Grand Theft Auto: Lidzbark Warmiński Stories

***Grand Theft Auto: Lidzbark Warmiński Stories*** is a 2004 action-adventure game produced by Rockstar Vienna for PlayStation, Xbox, then Nintendo, and a year later for PC.

This is the first part of the *Grand Theft Auto* series that takes place entirely outside the USA. The single-player game takes place in 2000, after the events of the bloody studniówka at the High School in Lidzbark. Paweł Tomaszewicz is the father of a child who lost consciousness as a result of an accident at that party. In order to avenge his son, Tomaszewicz enters into various arrangements to find the man responsible for the crimes.The PSP version allows multiplayer games with Internet access, and servers are created on which players can play various types of mini-games.

## Gameplay

The *Grand Theft Auto: Lidzbark Warmiński Stories* is set in a partially open world with a third-person view. There are 49 canonical missions and 6 side missions available. In addition to Lidzbark Warmiński, the player can explore Bartoszyce, Kętrzyn, Olsztyn and Giżycko. In addition, one version takes the main character to Kaliningrad, where at a meeting of school graduates he is tasked with killing a critic of his beloved son.

## Synopsis

### Setting

The action of the game takes place in the titular Lidzbark Warmiński in the "Little Oslo" district.

### Characters

Bartek's father, Paweł Tomaszewicz, returns from Norway after learning about his son's death at the studniówka party. Tomaszewicz begins to establish contacts with, among others, the Italian mafia in Warmia and the Spetsnaz of the Russian Federation in order to find the one who killed his son.

### Plot

After 15 years of work in Norway, Paweł Tomaszewicz returns to Lidzbark, where he fathered a son 19 years ago. The reason for the sudden visit was a shooting at the studniówka party in which Tomaszewicz's son was killed. Tomaszewicz rents a hotel from which he contacts thugs who were his son's friends. Together with them, he tracks down a sect of dwarfs and invalids who wanted to sacrifice someone's legs because they envied others' healthy walking. Tomaszewicz comes to the sect meeting wearing a balaclava and, by breaking everyone's legs and arms, forces them to receive further information about his son. The disabled claim that local politicians knew well about their plans and approved them because they were to receive huge sums of money from the dwarfs from their pensions. To force politicians to tell the truth, Tomaszewicz allies with Russian agents who take over the city authorities, leading to fights between the Russian mafia and Polish Catholics. For help, the Russians hand over to Tomaszewicz the world's biggest hater, his son, who lived in Kaliningrad. Pavlov is locked in a wooden box by Tomaszewicz and lowered into the Vistula. Wanting to distance himself from current events, Tomaszewicz employs the Italian-Warmian Mafia, which rules the Florentine district in Lidzbark. Tomaszewicz becomes the Duce of Pizza in the local restaurant Factory. While collecting orders, he finally finds out who did it, it was the mafia created by ZUS, which, thanks to an Old Slavic invalid witch, predicted the further schizophrenia F20 of Tomaszewicz's child and the need to pay him a pension, which is not in favor of the organization that has money. The last mission is to plant explosives in the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) headquarters while all officials are inside; if anyone leaves, the mission fails. The cutscene at the end of the game shows the funeral of Tomaszewicz's son, where, despite his sadness, the father feels satisfied with having avenged his son.

## Development

The game developed very well thanks to the switch to the new "Mule" programming engine. Most of the ratings were positive, with two extremes dominating: 0/10 or 10/10.

## Soundtrack

The background music for *Grand Theft Auto: Lidzbark Warmiński Stories* was created in cooperation with rappers such as Popek, Słoń, and Peja.

## Reception

The game was positively received by people even under 18 years of age.

### Sales

The total value of copies issued exceeded USD 68 million.