Can You Free Roam in GTA 3?
Grand Theft Auto III (2001), also referred to as GTA III and most commonly known as GTA 3, is an open world video game. GTA 3 is often praised and credited for being one of the most important 3D open world video games, being an influential video game in the video games industry. GTA 3 popularized many aspects of open world video games that are seen to this day in video games of this genre, such as side activities, collectibles, day and night cycle, NPCs, different vehicles, and boundless freedom of movement.
You can free roam in GTA 3. However, unlike in subsequent GTA video games, many gangs in GTA 3 will often attack the player character on sight, even while free roaming, after certain missions have been completed.
The Free Roaming of GTA 3
As one of the most important 3D open world video games, GTA 3 influenced the open world video game genre, and also the video games industry. GTA 3 features many aspects currently seen in most open world video games, such as side activities, collectibes, day and night cycle, NPCs and boundless freedom of movement. At the same time, GTA 3 has some important differences when compared to more recent open world video games. GTA 3 popularized many of these aspects of open world video games, but Grand Theft Auto (2001) has some features that make the free roaming in the open game world more difficult. To be more precise, at the beginning of the game, not all locations are accessible, such as seen in some subsequent GTA video games such as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. More importantly, throughout the story progression in GTA 3 through the main story missions, the player character will increasingly more frequently encounter hostile NPCs in the open game world. These are NPCs that will shoot the player character on sight, even if the player character is not in a mission. While this is NPC hostility is also seen, for example, in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, in GTA: San Andreas there are many locations in which there are no hostile NPCs, and these hostile NPCs are mostly found in specific locations and areas of the game world. Due to this particularity, players are able to dodge and avoid encounters with these hostile groups of NPCs with enough practice and knowledge of the game world. In the original GTA 3, there are different hostile groups of NPCs in many parts of the game world.
The Hostility of NPCs in the Open Game World of GTA 3
The hostile NPCs of Grand Theft Auto III (2001), which are present in many different parts of the open game world, are mostly present after main story missions of the game have been completed. In other words, at the beginning of the game, in general there are not as many NPCs that are hostile towards the player character. In this sense, it is much easier to free roam the open world of GTA 3 at the beginning of the game than it is in the late game, due to the increased presence of hostile NPCs and to the increased frequency of encounters with these NPCs. As far as I know, after main story missions have been completed, there is no way to revert back to the previous state of the game world in which there were less hostile NPCs, unless GTA 3 is modded or cheated. The only way for the player to find less hostile NPCs in the open world of GTA 3 would be to start the game again. However, as many veteran players of GTA 3 are aware, there is a specific vehicle in GTA 3 which is quite resistant to attacks. For this reason, this vehicle is very important for players who want to free roam in GTA 3 after finishing the main story missions of the game. This vehicle is called Patriot, and a bulletproof Patriot of the video game can be acquired after the completion of the main story mission "Marked Man". The bulletproof Patriot allows players to adventure in open game world of GTA 3 and free roam even after the main story missions of the game have been completed.
The Best Moments to Free Roam in GTA 3
The best moments to free roam in GTA 3 are before completing the main story missions. Considering that not all locations of the game world are accessible at the start of the game, it is best to free roam in newly accessible locations of the video game as soon as they become accessible, before completing more main story missions. Although it is possible to free roam in any moment of Grand Theft Auto III (2001), as long as the player character is not in a mission, there are moments in which it is easier to free roam in the video game. While it is possible to free roam after all main story missions have been completed, it can be much more difficult to the increased presence of hostile NPCs throughout the game world. In this sense, the best moments to free roam in GTA 3 are as soon as locations of the game world are accessible, and before completing more main story missions. In this way, players are able to adventure in the open game world without the hostility of NPCs. It must be noted, however, that quite often when the players unlock a new location in GTA 3, the previous location will already have an increased presence of hostile NPCs. In this sense, after unlocking a new location, the best location to free roam in the video game will be the newly unlocked location, as this will be the location with less hostile NPCs.
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