YMMV / Grand Theft Auto (Classic)

• Awesome Music: "Gangster Friday" (or just Grand Theft Auto when reused in III, with Joyride in parentheses) composed by Craig Conner.
• Complete Monster: London mission packs: Hans Nemesis is a terrorist specializing in bombs intending to kill countless civilians. During his first mission, Hans has potatoes replaced with bombs so civilians can be tricked into purchasing them, with an old man being killed by one of them. Fleeing the country shortly after said plan fails, Hans returns years later with multiple nukes armed to explode, aiming to kill as many people as possible, while taunting the protagonist at every possible moment during said mission. After his plans fail once again, Hans plans another massacre by lacing tea bags to poison thousands of civilians, only to be stopped once again. When finally confronted, Hans spitefully mocks the protagonist by blowing himself up.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Of all of the bosses you work for, El Burro is by far the most memorable due to how over-the-top crazy he is in comparison to everyone else. This was the most likely reason for his return in GTA3 as a notorious porn star and leader of the Diablo gang.
• Fridge Brilliance: This game (and its direct sequel) actively punishes you for traveling on freeways. Buggy cop cars are more likely to explode within distance, the police set up armed roadblocks, and Pay n' Sprays are often located far from the main drag. Highways are useful insomuch as they provide quicktravel to your desired district, but they can't be relied upon. This encourages you to study the map and find discreet routes.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Babylon gang being the government and led by the President becomes this when you realize such a scenario was a plot point in Saints Row IV.
• Obvious Beta: The Original game and the London expansions suffer from very wonky hitboxes, with the player having a large hitbox and the AI occasionally having bullets go right through them, and any Cop that fires a shot after first leaving their car will have that bullet travel through their car, which can result in unfair deaths. Also, the last level, Rasta Blasta, can have the handguns outside Hospitals/Police Stations fail to respawn as well as traffic in general, making the city a near-ghost town.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Grand Theft Auto V, with its three protagonists, wasn't the first GTA game to have multiple playable characters. Nope, it was this one, which had eight, though only one of them could be picked per game, unlike GTA V where you cycled between all three of them. (Said characters were also split evenly between four men and four women (with the exception of the PlayStation port) which makes this, to date, the first GTA game with a possible female protagonist until VI, not counting the online multiplayer modes in IV and V.) The London expansions likewise had their own unique set of eight playable characters, many of them based on various figures of '60s British culture.
  • This game featured a multiplayer mode, long before Grand Theft Auto IV or even Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
• Scrappy Mechanic: In this game, running a red light is enough to get you a 1-star wanted rating. Thankfully, this was dropped in the following games.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer:
  • Let's face it, the main game itself is average at best. But anyone who played this game usually spent countless hours on rampages and trying to survive wanted levels. This game's greatest strength was being sidetracked.
  • This was in fact the entire reason the game ended up the way it did: it was originally supposed to be a racing game, but playtesters had too much fun dueling with the aggressive AI it had. So the game was rehauled and ended up becoming what it is today.
• That One Level: See here.
• Underused Game Mechanic: During an early mission, you're instructed to steal some drugs from a biker gang and deliver them back to their dealer. A nearby prompt tells you that sometimes, it's better to think for yourself and complete jobs in ways not originally intended in order to yield greater rewards, with the intention being to kill the dealer so that the Vercotti family can turn a greater profit. However, this never really comes up again, as not following jobs to the letter will just result in a bevy of insults directed your way. It's possible that this mechanic was meant to be utilized more often, and could explain why Deever reams you out for allegedly working behind his back when in reality every job you had taken in Vice City up to that point was for his benefit. This is later subverted as Production Foreshadowing however, as Grand Theft Auto 2 introduces an Alliance Meter for three separate gangs to work for, which is influenced by helping one gang while fighting another. And finishing all missions in a single level will cause each gang leader to try and snuff you out for working behind their backs!
• Vindicated by History: Critics did not give this game the praise you'd expect from a well known classic back in 1997. Its weaknesses, such as graphics and mission variety, were slammed — and, to be quite honest, justifiably so. Its innovations, sandbox gameplay, impressive sound design, and the overall freedom it offered the player did still receive praise at the time.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Two Vice City missions involve assassinating the President and the First Lady, respectively. The latter is accomplished by blowing up a hospital she's currently touring.
  • Deever's excuse for wanting her dead? She didn't answer his fan mail.

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