GTA 3 revolutionized the gaming industry. A researcher became interested in how the game's atmosphere is structured.
The author of the YouTube channel Any Austin, who conducts various game investigations, recently decided to return to Grand Theft Auto 3. This time, he is not exploring mysteries, but proposes to consider the "atmosphere" and how it works.
In modern games, many things are worked out in detail, but GTA 3 was created for PlayStation 2, which imposed significant technical limitations. Nevertheless, Rockstar Games managed to create a soulful game world.
The blogger began his journey from the place where players often have to return — the main character's house. There is no autosave in the original version of the game, but you can save progress at home. This feature creates a sense of "shelter" in the harsh Liberty City.
The alley next to the house is detailed (taking into account the release in the early 2000s), but not all locations are full of details.
As an example, Any Austin cited a dog food factory — outwardly it is just a gray box with a sign. Technically, any other sign could be added here, like a "dry cleaning service."
According to the blogger, there is a "funny advantage when the building looks so bad" — the game relies on the gamer's imagination to fill in the gaps (about what is happening inside these buildings), an emotional association with such locations is formed. Any Austin draws a parallel with reading books: they also have no graphics, imagination works.
