Grand Theft Auto: Mission Pack #1 - London 1969

The Good
I loved playing the original Grand Theft Auto and thought I might give the mission pack for it a try. The game mechanics are the same between the two, so I had no problems getting used to it. There are a few differences, with the major one being the setting. Instead of three different cities, the game is set in one big one.

The game places you in London in the year 1969, and this is evident by the look of the buildings as well as the vehicles driving around you. This setting is further enhanced by a James Bond-like character and the use of Cockney slang. One of my favorite speeches throughout the game is "Oi! Stop right there!"

There are about thirty-two missions in the game, but most of them consist of driving from Point A to Point B. These missions happen to be my favorites. I don't approve of going on missions that you have a certain time limit to complete, bumping into cars along the way. When I am on foot, bumping into people produces funny responses.

There are 30 new vehicles you can drive, including the Jug Swingler (the one that has the UK flag plastered all over it). Some vehicles are really fast and some are average. The really fast ones are well suited for missions that have a time limit. I enjoyed most of the British radio stations. Most of them provide easy listening music while you are on your way to your destination/

GTA1969 comes shipped with a map of London, and you can use it to work out the best way to get to your destination. Looking at this map, it's nice to see that it points to different landmarks like Hyde Park, Tower of London, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. Plus, there's still the usual bomb shops and spray shops.

There are cut-scenes you can view between chapters, and they have the same quality as those in GTA. The people you meet have British accents, and they are a lot friendly than their American counterparts.

The Bad
GTA1969 uses the same engine as the original, so that means you can't save between missions, only between chapters. Also like the original game, when you are on a timed mission, the time is displayed on a pager. When information happens to scroll across the pager, it overwrites the timer, making it hard for you to determine how many seconds you have remaining.

The Bottom Line
Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 is the first and only mission pack released for the PlayStation. All the graphics and sounds are modified to reflect the era, and the game appears much shorter. You can drive around the city and pass landmarks dotted on the map. You can still steal cars and go on killing sprees, but prepare to be apprehended by police. There are some nice cut-scenes in this game also. The major annoyance this game has is the inability to save between missions, but that gets rectified in future GTA games, not just by the usual way.