Review of the Original Grand Theft Auto
The original “Grand Theft Auto,” released in 1997 by DMA Design (which later became Rockstar North), stands as a pioneering title in the open-world genre. Its innovative design and approach to gameplay marked a significant departure from traditional video game experiences of the time. Here’s a comprehensive review of the game, examining its impact, gameplay, and legacy.
Gameplay and Mechanics
1. Open-World Exploration
The most groundbreaking feature of the original “Grand Theft Auto” is its open-world design. Players are thrust into a vast, top-down city environment where they can roam freely. The game is set across three fictional cities—Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City—each inspired by real-world locations. The freedom to explore these cities, coupled with a variety of missions and side activities, laid the groundwork for future open-world games.
2. Mission-Based Structure
Gameplay revolves around completing missions to advance through the game. These missions often involve criminal activities such as theft, assassination, and smuggling. Players earn money and respect by successfully completing missions, which allows them to progress through increasingly challenging levels. The mission structure provides a clear objective but also encourages players to engage in a variety of activities within the open world.
3. Top-Down Perspective
The game utilizes a top-down, 2D perspective, which was common for many games of that era. This perspective allows players to view the entire cityscape and navigate through it, but it can also make driving and aiming feel somewhat imprecise compared to modern 3D games. While the top-down view was innovative at the time, it may feel outdated to contemporary players accustomed to 3D environments.
Graphics and Design
1. Visual Style
The graphics of the original “Grand Theft Auto” are simple by today’s standards, featuring a blocky, pixelated aesthetic. However, for its time, the game’s visual design was quite detailed, with a recognizable style that contributed to its unique charm. The cities are depicted with a clear, though rudimentary, sense of architecture and urban layout.
2. Art and Atmosphere
Each city in the game has its own distinct atmosphere and character. The art direction reflects the diverse inspirations behind each city, with Liberty City resembling New York, Vice City evoking Miami, and San Andreas echoing the San Francisco Bay Area. This variety in city design helps create a sense of immersion and encourages exploration.
Sound and Music
1. In-Car Radio Stations
One of the original Grand Theft Auto’s quietly influential features was its selection of in-game radio stations, playable while driving. Flip between genres from talk radio to rock to electronic music, and the choice actually shapes the mood of a getaway or a mission run. It’s a small touch that became a series signature, one the franchise has leaned into more heavily with every subsequent entry.
2. Sound Design
Gunfire, car engines, and crash effects are functional rather than flashy, appropriate for the era, and they do enough to sell the chaos of a police chase or a botched heist without ever feeling like a technical showcase. It’s not a game remembered for its sound design specifically, but nothing about it undermines the experience either.
Legacy and Influence
It’s hard to overstate how much the original Grand Theft Auto shaped what came after it, both within its own franchise and across the wider industry. The freedom to ignore the mission list entirely and just cause chaos in a living city became a defining pillar of open-world design, one that countless games have borrowed from since. Within Rockstar’s own catalog, this game’s DNA runs directly through Grand Theft Auto 2 and eventually into the fully 3D entries that turned the series into one of the biggest names in gaming.
The game was also genuinely controversial at launch, drawing criticism and media attention for its violence and criminal themes, controversy that, if anything, only fueled its notoriety and commercial success. That tension between mainstream disapproval and player fascination became something of a recurring theme for the series in the decades that followed.
Final Verdict
Judged purely against modern open-world games, the original Grand Theft Auto shows its age. The top-down perspective, blocky visuals, and dated mission design are all real friction points for a player coming from anything released in the last two decades. But judged on its own terms, as the game that planted the flag for the entire genre, it’s genuinely essential playing for anyone curious about where open-world crime games actually came from.
It won’t hook everyone, and it isn’t the game to hand a newcomer expecting something like a modern GTA entry. But for players interested in gaming history, or fans of the series wanting to see the blueprint before the skyscrapers, it’s worth the time. For the full picture on where to actually get the game today, our Grand Theft Auto game page covers its current status and legitimate purchase options.