For what felt like an eternity, rumors of a remaster for the original PS2 era, Grand Theft Auto games have been swirling around the internet, generating a great deal of interest from fans. With the oldest of this trio of games, Grand Theft Auto 3, being two decades old, each of these titles was more than overdue for an upgrade. After multiple leaks, Rockstar finally confirmed Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition as a real product, with a proper trailer released shortly thereafter.
Prior to this reveal trailer, however, there were some concerns of the remaster was shaping up. There hadn't been much to go on aside from Rockstar briefly teasing that the collection would retain the same visual style, only updated (a statement which could be interpreted in many ways.) Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition has managed to be an impressive remaster for these classic titles, putting to rest any worry that this would have been a lazy rush job.
The Remake vs. Remaster Dilemna
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition is hardly the first time a popular series has received a visual facelift. The trend goes way back to God of War Collection on the PlayStation 3 in 2009. As its title would suggest, this bundle packed in the first two games, while also providing them with a nice new HD resolution, making the quality of the image much sharper. Considering the value of the package, it proved to be a hit, and naturally, the rest of the industry wanted in on a piece of the remaster pie.
The only issue was that many of these remasters proved to be disappointing, meaning to capitalize on the passion fans have for established franchises. It's also important to distinguish the difference of what a remake is, in how Resident Evil 2 in 2019 completely re-shaped the gameplay and graphics of the original. This, of course, can take a great deal of effort to do, making a simple remaster job much quicker and less expensive for developers.
Several HD remaster collections have been guilty of being rushed jobs, with some of the most egregious examples being bundles such as the controversial Silent Hill Collection. These collections would simply increase the resolution slightly (often at a detrimental cost to the original game) and ship it for a hefty cost, to take advantage of unsuspecting gamers. It is because of this that many were concerned about Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition, fearing that it would follow in these same footsteps, something which a lack of details from Rockstar didn't help with.
GTA Trilogy: What's Old is New Again
While nowhere near on the same technical level as other Rockstar games like Red Dead Redemption 2, the GTA remaster is still doing a great job in retaining the aesthetics of the original titles, while making them look much shinier for modern expectations.
The trailer flaunts this fact on numerous occasions, going to great lengths to compare and contrast the many differences between this remaster and the PS2 originals. The graphical changes made to Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are like night and day. Added weather effects make environments more atmospheric and lifelike.
Improved lighting shines off buildings and across the roofs of vehicles. Character models have also received plenty of love and care, popping with color and expression. This isn't even mentioning said character models now have actual fingers, rather than the permanently closed fingers in the originals, a small, silly detail but noticeable sign that Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition has been carefully combed to make sure its a significant step up from its predecessors.
Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy: Definitive Edition releases on November 11, 2021 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S with mobile versions in development.