universe that is Liberty City, and complete gangland missions. You can steal any car you see, from sports cars to taxis, and even boats. There are over a dozen ways to take out other characters, including fist-fighting, baseball bat, handgun, Uzi, rocket launcher, and Molotov cocktail. The game world has unpredictable weather, a variety of pedestrian types who act in unique ways, changing times of day and night, and a multi-tiered, fully corrupt police force. The revenge plot offers strong story elements that are balanced with the game's non-linear freedom-of-movement.
Finally! Gangs in gta 3 are so annoying! Shootting everywhere you go just ruins atmosphere. You're always hearing gunshots, people are always running in panic, your car's always smoking (especially in Portland -- they just blow it, you can't go there at all). Damn it's like a warzone, not a city. Finally a solution!
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This does fix a fatal flaw with gta3. How once you complete the story driving around the city becomes really hard to do because every gang seemingly hates you. Vice City didn't have this problem outside of Little Havana. And GTA San Andreas turned it into a fleshed out game mechanic. I'd love to see a gang warfare system modded into GTA3 some day.