Early Installment Weirdness / Grand Theft Auto III

Being the first 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto series, many things are different in this game compared to future entries:

• The original PS2 version was the final GTA game (and the only one in 3D) developed by DMA Design before its rebrand to Rockstar North the following year. Later versions updated all mentions of DMA to Rockstar North.
• This is the only GTA game to not use a unique variant of Rockstar's opening logo tailored to the game: the one used was also seen on several releases of Max Payne, and the US releases of The Italian Job, Smuggler's Run: Warzones, and Smuggler's Run: Hostile Territory.
• This is also the only GTA game where producer Leslie Benzies is credited as "Les Benzies".
• There is an option for a top-down perspective akin to the 2D games, which Vice City onward removed.
• No map is shown in the pause menus. This made the included fold-out map a valuable utility. The map function was eventually added to the mobile version and Definitive Edition.
• Claude cannot buy property in this game, being restricted to a single safehouse per island instead.
• Other than the prison jumpsuit Claude wears in the beginning of "Give Me Liberty", he can't change his clothes at any other point (aside from the PC version, which instead allows players to create custom skins).
• Claude is the only silent protagonist in the 3D games. As a consequence, he also gets messages from contacts via a pager rather than a mobile phone as would be standard in all later games; Vice City Stories is the only game after III whose protagonist uses a pager rather than a phone, and that is to fit the game's time period (1984) rather than to accommodate a mute protagonist.
• There are still instant monetary awards for street crimes, once again akin to the 2D games.
• Everything is ten times more expensive in this game.^note An example would be the Pay n' Spray, which in this game costs $1,000 compared to Vice City's $100 cost. Conversely, reward payouts are adjusted to inflation as well.
• No Pay n' Spray and Ammu-Nation icons are on the radar outside of missions.^note The Staunton Island locations are marked for a while after it's unlocked.
• You can't move the camera while driving in the original versions. The ability was added in the mobile rereleases.
• Rather than using actual textures, photographs and decals serve those roles.
• There are no motorcycles in this game.^note Later explained on in Liberty City Stories where an ordinance was in effect during the events of III that disallowed motorcycle usage around this time.
• Flyable aircraft is almost completely absent as well (aside from the Dodo, which can only fly for a short period of time).
• Despite the "Strong Language" label featured on the game's content ratings, not a single F-bomb is dropped in the entire game, which is quite a glaring difference when compared to the later games in the series. A few milder profanities are being used and some characters use "shit" and a few variations of it. However, there is one pedestrian who nearly says the F-word just before getting cut short. There's also a moment with Toni, a high-ranking Mafia member who says "shit" fairly often, nearly saying "fuck" before swapping it with "freaking" on the radio due to Lazlow saying that swearing on the show isn't allowed.
• Unlike all future games, Liberty City isn't on a completely isolated island. Shoreside Vale really is a shoreside, as its northern boundary features a steep hill with two blocked-off road tunnels going through it. This design decision is largely thanks to the almost total lack of flyable aircraft in III, with future games choosing to put their cities on islands to discourage players from trying to fly out of bounds.
• Earth Drift has yet to take effect. Instead of Vice City, a very prominently placed billboard on Staunton Island advertises flights to Miami (Definitive Edition does alter this one), and Ray Machowski also explicitly says he's headed to Miami in his farewell pager message.^note This is especially weird considering that Vice City already existed in the first game. The DJ of MSX FM namedrops Darth Vader and Pikachu during one of his freestyles. There are also a few Bland-Name Product versions of real-world brands you can find, as opposed to future games that prefer to create something more original.
• Compared to Vice City and especially San Andreas onward, this game's depiction of Liberty City takes far more liberties with being a No Communities Were Harmed version of its real-world counterpart. Very few New York City landmarks are replicated in this game, and the ones that are have many clear geographical and design differences from their real life counterparts. This makes Liberty City come off more as a generic composite of various northeastern US cities rather than a scale compressed version of New York specifically.
• The map is much smaller compared to later games.
• Your health is not restored after saving the game. Starting with Vice City, your health is replenished after you save your game.
• While future 3D Universe games would play a snippet of their respective themes whenever a mission is passed, III uses a completely different, upbeat theme for that purpose.
• Its PlayStation 2 memory card save icon is a simple cube with the GTA III logo on each side. Future games use a representation of their respective save markers with the game's subtitle.^note Aside from San Andreas, which puts the game's cover art on its floppy disk label instead.
• While there are still many fictional brands in the game, most of them would not be seen again after III, and more iconic GTA brands such as Sprunk, Burger Shot, and Weazel are nowhere to be found. This would be corrected in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories as well as in the Definitive Edition.
• This game marked the debut of the now-iconic comic book-style cover art, but each panel is monochromatic, a stark contrast to all future covers in the series. This cover art was also made for the North American release; the European release instead had a splash of characters and action◊ as its cover art (which was originally going to be the North American cover as well). The artwork is also more crudely drawn compared to the more detailed artwork of later games.
• The in-game text that tells you what to do or what's happening is very snarky and abrasive. For example, trying to pick up an NPC when your car has no more room for passengers will have the game sarcastically tell you that your escorts are not sardines. Another example is where the game outright mocks you for losing in a race. This is likely a carryover from the 2D games where the text and characters were more colorful and wacky. Later games tone this down before the HD games dropped this altogether.
• Every mission starts with a title card before its intro cutscene. In every subsequent game, the mission's title is displayed along with the intro.
• There is no crouch button. Every Grand Theft Auto game beginning with Vice City implements a crouch button to help with aiming guns.
• Many of its collectibles (hidden packages, weapons, etc) were only available through jumping to high locations (in Grand Theft Auto 2, the 2D view came with a lot of platforming), as opposed to the rest of the 3D-era games, where they're usually found in secluded places and corners, or occasionally through a car jump or aircraft.
• NPC limbs could be shot out and dismembered in this game, and because of this, models are given a disproportionate and cartoonish appearance. The ability was removed from Vice City onward due to changes in models, making them more realistic.
• The car models are also rather different, and cannot be dented with melee weapons or have the the windows and tires shot out. This was changed from Vice City onward.
• You are also unable to bail out from a car in movement. Even if your car is about to explode, you need to stop it before leaving it. This also was changed from Vice City onward.
• Cars are much more fragile in this game than in the posterior titles, needing only some gunfire damage or a couple of crashes to catch on fire.
• The story is very basic, which can be summed up as "Your partner-in-crime betrayed you and left you for dead. Go find and kill her." You basically do favors for several gangs just to get a lead on Catalina's whereabouts and once you're finished with a gang, they stop being relevant to the story.^note "Under Surveillance", one of Asuka's missions, does involve Claude taking out several Leone members trying to track him down, but only in the PS2 version; other versions use FBI officers. Later GTA games would give deeper and more developed storylines and characters. III's setting is also much more grounded with some comedic scenes here and there compared to future games that would have more wacky and action heavy themes.
• Weapon slots do not exist in this game. It's possible to carry every weapon in the game, something that is not possible to do in later games beginning with Vice City.^note Grand Theft Auto Advance and Grand Theft Auto V are exceptions.
• Going inside safehouses directly leads to saving the game, rather than accessing a save marker inside. This also means that safehouse interiors can't be explored.
• There aren't many interiors in the game; the few that are (specifically Salvatore's club, Joey's garage, and the Staunton Island toilet block) are stored and loaded directly inside the game world; most mission cutscenes involve characters standing outside buildings, inside a construction yard, or on rooftops. Vice City onwards loads them in separate "heavens" (areas of the game world that aren't taken up by the "main" map) that the player is teleported into, allowing for more freedom in structuring those interiors.
• The 2011 mobile remaster is the only one of the GTA remasters to center the mission name in the title card, with the other games' remasters keeping the mission name on the bottom-right corner. This is carried over to the Definitive Edition.