Grand Theft Auto IV Review

When it was released back in 2008, the classic open-world action game Grand Theft Auto IV marked the end of an era and the beginning of another one. It was the end of the arcade-ish, cartoony trilogy of the PS2 and the introduction of something that leaned heavily towards realism, which admittedly didn’t win all crowds. Gritty, pessimistic, and with a penchant for dark comedy rather than the almost light-hearted goofiness of past entries, this new Liberty City was nothing like the one found in Grand Theft Auto III.

The story, while still nothing more elaborate than a crime drama, was also different than what came before – much more personal and immersive, with the protagonist, Niko Bellic, probably being the best the series has to offer. Perfect? No. There are many issues to talk about. In the end, the final product feels as if it is both a flawed masterpiece and a repeat of past mistakes, along with some new ones.

Niko Bellic is one of the many illegal immigrants that have reached the shores of the US of A in hopes of finding a better life. The letters from his cousin Roman promised a future made of money, parties, and girls with big fake…personalities. The ship finally approaches Liberty City. It doesn’t look very welcoming. It’s like an enormous monster, with you being one of the many insignificant bugs that will live underneath its smelly armpits. Upon disembarking you are starting to sense that things aren’t exactly the way Roman said they would be. As Niko drives his cousin’s dirty car towards his dirty neighbourhood, he sees that this side of the city isn’t exactly paradise. And that’s only the beginning.

Roman is not living the American Dream. Few if any are, and that’s one of the main themes here. A criticism on the demoralising, violent, and money-driven world of turbo-capitalism, this entry in the franchise is the most brutal yet when it comes to being a satire of modern American life and class separation. Previous GTA instalments made fun of it all, but they were cartoons. This is a bleak reflection of the real world. “Real” is the key word here. GTAIV tries to be as realistic as possible. The leap in technology helped a lot in that.

Gone is the day of the now medieval-looking visuals of the 3D trilogy; the textures are high-def, and the light and shadow effects are top notch. What’s even better is the crazy amount of little details that turn this into a living, breathing metropolis. Compared to the colourful Vice City and the diverse State of San Andreas, this is just three somewhat samey grey islands connected by bridges. Having said that, each and every corner feels as if it was handcrafted polygon by polygon.

You can forget about playing missions and just drive around and get immersed in it all. Pedestrians talk to each other, shout, curse, and fight; some work in construction or collect garbage, while others run away from the police; there’s heavy traffic everywhere you look, with many drivers behaving differently than the rest. This is a real place. The focus on realism affects the gameplay as well. Whereas past entries had a strong arcade vide, GTAIV plays more like a sim. Take the cars, for example. Forget about those rockets-on-wheels which could accelerate to extreme speeds in seconds. Here most cars are pieces of junk – heavy pieces of junk that take some getting used to, especially if coming straight from San Andreas.

In all honesty, while it feels strange initially, the heavy emphasis on realism is actually an improvement – as is almost everything else on offer. One of the worst things about the PS2-era titles was the fact that it was basically the same product divided between three separate games, with most of the flaws being present in all of them. Most of these are gone now. The stupid and crazy AI? Gone. The magically appearing and disappearing vehicles and NPCs? Gone. The physics-defying vehicles and objects? Gone. GTAIV is the better game. It controls better, is structured better, and it’s generally far more polished. Is it better in terms of fun factor? Well…this is where things start to enter “mixed bag” territory.

Missions. Most are okay…and that’s about it. There’s nothing terrible about them, but for the most part nothing great either. There is a painful lack of variety as almost all tasks, main and otherwise, follow the simple formula of “Drive to X, shoot/collect Y, return to Z.” Finally, one thing that it shares with all previous instalments is the fact that there’s simply not much to do here. Once again, this is an enormous but empty sandbox.

In a way it’s kind of strange saying that there’s a lack of objectives, because there’s a crazy amount of tiny little things that can be done. Players can watch TV channels, go to actual shows, surf an in-game web, have dates, play mini-games with the secondary characters that can in turn become your friends and help you in a variety of ways, and much, much more. Are they any good? Again the answer is that they are okay.

It’s crucial to note that this is primarily an experience, not a video game. In order to really enjoy it one needs to role-play, not just play. Players must allow themselves to be completely immersed in it all. Don’t focus on completing missions and getting achievements. Act like you would do if you were in the shoes of Niko Bellic. If you approach it like you would with a previous GTA game you will probably be disappointed.

As mentioned earlier, Grand Theft Auto IV leans more towards realism. Even cops behave a lot different than before. Upon getting a star for a crime, a circle appears on the map, with police forces shown as flashing dots. This circle is the area players need to escape without being seen, because doing so will reset the search area again – with more stars increasing the circle’s size significantly. Essentially this means that you can actually escape cops by hiding from their sight, or running away as fast as possible. The cops also don’t behave like the lunatics of past titles.

The best thing is the writing, and that shines in the interactions between the various characters and Niko; what is said during cut-scenes and what they say to each other while he drives from A to B. It really helps that Niko is a fantastic protagonist – possibly the best in the series. He is never portrayed as a role model. He is and will always remain a thug who does some very bad things, but he still remains a cool character to take the role of for a variety of reasons.

Niko is genuinely tough, yet doesn’t feel the need to show off, doesn’t buy anyone’s BS, and generally acts way more mature than the rest of the morons the cast is comprised of. Surprisingly, he is also a character that one can sympathise with. Due to his past as a war veteran of the Yugoslav war, he has a detached, cynical outlook on life, yet it’s easy to see that underneath his hard shell is a man in pain, who has a caring and polite side. There are some really emotive moments in Niko’s adventures in Liberty City.

There are at least 50 things that weren’t mentioned here in fear of turning this review into a novella. Tons of little details that add to GTAIV’s charm. The mobile phone and what it can do; the various ways Niko can choose to travel if he doesn’t want to drive or walk; the GPS that’s inside every car (even the crappy ones), and much, much, much more.

There are a couple of flaws to talk about as well, but again they are mostly little things, rather than major game-breaking issues. The fact that there are way too many cops; the air controls that still suck; the many missions where all you do is drive a long distance just to get the whole thing started.

Aside from the game itself, be cautious of a problem of a more technical nature: the PC port is pathetically optimised. You can have the best system available and it will still manage to turn the CPU into a helicopter – no matter the settings chosen. A console version is probably the better option. No, this still isn’t the perfect GTA…but it’s probably the one that’s very close.