Grand Theft Auto GBA Review (no fat)

Game Description

Vinnie and you (Mike) are escaping Liberty City with money, leaving all the crime behind, but tragically Vinnie dies of a car bomb. You set out seeking revenge for Vinnie's death. With each mission, you take a small step towards the killers. You as a player see the story progressing through small scenes. Your ultimate aim is to avenge your friend’s demise.

Grand Theft Auto Gameplay

The gameplay involves running errands for dons. As you complete these missions you get a step closer to your friend’s killer. If you get bored with the main story line there are enough minimissions to keep you busy. Which include races, building-blowups, etc. You can also pursue a career as a policeman or a taxi driver, etc. Liberty City has 100 hidden packages in different locations. Every 10th package allots you a safe house where you can save your game.

There are all kinds of cars and trucks available for you to steal, every car handles differently, accelerates at different rates and can take a certain amount of damage. The physics in the game isn't too neatly balanced as cars the cars are prone to perform strange and unexpected acts. As a result, overall, the vehicles are hard to control.

The combat in the game is good though, and gives a genuine effect compared to the previous versions. If you run over a cop accidentally, nothing happens. But if you do it twice, you get two vigilant stars. To remove the stars you can simply go to the Paint shop, and soon your wanted level will vanish.

In the game menu there is a statistic window where you can find out interesting info like, miles walked and driven, being caught by cops, accomplished missions count, and much more. But the game save slot is only one, so you cannot have multi saves. Another drawback is that you have to go to your hideout every time to pick up more ammo for your weapons.

Grand Theft Auto Video

The game graphics are of good quality, but the briefings do not have animations of the character faces, so you just look at plain static faces talking to you. While the environment around is detailed, some parts lack detail and have a lot of scope of improvement.

Grand Theft Auto Sound

The sound effects in the game are acceptable, but the dialogues are mostly boring, the effective speech of the briefings is commendable. But the dialogues pop up during the missions, stealing away the excitement.

Grand Theft Auto Summing Up

The game is nothing spectacular and yet it’s a huge improvement from the preludes. Some bugs have managed to find their way through the release but the game still manages to end up being a very playable title for GBA owners.

Grand Theft Auto Cost

The game currently retails for $19.99US at the time of writing.