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This game burst onto the scene in 2001, completely overhauling the series by bringing it into a 3D environment, [[GenrePopularizer popularizing]] the WideOpenSandbox genre and turning Rockstar into its namesake. Although further games would add polish, few sequels deviate too much from this winning formula.
to:
This game burst onto the scene in 2001, completely overhauling the series by bringing it into a 3D environment, [[GenrePopularizer popularizing]] the WideOpenSandbox genre and turning Rockstar Games into its namesake. Although further games would add polish, few sequels deviate too much from this winning formula.
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* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: [[http://www.g-unleashed.com/index.php?cat=14&pid=118 You werent supposed to be able to get here you know]]
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* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: [[http://www.g-unleashed.com/index.php?cat=14&pid=118 You werent weren't supposed to be able to get here you know]] know.]]
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* [[WeUsedToBeFriends We Used To Be Lovers]]: Claude and Catalina.
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* [[WeUsedToBeFriends We Used To to Be Lovers]]: Claude and Catalina.
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* FaceHeelTurn: About a third of the way through the game, [[spoiler:Salvatore Leone sends Claude to pick up a car that he's had rigged with a bomb]] in an effort to kill him.
to:
* FaceHeelTurn: About a third of the way through the game, [[spoiler:Salvatore Leone Leone]] sends Claude to pick up a car that he's [[spoiler:he's had rigged with a bomb]] bomb in an effort to kill him.]]
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* [[WeUsedToBeFriends We Used To Be Lovers]]: Claude and Catalina.
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* SoundtrackDissonance: Violent gang activities + Double Clef Channel = This.
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* FanNickname: Due to being ordered around for the entire game, before his real name was revealed, Claude was referred to as "Fido". Also, Maria refers to Claude as "Fido" when he is ordered by Salvatore Leone to be her driver.
to:
* FanNickname: Due to being ordered around for the entire game, before his real name was revealed, Claude was referred to as "Fido". Also, Maria refers to Claude as "Fido" when he is ordered by Salvatore Leone to be her driver. driver.
* GameBreakingBug: The original PS2 version has the infamous Purple Nines glitch, in which a rival gang is exterminated after the D-Ice mission "Rumble." The problem is that completing the mission eliminates the Purple Nines from all save files on that memory block, preventing all other new and existing saves from loading the Nines. This becomes a problem because D-Ice's first mission involves performing drive-bys on this gang, making that mission impossible to complete on all other saves.
* GameBreakingBug: The original PS2 version has the infamous Purple Nines glitch, in which a rival gang is exterminated after the D-Ice mission "Rumble." The problem is that completing the mission eliminates the Purple Nines from all save files on that memory block, preventing all other new and existing saves from loading the Nines. This becomes a problem because D-Ice's first mission involves performing drive-bys on this gang, making that mission impossible to complete on all other saves.
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* SuperDrowningSkills: Supposedly because the waters of Liberty City are insanely toxic.
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* SuperDrowningSkills: Supposedly [[HandWave Supposedly]] because the waters of Liberty City are insanely toxic.
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* AsianDrivers: The Old Oriental Gentleman is not an easy person to protect, particularly since he keeps slamming through traffic and mumbling, "[[ScrewPolitenessImASenior Geddoudda da weh!]]"
to:
* AsianDrivers: The Old Oriental Gentleman is [[EscortMission not an easy person to protect, protect]], particularly since he keeps slamming through traffic and mumbling, "[[ScrewPolitenessImASenior Geddoudda da weh!]]"
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** Cartel members often say "You want the chainsaw, gringo?" during firefights, a reference to a particularly memorable scene in ''Film/{{Scarface}}''.
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* DeliciousDistraction: El Burro hires to you lure out the Forellis with a Mr. Whoopee truck.
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* ActionBomb: In the mission "Kingdom Come", the player is ambushed by drug-crazed madmen spawning from [[MookMaker mook-making vans]], complete with weird random chatter such as "Come to daddy!" and "I got a present for you!"
to:
* ActionBomb: In the mission "Kingdom Come", the player is ambushed by drug-crazed madmen spawning from [[MookMaker mook-making vans]], complete with weird random chatter such as "Come to daddy!" and "I got a present for you!"ya!"
* AsianDrivers: The Old Oriental Gentleman is not an easy person to protect, particularly since he keeps slamming through traffic and mumbling, "[[ScrewPolitenessImASenior Geddoudda da weh!]]"
* AsianDrivers: The Old Oriental Gentleman is not an easy person to protect, particularly since he keeps slamming through traffic and mumbling, "[[ScrewPolitenessImASenior Geddoudda da weh!]]"
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* TheUnintelligible: The Yardies. Good luck interpreting their accents with subtitles turned off.
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* ShoutOut: The contest over Donald's [[{{Macguffin}} mysterious package]] is lifted straight from ''Film/PulpFiction''. Like in the movie, we never see what's in there.
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** A "Claude Speed" resembling the Claude of III appeared ''GrandTheftAutoII'' 's live action intro.
to:
** A "Claude Speed" resembling the Claude of III appeared ''GrandTheftAutoII'' 's live action intro. He gets shot in both.
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* BigRottenApple: Liberty City is based off of New York City.
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* BigRottenApple: TheBigRottenApple: Liberty City is based off of New York City.
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* BigApplesauce: Liberty City is based off of New York City.
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* BigApplesauce: BigRottenApple: Liberty City is based off of New York City.
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* TakeThat: Asuka contracting you to kill a "[[{{Driver}} strangely animated undercover cop]]." Even his car is the same.
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** "Espresso-2-Go" requires intimate knowledge of the city streets, at the very least.
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* AStormIsComing: Immediately after the credits roll. The game resumes with Claude $1 million richer, and a thunderstorm raging over the city below. Mwu ha ha.
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* AStormIsComing: Immediately after the credits roll. The game resumes with Claude $1 million richer, and a thunderstorm raging over the city below. Mwu ha ha.
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* RooftopConforntation: Squaring off with Catalina's helicopter on the Cochrane Dam.
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* RooftopConforntation: RooftopConfrontation: Squaring off with Catalina's helicopter on the Cochrane Dam.
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* AStormIsComing: Immediately after the credits roll. The game resumes with Claude $1 million richer, and a thunderstorm raging over the city below. Mwu ha ha.
* SuperDrowningSkills
* SuperDrowningSkills
to:
* AStormIsComing: Immediately after the credits roll. The game resumes with Claude $1 million richer, and a thunderstorm raging over the city below. Mwu ha ha.
*SuperDrowningSkillsSuperDrowningSkills: Supposedly because the waters of Liberty City are insanely toxic.
*
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* KillEmAll: Except for Claude, of course. The jury is still out on [[spoiler:Maria]].
* RooftopConforntation: Squaring off with Catalina's helicopter on the Cochrane Dam.
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* AStormIsComing: Immediately after the credits roll. The game resumes with Claude $1 million richer, and a thunderstorm raging over the city below.
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* AStormIsComing: Immediately after the credits roll. The game resumes with Claude $1 million richer, and a thunderstorm raging over the city below.below. Mwu ha ha.
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* AStormIsComing: Immediately after the credits roll. The game resumes with Claude $1 million richer, and a thunderstorm raging over the city below.
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** El Burro was a potential employer of the player in the first game's San Andreas
to:
** Subway advertisements for ''Top Down City'', a reference to the previous games' TopDownView.
** El Burro was a potential employer of the player in the first game's SanAndreasAndreas.
** El Burro was a potential employer of the player in the first game's San
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** The Zaibatsu Corporation, here reduced to a pharmaceutical group with a few buildings and radio ads, was an employer in all zones of ''GrandTheftAutoII''.
to:
** The [[{{MegaCorp}} Zaibatsu Corporation, Corporation]], here reduced to a pharmaceutical group with a few buildings peddling pharmaceuticals and radio ads, cars for soccer moms, was an employer in all zones of ''GrandTheftAutoII''.
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* BigFancyHouse: The Cartel mansion, which they stole from Donald Love in ''Liberty City Stories''.
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* EveryBulletIsATracer: At the very least, they're smoke trails. Smoke trails that stay exactly in one place, but still smoke trails.
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->''"Sorry, babe, I'm an ambitious girl, and you--'' ([[InTheBack BLAM]]) ''...You're just small time."''
-->-- '''Catalina'''
-->-- '''Catalina'''
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* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally there was going to be children, school buses, elderly people with walkers, the ability to blow off limbs, as well as a hobo anarchist-terrorist named Darkel, who was still in the plot long enough to get his voice actor credited in the manual. Some of his missions include distributing ice cream that was effectively a bomb, [[CrossesTheLineTwice blowing up a school bus]] full of children and flying a plane [[HarsherinHindsight into a building]] to kill one person.
to:
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally there was going to be children, school buses, elderly people with walkers, the ability to blow off limbs, as well as a hobo anarchist-terrorist named Darkel, who was still in the plot long enough to get his voice actor credited in the manual. Some of his missions include distributing ice cream that was effectively a bomb, [[CrossesTheLineTwice blowing up a school bus]] full of children and flying a plane [[HarsherinHindsight into a building]] to kill [[NoKillLikeOverkill one person.person]].
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* HeyIt'sThatVoice: The first GTA game with a name-actor voice cast, each one known from cult crime movies and TV shows, including Frank Vincent (Goodfellas), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), Robert Loggia (Scarface), Debi Mazar (Goodfellas), Michael Rapaport (True Romance) and Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks).
to:
* HeyIt'sThatVoice: HeyItsThatVoice: The first GTA game with a name-actor voice cast, each one known from cult crime movies and TV shows, including Frank Vincent (Goodfellas), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), Robert Loggia (Scarface), Debi Mazar (Goodfellas), Michael Rapaport (True Romance) and Kyle MacLachlan Maclachlan (Twin Peaks).
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* HeyIt'sThatVoice: The first GTA game with a name-actor voice cast, each one known from cult crime movies and TV shows, including Frank Vincent (Goodfellas), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), Robert Loggia (Scarface), Debi Mazar (Goodfellas), Michael Rapaport (True Romance) and Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks).
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** This becomes a RunningGag in ''Vice City'' (set in the 1980s), in which Laszlo, there the DJ of the rock station V-ROCK, claims the station has been around for seventy years.
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** This becomes a RunningGag in ''Vice City'' (set in the 1980s), in which Laszlo, Lazlow, there the DJ of the rock station V-ROCK, claims the station has been around for seventy years.
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This game burst onto the scene in 2001, completely overhauling the series by bringing it into a 3D environment, popularizing the WideOpenSandbox genre and turning Rockstar into its namesake. Although further games would add polish, few sequels deviate too much from this winning formula.
to:
This game burst onto the scene in 2001, completely overhauling the series by bringing it into a 3D environment, popularizing [[GenrePopularizer popularizing]] the WideOpenSandbox genre and turning Rockstar into its namesake. Although further games would add polish, few sequels deviate too much from this winning formula.
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* SmallRoleBigImpact: Nothing in the game would have happened were it not for the "Old Oriental Gentleman" and the Cartel freeing him from the police transport, which also allowed you to get free too.
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[[quoteright:211:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/318462b5ab887119d213f92f8bba5903-Grand_Theft_Auto_III_.jpg]]
In Liberty City, a FictionalCounterpart to New York, you play a [[SilentProtagonist silent]], [[NoNameGiven nameless]] [[hottip:*: later games reveal his name to be Claude]] protagonist who escapes from a prison transport and climbs the city's criminal ladder. You are hoping to get revenge your ex-girlfriend/partner in crime Catalina, who left you for dead after a bank robbery gone bad. It won't be an easy journey. Some will backstab you, and others will think you are in the way. But if you fight the good fight, this will be one hell of a ride.
This game burst onto the scene in 2001, completely overhauling the series by bringing it into a 3D environment, popularizing the WideOpenSandbox genre and turning Rockstar into its namesake. Although further games would add polish, few sequels deviate too much from this winning formula.
Released on {{PlayStation 2}}, then on the {{Xbox}} and PC, and eventually got released on iOS and Android.
----
!!Distinct tropes of this game:
* ActionBomb: In the mission "Kingdom Come", the player is ambushed by drug-crazed madmen spawning from [[MookMaker mook-making vans]], complete with weird random chatter such as "Come to daddy!" and "I got a present for you!"
* ArmedBlag: An early mission, and a Portland docks side quest.
* BatterUp: The baseball bat is the only melee weapon available in this game.
* BigApplesauce: Liberty City is based off of New York City.
* BoundAndGagged: Offscreen, but from what's said, it's really obvious.
* BrokenBridge: Played literally. The bridge to Staunton Island was blown up in the opening cutscene (thus justifying it in that case), the drawbridge mechanism on the bridge to Shoreside Vale was broken, and the tunnel connecting all three islands was still under construction.
* BrooklynRage : A large portion of the cast, including the protagonist.
* TheCartel: Arguably the main antagonists of the game.
* CentralTheme: Betrayal and revenge drive not only the plot, but also the missions. Claude is apparently motivated by his desire for revenge against Catalina. Salvatore Leone is paranoid about his underlings betraying him (and rightly so). Donald Love gets the player to betray Kenji.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Catalina, of course. This also applies to Claude, given the sheer number of times he shifts allegiance from one gang to another.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Donald Love.
* CrapsackWorld: "The worst city in America" indeed. Gangs turning hostile towards Claude, one of which is already hostile ([[spoiler:and only two gangs won't attack him on sight]]). Liberty City also houses a corrupt mayor, backstabbing mobsters and a dreary environment.
* DeadlyGame: Liberty City Survivor, which is advertised on the radio in ''III''. The ad, complemented with fan footage from ''IV'', can be listened to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwRera2ig9k here.]]
* DirtyCop: Ray Machowski. He has plenty of contacts in the Liberty City underworld, and even introduces [[AscendedExtra series staple, Phil Cassidy]].
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: [[http://www.g-unleashed.com/index.php?cat=14&pid=118 You werent supposed to be able to get here you know]]
* FaceHeelTurn: About a third of the way through the game, [[spoiler:Salvatore Leone sends Claude to pick up a car that he's had rigged with a bomb]] in an effort to kill him.
* FalseFlagOperation: In a bid to drop real estate prices, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Donald Love]] has Claude start a gang war by assassinating TheYakuza crime lord [[spoiler: Kenji Kasen]], [[BodyguardBetrayal for whom Claude had previously worked as an enforcer]] and then framing TheCartel. See LostForever below.
* FanNickname: Due to being ordered around for the entire game, before his real name was revealed, Claude was referred to as "Fido". Also, Maria refers to Claude as "Fido" when he is ordered by Salvatore Leone to be her driver.
* GuideDangIt: A few of the missions are tough as hell unless done a certain way, and the game gives no hints to those methods.
* [[HeroicMime "Heroic" Mime]]: Even if Claude isn't quite a hero. And apparently he's a literal mute, too.
* HufflepuffHouse: The Yakuza has frosty relations with the Cartel, particularly once you frame Miguel for killing Kenji. Claude, being Claude, ends up drawing the ire of the Yakuza anyway.
* IncrediblyLamePun: "Give Head radio a listen this weekend, it'll blow you away."
* LostForever: Some Portland missions need to be done before you leave. Also, [[spoiler:Kenji will get killed at a certain point]], so you need to complete his missions before then.
* MafiaPrincess: Maria, although this is her at the tail end of that life.
* MythologyGag: A few.
** A New York City [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed stand-in]] by the name of Liberty City first appeared as the setting of [[GrandTheftAutoClassic the first GTA.]]
** El Burro was a potential employer of the player in the first game's San Andreas
** A "Claude Speed" resembling the Claude of III appeared ''GrandTheftAutoII'' 's live action intro.
** The Zaibatsu Corporation, here reduced to a pharmaceutical group with a few buildings and radio ads, was an employer in all zones of ''GrandTheftAutoII''.
** Both of the previous games included a radio station named "Head Radio."
* NewYorkSubway: The Portland Island El, and the Liberty City Subway itself is based off of the New York City Subway.
* NoGearLevel: The final mission.
* PsychoExGirlfriend: Catalina.
* RetiredBadass: You'd never know it just from this game, but just three years before Claude met up with him, [[GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Toni Cipriani was every bit as crazy and murderous as him.]]
* RewardingVandalism: This was the last ''GTA'' game where [[TheArtifact smashing into/blowing up cars earned money on its own]].
* ShrugOfGod: [[spoiler:Did Claude shoot Maria?]] "No one knows for sure what happened there" is the official line.
* SuperDrowningSkills
* TitleDrop: A notoriously difficult mission, where you must steal 3 cars and deliver them to the Yakuza within 6 minutes and without a single scratch, is called "Grand theft auto".
* TooSoon: After 9/11, Rockstar North changed the paint jobs on the police cars so that they didn't resemble those of the [[NewYorkCityCops NYPD]]. Some pedestrian dialogue was also changed. There was insufficient time between the disaster and publication for extensive alterations.
* TwistEnding: Claude (apparently) [[spoiler:shoots Maria after rescuing her, because she won't shut up.]] It's never stated if [[spoiler:he killed her]], or if he just [[spoiler:fired a warning shot into the air]], so it's left up to the gamer's imagination. It was finally "stated". [[ShrugOfGod God]] said "Certainly gun shots were fired but nobody is exactly sure as to exactly what happened."
* VideoGame3DLeap
* VillainProtagonist
* TheVoice : The leaders of three gangs each situated on one of the three islands in the city call you via pay phone and have you run errands for them. At no point in the game do you actually get to meet them.
** In Portland, you are contacted by El Burro of the [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang Hispanic Diablo Gang]].
** When you reach Staunton Island, you are contacted by King Courtney of the [[TheYardies Jamaican Yardies]].
** After unlocking Shoreside Vale, D-Ice of the [[GangBangers Red Jacks]] gives you a call.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally there was going to be children, school buses, elderly people with walkers, the ability to blow off limbs, as well as a hobo anarchist-terrorist named Darkel, who was still in the plot long enough to get his voice actor credited in the manual. Some of his missions include distributing ice cream that was effectively a bomb, [[CrossesTheLineTwice blowing up a school bus]] full of children and flying a plane [[HarsherinHindsight into a building]] to kill one person.
** Actually, according to a recent Q&A on the Rockstar website, they revealed that Darkel, and all his missions were removed long before 9/11, because "...they just weren’t as good as the rest of the game, and tonally they were a little odd." They also add "None of these missions involved blowing up buses of school children." And for good measure "All of the more extreme rumours are amusing but impossible to have been achieved in such a short period of time."
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Donald Love will simply disappear when the mission "Decoy" is finished. The only thing he leaves behind is an empty box.
** Although you unfailingly see a plane flying away during the cutscene where you wonder where he's gone. It can be assumed that he's on it.
* WritersCannotDoMath: An AdBumper for Head Radio calls the station "the rock of Liberty City for sixty years". This would mean they started out in 1941, Rock & Roll wasn't invented by then.
** This becomes a RunningGag in ''Vice City'' (set in the 1980s), in which Laszlo, there the DJ of the rock station V-ROCK, claims the station has been around for seventy years.
----
In Liberty City, a FictionalCounterpart to New York, you play a [[SilentProtagonist silent]], [[NoNameGiven nameless]] [[hottip:*: later games reveal his name to be Claude]] protagonist who escapes from a prison transport and climbs the city's criminal ladder. You are hoping to get revenge your ex-girlfriend/partner in crime Catalina, who left you for dead after a bank robbery gone bad. It won't be an easy journey. Some will backstab you, and others will think you are in the way. But if you fight the good fight, this will be one hell of a ride.
This game burst onto the scene in 2001, completely overhauling the series by bringing it into a 3D environment, popularizing the WideOpenSandbox genre and turning Rockstar into its namesake. Although further games would add polish, few sequels deviate too much from this winning formula.
Released on {{PlayStation 2}}, then on the {{Xbox}} and PC, and eventually got released on iOS and Android.
----
!!Distinct tropes of this game:
* ActionBomb: In the mission "Kingdom Come", the player is ambushed by drug-crazed madmen spawning from [[MookMaker mook-making vans]], complete with weird random chatter such as "Come to daddy!" and "I got a present for you!"
* ArmedBlag: An early mission, and a Portland docks side quest.
* BatterUp: The baseball bat is the only melee weapon available in this game.
* BigApplesauce: Liberty City is based off of New York City.
* BoundAndGagged: Offscreen, but from what's said, it's really obvious.
* BrokenBridge: Played literally. The bridge to Staunton Island was blown up in the opening cutscene (thus justifying it in that case), the drawbridge mechanism on the bridge to Shoreside Vale was broken, and the tunnel connecting all three islands was still under construction.
* BrooklynRage : A large portion of the cast, including the protagonist.
* TheCartel: Arguably the main antagonists of the game.
* CentralTheme: Betrayal and revenge drive not only the plot, but also the missions. Claude is apparently motivated by his desire for revenge against Catalina. Salvatore Leone is paranoid about his underlings betraying him (and rightly so). Donald Love gets the player to betray Kenji.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Catalina, of course. This also applies to Claude, given the sheer number of times he shifts allegiance from one gang to another.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Donald Love.
* CrapsackWorld: "The worst city in America" indeed. Gangs turning hostile towards Claude, one of which is already hostile ([[spoiler:and only two gangs won't attack him on sight]]). Liberty City also houses a corrupt mayor, backstabbing mobsters and a dreary environment.
* DeadlyGame: Liberty City Survivor, which is advertised on the radio in ''III''. The ad, complemented with fan footage from ''IV'', can be listened to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwRera2ig9k here.]]
* DirtyCop: Ray Machowski. He has plenty of contacts in the Liberty City underworld, and even introduces [[AscendedExtra series staple, Phil Cassidy]].
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything: [[http://www.g-unleashed.com/index.php?cat=14&pid=118 You werent supposed to be able to get here you know]]
* FaceHeelTurn: About a third of the way through the game, [[spoiler:Salvatore Leone sends Claude to pick up a car that he's had rigged with a bomb]] in an effort to kill him.
* FalseFlagOperation: In a bid to drop real estate prices, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Donald Love]] has Claude start a gang war by assassinating TheYakuza crime lord [[spoiler: Kenji Kasen]], [[BodyguardBetrayal for whom Claude had previously worked as an enforcer]] and then framing TheCartel. See LostForever below.
* FanNickname: Due to being ordered around for the entire game, before his real name was revealed, Claude was referred to as "Fido". Also, Maria refers to Claude as "Fido" when he is ordered by Salvatore Leone to be her driver.
* GuideDangIt: A few of the missions are tough as hell unless done a certain way, and the game gives no hints to those methods.
* [[HeroicMime "Heroic" Mime]]: Even if Claude isn't quite a hero. And apparently he's a literal mute, too.
* HufflepuffHouse: The Yakuza has frosty relations with the Cartel, particularly once you frame Miguel for killing Kenji. Claude, being Claude, ends up drawing the ire of the Yakuza anyway.
* IncrediblyLamePun: "Give Head radio a listen this weekend, it'll blow you away."
* LostForever: Some Portland missions need to be done before you leave. Also, [[spoiler:Kenji will get killed at a certain point]], so you need to complete his missions before then.
* MafiaPrincess: Maria, although this is her at the tail end of that life.
* MythologyGag: A few.
** A New York City [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed stand-in]] by the name of Liberty City first appeared as the setting of [[GrandTheftAutoClassic the first GTA.]]
** El Burro was a potential employer of the player in the first game's San Andreas
** A "Claude Speed" resembling the Claude of III appeared ''GrandTheftAutoII'' 's live action intro.
** The Zaibatsu Corporation, here reduced to a pharmaceutical group with a few buildings and radio ads, was an employer in all zones of ''GrandTheftAutoII''.
** Both of the previous games included a radio station named "Head Radio."
* NewYorkSubway: The Portland Island El, and the Liberty City Subway itself is based off of the New York City Subway.
* NoGearLevel: The final mission.
* PsychoExGirlfriend: Catalina.
* RetiredBadass: You'd never know it just from this game, but just three years before Claude met up with him, [[GrandTheftAutoLibertyCityStories Toni Cipriani was every bit as crazy and murderous as him.]]
* RewardingVandalism: This was the last ''GTA'' game where [[TheArtifact smashing into/blowing up cars earned money on its own]].
* ShrugOfGod: [[spoiler:Did Claude shoot Maria?]] "No one knows for sure what happened there" is the official line.
* SuperDrowningSkills
* TitleDrop: A notoriously difficult mission, where you must steal 3 cars and deliver them to the Yakuza within 6 minutes and without a single scratch, is called "Grand theft auto".
* TooSoon: After 9/11, Rockstar North changed the paint jobs on the police cars so that they didn't resemble those of the [[NewYorkCityCops NYPD]]. Some pedestrian dialogue was also changed. There was insufficient time between the disaster and publication for extensive alterations.
* TwistEnding: Claude (apparently) [[spoiler:shoots Maria after rescuing her, because she won't shut up.]] It's never stated if [[spoiler:he killed her]], or if he just [[spoiler:fired a warning shot into the air]], so it's left up to the gamer's imagination. It was finally "stated". [[ShrugOfGod God]] said "Certainly gun shots were fired but nobody is exactly sure as to exactly what happened."
* VideoGame3DLeap
* VillainProtagonist
* TheVoice : The leaders of three gangs each situated on one of the three islands in the city call you via pay phone and have you run errands for them. At no point in the game do you actually get to meet them.
** In Portland, you are contacted by El Burro of the [[GenericEthnicCrimeGang Hispanic Diablo Gang]].
** When you reach Staunton Island, you are contacted by King Courtney of the [[TheYardies Jamaican Yardies]].
** After unlocking Shoreside Vale, D-Ice of the [[GangBangers Red Jacks]] gives you a call.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Originally there was going to be children, school buses, elderly people with walkers, the ability to blow off limbs, as well as a hobo anarchist-terrorist named Darkel, who was still in the plot long enough to get his voice actor credited in the manual. Some of his missions include distributing ice cream that was effectively a bomb, [[CrossesTheLineTwice blowing up a school bus]] full of children and flying a plane [[HarsherinHindsight into a building]] to kill one person.
** Actually, according to a recent Q&A on the Rockstar website, they revealed that Darkel, and all his missions were removed long before 9/11, because "...they just weren’t as good as the rest of the game, and tonally they were a little odd." They also add "None of these missions involved blowing up buses of school children." And for good measure "All of the more extreme rumours are amusing but impossible to have been achieved in such a short period of time."
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Donald Love will simply disappear when the mission "Decoy" is finished. The only thing he leaves behind is an empty box.
** Although you unfailingly see a plane flying away during the cutscene where you wonder where he's gone. It can be assumed that he's on it.
* WritersCannotDoMath: An AdBumper for Head Radio calls the station "the rock of Liberty City for sixty years". This would mean they started out in 1941, Rock & Roll wasn't invented by then.
** This becomes a RunningGag in ''Vice City'' (set in the 1980s), in which Laszlo, there the DJ of the rock station V-ROCK, claims the station has been around for seventy years.
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