Why Was Grand Theft Auto III's Star Silent?

After celebrating Grand Theft Auto III's 10-year anniversary with the release of an iOS and Android port, Rockstar is now answering a variety of questions fans have about the game. Among those are the obligatory questions about its protagonist, Claude, and the rationale behind him never uttering a word.

Every Grand Theft Auto game since 3 -- the first to bring the series into 3D -- has featured a star who could speak. Why was Claude made to do a crowbar-free Gordon Freeman impression?

"It may now seem obvious that people should all talk in games, but this was not necessarily the case in 2001, certainly not in an open world game," reads an answer on Rockstar's website. "We were making up a lot of procedures as we went along, and we decided that the NPCs (Non Playable Characters) should talk and we would have to figure out how to make them talk (using motion captured cutscenes, something that had never really been done before, at least not on the scale we were doing it).

"So we decided that the game's protagonist would not talk, partly to aid people identifying with him, but mostly because we had so many other problems to solve and this did not seem like a major issue. We started to discuss introducing a talking lead character when working on Vice City, but it was a lot of work. While the structure of GTA3 may seem obvious or natural now, and the use of cutscenes made in the game's engine that look and feel like the game may seem simple and easy, it really was not the case back in 2001 when we had to figure out all of these things for the first time. Oh and in San Andreas, CJ calls Claude a mute because he does not talk and CJ finds this unnerving."

Several people submitted questions regarding an old trailer, embedded above, showing Claude demand, "Get out of the car!" while hijacking someone's vehicle. This is not a sign that Claude was, once upon a time, intended to speak; it turns out this isn't real. Rockstar suspects "the voices were added at a later date by someone online as at no point did we plan for Claude to have a voice or even design how a speaking protagonist would be implemented until Vice City."

As for the way he was designed, there was not any single character or person who served as the inspiration for him. "We just liked the idea of a strong, silent killer, who would be juxtaposed with all of these neurotic and verbose mobsters in an amusing way," another answer reads. "He seems stronger and in control, while they seem weaker and frantic."

Rockstar wasn't willing to share any information on his background beyond what we know (he's "a bank robber with a noisy and psychotic girlfriend"), but it was noted he isn't dead and his "surname may or may not be Speed." Claude Speed is the name of Grand Theft Auto 2's protagonist, whom some believe to be the same character as GTA III's Claude.

Rockstar also shared some concept art revealing earlier versions of the design for Claude, which can be seen on the next page.

As for Darkel, a character never seen in the game but referred to in its manual and seen on Rockstar's website, he was described simply as "a crazy bum who gave you some crazy missions." These missions were slowly cut out "because they just weren't as good as the rest of the game, and tonally they were a little odd." Rumors of one of these missions involving blowing up a school bus full of children aren't true ("although that is a funny rumor!"). Series fans eager to eventually see these Darkel missions released aren't likely to ever get their hands on them as Rockstar North is busy working on new stuff.

Rockstar plans to answer more questions next week, so if there's anything you've been dying to know for a decade, submit a question and maybe you'll get an answer. If it's GTA2 that intrigues you, the design documents released earlier this year might be right up your alley.

The iOS and Android versions of Grand Theft Auto III are now available for $5. Only a select number of devices are capable of running the game; you can see which ones here. Those that can run it are unfortunately saddled with touchscreen controls which you may or may not find acceptable, though the novelty of having GTA 3 on your phone or tablet may be enough to justify looking past the imperfect controls.