Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas welcome Nintendo fans: let’s see whether or not good in our review of GTA The Trilogy for Nintendo Switch
A little reflection before going into the review of the version Nintendo Switch from GTA: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition: have you ever seen children in the series? You may have never noticed it, but the generalist information that derives cheap sensationalism from each new release of the Rockstar saga certainly doesn’t stop at checking the facts. And why do it? In our beautiful country, outside of industry information, there is little talk about video games and, above all, very badly. In recent years, we have seen the occasional curated service in the news, but there is no shortage of room for improvement. And, anyway, Grand Theft Auto is always “the killing game”.
We started talking about the little ones, because in parallel to this wrong idea another one circulates on the Big N: the focus of the Japanese house on the video game intended as a vehicle (pun not wanted) for the very concept of fun is put in second place. slowly, in the face of the famous “power gap”. Nobody denies that the hardware of the Kyoto giant is a bit behind the competition in green and blue, but the idea that some franchises have been waiting for the hybrid factor to demonstrate with numbers the potential of the marriage between fixed and portable is quite embarrassing. . After a long wait, however, Liberty City, Vice City e San Andreas they also open the doors to the faithful of the consoles in red. And that’s all there is red, certainly not the carpet laid out for them.
It all started with Claude
With GTA: The Trilogy, thanks to the choice to sell the three games in bulk (while each having its own icon), a conventional review just can’t be in the plans. We will see them one by one, starting with Grand Theft Auto III: The Definitive Edition. The so-called “3D trilogy” has divided the various cities of the progenitor of the series by dedicating their own game to each of them, and the polygonal debut of the formula sees us take on the role of Claude Speed, who could be like not being the same sociopath seen in the first two episodes with top view. Not that, in terms of plot, there is much to say: certainly Claude does not like to talk.
The interconnection between the various games will then be explored in the other unnumbered chapters, whose events occurred prior to this episode. For the rest, describing the essence of any Grand Theft Auto can be enough to define any other derivation of the formula: while playing freely it is possible, yes, “to go to massacres”, the main campaign (in an ironically similar way to Pokémon) acts long-standing tutorial for free play. The succession of the various missions, while establishing that the protagonists are anything but saints, at the same time distances them from the stereotype that has always stigmatized the saga.
Decontextualizing the game from the bundle in which it is sold, it is evident how much (for today’s fees) fierce was its structure, but also how revolutionary (according to the canons of the time) the final result turned out to be. The seeds planted, ironically, on the Nintendo 64 with Body Harvest have definitely germinated, merging the freedom of action of the first two chapters with the debut of an entirely polygonal graphics engine. Of course, the look of some characters reminds Hitman: Codename 47 more than we wanted, but in general the trappings of the saga are all here: running, driving, shooting, killing and accompanying strollers to the police company dinner. In short, it’s Grand Theft Auto.
Unfortunately, the game is also partially castrated circumstances in which the original came out. It is no coincidence that there are fewer explosive-themed missions, if the air vehicles (of the police) are still indestructible and if the flying vehicles (also of the police) stray from the colors of their real New York counterparts. The game was once postponed for the 9/11 attacks, and later boldly released when the wound of terrorism was even more open than ever (albeit cutting out any explicit mention of terrorism). And being Liberty City the Big Apple in everything but the name, we understand it well.
Tell Me That Miami – GTA: The Trilogy Review For Nintendo Switch
Passing from the new millennium to the eighties, the eponymous Vice City offered by GTA: The Trilogy brings some fresh air to our review, but not that much. As we have already anticipated, the trappings of the saga are a difficult wheel to reinvent from scratch. However, the cycle of revenge that makes up the plot of the third chapter leaves room for something more reasoned at the plot level, putting us in the shoes of the more talkative Tommy Vercetti (masterfully voiced by Ray Liotta). The Italian-American legacy of protagonist and antagonist did not fail to make us smile, in the beautiful memory of The Sopranos.
The choice to be inspired by Miami, thanks to Florida’s tendency to attract hordes of onlookers for the strange stories she gives birth to every day, it goes well with the rhythms of Grand Theft Auto. Between one Miami Vice homage and the next, progress is evident, along with the new mechanics introduced. Among other things, we highlight the secondary missions at public telephones and the possibility of obtaining new outfits as you progress through the story. Most importantly, this is where the purchase of new properties is also introduced: as the rescue it is (anachronistically) granted only to one’s home in each game, it is good.
By extension, all three games tend to adapt better to longer gaming sessions, which is a shame as we are dealing with a triptych of games for an (even) portable console. Between the three various chapters, we had a soft spot for Vice City due to some of the vehicles (especially the then unreleased motorcycle and, specifically, the Beech, which has always been a Vespa in disguise). In other words, therefore, the variety is not lacking. Keeping us company while driving is provided by the rich choice of local radio stations, with just as much good music (we’ll get to that later).
However, not all the activities that (in) held us back during the trilogy turned out to be 100% pleasant. While some missions simply require you to take out a target, the occasional time constraints often turn out to be quite a lot unpleasant, regardless of the player’s familiarity with the series. The same goes for the pursuits, much more enjoyable at the end of the game (when the map opens and the player knows it better) than at the beginning, between an unwanted collision on the police car and the edge of a wall that allows the opponent to escape.
I am the stone that the sculptor no longer wanted / the vision, the inspiration with which the lady sang the blues – GTA: The Trilogy review for Nintendo Switch
And what about San Andreas, still praised and played on the original platforms too? Most ambitious chapter of the classic trilogy has introduced quite a few new features, the first of which is evident in the plot itself. For once, the protagonist is not so much moved by the charm of the crime as by the circumstances that made him a victim. Carl Johnson, CJ for friends, as Tommy Vercetti is found in Liberty City only in the first scene of the game. The death of his mother, however, forces him to return to the west coast, in the fictional counterpart of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas.
The welcome given to him in the nineties, in which the game is set, is not so different from the reality in whose merit the movement Black Lives Matter it was a real wake-up call. CJ’s criminal past sees it force loaded into a steering wheel and thrown into an alley, in the middle of a territory in the hands of a rival gang. It is not the best way to go home, as evidenced by his natural reaction that we cannot quote verbatim but which we will be happy, paying homage to the meme, to include in the screenshot below.
The bike that we “borrow” in this dive into ghetto culture it also represents the first novelty introduced in San Andreas. We are not talking about the need to beat a button to pedal, but about the presence of parameters: we will have to eat, train the body and, in general, keep CJ fit to survive in this huge new open world map. There is also a method to soothe one’s wounds, but … let’s just say that you have to wait for night to fall in the game world and, among other things, a car, some money, a secluded place and some good company. Again: it’s Grand Theft Auto.
Save for this premise, rarely does the day-night cycle (where every second of ours corresponds to a minute in the game) affects the gameplay. Occasionally, we will find venues open or closed depending on the time of day, but in principle nothing that a nap at home cannot solve (saving the game brings forward the time of “six hours”). For the rest, the dictates of the saga are all here: a one to five star system for your criminal record, loss of weapons and money once defeated or arrested, and dangerous waters. CJ can swim, in his defense, but doing it to enter certain areas too early will cost him a bounty on his head.
The good, the bad and the buggy – GTA: The Trilogy review for Nintendo Switch
Although the development team has already guaranteed action, each “Definitive Edition” at launch was battered by several bug and sadly, the Nintendo Switch version is no exception. In addition, the game’s trailer proudly displayed a new coat of paint, with a cartoon-like look for the XIII-style 3D models, closer to the iconic loading screens. Unfortunately, however, on the hybrid console we only seemed to see one sharpness enough to justify the presence of an HDMI cable. As for the bug, we offer you only a symbolic screen below but we must guarantee, for the record, its abundance.
This puts the choice to sell the three games exclusively in bulk in a sad new light. Sixty euros for the entire package is not a small amount, and the extra time we allowed ourselves for the analysis is also due to the increasingly less justifiable costs for the players. Sold for twenty euros each, the three games could also have had a better life (for Devil May Cry, another latecomer on Nintendo consoles, it seems to work), but this being the case, the player can only be demanding. It is no longer a matter of greed on the part of the publisher, in this case, but of lack of confidence in their product.
My eyes, ears and maybe other organs too – GTA: The Trilogy review for Nintendo Switch
There is nothing left to do but to sum up on a technical level, starting from graphics engine. There’s not much we can add, other than that the credit all goes to the original development team. Even with all the flaws we have talked about, it must be said that the ambition to transpose an insight into society worthy of Martin Scorsese does not go unnoticed either …