Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, which includes completely remastered versions of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, is set to release for all major platforms on November 11, but it looks like the franchise's taxi ride feature won't be of much use to the player. Details for GTA: The Trilogy have been revealed, and all signs point to the remasters streamlining some of the more frustrating elements of the original games. The new trilogy will include updated gunplay, improved drive-by controls, and the ability to set waypoints on the in-game map. In addition, players will be able to instantly restart a failed mission without having to drive to the area on the map that triggers it.
Outside of San Andreas' final mission, the original 3D universe GTA games lacked any form of restarts or mid-level checkpoints. This meant that players were forced to drive back to the mission starting point on the map in order to fully retry the mission. This often proved to be an inconvenience, as taking a long drive to reattempt a mission that began off the beaten path could be extremely frustrating, especially so, in the case of GTA: Vice City, which had some difficult missions for players to overcome. Thankfully, Rockstar included taxis in Vice City that allowed players to be transported directly to a mission starting point for a small fee, which helped alleviate the sense of frustration.
Now, with the announcement that mission restarts will be included in GTA: The Trilogy, it looks as if taxi rides will be rendered useless. While the original versions of GTA 3 and San Andreas didn't include taxi rides as a form of fast travel, Vice City's taxi rides are essentially the game's version of mission restarts. Considering Vice City's taxi rides decreased time between mission attempts, the ability to immediately retry a failed mission will make instant restarts the obvious choice.
GTA Trilogy Remasters Could Make Vice City's Taxis Pointless
It is unclear how GTA: The Trilogy will address the usefulness of taxis. There’s the possibility that the trilogy could borrow from the taxi rides in GTA 4 and GTA 5, which gave players the option to take taxis to various locations on the map as opposed to only mission starting points. This more in-depth version of taxi rides served as a unique form of fast travel, and being able to take taxis to any point on the map makes the feature useful even in a game with mission checkpoints or restarts, such as GTA 5. There's also a chance that the updated version of Vice City will remove taxi rides entirely. Still, players may find a use for taxis outside of instant transportation. All signs point to the trilogy featuring taxi missions, which require stealing a cab and completing fares for money and other bonuses.
While taxi rides may be pointless in Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, the inclusion of instant restarts means that players won't be inconvenienced. This is just one of several features that are intended to modernize the trilogy with GTA 5-inspired controls and cut down on needless frustration. However, the difficulty of the original games was part of their appeal, so it will be interesting to see how players react to these changes.