|
The series is back to its top-down 2D form. I will admit, as I think many will, that prior to Grand Theft Auto III, I thought that the Grand Theft Auto series was “neat” and a “good idea” but the gameplay just wasn’t there. It didn’t appeal to me. It provided a large sense of freedom, but it just didn’t represent itself well. Grand Theft Auto Advance held my attention quite a bit longer since it seems to mimic the console versions rather well.
Grand Theft Auto Advance takes place in Grand Theft Auto III’s Liberty City. In it, you control Mike as he tries to get out of his life of crime with friend Vinnie. Unfortunately, some whacks Vinnie and Mike is blamed, so he needs to figure out why he was blamed while making sure he doesn’t attract too much unwanted attention. The story is told through stills with the character art, which is exactly the same as it has been for Grand Theft Auto III to San Andreas. The story itself isn’t all that great, but the dialogue is good enough to keep you moving forward.
The game’s open ended gameplay is still found in this version. You’re able to explore the city at your leisure, and cause general havoc before heading off into a mission. Most of the story missions simply rely on you getting somewhere, collecting something (perhaps getting rid of someone) and moving on. To do this you’ll need to steal a decent number of vehicles and perfect your driving skills (which is quite challenging with some of the nimbler cars. As I mentioned, a number of missions have you fighting someone. Thankfully, weapon combat is good and there are a number of weapons available in the game. As expected, you can purchase new weapons from the ever-trustable Ammu-Nation.
Aside from the story missions, you’ll be able to partake in the additional missions like any decent Grand Theft Auto game. For example, if you find a phonebooth, you can make some more cash via the street racing missions. Find a taxi, police car, or ambulance, and you’ll be able to drive people around, stop crimes, and drive people to the hospital, respectively. As always, you can simply choose to wreck havoc. Be careful, since you’ll attract the attentions of cops and once those stars start filling up, they will go crazy with tons of cops on-screen and they’ll set up roadblocks and such. If you find a Paint Shop, you can remove all of that.
The biggest problem with Grand Theft Auto Advance is that the game is so big and there is no in-game map to be found. There is the typical radar which has your mission points, but you won’t be able to know where the hospital is, for example. Furthermore, while you can your save the game anywhere, if you save while in a mission, you'll need to start that mission over. Not a major problem, but slightly annoying nonetheless.
Like the console games, Grand Theft Auto Advance keeps track of a number of statistics like how many times you’ve been busted, how many miles you’ve driven, how many hidden packages have been collected and more practical things like how many missions have been completed and overall completion status for the game.
The game’s visuals are impressive considering that the game is on the GBA. The game returns to the top-down format of the pre-GTA III games so you’ll see everything in that view point. Grand Theft Auto Advance throws a number of citizens, vehicles and buildings on screen at one time and does a respectable job at keeping the frame-rate high. Additionally, the buildings employ a pseudo-3D effect which allows them to come into view in a much more authentic manner. The animation for the characters is top-notch, and you’ll notice cars tip over at times.
The game’s audio is pretty solid for GBA. You’ll hear a variety of sound effects for the cars and weapons, along the way, as well as comments from Liberty City’s citizens. Additionally, you’ll hear the police radio calling out for you even mentioning the color of your car and where you are. Lastly, the game lacks the radio stations of the console games but it sort of makes up for it by giving players a different “song” per vehicle.
Unfortunately, even though the game has an on-screen map, it only shows a portion of the city. There's no way to pull up the full view of the city, which makes it difficult to find items that might not be automatically marked, like the hospital to increase health. And the included, printed map included in the box isn't a good substitute, since chances are you won't be willing to whip out the folded paper to seek out the specific location.
(November 2, 2004 - Editor's Note: I originally and incorrectly wrote that the game could not be saved anywhere. PGNx Media apologizes for this error.) -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Nov 1, 2004
|
