The accessible game-play provided a great deal of variety for players. After choosing a character and entering your name you were dumped straight into the game and told that you could pick up jobs from the payphones in the park. Your aim to pass each stage of the game was to accumulate a points total but it was up to you how to go about it. You could accept missions via the payphones, act on tips received on your pager, steal cars and sell them or even just cause general chaos by running over pedestrians and blowing up cars.
The range of missions was vast and dragged the player into drug deals, assassinations and of course theft. The controls were simple and the variety of vehicles you could steal was astounding. Each vehicle handled completely differently and you could hop into parked cars or just turf the driver out of an occupied vehicle and drive away.
The game featured a number of pick ups which were placed around the city environment and grabbing a weapon and some armor was the most important first step. You could also find power-ups, extra lives and even get out of jail free cards. Some of the pick ups could be found just lying around on the street but most were hidden within crates which you had to smash to access. Some of the crates contained kill frenzies which would challenge you to cause as much damage as possible within a short time limit to hit a target score.
The city maps were vast and each was split into two levels which were unlocked as you progressed. Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City were the destinations you would rampage through and each formed a basic grid map with subtle graphical differences. The lack of an in game map made learning the layout vital although the game did come with a paper fold out map which proved very useful.
Your wanted level was displayed by angry cop heads on the HUD and running people over or firing a gun would get their attention. You could go to a garage and have your car re-sprayed to escape or alternatively completing your current mission or kill frenzy would often throw them off. As your wanted level went up the number and ferocity of the cops coming after you would also increase.
