Reviewed by
Justin Calvert
Review date: 04/28/08
Release date: 04/29/08
Stepping off a boat in the shoes of illegal immigrant Niko Bellic as he arrives in Liberty City at the start of Grand Theft Auto IV, you can tell immediately that Rockstar North's latest offering is something quite special. Yes, this is another GTA game in which you'll likely spend the bulk of your time stealing cars and gunning down cops and criminals, but it's also much more than that. GTAIV is a game with a compelling and nonlinear storyline, a game with a great protagonist who you can't help but like, and a game that boasts a plethora of online multiplayer features in addition to its lengthy story mode. It's not without some flaws, but GTAIV is undoubtedly the best Grand Theft Auto yet.
Liberty City has changed a lot since 2001.
One of the many things that set GTAIV apart from its predecessors is Liberty City, which is more convincing as a living, breathing urban environment than anything that you've seen in a game before, and bears little resemblance to its namesake in 2001's GTAIII. Liberty's diverse population believably attempts to go about its daily business, seemingly unaware that several criminal factions are at war in the city. Niko has no such luck. He's compelled to start working for one of the factions shortly after arriving, when he learns that his cousin Roman has some potentially fatal gambling debts. Niko's military experience makes him a useful freelancer for employers in the business of killing each other, and though his reluctance to carry out their orders is often apparent, he does whatever is asked of him in the hope that completing missions for other people will ultimately give him the means to complete his own.
Actually, Niko doesn't have to do everything that is asked of him. On several occasions as you play through his story, you'll be presented with decisions that afford you the option of doing what you think is right rather than blindly following instructions. You don't necessarily have to kill a target if he or she promises to disappear, but you have to weigh the risk of your employer finding out against the possibility that the person whose life you spare might prove useful later in the game, or even have work for you in the form of bonus missions. To say anything more specific on this subject would be to risk spoiling one of GTAIV's most interesting new features, but suffice it to say that every decision you make has consequences, and you'll likely want to play through the game at least twice to see how the alternatives unfold.
Grand Theft Auto IV's story mode can be beaten in less than 30 hours, and there are so many optional activities and side missions to take part in along the way that you can comfortably double that number if you're in no hurry. The majority of the story missions task you with making deliveries and/or killing people, and play out in much the same way as those in previous games. With that said, most of the missions are a lot easier this time around, partly because Niko is a more agile and efficient killer than any of his predecessors, and partly because the LCPD seemingly has better things to do than hunt down an illegal immigrant who's gunning down undesirables all over the city. Some of the more imaginative missions sprinkled throughout the story include a kidnapping, a bank heist, and a job interview. The cinematic cutscenes associated with story missions are superbly presented and are the sequences in which the game's characters really shine. Without exception, the characters you encounter benefit from great animation, great voice work, and superbly expressive faces. They're not always so impressive when they join you on a mission and refuse to do what they're supposed to (for example, not following you on an escort mission, or failing to negotiate a doorway). Nevertheless, these problems are few and far between, and they're made less painful by the new "replay mission" option that you're presented with whenever you fail.
He's a gun for hire, but Niko Bellic is the most likeable GTA protagonist to date.
New abilities in Niko's arsenal include scaling fences and walls anywhere he can get a foothold, shimmying along ledges, and, most importantly, taking cover behind objects. The ability to stick close to walls, parked cars, and the like at the touch of a button makes GTAIV's gunplay a huge improvement over that in previous games, and, in tandem with the new targeting system, it also makes it a lot easier. Enemies are rarely smart enough to get to you while you're in cover, and given that you can lock your targeting reticle on to them even when they're hidden, all you have to do is wait for them to poke their heads out and then pick them off with a minimum of effort. Locking on to enemies targets their torso by default, but you can use the right analog stick to fine-tune your aim and kill them more quickly with a headshot or two. Playing without using the lock-on feature make things more difficult, but you'll need to master the technique so that you can shoot blindly at enemies from positions of cover when you dare not poke your own head out to line up the shot.
Given the amount of trouble that you get into as you play through the story mode, it's inevitable that the police are going to get involved from time to time, even when their presence isn't a scripted feature of your mission. Liberty City's boys in blue are quick to respond when you get flagged with a wanted level of between one and six stars, but they're not nearly as tough to deal with as their counterparts in previous GTA games. They don't drive as quickly when pursuing you, they rarely bother to set up roadblocks, and you'll need to blow up practically an entire city block before the FIB (that's not a typo) show up. Furthermore, you're given an unfair advantage in the form of your GPS system; when you're not using it to plot a valid route to any waypoint of your choosing, it doubles as a kind of police scanner. Any time you have a brush with the law, the GPS shows you the exact locations of patrol cars and cops on foot in your area, and highlights the circular area (centered on your last known whereabouts) where they're concentrating their search. To escape, all you need to do is move outside the circle and then avoid being seen for 10 seconds or so, which is often best achieved by finding a safe spot and just sitting there. It's not a bad system in theory, but in practice it makes dodging the law a little too easy, especially when your wanted level is low and the search area is small.
The new cover system makes gunplay much easier than in previous games.
When you're not running missions for criminals, taking part in street races, stealing cars to order, or randomly causing trouble, you'll find that there are plenty of opportunities to unwind in Liberty City. Some of these optional activities offer tangible rewards that can prove useful in missions later on, whereas others are just a fun way to kill time and take in more of GTAIV's superb humor. For example, you can watch television, listen to numerous different radio stations, check out some genuinely funny shows (including some big-name acts) at cabaret and comedy clubs, and use a computer to surf the in-game Internet.
GTAIV's Internet is filled with spoofs of all the kinds of Web sites that you'd only ever look at accidentally or when you know there's no danger of getting caught. Some of them can be found only by clicking on links in spam e-mails, whereas others are advertised prominently on the search page. There's plenty of amusing stuff to find if you spend some time in one of the "TW@" Internet cafes, but the most interesting site by far is an online dating agency through which you can meet women who, if they like your profile, will agree to go on dates with you. Dating and socializing with friends is something you can spend as much or as little of your time doing as you like, and though the people you meet can occasionally be demanding to the point that they become irritating, keeping them happy invariably benefits you in some way.
8 out of 10 - Excellent Sorry to all the PS3s freezing up, 360 hardly a problem
There are hundreds of threads with the extremely better PS3 freezing up on people. I feel sorry if yours is ...
There are hundreds of threads with the extremely better PS3 freezing up on people. I feel sorry if yours is freezing up, because it's a great game. This will probably be fixed with a patch, but it will take them awhile. Works strong on my 360 though and am loving it.
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by kalel33 (see profile) -
April 29, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Great Continuation to a Great Series
I have played every GTA game since the very begnning and even before that. The game called "New York City" ...
I have played every GTA game since the very begnning and even before that. The game called "New York City" was a C640/C128 game that I played religiously as a child and I have a suspicion that the original GTA series was motivated from this very early game.
GTA 4 obviously is the best yet due to an increase in available technology and even more time spent adding details. The obvious and subtle details in this game combine to give this game a feel that I have never gotten from any other game. Whereas in older GTA games it was kind of fun once in a while to run through a crowd of people with a garbage truck and to get in a chase with police. With GTA 4 the realism in the character models and physics makes it almost emotionally damaging to just randomly start killing people outside of mission requirements.
I like how they added a deep realism to the game, but in some aspects by doing that, they discredited some of the non-realism. The more realistic police AI kind of gives me a funny feeling at times because whereas the cops will react to fighting in the street, or firing a gun in the air or stealing a car, they do not react to me blwoing through a stoplight at 120mph. Whereas I understand that uber realism like that would make game play more difficult, they may want to consier adding realism options in future versions. It would be cool to see people being pulled over and given tickets.
Overall this game is worth buying and worth playing. I was not even 1/4 of the way through the game yet and already I would not wait to start a new game so that I could implement some of my new knowledge of the game into the story as I work through it.
Another thing about this game that I feel shows how well put together this game is is that most poeple that I have talked to were so wrapped up in the single player story that they were not even tempted to experiment with multiplayer yet. Whereas I feel that multiplayer will increase the replayablity of this game 10 fold, I find it an astonishing acheivement that Rockstar has created a game that, unlike any other previous game, has had such good single player play that people would probably have been just fine without adding all of the MP modes. Now that MP has been introduced, I am excited to see where that leads in future releases.
All around, this game is worth buying. Those of you who are caught up in all of the media BS about what this game is all about need to turn their ears and eyes away from that BS propoganda. This game is no worse than a barely rated R movie. If you are somebody that enjoys dgital entertainment and cutting edge gaming, you will not want to miss out on this game.
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by smokified (see profile) -
May 2, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 out of 10 - Terrible the only good part of the game is graphics and helicoptors
THIS GAME SUCKS!THE FIGHTING IS ABSOLUTLY HORIBLE.THE DRIVING IS STUPID AND U BE CRASHIN EVERY TIME U TURN ...
THIS GAME SUCKS!THE FIGHTING IS ABSOLUTLY HORIBLE.THE DRIVING IS STUPID AND U BE CRASHIN EVERY TIME U TURN OR HIT A BUMP.THE GUNPLAY SUCKS THE CONTROL SUCKS THE REALITY SUCKS MY FATASSDICK ***** ALSO THE GAME PLAY SUCKS **** ALL THE ******* OLD ONES WERE BETTER THAN DIS PEC OFFFFFFFFFFF **** SO **** THE MAKERS true crime IS WAY ************........ BETTER ******* SO GET DAT ***** ASS NIKIO ***** OFF THE GAME HE ALSO UGLY AS A ***** TRUE CRIME IS BETTER IS BETTER IS BETTER IS BETTER IS BETTER SUG NIGGAS
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by S.U.G. (see profile) -
May 25, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular It is like watching a movie, only you can choose the story.....
One of the best games out for the PS3, would recommend buying for your Library. This game is great on ...
One of the best games out for the PS3, would recommend buying for your Library. This game is great on a high def tv. Graphics are superb, sound is incredible. I didn't give it a perfect 10 because of some of the choppiness of the program, but I am sure this isn't really a problem. It also seems that some of the 40GB and 60GB systems are freezing, so be careful.
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by mr.be (see profile) -
May 3, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Worth The Play
I bought the game yesterday. After 6 hours, the Graphics and the Options of things you can do during the ...
I bought the game yesterday. After 6 hours, the Graphics and the Options of things you can do during the game is great. I could write a book on those two things alone. The game is way better than any other GTA title. The only two cons I can think of at the moment because of the 6 hours, is that Cops are more frequently able to see the things you do. So going around shooting and beating up people can be a tricky thing because the police is always nearby to witness it. However, it's quite easy to get away from the cops. The second con is it's more difficult to attack someone without using the manual aim or "lock-on" feature.
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by The 3rd Nipple (see profile) -
April 30, 2008
3 out of 10 - Poor Disappointing.
Truly disappointing. I am a die hard GTA fan. I upgraded my sound card to play GTA3, upgraded my graphics ...
Truly disappointing. I am a die hard GTA fan. I upgraded my sound card to play GTA3, upgraded my graphics card to play san andreas and got PS3 to play GTA IV.
This is nothing more than a modded up version of GTA3. It even has some of the same missions (throwing brick through store window) and the same BUGS.
Just like GTA3 when you drive from one section of the map into another it sometimes freezes up or stutters. There is no excuse for that after these issues were resolved in San Andreas.
On top of that. My PS3 (40GB) CRASHED within a half hour after the 20 minute installation!!! I had to turn off the switch in the back of the system because the front buttons didn't work. Then it froze for more three minutes during game play TWICE!!! AND -- during the car chase mission early on in the game -- when I caught the guy and beat him up NOTHING HAPPENED!!! I was looking around for where to go for almost FIVE MINUTES. Then all of the sudden while I was walking back into the building where the guy was it went to the cut scene of the guy getting thrown out of the window!!! FIVE MINUTES AFTER I BEAT THE GUY UP!!!!!
Totally unacceptable.
I have heard stories about 360 crashing. So I waited it out and got a Falcon 360. I have never had a problem and I have played all of the hottest games without incident.
My brother is not a GTA fan -- so I hope he gets bored of his copy for 360 and lets me borrow it.
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by Tec Consumer (see profile) -
April 30, 2008
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Best Game of the Series so Far
I have this game on the Ps3 and saw an article today stating a problem with freezing. It has happened ...
I have this game on the Ps3 and saw an article today stating a problem with freezing. It has happened to me once since i've played the game (2 hours logged) and a friend of mine 2x (5 hours logged). Other than this problem which i'm hoping can be fixed through some sort of system update to ps3, it's a spectacular game and by far the best of the series so far. My only other gripe is that while the radio stations are cool with good music and funny if you listen to the talk shows, it doesn't have anything on the vice city soundtrack which was predominantly 80's music. It would be nice if they had an 80's music channel with some of that music from vice city on there, but this too is just personal preference and i'm sure there are others who love this soundtrack. Haven't played online yet and will prob hold off for the bugs to be fixed. Regardless this game is a must buy.
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by PlayDog7 (see profile) -
April 30, 2008
10 out of 10 - Perfect Mind-numbing depth, gameplay & quality
With the deepest sense of realism to date in the series, GTA IV can be seen as the flagship into ...
With the deepest sense of realism to date in the series, GTA IV can be seen as the flagship into the next generation of gaming. Many new engines and effects are introduced (ragdoll models, spiderweb-glass breaks, realistic blood spatter, etc). The gameplay is just as smooth as ever, and driving and evading police is actually somewhat of a challenge. Simple things like getting into a gunfight with police or other characters isnt so mindless and routine anymore...the gameplay in this sense is cinematic and more of an adrenaline rush. I cant give an incredible detailed review as i only have a few hours on the game, but if youre teetering between buying a copy and waiting till GameFly or Blockbuster has a copy in to rent, go do yourself a favor and give in. $60 for around $300 in value with all you can do. GTA IV is the next of the franchise that keeps on giving.
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by sonitus.perfectum (see profile) -
April 29, 2008
8 out of 10 - Excellent GTA4... the new GTA2
I've been a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series from the original to GTA 1969 London and ...
I've been a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series from the original to GTA 1969 London and now GTA4. I will say that Rockstar has made a few bad moves on the way here, but going back to their roots was the best thing they could of done. They took the story from Grand Theft Auto, tossed out everything from Grand Theft 1969, the multiplayer scheme from Grand Theft Auto 2, the 3D aspect from Grand Theft Auto 3, and various other things from Vice City and San Andreas. True fans are now able to say that Vice City and San Andreas were just side stories and testing grounds so we can say "Finally Rockstar you've made GTA what it was supposed to be."
Congrats to making it big.
I recommend anyone who wants to know more of the back story get GTA, GTA2, and GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas have nothing on what the franchise should be.
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by theonlybuster (see profile) -
April 29, 2008
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