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Between technical issues and overall product quality, the release of Grand Theft Auto: Trilogy-Definitive Edition was not smooth. The visual presentation is inconsistent, there are performance issues and cut content. Due to a series of Rockstar Launcher issues, PC players like me didn't start playing this game until a few days later. Despite all these obstacles, it is strange that I had a great time playing the "final version" of this iconic trilogy.
There must be red flags before the game is released, such as limited lenses and coverage, but I am cautiously optimistic because this is Rockstar's most iconic game series. Rockstar will not rush to remake and then dump it into the world to gain the upper hand in holiday sales, will it? Suppose I learned a few things in the past few days. I will use this as the beginning of the review: Rockstar's Launcher has a serious problem that prevents many PC players from playing any games they have purchased. This reminds us again that forced online connections for single-player games are a terrible practice. Rockstar's lack of communication during the downtime also didn't help. When I managed to download and start the game four days later, I was almost ready to tear down the final version.
My experience got worse before it got better. Starting from the chronological order of GTA 3, things don't look good. All three games are completely ported/rebuilt on Unreal Engine, including a series of visual upgrades, but they are essentially the same as the games released 15 to 20 years ago.
Of course they will not run like they do now.
GTA 3 had a particularly fierce battle, but all three games were not optimized, and in many cases it was difficult to run smoothly. In my experience, they are improved in chronological order, GTA3 is the biggest criminal, and San Andreas is relatively the best. On our 3070 and 5600x test benches, we worked hard to lock the best visual settings at a stable 60+fps at 1440p (DLSS enabled). We found that in most cases the performance was improved to settings above this line, but we repeatedly encountered obstacles where the frame rate would drop significantly. Even if not, I still experience slight stuttering from time to time.
The other two games seem to run better, but their output and performance are still unstable. This is largely due to the fact that the available graphics settings have an unclear impact on performance or the differences between the settings. In my experience, the "flat" reflection on the car seems to have the most significant effect. Turning it off can help us achieve acceptable frame rates more consistently, but even if locked to a specific frame rate, the game still runs inconsistently. The current experience on PC is not very good. I hope that Grove Street Games will optimize the trilogy on all three systems to obtain more stable and reliable performance and a better way to optimize performance through graphics settings.
Once I overcome the performance problem, I slowly found a foothold. I know that most of my fun comes from watching the game wearing nostalgic rose-colored glasses, but it is still a treat. In a few missions in any of the three games, I felt like I was back in my boyhood because I sank ungodly hours in all three games (mainly San Andreas).
In essence, the behavior and gameplay of these three games are basically the same as a few years ago, and the new paint either enhances the fun or destroys the fun. In GTA3, we still lead Silent Crowder through the ranks of the Liberty City Mafia, pursue the establishment of a powerful drug empire in Sin City with Tommy Versetti, and guide CJ in an epic battle in San Andreas Strange adventure. These games are not perfectly dated, but each game still shows the iconic GTA fun elements: memorable characters and interesting storylines. San Andreas is full of so many interesting open world chaos, it can be overwhelming.
Although I will not review each game in detail, in terms of content, most of these three games are in line with their original versions, but there are some interesting exceptions, such as the two-player mode or dozens of them originally in San Andreas Game mode. Licensed movie tracks from re-production. All three games seem to be based on mobile ports, which is not good because these versions are not bug-free or faithful ports of the original. I haven't encountered as many errors as suggested by the Internet, but they are sufficient. There are many visual glitches, but during the game, it is difficult to distinguish whether you encountered an imperfect general error in the source material or an error introduced in the subsequent mobile port or this remake.
We can attribute many shortcomings to the remake, such as a hard crash back to the table, especially when playing San Andreas. I have also encountered repeated crashes during startup, and sometimes it cannot be resolved until I restart the PC.
When things are running well, the presentation still doesn't meet the requirements. From animation issues to weird AI behaviors, many things didn't add up. For example, rain has incredibly high contrast, and it looks like you are watching a game through a bright white particle screen, which makes navigating the world extremely difficult. Be prepared to discover typos and incorrectly reconstructed artworks that look like they have been AI-upgraded and included in the game without having to look at them again. There is also broken collision detection, which can cause you to float on the ground in some areas and cross the landscape in other areas. The visual effects of the game feel funny in style, rather than realistic, but some character models are terrible, whether by today's standards or the standards set by the original version.
If you are going to list the visual improvements of the trilogy, they all sound like worthy additions-but they are not combined. The final version feels like it was remade for the sake of remaking; it checks the boxes and implements functionality without retaining the original title features. The orange mist of sunset and the dense fog of San Andreas are nowhere to be found. On the contrary, your map looks only not much bigger than a cat litter box. This is not necessarily wrong, but it is not the remake experience I expected. This is the core dilemma, Rockstar decided to withdraw from the original trilogy, which made the dilemma infinitely worse. Thankfully, given the reaction to the final version, it has reversed this decision.
I found that it was problematic for the original to be taken down overnight — the game had a thriving dedicated mod scene — and replaced it with, um, this. I don't understand why Rockstar cannot bundle the original trilogy with the remake, because this will be the only way the package can be considered "final" and complete. If this remake has a way to switch between the original and remake appearance, I would not be so opposed to it, which is almost the standard for modern remakes at this point.
On the other hand, I don't want to praise the original version too much. On the PC, they were not plug and play at the time, and when you try to run them today, they will have a series of problems. Mods are almost mandatory and you can spend quality time with them. From this perspective, The Definitive Edition's performance is not bad. As I already mentioned, the title still captures the essence of the trilogy, but it's like watching an old friend walk through the hall of a mirror: distorted and disconnected from reality but still interesting. It is easy to get started and play at runtime, and some quality of life improvements are meaningful, such as GTA5 control layout and weapon wheel, or add automatic save and checkpoints to tasks. I have completed some notorious missions with much less friction than before, especially remote-controlled aircraft/helicopter missions that were difficult to control in the past. Rockstar has promised to completely resolve any issues with The Definitive Edition in future updates, and if it persists, this remastered version may be interesting as an extension of the trilogy-but certainly not as a replacement.
I currently cannot recommend Grand Theft Auto: Trilogy-Final Edition on PC, there is still a lot to do before I recommend it. The truth is, I have had quite a bit of fun from this remake. Partly based on nostalgia, and partly based on some absurd and inevitable mistakes, which are not as frequent as I feared. Given all these issues and the poor performance of the three games on PC, I will stay away from the trilogy until a few major updates are released. Even so, this remake may not be suitable for everyone.