With the excitement around Grand Theft Auto VI continuing to build, I decided it was the perfect time to revisit the legendary GTA Trilogy. Before stepping into Rockstar’s next big adventure, I downloaded GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas (Definitive Editions) on my PlayStation 5 and planned to replay them in chronological order.
Naturally, I started with GTA III.
The last time I completed the game was back in 2011. Since then, I had not touched it once. Returning to Liberty City after so many years felt like a nostalgic journey at first. However, what started as a trip down memory lane quickly became an intense lesson in patience. After spending hours with the game again, I found myself wondering how I ever managed to finish it the first time.
While GTA III deserves immense respect for revolutionising open-world gaming, some of its design choices have aged far less gracefully than its legacy. Here are the five biggest reasons why replaying GTA III in 2024 feels surprisingly punishing.
1. Mission Design
Modern games are built around clear objectives, detailed markers, and helpful mission logs. GTA III comes from a very different era.
Many missions provide critical information only once, usually during a cutscene. If you miss a detail or skip the dialogue, the game often gives you no way to review the instructions. Suddenly, you're left wandering around Liberty City trying to figure out what you're actually supposed to do.
Some objectives are particularly frustrating. For instance, certain missions require stealing a specific vehicle, but the game might only mention that vehicle during the cutscene. Miss that single line and you're on your own.
This creates a strange situation where the mission itself may only take five minutes to complete, yet figuring out what the mission wants can take much longer.
In many cases, players end up doing one of two things:
1. Restarting repeatedly until they understand the objective.
2. Searching online for a walkthrough.
Neither feels particularly rewarding.
2. Vehicles Feel Like They're Made of Cardboard
Driving is a major part of the GTA experience, but GTA III's vehicles can be surprisingly fragile.
Cars catch fire after relatively little damage and often explode before you have enough time to react. Even worse, vehicles can flip over easily, and a flipped car frequently leads to disaster within seconds.
Minor collisions can leave your vehicle badly damaged. During free-roam exploration, this is merely annoying. During difficult missions, however, it becomes infuriating.
Nothing hurts more than carefully progressing through a mission only to lose everything because your car clipped a wall or got caught in a firefight.
The lack of vehicle durability constantly keeps players on edge, turning even simple trips across the map into stressful journeys.
3. Gang Territories Can Be Absolute Nightmares
One of GTA III's most intimidating features is the hostility of enemy gangs.
Some areas of Liberty City become extremely dangerous as the story progresses. Drive into the wrong neighbourhood and gang members can open fire immediately and relentlessly.
Because vehicles are already fragile, this creates a brutal combination. Your car may start smoking almost instantly, and within moments you're either fleeing desperately or staring at an explosion.
Unlike later GTA games, where hostile territories often feel manageable, GTA III's gang-controlled zones can genuinely feel threatening. They force players to alter routes, avoid entire streets, and stay constantly alert.
It adds tension, but it can also cause repeated mission failures that feel difficult to prevent.
4. The Inability to Swim Is More Frustrating Than You Remember
Most GTA fans already know that protagonists in GTA III and Vice City cannot swim. Touch water, and that's usually the end.
What makes this especially frustrating is that the game includes boat missions.
Getting onto a boat is easy. Getting off safely is another matter entirely. Since there's no swimming mechanic, even a small mistake when disembarking can result in instant failure.
Several times during my playthrough, I completed every objective perfectly, only to fall into the water while trying to leave a boat. Moments later, I found myself restarting the entire mission.
Few things in gaming feel as unfair as losing progress because of a single awkward jump.
5. Playing With a Controller Makes Combat Much Harder
The biggest surprise during this replay was how different the game feels on a controller.
Back in 2011, I completed GTA III on PC using a keyboard and mouse. At the time, I don't remember struggling nearly as much with combat.
On PlayStation 5, however, aiming and shooting felt considerably more difficult. While driving is smooth and enjoyable with a controller, combat is a different story altogether.
Mouse controls allow quick and precise aiming. Controllers demand slower adjustments and offer far less accuracy, particularly in a game whose shooting mechanics already feel dated.
When enemies are firing aggressively from multiple directions, missing even a few shots can quickly become a problem.
As a result, missions that were merely challenging on PC often feel significantly harder on console.
6. No Mission Checkpoints
Although each of the previous issues is frustrating on its own, the absence of mission checkpoints amplifies every problem.
If you die during a mission, whether through your own mistake, enemy gunfire, or a random accident, you're often forced to start everything from the beginning.
That means:
Driving back to the objective.
Replaying the mission setup.
Repeating every completed step.
Modern GTA players may underestimate how much quality-of-life improvements have changed open-world gaming. GTA III regularly reminds you just how unforgiving older games could be.
Final Thoughts
Despite all its frustrations, GTA III remains one of the most important video games ever created. It laid the foundation for countless open-world titles and permanently changed the gaming industry.
However, returning to it today reveals how much game design has evolved over the last two decades.
The difficult missions, lack of checkpoints, fragile vehicles, dangerous gang territories, inability to swim, and clunky controller combat can make GTA III feel less like a nostalgic adventure and more like a survival challenge.
Would I still recommend playing it before GTA VI arrives? Absolutely.
Just be prepared.
If you're playing on PC with a keyboard and mouse, you'll probably have a smoother experience. If you're playing on a controller, especially on console, make sure you bring plenty of patience with you to Liberty City. You are going to need it.
