A Polygon writer reflects on how cheat codes shaped their entire relationship with Grand Theft Auto games, arguing that entering codes for infinite weapons, tanks and flying cars from the outset was not a shortcut but a legitimate way to appreciate Rockstar's open-world design. Rather than following the story as intended, the author and their friends treated PlayStation 2-era GTA titles as chaotic sandboxes, using cheats to stress-test the game's physics, AI and emergent systems, seeing this experimentation as key to understanding what made those games special.

The piece recalls specific cheats from the GTA 3 era, such as the All Weapons button combination, alongside codes for spawning tanks, flying cars and altering pedestrian behaviour, all used to probe how the game world reacted to chaos. It contrasts this with modern gaming, where built-in cheat codes have largely disappeared, replaced by mod tools and console commands mainly used by PC players, as developers have become more cautious about letting players break their games amid greater scrutiny during testing and delays.