As much as its blemishes seem to show more and more with each passing year, so too do its assets. This nostalgically blocky open world still feels more alive, styled, and memorable than offerings from tons of massive-budget Triple A games of the current era. Words cannot express just how revolutionary this was at the time, and in large part it's impressive how much it really still holds up over twenty years later. Scrap the gunplay entirely, it's borderline unplayable - but most everything else here is enjoyable, save for the ruinous lack of a map system and a handful of not-so-fun missions which thankfully can be remedied with a YouTube guide or two. Still feels great to knock around these clayfaced NPCs with a baseball bat (accompanied by that iconic squish sound effect), blow up cars with RPGs, and see the origins of Rockstar's effortlessly satisfying mission structure - going from slimy character to slimy character carrying out a barrage of depraved tasks that range from vandalism to murder to all-out mayhem. Later installments improved on the formula but they'd be nothing without the template.