The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition » Vortex
It is generally always a challenge to evaluate remasters and remakes. Trying to fairly evaluate the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition collection is literally a punishment. This nostalgia business often relies on emotions and memories rather than objective qualities. And so it is always necessary to carefully consider how to approach the test. You can limit the answer to the question of whether the original game passed the test over time. But it is also possible to assume that the original itself is worth noting when it received the improved version, and to evaluate only the technical side of the upgrade. At Vortex, we usually try to link the two approaches. But it has not happened to us for a long time that the reputation and qualities of the original stand in such contrast to the sloppy elaboration of the new edition.
A compilation of GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas is currently available on PCs and new and old consoles, including Switch. Next year he will arrive on phones and tablets. After all, the development of the reissue was primarily the responsibility of the Grove Street Games team, which created older mobile and console ports. The authors attracted us to a number of novelties until the last moment. For example, they promised high resolution, more detailed textures, new models, longer rendering distances, better lighting and shadows, mirroring and reflections, more realistic water and vegetation, GTA V-like controls, better gunplay, upgraded map, checkpoints, autosave and many other smaller and larger upgrades. It all sounded very good on paper, but in practice it works worse than we hoped. We cannot claim that you will not find this improvement in the remastered collection, but it is far from always falling on fertile ground, and next to them it is also bothered by a number of mistakes and unfinished work.
In the end, the more comic book style fits into Vice City, and I took it to my mercy, but in the case of GTA III and San Andreas, some characters seem more like unwanted cartoons, and their stylization denies the overall atmosphere.
It all starts with a higher price tag. You will receive three cult games for the full price, but the players were embarrassed by the decision from the beginning, because they correctly felt that if it was not a remake, the changes would not go too deep. This is extremely important to keep reminding and repeating. The final edition, despite its name, which does not reflect reality too much, stands somewhere halfway between a small facelift and a complete remake. It is this indecision that harms her in many ways, because the authors, for unknown reasons, ignored things that would deserve more care and, on the other hand, unnecessarily reached into areas where I did not think it was necessary. A good example is the character models that separate the fans from the first trailer, but most don’t like it. It is not entirely clear why people received a new look that often denies the original style. In addition, their quality is strongly unbalanced and it looks as if the models were created in different studies. For example, in the end, the more comic book style fits into Vice City, and I took it to my mercy, but in the case of GTA III and San Andreas, some characters seem more like unwanted cartoons, and their stylization denies the overall atmosphere. Despite the fact that many of the heroes were rejuvenated by the authors as well, and they look a bit like their own children.
At the same time, developers were able to divert such attention to transport, for example. It would deserve to thicken beyond the original possibilities and restrictions, as well as increase the number of pedestrians on the streets. Today, cars would no longer have to appear near you and disappear as soon as you turn around. Some car collisions are also not very nice, and I would swear that sometimes cars don’t behave like the originals. Otherwise, the new controls, redesigned selector weapons and radio stations deserve praise. Moving around the city is more pleasant and you can also use a gyroscope on the Switch. The actual aiming and use of weapons, although it offers three different modes and different levels of assistance, nevertheless cannot withstand comparisons with current games and I have not particularly enjoyed shooting today. Many, on the other hand, will certainly use the simplified sprint or the ability to adjust the size of the subtitles, although otherwise the game is not particularly rich in various accessibility settings, which is also a shame. The title could be opened to disabled players who did not enjoy the original games. That should also be the meaning of the remaster.
The graphics as such, of course, differ from game to game, as the originals evolved. But most of the improvements could have benefited the trilogy, at least in theory. I primarily tested the collection on the PS5, but I also played on the Switch. On the most powerful consoles, I was unpleasantly surprised by the need to choose between image quality and framerat. I don’t think I want so much when I expect 20-year-old games to run in high definition with a maximum of fps and I won’t have to choose between two compromises. In the end, I reached for performance mode because I prefer a smoother experience, but even here you will encounter declines in fps. You don’t pick anything on the Switch, but I would hardly call it a win in this particular case. The image has a low resolution even for the conditions of this platform, it is out of focus, blurred and the fluctuating low framerate would arouse embarrassment even in the latest and most beautiful games. All versions are equally bothered by some weather effects. Although the developers are proud of these modernized features, rain processing, for example, has really failed and effectively hinders your view and orientation to the point that one has to ask how it is possible that someone did not notice it during development and in this form comic water ropes sent to the world.
There has also been a lot of talk about longer distance plotting. Although greater visibility is in itself a paper advantage and helps you better orient yourself in chases, you still can’t rely on the view alone due to the bouncing traffic. After all, obstacles such as roadblocks or closed gates are also materializing right in front of you. Similarly, vegetation is “born” around you. But an unwanted by-product of long rendering distances is exposure, as the original worlds are comically small from today’s point of view. They lost their fog and the famous haze that hid that they were not so much cities as small amusement parks with a city backdrop. In addition, despite the authors’ apparent effort to switch from RenderWare to Unreal Engine, the color palette and mood of each game have changed. Liberty City is no longer so dark and more like a city of four. Although Vice City is still colored by glowing neon lights that drift into the night, the game has lost some of its former loudness again. And San Andreas lost its yellow-orange tinge and haze that usually hovered over the metropolis. Although at the time they were technological tricks to relieve limited hardware, they were so well thought out that they had part of the atmosphere I miss today.
Unlike the characters, I like the new car models that really peeked out, even though they retained their original style and retro character. And it even does them a good service and a bit of kitschy mirroring.
Although the team had to pay special attention to lighting, the news is sometimes disappointing in this sense as well. Some scenes are drowning in darkness, even though the original versions did not suffer. Nor do I remember that I used to notice an unbalanced sound so many times when the characters are almost incomprehensible. Of course, you can edit individual audio components, but usually you don’t need it at all. And while we’ve got a bite of the soundtrack, it’s a shame, of course, that the game doesn’t offer a complete soundtrack like some previous reissues. In the field of licensed music, the situation is not as bad as it seemed at first, but it is another reason to prefer classics to remasters. So if you have it. However, I must say that in this case, I would believe the publisher that he tried to do his best to make the music as close as possible to the original.
Although the trilogy faces overwhelming criticism and it would be possible to name a long time why it fails as a modernized version, this does not mean that it does not deserve a single compliment. I definitely welcome some improvements and news. It will please automatic saving or the possibility to instantly repeat a failed mission, although a checkpoint could have been added within it, as is customary today. At least on the new consoles, despite the small fluctuations in performance, the game is pretty nimble and has got rid of the annoying erasure and tearing of the image in the animations, which was sometimes typical of the oldest versions. Unlike the characters, I like the new car models that really peeked out, even though they retained their original style and retro character. And it even does them a good service with a bit of kitschy mirroring and other modern effects such as rain pools. But again, it’s tinsel that has settled better in the colorful Vice City than the dark Liberty City.
In contrast to reality, the subtitle of the definitive edition seems more like an unwanted joke. The authors have reprehensibly wasted the potential to breathe a whole new life into the classics and have failed fatally in their efforts because they have rather hurt the originals.
But the biggest advantage of the collection is the games themselves. It is no exaggeration to surprise me how great the titles are still. Of course, especially the first two parts have really aged and the gameplay and storytelling at open world events is completely different today. But in addition to being able to follow the important first evolutionary steps of three-dimensional urban events in the area of the trilogy, I also appreciated something that similar games no longer offer me today. Straightforwardness and brisk pace. The titles start almost immediately, they don’t hold you back for long, you quickly get through the basics and you simply play. At that time, the authors dosed the story in short but striking cut scenes that get to the point quickly. And the missions themselves may have been less inventive, but more time-saving. Some have an arcade character in their pioneering naivety. You just often do the most basic things that developers can’t go through today. But then they were completely new and revolutionary for them, as well as for us. And you can also watch these three games as they become more and more complex, packing various accompanying functions, activities, mini-games and adjustments.
Legendary games such as GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas undoubtedly are, will not completely disappear even in a failed collection. But they did not receive the care they deserved due to their reputation. I’m not necessarily calling for a full-fledged remake, I understand that this is a remaster that has its own guardrails. But such a reputation is also associated with great responsibility, and even as a remaster, the novelty does not work well. In addition, the game is haunted by numerous bugs, glitches and bugs that were not specific to the originals. In contrast to reality, the subtitle of the definitive edition seems more like an unwanted joke. The authors have reprehensibly wasted the potential to breathe a whole new life into the classics and have failed fatally in their efforts because they have rather hurt the originals. All the more frustrating is that Rockstar withdrew the original games from sale, a decision that may need to be reconsidered. Instead of creating the ultimate collection, the publisher preferred to chase the authors of the modifications for pettiness. Finally, he didn’t have the confidence to provide the media with review codes or release more videos before they were released. In light of the actual state of the collection, one has difficulty defending the suspicion that it was Rockstar’s calculation and deliberate concealment.
