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Grand Theft Auto Double Pack Review for Xbox
Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2003 @ 04:08:00 pm E.S.T Many gamers have practically begged for the Grand Theft Auto series to come to Xbox, and now they've finally gotten their wish. The GTA: Double Pack is the answer to all their problems, bringing Xbox two of the greatest games ever for the price of one. Grand Theft Auto III (GTA III) was revolutionary to the series, and Vice City added on to the series greatness with more features. Bringing these two games to Xbox was obviously a good idea, but how do they compare versus other games and their PS2 counterparts?
For those of you who were waiting for GTA to come to Xbox and are brand-new to this series, here's the inside scoop on these two games:
In Grand Theft Auto III you work for various gangs around a place called Liberty City. You're back on the streets after escaping from jail, and you're not happy because your own girlfriend is the one who put you there. Now you have to start over from scratch, doing errands and jobs for gangs and others around the three sections of Liberty City (Portland, Staunton Island, and Shoreside Vale).
To go along with this great storyline, GTA III introduced the first 3-dimensional environment in the GTA series. The environment isn't just fancy either; the gameplay within it is great as well. The missions throughout the game are enjoyable, and there are also side missions too keep you occupied. For instance, you can drive around a taxi and make a ton of money by bringing people to specific locations in short amounts of time
The latest installment in the series, Vice City, is a prequel to GTA III. The environments in Vice City vary from expensive beachfront areas to the ghetto. In Vice City you assume the role of a man named Tommy Vercetti, and work mainly for 3 mafia kingpins. Brand-new to Vice City is the ability to purchase businesses, homes and other things. The goal is to take out mob bosses, take over businesses, get rich, and eventually to have a monopoly over all of Vice City. This is the main thing that sets Vice City apart from GTA III.
You'll be able to zip around Vice City on a bike.
Vice City takes a lot of the ideas from GTA III and adds on other things like more vehicles, weapons, and side missions. In Vice City you can drive around cool things like motorcycles and dirtbikes, and you can also fly seaplanes and helicopters. In Vice City the voice of Ray Leoda is the voice Tommy Vercetti. If you?re a fan of classic gangster movies, this should give you some extra entertainment.
Both GTA III and Vice City have noticeable graphical upgrades from their PlayStation 2 counterparts, and now have support for now support 480p in 16:9 widescreen mode. You will immediately notice the greater amount of details (polygons), largely due to Xbox being a more powerful console all around. The lighting in both games is now real-time, and real-time reflections have been added to all the vehicles. This adds a realistic effect to the Xbox version that the PS2 version lacks. This doesn't mean either of these games will be receiving any sort of reward for their graphics, you can still tell they are ports from the PlayStation 2 versions to a certain extent.
Xbox's built-in hard drive means both of these games now support custom soundtracks, and on top of that they are also supported in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. No doubt you'll be turning the volume up while playing either of these games. Since GTA III takes place in the 1990's, naturally there is a new CD-Player inside of cars that plays your soundtracks. Vice City takes place in the 1980's, so you will be using an old fashioned tape deck to listen to your custom tunes. Xbox's hard drive also makes for improved save and load times for both of these games.
My main complaint about these two games is the default control scheme. After playing for a few hours it may feel like your right index finger is going to fall off, because so many of the things you do (like shooting or accelerating), require using the right trigger. The default controls can be changed, but that's an unnecessary pain and it's an obvious mistake. On top of that it feels strange using the right trigger for certain attacks, like when using a hand-to-hand weapon or fighting in a fistfight.
Despite some flaws, there is no question about the GTA: Double Pack for Xbox being a good investment. Even owners of the PlayStation 2 versions will enjoy revisiting these games because of the newly improved graphics, better load times, and support for custom soundtracks. People that haven't played the series at all are lucky because they get two great games for the price of one. If your not a fan of violent games you may want to skip out this one, but for everyone else I highly recommend it. Review By: Adam Paoli - 4936 Reads
Grand Theft Auto Double Pack Review Scores for Xbox :
| Gameplay |
| 10 |
| Graphics |
| 9 |
| Sound |
| 9 |
| Replay |
| 9.5 |
| Overall |
| 9.5 |
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