Grand Theft Auto 4 : A city-based action game comprised mostly of shooting things, driving things and driving over things, combined with the immigrant experience.
Story : Niko Bellic has immigrated to Liberty City on brother Roman’s promise of living the American dream (and other reasons) only to realize that Roman is in debt to bad people. Fortunately, Niko has military training and a very dark past, and after his initial guilt trip of his first murder and crime (which completely undermines the likely possibility that the player controlling Niko was probably running over pedestrians and beating up strangers on the street to death for money before even reaching that mission), attempts to help. Like past Grand Theft Auto games, most of the characters are very strong and fun to watch, and Niko himself is a great protagonist, easy to sympathize for but also has perhaps the video game industry’s strongest love of sarcasm. But that said…
…when Grand Theft Auto 4 was first released, it received almost universal praise for many reasons. However, about a month or two later, some kind of universal backlash rose and people started calling it overrated, poorly written, with the worst ending in all of gaming. Part of that may be people trying to be trendsetters and go against the grain of the gaming community by slagging what was once a guaranteed game of the year candidate, but part of that is also from people overreacting to said ending. The ending isn’t terrible per say, just not well set up. The game’s climax appears out of nowhere with no build up and thus no sense of shock, leaving no emotional weight. It also doesn’t help that there’s no checkpoints in the lengthy final mission, but the final mission itself isn’t too challenging in itself anyways so whoever whines about that can bugger off. The story as a whole feels poorly paced. You’ll forget all about it most of the time, and when a major plot event happens, it’s too sudden and feels meaningless. It’s not to say the game has a terrible storyline, it’s just that for a story that tries to take itself more seriously than in past GTA games, it has nowhere near as much impact as its predecessors.
There’s one nitpick about the story I’d like to get out the way too; the game’s use of some kind of mysterious government agent/Area 51 figure as a means of connecting certain plot elements. Any praise that the gaming media may have given Grand Theft Auto 4 about an “Oscar-worthy story” should’ve been thrown out the window when he stepped in the picture.
But on a positive note, like its predecessors, the story excels in the parts where it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The characters are all very likeable, and just like with past games, are clever send-offs to a variety of criminal stereotypes. The characters are even more fleshed out by the player’s ability to call them at any time on your cell. Yes, one of the most vaunted features in this new game is Niko’s virtual social life; he can call up a character to hang out or date, learn more about said character along the way, and either play some kind of bowling/pool minigame, get virtual drunk, or so forth. Different characters have preferences on what they prefer to do, and most will give the player some kind of perk if they like you enough. Great feature in theory, but just like a real social life, the catch is that you have little control over when they want to hang out. Say you’re in the mood to just do story missions or side quests and someone calls you up. If you don’t agree to hang out, you lose “friendship” points with that person. This happens more often than you’d like it to, and it always feels cheap when it does.
Grand Theft Auto 4 feels like some kind of gaming super heavyweight. The production values seen here far exceed anything that’s on the market, to the point where it almost seems unfair to all the other games that are available. Niko always has something to say for every situation and he rarely repeats lines, whether it involves killing strangers or calling 911 on his phone and giving the name of the intersection he’s on so you can hijack the incoming cop car. Many of the missions contain some kind of firefight sequence taking place in a unique set piece area, and despite the length of the story mode (about 25-30 hours), I never found myself thinking that this was getting stale. Very few missions feel like duds. A game that can be that long without some drawn out filler seems like a rarity in this generation. There’s a wide variety of gameplay mechanics, from the obvious mainstays of driving and killing to calling a taxi or surfing online dating sites or purchasing a new pair of slacks, and while it all helps to make the game feel less like a game than a virtual world, it also means that there’s more that has to be explained to the player. The first couple hours of story missions are all boring tutorial missions designed to slowly explain everything. On the first play through, this is annoying and you’ll find yourself wondering when the game turns down the suck and turns up the fun. But say you decide you want to play the story mode all over again…you can see the problem that comes up.
But I digress. Going back to the theme of the game’s heavyweight champion of the world status, Grand Theft Auto 4 successfully creates the greatest virtual world in any medium, and odds are against ever seeing a virtual world anywhere near as fleshed out in any medium for years. Even Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs can’t compare. GTA4 is the only game that has the following: a virtual set of radio stations and television stations with original programming, a virtual internet, a virtual phone system with a variety of numbers, virtual restaurants, bars and establishments, all within the confines of a city where citizens, buildings and cars are all placed in a believable manner that rarely repeats (though you’ll wonder how the preacher in front of your apartment whom you just killed came back to life.) And what’s even better is that all of the above is meant to be some form of parody or satire of real life. Whether it’s the ability to purchase hokey ringtones or the conservative-slanted political radio show, all of Liberty City has been designed to be some kind of spoof on reality.
So what would be the best way to sum up Grand Theft Auto 4? Well, the first few hours of the game are lame, the last few hours of the game are also lame, but the middle 20-odd hours in between embody some of the best times you’ll have with a game all year. This middle 20 hours sometimes feels so good that it’s almost unfair to other games, like you feel bad for using Grand Theft Auto 4 as the measuring stick for all future releases. So it should go without question that this is a game worth purchasing. Well, I guess unless you’re an extreme conservative who’s easily offended. Or you hate Russians.
Pros : I didn’t mention this at all in the review so I’ll say it here that the online multiplayer in Grand Theft Auto 4 is a lot of fun. It’s pretty much what you’d imagine online multiplayer in a GTA game to be, where all the gameplay modes take place within the confines of the city, but even standard gameplay conventions like deathmatch are freshened up when streets filled with cars begging to be hijacked are factored in.
Cons : Not enough attire choices for your online avatar.
4 ½ stars
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