Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition - Review

I have been avoided writing my review of the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, purely due to how unplayable portions of the games were on Switch, now some weeks and big patches later, it is time to bite the proverbial bullet and see how the games stacked up.

The short answer is at least on Switch, they are not the best games to be released and they are not the best way to experience these iconic games, the long answer though is slightly more complicated since the games were patched, but more on that in a bit. As the name suggests this is a collection of three of the eight mainline games, specifically the second trilogy to be released in the series, the first of course being Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2 and Grand Theft Auto London. While those games were good, it was when the series shifted into the 3rd dimension with GTA 3 that things started to explode for the series, 8-ball was not involved with that. While GTA 3 laid the foundation for the series new direction, along with setting the standard for open world games for the next decade, it was Vice City that refined it and while San Andreas added a little too much content, it still refined it even more, having access to all three on Switch is a welcome addition to the consoles line-up.

Where things fall apart is in the execution of the releases, if you play them in released order, GTA 3 is going to be where you start and after the game got patched, it became playable. Originally, when it first got released, there were issues with pop in, characters, pedestrians, building detail and more, making for a really bad experience. Since the patches though, the pop in is still present, but things fade in smoother, the distance in which they start to appear is larger and overall, it feels better to explore the city now. There are still some concerning issues, but they are mostly to do with the original games audio quality, a lot of the dialogue, especially when you are in cars for conversations, sound like they are recorded off 90’s FM radio, complete with some background static.

For all the bad and there is a fair amount of that, there are some major improvements that make the game more enjoyable now, the first is that the game now sports a shooting mechanic taken from Grand Theft Auto V, meaning it is somewhat usable now. The original release of GTA 3, along with the PC, Xbox and then mobile ports, had some atrocious controls for combat, the new aiming system is a great change. The game offers the same three modes of aiming that GTA V did but will now let you change the amount of aim assist you get, a nice change to be sure, the only real issue I had is that the lock-on generally snaps to the nearest person, not the nearest enemy and once you do target someone, it can be a pain to undo that.

Taking a trip down south Vice City is my favourite of the three games, as it is for many, not only does your character speak, but the game offered up a lot of music from the 80’s and honestly just felt like you were living out an episode of Miami Vice, but without being a cop. After spending time with the silent Claude, being able to see proper conversations between Tommy and whomever he was speaking with, felt like seeing in colour for the first time and that impact can still be felt in this release. Much like GTA 3 though, the game at launch suffered from a host of issues with elements popping in, though that was the smallest point of concern here. The game suffered from constant frame drops, something that I tend not to notice, which goes to show had bad it was here, in addition there were also some really bad textures all over the place.

After the two big patches, which increased the overall size of the game by a good chunk with the first one and then lost it with the second, things got a lot better, the framerate for one is more consistent, pop-in is a lot better and thankfully the texture work is much smoother. From the outset though Vice City had done a smashing job with its lighting, something you can see anytime you venture down the beach front at night and look at the various hotels and clubs that dot the landscape there. In comparison GTA 3’s lighting was inconsistent at the best of times, so having a bright and smooth lighting release in Vice City was quite welcome. It also got the same upgrades for the aiming and driving mechanics that GTA 3 had, which helped keep things consistent between the releases, something that we never had before.

Now we come to the final and largest game in the collection, San Andreas and on Switch if you considered 3 and Vice City to be bad, this was almost unplayable on release day and that isn’t considering things like the rain. Post patches though, the game size has ballooned, adding 8gb to the original size and for all that, there are still some issues with the game, it is at least playable now, but there are still some issues here. The main issue is the size of the world and the weird streaming load that the game has on Switch, what it does is loads in content as you get close, as all open world games do, the problem is that there are times when the game doesn’t load in right, leaving you frozen, while it does play catch up. Like the other releases, the same changes to the aiming mechanics and car handling are here, which do work well, the addition of the multitude of levelling mechanics feel dated in comparison, though they cans still be rewarding.

While all three games have been updated to be playable now, there are still some design choices that have hurt the experience, the first is the reliance on AI upscaling, not only has it lead to misspelt text in all three games, but there are also textures that don’t line up with the geometry of the world. Even now, post the patches, some of these texture issues are still present, the one that I have seen the most are when assets are rendered into the world in reverse, leading to closed signs on doors being backwards. The updates have also fixed the LOD on Vice City and San Andreas, not enough to remove the issues when speeding through each of the worlds, but enough that it doesn’t stutter anywhere near the amount if was previously.

Something that many players, across the various versions, have called out and rightly so is the updated character models, I should day different models, rather than updated, because while some of the main ones are so much better now, most are worse. A big update to GTA 3 and Vice City is that many of the characters now have actual fingers, it is a small change, but helps make them feel like people, not Gumby versions of people, the issue with the other changes is that they are mostly unnecessary and when you compare them, they look all the worse for it. In the context of their respective games, they do suit, but it is not the type of character that we have come to expect from a Rockstar game.

If you are a Grand Theft Auto fan and your only way to play these games is via Switch, I do suggest giving them a go, because each game not only represents how the industry was shaped, but also tells some great stories. Many of the improvements that have been done to the games are only that in name, and while the post-release patches have fixed some of the issues, it is clear that the underlying game is a little to busted to be repaired fully. Are these the worst games on Switch, no and not by a long shot, but they are also nowhere near the definitive editions that we were promised and that is what hurts the most.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by Rockstar

The Pros

+Three iconic games, on a Nintendo platform for the first time

+Vice City and San Andreas soundtracks are still amazing

The Cons

-Frame rate, world loading, texture issues and audio quality

-Two massive updates have not fixed the underlying issues and likely never will