Grand Theft Auto Double Pack
Two of the best games on the PlayStation 2 for less than the price of one crappy one? Um, yes please. Now with over 80 super-tasty images!
Published: November 29, 2003
This review won't be like any other on the site. If you're interested in knowing what we'd give the whole package, it's a 9.7 - the average of the scores from the first two games. That's the short answer and it should be obvious that if you don't have either one of these games, this is the PS2 purchase you should be making. Even if you have one, you can give/sell it to a friend for $20 and break even.
That said, I honestly thought there was going to be nothing more to this review than a simple "buy these games now" endorsement. That is most certainly my final verdict, so unless you're interested in the ramblings of a superfan, take this, my as-yet-unclouded recommendation: without these games, there isn't a single PlayStation 2 library that's truly complete.
Now about those ramblings... Quite a bit has happened in the past few years since the release of Grand Theft Auto III, arguably one of the most groundbreaking games in the history of videogames. I really do mean that, the new ground that the game broke, and the way it helped forge the way for the confluence of genres and blending of gameplay styles that seems to have infected nearly every new game released can't be understated. It opened doors probably no other game made any other developer could have really pulled off.
Before I really launch into why GTAIII is such a fantastic game, know that I'm still rather pissed about the way Vice City was handled. Is it a bigger game? Does it have more story, does it introduce more characters and offer more variety than GTAIII? Yep, absolutely, but one of the key things that should define a sequel and not an add-on or expansion pack is that the mistakes from the previous game are taken care of, and Vice City, as great as it is, doesn't fix some of the minor nagging problems that all those hardcore players that really embraced the first full 3D GTA game's world expected to have fixed.
There's more I could say, but it's already been said in my IGN Insider article back near the release of Vice City, and there's no need to rehash anything. So instead I'll focus on why the pair - and especially GTA III - are such must-have games. The one thing that Rockstar North does with these games that all the biters and copycats can't is they create an entire world first and thenthrow you into it, rather than trying to build a world around a character or event. When you have this world - especially in the case of GTAIII where multiple forms of media, including actual web sites, were used heavily - a world that's entirely self-contained and endlessly self-referential, you can't help but feel like a part of it.
That's really the key to these games' attraction. Because you hear about a commercial on the radio station that refers to a place that you'll visit in a mission in a few hours or advertisements for products you'll hear referenced by characters and on the radio, small subconscious seeds are being planted. By referencing these things in subtle ways, this artificial world and its contents are slowly being built up all around you, and the result is a game that sucks you in like no other.
From the music (for my money, the more original stuff in GTAIII is just as good as the licensed tracks in VC) to the voice acting to the expansiveness of the world to all the little hidden goodies, the Grand Theft Auto games are without peer for a very good reason: The developers know what they're doing. They might screw up a bit and rush things out the door, but they're infinitely capable of creating a game and indeed a whole digital world that's effortless to slip into and near impossible to forget.
I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to replay these games again (and I did, both of them, before attempting a review and then realizing a couple 1000-word rewrites later that I'd pretty much said everything I needed to in either the GTA III or Vice City reviews already up on the site). Being forced (well, lightly coaxed is perhaps more fitting) to replay the games again really helped cement the fact that these games will stand the test of time. After hundreds of games I've played through since the release of GTAIII, it's still the one that's easiest to pick up and just run around for a while causing mayhem. I truly do believe that these games are priceless, and they'll go down in history as some of the most influential and important releases in the videogames timeline. I'm hoping that 5 or 10 years from now, there will still be developers willing to come back and get a little inspiration from the world that Rockstar North built. I'm fairly certain I will.
That said, I honestly thought there was going to be nothing more to this review than a simple "buy these games now" endorsement. That is most certainly my final verdict, so unless you're interested in the ramblings of a superfan, take this, my as-yet-unclouded recommendation: without these games, there isn't a single PlayStation 2 library that's truly complete.
Now about those ramblings... Quite a bit has happened in the past few years since the release of Grand Theft Auto III, arguably one of the most groundbreaking games in the history of videogames. I really do mean that, the new ground that the game broke, and the way it helped forge the way for the confluence of genres and blending of gameplay styles that seems to have infected nearly every new game released can't be understated. It opened doors probably no other game made any other developer could have really pulled off.
Before I really launch into why GTAIII is such a fantastic game, know that I'm still rather pissed about the way Vice City was handled. Is it a bigger game? Does it have more story, does it introduce more characters and offer more variety than GTAIII? Yep, absolutely, but one of the key things that should define a sequel and not an add-on or expansion pack is that the mistakes from the previous game are taken care of, and Vice City, as great as it is, doesn't fix some of the minor nagging problems that all those hardcore players that really embraced the first full 3D GTA game's world expected to have fixed.
There's more I could say, but it's already been said in my IGN Insider article back near the release of Vice City, and there's no need to rehash anything. So instead I'll focus on why the pair - and especially GTA III - are such must-have games. The one thing that Rockstar North does with these games that all the biters and copycats can't is they create an entire world first and thenthrow you into it, rather than trying to build a world around a character or event. When you have this world - especially in the case of GTAIII where multiple forms of media, including actual web sites, were used heavily - a world that's entirely self-contained and endlessly self-referential, you can't help but feel like a part of it.
That's really the key to these games' attraction. Because you hear about a commercial on the radio station that refers to a place that you'll visit in a mission in a few hours or advertisements for products you'll hear referenced by characters and on the radio, small subconscious seeds are being planted. By referencing these things in subtle ways, this artificial world and its contents are slowly being built up all around you, and the result is a game that sucks you in like no other.
From the music (for my money, the more original stuff in GTAIII is just as good as the licensed tracks in VC) to the voice acting to the expansiveness of the world to all the little hidden goodies, the Grand Theft Auto games are without peer for a very good reason: The developers know what they're doing. They might screw up a bit and rush things out the door, but they're infinitely capable of creating a game and indeed a whole digital world that's effortless to slip into and near impossible to forget.
I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to replay these games again (and I did, both of them, before attempting a review and then realizing a couple 1000-word rewrites later that I'd pretty much said everything I needed to in either the GTA III or Vice City reviews already up on the site). Being forced (well, lightly coaxed is perhaps more fitting) to replay the games again really helped cement the fact that these games will stand the test of time. After hundreds of games I've played through since the release of GTAIII, it's still the one that's easiest to pick up and just run around for a while causing mayhem. I truly do believe that these games are priceless, and they'll go down in history as some of the most influential and important releases in the videogames timeline. I'm hoping that 5 or 10 years from now, there will still be developers willing to come back and get a little inspiration from the world that Rockstar North built. I'm fairly certain I will.
