Confirmation from Rockstar that not only was its trilogy of GTA remasters real, but it would be here before the end of 2021 was cause for celebration. Fast forward a very short amount of time between that confirmation and the collection's launch, and no one was quite prepared for the disappointment it would bring. Suffice to say, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is not what most people were expecting.
The PC version of the collection is in such a bad state that it currently has a user score of 0.5 on Metacritic. That makes it the worst-rated game of 2021 by quite some way, snatching the unwanted crown from eFootball with less than seven weeks left to go. eFootball's PC Metacritic user score is currently sat at a lowly 1.3, so more than double that of GTA.
The Trilogy's Metacritic scores vary slightly depending on the platform, but not by much. None of them are above one with the PS5 version topping the pile at 0.9. The reason the PC version of the game has been getting the most backlash is because other than the first few hours after launch, it wasn't playable at all. Rockstar shut down the Rockstar Launcher on Thursday afternoon upon discovering it had left files from the original games in the remasters that really shouldn't have been there.
The Nintendo Switch version of GTA: The Trilogy also isn't faring too well on Metacritic. Comparisons of the Switch version with other platforms have highlighted how much worse it looks. In Rockstar's defense, that's to be expected to an extent. However, some even think the Switch version of the collection looks worse than a fan-made port of Vice City on the PS Vita which definitely isn't okay.
It has been a rough start to life for GTA: The Trilogy. Another victim of launching a game before it was ready. What's interesting is this wasn't even a case of a studio announcing a game years in advance and eventually feeling pressured enough to launch it unfinished like Cyberpunk. Perhaps it was a case of Rockstar wanting to give GTA fans something to stop them from asking for news on GTA 6. Mission accomplished I guess, but in the worst possible way.