Grand Theft Auto - The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition is disappointing, even on PS5. In Screen Rant's GTA Trilogy review, I named Rockstar and Grove Street Games' games "underdefined" and said "missing features and poorly optimized content let down what could have been ideal remasters." However, that doesn't mean they are completely devoid of merit, and anyone who has yet to experience GTA 3, Vice City, or San Andreas might as well check out Grove Street Games' versions now before they get patched.
The conversation surrounding games preservation is a tricky one, but it's hard to find a non-monetary reason for pulling older editions of any video game in favor of selling a new one unless the new one is what the original creators had in mind all along. If what is on display in Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition is an indication of what the original creators of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas wanted, however, it's a good thing the world got DMA Design and Rockstar's original PlayStation 2 versions before Grove Street Games' GTA. By all accounts the GTA Trilogy is a buggy, occasionally broken, incomplete-feeling mess that likely feels disrespectful to the legacy of the originals to some - but, for both newcomers and for longtime series fans, that doesn't mean they aren't worth playing.
A bad remake does not tarnish the quality of the original product, and just because a remaster isn't as polished as the game it is remastering doesn't mean it can't have its own good qualities. Much has been said online about the rain in Grand Theft Auto 3, but the original PS2 version was also muddy and hard to see through during bad weather. The shooting in GTA 3 isn't as solid as it is in San Andreas, yes, but at least Claude actually knows how to hold a gun the proper way now, instead of breaking all the bones in his arm as he attempts to aim 320 degrees behind himself without turning his torso. Not once, in any of the three GTA Trilogy games, have I fallen through the concrete while driving and ended up in the ocean - something I cannot say about the last time I played Vice City on PC.
Grand Theft Auto Remastered On PS5
On PlayStation 5, the Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition runs fairly well, although each game in the collection has their own unique quirks. Grand Theft Auto 3's most irritating addition is mission title text which stays on the screen for far too long, sometimes halfway through the explanatory cutscene or more. Vice City's weird quirk is hardware related - on the PS5 GTA Trilogy crashed the most while playing Vice City. San Andreas' issues were nearly always graphical, with multiple different textures either loading in incorrectly or not loading in at all. With all those issues on the table, however, there are many things Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition does right.
The lighting and, despite what many people on the internet have said, the rain and thunderstorms specifically, look phenomenal on every game in the GTA Trilogy on PS5. Reflections on the tops of cars and in puddles caused by rainstorms are incredibly impressive, and despite the inherent weirdness of flying high in the sky above San Andreas and seeing all of the game world spread out with no fog or draw distance to make it feel larger, walking on the streets of Red County, San Fierro, and Las Santos looks better than ever. The character models - another subject of derision among some people - aren't awful in motion. They do look cartoonish, and more than anything it looks like a caricature of the originals, which works with the GTA Trilogy's tongue-in-cheek stories.
GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition Gameplay
The GTA Trilogy is a remaster of some of the best Grand Theft Auto games ever released, so at the most basic of levels at least the core gameplay is still intact. Despite some ridiculous missteps like messing up the Rockstar logo in Vice City's pool, for the most part all three GTA Trilogy games play and feel just as fun as they always did. There are a few things missing - songs, for one, as Vice City and San Andreas' classic soundtracks have seen some cuts - and many instances where the polish GTA fans are used to was clearly not applied, but all of the titles are still enjoyable experiences to go through again, or even for the first time.
That isn't to say the GTA Trilogy isn't without its frustrations. Many missions which were difficult to accomplish in the games' original releases are still just as hard here, including the infuriating RC missions in Vice City and San Andreas. A lot of instances are made easier by the enhanced shooting mechanics - especially in Grand Theft Auto 3, where aiming was always a difficult ask of the game's systems - but just as many others are still difficult two decades later. Occasional instances of misplaced modeling and incorrect collision detection can make some of the longer racing missions much more frustrating, but, again, the original games had their own issues which prompted lots of restarts and reboots, and at least none of Grand Theft Auto 3's save files became corrupted (yet) because the wrong car was in the garage.
GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition Release Date
The PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of Grand Theft Auto 5 were originally meant to launch this holiday season, but they were instead delayed until March 2022. While the remastered GTA Trilogy could have theoretically been planned to release alongside this current-gen update, it is more likely the development and release date of GTA Trilogy was moved up to fill the gap in Take-Two's calendar GTA 5 had left. If this is indeed the case, it could explain the lackluster quality of these remasters, and may provide hope that updates will come to fix some of the most glaring issues.
GTA Trilogy & Grove Street Games
It has been reported that development surrounding the Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition was strained and filled with turmoil, and that often results in an inferior product (alongside the much more important issue of the amount of possible staff members with low morale). However, the head of Grove Street Games has said on Twitter that they are "enjoying" the exposure their GTA releases are currently experiencing, and this gives hope that fixes and updates to Grand Theft Auto - The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition will be coming soon. Before that happens these games are still worth checking out in their current state; not since Silent Hill 2 has a remaster gone this off course, and it'll be interesting to see where the new road leads.