5 Ways The First GTA Game Was Way Different From The Sequels

"Grand Theft Auto" is one of the most celebrated franchises in all of gaming, and players have come to expect certain things from the series. "GTA" players want to experience well-constructed crime stories filled with memorable characters living in deeply immersive settings. They want to be able to explore and interact with a realistic world on their own terms, and they know that this series offers gameplay and graphical depth that not even the best "GTA" clones can match.

Based on everything we know about "GTA 6," the latest installment will be the pinnacle of everything that "GTA" is known for being. Ironically, that means the newest game will also be the furthest from the franchise's roots. The very first "GTA" game, developed by and released in 1997 by DMA Design, looks almost nothing like the modern "GTA" experience. From its presentation to its mechanics, the original "GTA" is an entirely different kind of game. But through its differences, you can see hints of how the "GTA" franchise we know today came to be.

The "Grand Theft Auto" franchise has clearly taken some inspiration from crime movies. Obviously the games have stories that are propelled by cutscenes, but the inspiration goes deeper than that. The moment-to-moment action in "GTA" is also cinematic, especially in the more recent games where players can adjust the camera to their own preference before cruising through big city streets or getting into an epic shootout. Gamers everywhere would likely agree that "GTA" is a game that deserves its own movie, but the very first game in the series wasn't aiming to be cinematic at all. 

The original "GTA" has much more in common with the best '90s arcade games than classic films. Players experience the game from a top-down perspective, and the camera is always locked in on whatever their character is doing. The pixel graphics arguably look good, but they aren't trying to create a world with the same kind of realistic details that populate the other games in the franchise. From the big score counter in the corner of the screen to the little gory details that are shown when players cause death and destruction, the first "GTA" offers a heightened arcade shooter experience that modern franchise fans wouldn't recognize at all.

The "Grand Theft Auto" games have repeatedly set new bars for storytelling in video games. Players remember the plot twists, complicated protagonists, and endearing side characters for years after their first playthrough. The stories are a big part of why people revisit the best "GTA" games over and over again, but the first game in the series didn't have a plot at all.

When players first start "GTA," they're asked to choose a character, but the choice isn't really that important. The nameless characters have slightly different designs, but they don't impact the gameplay in any way. Players are thrust into the game's various locales with no preamble, and every location has players move through more-or-less the same cycle of activity.

"GTA" plays like an old school arcade game through and through, and beyond the obvious setup of having players be criminals in modern cities, the game doesn't have any kind of story to tell. Of course, players are free to imagine their own stories to explain their characters' criminal rampage, but it would take several more "GTA" games for the franchise to morph into the narrative experience that fans know today.

Today, the idea of a high score seems antithetical to the type of game "Grand Theft Auto" has become, but like all the best arcade games of the time, the first "GTA" game features a big counter in the top righthand corner of the screen. The score in "GTA" is meant to represent the amount of cash a player has on hand, and every level sets out a new high-dollar goal for players to beat.

There's an array of activities that award cash in each level. Players can always collect money by causing chaos around town, whether that's smashing windows or mowing down civilians with a car. The more efficient means of making money is dealing with the local gangs in each city. Players can visit payphones to get jobs that have big payouts, but that tends to be riskier than wanton street violence.

Running afoul of the cops or getting hit by a bullet or other cars will cost players a life, and in standard arcade fashion, running out of lives ends the game. The skeleton of future "GTA" games can be glimpsed throughout the franchise's original outing, but the first game is simply part of a different genre than the majority of the games that came after it.

The original "Grand Theft Auto" is almost unrecognizable compared to what the series has become, but there are parts of that first game that have stuck around all the way to "GTA 6." In fact, the first "GTA" game basically created the outline for the entire series by introducing every major location that "GTA" fans have come to know and love. Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas all got their start in the very first "GTA" game.

Each city shows up multiple times as players work their way through the various levels in "GTA." Each level takes players to a new city, and though the locales have changed quite a bit over the years, experienced "GTA" fans will easily be able to recognize all three of them in their earliest forms.

Even at this point in the franchise's life, "GTA" was already trying to satirize parts of real life, and its over-the-top versions of New York City, San Francisco, and Miami make that clear. Of course, other games in the series have been able to make sharper satirical points by taking deep dives into their settings and fully examining a single location in finer detail, but the first "GTA" is notable for letting players get a low-res look at the fullness of the series' fictionalized American landscape.

One of the biggest differences between the first "Grand Theft Auto" game and the games that came after is that the series originally started on the PC. The first "GTA" debuted on November 28th, 1997, and for a brief moment, it was exclusively a PC title. "GTA" didn't come to consoles until December 14th of that year, when it arrived on PlayStation.

After that first release, "GTA" became a multi-platform game franchise. Over time, the series started moving away from its PC roots. Rockstar didn't release "GTA V" on PC until well after it had launched the games on consoles. Fans had to wait years for the company's publisher, Take-Two, to break its silence about "GTA 6" on PC, and the news was disappointing. Take-Two isn't rushing the PC release, and it could be years before fans are playing the game on their computers. The original "GTA" was a PC-first title. Since then, the franchise has firmly identified itself as a console-first series.