Given that many people consider them to be three of the best PS2-era titles of all time, some may see Rockstar's decision to release definitive editions of the original 3D Grand Theft Auto trilogy as a brave one. Considering how common remakes and remasters are these days though, others will no doubt argue that it was only a matter of time before Rockstar decided to jump on the re-releasing bandwagon as well. Whether or not the resulting games can truly be described as "definitive" editions, however, is very much a matter for debate.
Though the remastered editions of the Grand Theft Auto trilogy do get a lot of things right, there are just as many that they get horribly, horribly wrong, if not more. This has led to the games receiving mixed critic reviews on Metacritic and an average User Score that's below 1 at the time of writing. Granted, the latter is most likely the result of review bombing more than it is honest feedback, though it still paints a somewhat telling picture of how the games have been received on the whole.
Love: The Improved Controls
Poor controls are one of the biggest barriers when it comes to modern gamers enjoying some of the best games from the turn of the century. While the original 3D GTA trilogy is nowhere near as bad as the early Resident Evil and Tomb Raider titles in this regard, by modern standards, the games control incredibly poorly. This in turn makes them very difficult to get into for those who've been spoiled by superior control schemes.
There are certainly still a few issues with the way that the definitive edition trilogy games control, particularly when it comes to combat. Driving, however, now feels infinitely better, which makes a huge difference given how much time players are expected to spend behind the wheel. It would perhaps have been nice if the developers had tweaked the way that cars work in GTA 3 so that they don't flip over so easily or are at least able to roll back onto four wheels if they do, but, all things considered, the new controls make for a massive overall improvement.
Dislike: The Dated Design Choices
Given that Grove Street Games was tasked with remastering the trilogy rather than remaking it, nobody was expecting the team to make too many drastic changes. That said, it's fairly typical for developers to implement quality of life updates when revamping older titles, and, sadly, the definitive edition trilogy just doesn't provide enough of these. Cars still being so easy to flip over and explode in GTA 3 is just one example of this, but there are plenty of others to be found across the three games. Implementing missable trophies/achievements is also a poor design choice on the developer's part here.
For players to still need to visit a designated location in order to save their progress in this day and age is a little ridiculous, as too is making them travel from asset to asset in order to collect their daily revenue rather than simply having the money automatically added to their total. Had the games been released at a more modest price-point, these niggling issues would be nowhere near as notable, but, for a full-price release, it's perhaps understandable why some players are a little annoyed with how little effort appears to have gone into improving the overall player experience.
Love: The Scenery
It's no secret that the original games derived much of their success from their gameplay rather their graphics, but that's not to say that they were bad-looking games for their era. It would be fair to say that time has not treated the original trilogy well though, with their blocky graphics now looking fairly horrendous when compared even to some modern indie and mobile titles. Thankfully, however, the definitive edition trilogy improves the look of the environment quite a bit, particularly in the two later titles.
Landscapes in Vice City and San Andreas have never looked better, thanks in large to the improved lighting and the more realistic weather effects (barring rain, that is, which is pretty broken at the time of writing). It would perhaps have been nice to have been given the option of using raytracing, but the environments themselves still look a lot better than they did in the original releases nonetheless. Sadly, however, the same cannot be said of the graphics as a whole.
Dislike: The Character Models
The somewhat drastic changes made to the character models in the definitive edition trilogy made for one of the biggest talking points when the trailer for the games first dropped. Some may argue that the more cartoony art style compliments the low-resolution textures from the original titles, but the majority seem to be in agreement that the changes made to Claude, Tommy, and C.J. were definitely for the worse.
When compared to his fellow protagonists, Claude arguably got off pretty lightly, with only a few minor changes made to his original character model. Vice City's Tommy Vercetti, on the other hand, is more "blow up" than "glow up," with the iconic protagonist now a lot more portly than he used to be. There's far less definition and detail in his face as well; something that is also true of C.J. in the definitive edition of San Andreas. NPCs were subjected to these divisive changes too, much to the ire of many fans of the original releases.
Love: The Nostalgia
When compared to the ones found in Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, the narratives on offer in PS2-era Rockstar games were often fairly mediocre. This is arguably true of the original trilogy as well, but that didn't stop players from falling in love with its three now-iconic titles. This was largely down to how much care and attention went into creating them; from the wonderfully curated selection of music to the fantastic job that was done making the cities in which the games are set feel like living, breathing worlds.
Though not all of the iconic music tracks make a return in the definitive editions, the vast majority can still be found, as too can popular radio personalities like Lazlow and Fernando. That Grove Street Games took the time to go back and implement the overwhelming majority of the cheat codes from the original games definitely deserves a mention too, as playing around with these classic button combinations was also a big part of many peoples' experiences with the original trilogy.
Dislike: The Bugs
When a publisher releases a "definitive" edition of a video game, it's typically assumed that it's going to be better than the original in just about every way. In terms of controls, most would probably agree that Rockstar and Grove Street Games managed to hit the mark, and, though a little less cut and dry, the argument could certainly be made that the remastered versions look better than the originals too. Unfortunately, however, it's very difficult to defend the way that the games run at launch, as there are a lot of technical issues in the day one release of the trilogy (at least on a base PS4, anyway).
Certain textures often load in at the wrong height, which results in floating foliage that's supposed to be on the ground. Worse still, other textures can sometimes fail to load in entirely, leading to invisible walls and bridges. The game also suffers from some pretty severe slowdown in certain places, particularly as players are driving through checkpoints during races. Given the high-speed nature of racing, this is obviously incredibly annoying and something that should never have gotten through the QA stage. As is typically the case with the modern "release now, patch later" mentality of many publishers, these issues will no doubt be fixed in due course, though this obviously won't help day one players all that much.