Just recently played through Vice City + San Andreas, games I played loads as a kid but was too bad to ever complete. Had a blast finally completing both now my frontal lobe has developed, and I'm curious about playing GTA 3 as I've had it in my Steam library for years. I started it quite a few times growing up, but only ever played for about an hour or two before getting bored. Just picked it up again to see if it grabs me, played for an hour, once again it feels quite boring and empty compared to later releases.

Curious if it's worth going through the entire game? It's very historically significant and influential, which makes me want to play it all, but I sadly don't find any of it particularly fun. Is it just a slow start, or is the whole game this level?

yes, its very fast paced, it won take u much time, also story is bland but its kind of funny.

If you don't find it fun, it ain't worth it.

Not really. Going backwards through the series doesn't help too.

If I'd intended to play more than San Andreas I would've probably started with 3 then gone forwards, just got an impulse to play it then thought I'd finally finish Vice City afterwards

I have it on my phone and it's fun to play sometimes to kill time. I don't think I would play it instead of something else if I have my computer in front of me.

Following this question as well since I’m also interested in the answers. Btw OP how are you playing these games? Are you playing GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition? Or some other way? I’ve heard mixed reviews

Some of the side missions are very difficult and you can't go back to an island after s certain period of time. When you complete the game you can carry on but it's not worth it ss it's a lot of hassle. However yes it's worth going through the main storyline at least once.

Kinda?.. It's not on the same level as VC and SA for me, but it's worth playing at least once.

I think it's the cure of starting with (or, at the very least, being far more familiar with) later iterations.

Games evolved fast back then.

I can see how GTA 3 feels "boring and empty" compared to SA. However, it didn't feel that way when played directly after GTA 1&2. It felt like a miracle.

Is GTA 3 worth playing today, nostalgia free? Nobody can answer that question for you. It depends on your interest in older games and your tolerance for their quirks and limitations.

For the sake of GTA history and seeing characters it's worth going through at least once and then never touching again.

I mean VI is right around the corner so why not go back and see how good we have it now?

I would never touch the definitive edition in any capacity it looks like a hot mess. I bought the originals on steam well over a decade ago, they've just been sitting in my backlog for the most part until now.

GTA 3 holds up decently well, I had a lot of fun with it. I don't think it's too far behind VC, they play almost exactly the same after all.

Missions and cutscenes are pretty short. There's not much downtime and the game isn't all that long. The lack of a map screen is kinda hard to get used to if you don't know your way around. Watch out for some crazy difficulty spikes here and there.