Way too fun for ones own good

Grand Theft Auto is awesome. It's playability is off the scale, and replayability is top notch. The concept of the game is very original, and riotously funny, in a sick playful way.

When I first got this game, I played for so long I couldn't believe I hadn't beaten it or lost. I played for about 6 hours straight every day last summer. The only thing that stopped me was my wrists became tight and strained, probably from my ridiculously long time in front of the keyboard, playing GTA. If that isn't an indication of the playability of the game, I don't know what is. As for replay, the game really doesn't follow a set path so you can really go your own way every time you play the game. The only problem is that a game can last hours, and there is no save option. Once you beat a level though, you can always start at that level. I would like to warn you though: Only get this game if you have a lot of time to play it, or you really won't get much out of it.

The game focusses around you, a car jacker, in an over head view game. Realistic sounds of the city, including cars zooming by, police sirens, car alarms, and cussing drivers and pedestrians. (Not to mention the rat-a-tat of your machine gun.) The game starts you off in front of payphones which your mob boss calls to give you missions. From there you steal cars, pull bank jobs, kill rivals, and blow up police stations. You get points the more bad stuff you do, and every mission your mob boss gives you that you complete, you get a score multiplier. The object of the game is to get over the point limit of the level, after which you advance. But it's not easy. The more illegal stuff you do, the more police want to lock you up. (But hey, I always found the police to mean points a' plenty when they hit the bumper on my car.)

As for parents getting it for your kids, parents, you might want to think twice. Let me put it this way: After playing this game, I found myself looking at police cars and wondering what it would be like to steal one and go on a crime spree. Heh, granted, this was just a laughable thing, but it makes me wonder what more suggestable people would do... You get points for running over pedestrians, shooting passerby's, blowing up cop cars, and carjacking as many people as possible. And the only thing that happens to you when you're arrested is the police take your guns. There's good morals for you.

This game was remarkably funny, if in a dark and morbid way. The sound effects of crushing bones as you run over people, or the way point values for the terrible things you do bounce up like in an arcade game. And perhaps to top it all off, a game-show style announcer voice exclaims, "Kill Frenzy!" as you pick up a machine gun, or "Excellent!" after you run over a certain number of pedestrians in a row. The game itself is morbidly wacky, totally addictive, and just all around fun. The only areas in which this game lacks is in advancement (You can play the same level for hours.) and in multi-player, which although had huge potential, turned out to just suck. Multi-player play was laggy, buggy, and unplayable, unless you have an extreme tolerance for slow play. It doesn't matter if you have a 100 base Tx network, or a couple of 14.4 modems. Multi-player play is too slow for fun.

Hopefully GTA 2 will be reviewed soon, so I can see how the original stacks up to the sequel. From what I read on the back of the box, it's going to kick butt, with multiple gangs, and more cars and missions than before. hehehehe. I can't wait.