Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition Reviews
GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition is defective, disappointing, and surprisingly disrespectful to three classic games and their many legions of fans.
Near-perfect at everything it does, but wisely limits its remit. A great conversion.
Lazy, amateurish, and half-finished are not how you usually expect to describe a Rockstar game, but this easily avoided mess shows three classic games in the least flattering way possible.
Rockstar's remastered trilogy is, appropriately, an absolute car wreck of creative neglect.
More than anything else, playing this trilogy in 2021 forced me to consider what a "remaster" is on a fundamental level. Is is just juicing up the graphics and making the main characters a little more detailed? Or could there be something more to it? I've been living with these games since they were first released. They each fueled moral panics in their own way. GTA 3 and Vice City were at the center of a resurrected set of arguments about video game violence, and how it would turn kids into mass killers. The spectacular nature of these claims propelled lawyer Jack Thompson into the limelight, and turned him into a special kind of video game culture villain, the bogeyman who still gets invoked when people are afraid anyone is going to touch their video games. San Andreas' Hot Coffee fiasco, produced when developers accidentally left the scripts for a sex minigame in the game files on release, ended with a class-action lawsuit settlement that allowed offended players to collect $35.
So, to recap my advice at the beginning: stick to your original copies if you still have them. If you need to see this mess in action for yourself, either wait until developer Grove Street Games heavily patches this collection or wait for a deeply discounted sale.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition can be tolerable on the right system. Both PS5 and Xbox Series X offer users the best chance of brute-forcing past the performance barriers but, even then, occasional bugs and glitches can occur. Fun can be had on those current-gen systems, especially by those with some sentimental attachment to the original trilogy, but there’s still likely to be moments of frustration. When it comes to the Nintendo Switch version, as enjoyable as a portable version could be, the experience is heavily compromised and I can’t recommend players drop serious cash on this product.
If you're coming into Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy expecting each game to look and play like GTA V, prepare for disappointment at a passionless upscaling effort. On the flipside, if you fancy reliving these open world wonders with some of their rougher gameplay edges sanded down, prepare to lose yourself for sixty hours or more.
GTA Trilogy on Nintendo Switch has problems like the rest of the versions, from an unstable frame rate to a noticeable popping or blurrier graphics playing in the dock, but they are still three great adventures like the cup of a pine, with slight improvements, which are highly enjoyable in portable mode.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The nostalgic value of this collection is beyond doubt, they are three masterpieces that today are still very funny (and with a sensational script), but this remastering has fallen short in many aspects, and has technical flaws.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
While certainly there's some new enhancement in the remaster that might encourage completely new players to taste these icons of video games for the first time, it's certainly not their best choice as well, the remaster enhancements are unbalanced and leave out many old models the same which makes things feel weirdly divided into two layers, the AI is terrible and there's no real enhancement for character movement or shooting mechanics, there's an absence of small details and a lot of bugs that make this a disappointment especially from an awarded dev such as Rockstar
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is definitely ... a disappointment. The technical restyling on the three chapters of the saga was half successful but does not pay the right homage to the original trilogy, while the improvements to the gameplay are not enough to make us forget the many bugs and glitches of this unsuccessful collection.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition is anything but definitive, with too many issues that simply cannot be overlooked.
If these games shaped or changed you, you might find the notion of their being shaped and changed, in turn, an unwelcome one.
The Grand Theft Auto series will always be seen as a cultural milestone in video gaming which led to the open world games that we cherish now, but the years have been a bit harsh on the trilogy and the complete lack of care put into what is essentially an afterthought of a remaster doesn't help matters much. The few updates made with controls, shooting, and lighting are nice, but not enough to justify the $60 price tag. The games are still worth revisiting, especially if you've never played the original releases, but only if you aren't playing on PC or the Switch as those versions seem to share the bulk of issues the game is currently experiencing. So far PS5 is the way to go for a hassle-free trip into Liberty City, just maybe wait for a price cut first.
There are great stories here, memorable characters, fun missions, and the tools players need to create countless hours of their own entertainment. The foundation of GTA Trilogy is comprised of three of the best games ever made, and so there is inherent value, especially for newcomers. But while the core gameplay of GTA Trilogy is truly incredible, the overall package feels rushed and haphazard. Those desperate for old school GTA on modern consoles should check the collection out, especifically if the promised Grand Theft Auto Trilogy fixes come through, but everyone else can safely skip it.
These remasters feel less stable than the glitchy originals, with a lack of attention to detail that undermines the games' character
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition isn't exactly the disaster it's been made out to be, but it is still a frustrating, underwhelming attempt to modernize three very important games. The quality of life improvements are generally welcome, and in many places, there's a faithful upgrading of the iconic visual style of the PS2 era titles. Unfortunately, not every change is welcome, and in the case of San Andreas, perhaps a little less of it might have done it a few favours.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition collects some truly groundbreaking games that still provide their share of nostalgic fun, but little has been done to make them shine here in 2021. Ultimately, a shoddy visual upgrade, choppy performance, and a lack of meaningful updates or extras may leave you questioning why you loved them in the first place. Perhaps this collection can be brought up to snuff with updates from Rockstar (or modders), but for now, its Wanted Level remains low.
All three mainline GTA games from the PS2 era are seminal pieces, and they still hold up to modern scrutiny – the outstanding GTA San Andreas especially. But as remasters these are weak: they chug on modern hardware and are undone by questionable artistic decisions. Rockstar built its reputation on attention to detail, and while all three of these games still come highly recommended, this disappointing compilation will go down as a stain on the label's record.