The original 3D GTA. Liberty City, Claude, and the birth of an open-world genre.
GTA III launched the entire 3D-era of Grand Theft Auto in 2001 and its 61-mission story arc set the template every subsequent entry has followed. Claude's silent rise through Liberty City's crime families is brisker than the games that followed, but the design choices made here (the radio-station crime-comedy tone, the multi-family mission tree, the cinematic mid-mission cutscenes) were what made the rest of the franchise possible. These are the missions that defined the era.
The opening mission. A bank-truck ambush turns into a prison-bus heist that frees Claude alongside Eight-Ball and Catalina, in a sequence that establishes the franchise's tone (chaotic, cinematic, no protagonist dialogue) in roughly six minutes. The DMA Design and Rockstar North handoff is most visible in this mission's pacing.
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The franchise's first-ever mission protagonist meeting Luigi Goterelli in his Hepburn Heights club. The mission itself is simple (pick up a girl from a rival club, drive her back), but Luigi's monologue about his business introduces the tone that defines every later GTA boss character.
Claude's introduction to the Leone family hierarchy. A bodyguard mission for Joey Cipriani that introduces both his garage and his girlfriend Misty in a single set-piece, plus the Mafia Sentinel that becomes the Leone signature ride. The mission is the franchise's first 'meet the family' sequence.
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The franchise's first explicit gang-war mission. Claude leads a Mafia hit on the Diablos under Joey's orders, with the mission set against an Indian-restaurant-as-front-for-criminal-enterprise that became the template for every later 'meeting in a back room' set-piece.
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The franchise's first 'drive a bomb truck' mission. Claude has to deliver an armored truck rigged with explosives to a Mafia rival's compound without exceeding a speed limit. The time-pressure mechanic, the gameplay-as-tension idea, and the hilariously-low patience for player error all originate here.
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The mission that opens the Yakuza arc. Claude assassinates Salvatore Leone, his former boss, on Asuka Kasen's orders, then escapes Portland Beach via the harbor. The double-cross structure and the franchise's first 'protagonist switches loyalty mid-campaign' beat are both established here.
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The Donald Love introduction. A media-mogul character whose missions involve theatrical assassinations and Yakuza-Cartel tensions. The mission's plot revelation (Love wants Claude to fake the kidnapping of his own friend) is one of the campaign's best-written twists.
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Claude steals a cargo plane mid-takeoff from Francis International Airport. The franchise's first 'hijack a plane on the runway' set-piece, decades before GTA V's Minor Turbulence remix. The drive-up-the-runway approach is the original of a thousand later GTA action set-pieces.
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Claude rescues Maria, Salvatore's wife, after the Yakuza kidnap her. A payoff mission that resolves the campaign's central love-interest subplot and sets up the final confrontation. The on-foot pursuit through Liberty City rooftops is the franchise's first vertical-traversal action sequence.
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The campaign finale. Claude assaults Catalina's dam fortress in a climactic sequence that ends with a helicopter chase across Shoreside Vale. The boss fight against Catalina herself is the franchise's first explicit named-villain endgame.
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