I was there, Monday night, 12am, queuing up at my local games store, itching to grab a copy of GTA IV. Now, a few days on and I feel I should put the controller down and think about this game on a professional level…
It’s safe to say I’ve joined the masses in bumming GTA IV right into outer space, it is VERY good… but the game has is it's faults (is it really worth IGN’s 10/10?) Below I’ve tried to cover points that I haven’t seen in other reviews and features; I’ve also based this on my virtual experiences thus far in the game.
Upon entering Liberty City I end up at my cousin Romans place, here I discover that you can sit down and watch TV, so that’s what I did for my first half hour of the game, I just chilled out and flicked through the channels. The various stations and TV shows are very funny, loaded with classic GTA humour and satire. I’d heard that various celebrities were to make appearances throughout the game; I was really pleased to see Ricky Gervais in there, shame most of the material was stuff from one of his past live DVDs with only 3 minuets of fresh comedy writings, still very cool none the less.
One of the first missions required me to chase down some scum bag and end his life, a standard GTA activity. After chasing this guy to the third floor of a miscellaneous warehouse we came to a stand off, he pulls a knife on me, I’m unarmed. I noticed that my knife wielding rival is stood with his back to a large glass window, I kicked him through the window and he falls and lands on an exterior balcony. I jump through the now smashed window to where my enemy is slowly picking himself up, I decided to end it here and finish him off, mission complete! With the task accomplished I turn to go back through the smashed window… but… it’s no longer smashed, strange. What’s even worse than an auto repair window is the fact that that exact same window is now un-breakable and I’m now stuck up on a third floor balcony with no safe way down. This design flaw ruined what would have been a great gaming moment… shame.
I found myself out of cash pretty early on into the game, so instead of following the set missions to earn some coin I decided to be a low life and go rob an establishment at gunpoint, something you could do in previous GTA titles… but not in this one so it would seem. Pretty disappointing, guess there is the chance I wasn’t “doing it correctly” – I really hope so.
The addition of the mobile phone has changed the GTA world completely, kind of like it has in reality, everything is now organised through your mobile. The network of interaction that the phone allows is very cool, for example I took this girl (Michele) out on a date; I picked her up on a recently stolen motorbike and took her for a ride. My driving skills aren’t that great and I ended up coming off the bike, along with Michele, she wasn’t happy about this and walked off home in a huff... officially ending the date. I tried calling her the next day but she remembered what happened and told me where to get off. I’m a persistent guy, so I keep calling her over the passing days but I get similar responses. After the fourth call I make to her I get a txt message saying that she appreciates all the attention and she’ll call me soon… great. That’s all I wanted to point out with this one… an example of how much detail there really is in this game, not just graphically but also with regards to character interaction.
Let me tell you about the time I went to the Russian bar on Mohawk Avenue with my cousin Roman, we ended up coming out completely shit face drunk. The controls altered greatly and I found myself stumbling through Liberty City trying to focus on the blurry pavement in front of me. This made me chuckle so much, the fact that I could get virtually drunk. It’s done brilliantly, it really does feel like your character is wasted… word of advice, don’t try and drive whilst pissed, the LCPD will bust you for D.U.I – nice.
There seems to be a lot of new features trying to immerse the player even further into in the GTA world, for example you can watch television, prank call people, surf the web, get a lap dance… blah blah blah… the list goes on.
The one thing that you can’t do (still) is SIT THE FUCK DOWN! I’ve been crying out for this minimal attribute ever since Vice City. It’s a feature I really liked in Assassins Creed, it enables the player sit his/her character down and let them watch the world go by, that’s it, nothing complex, very simple and oddly satisfying. This also acts a sort of pause feature but without the lifeless splash screen, instead the player can ‘people watch’, this would be very interesting with regards to the huge variety of background characters and how they go about their lives. You could even nip off for a slash or make a quick brew… in the real world that is… then come back and return to the game to find your avatar still sat there kicking back. More RPG style games should include this function.
Bouncy cars piss me off! Don’t get me wrong the car physics are great and I do understand that its not meant to be Forza or GT (even though everything else is as ‘realistic’ as can be) but when I hit a curb at 10mph I don’t expect to be flung 30 feet into the air, oh well. I guess you could argue that the bouncy physics allow for such big dramatic action scenes and crashes. A lot of the cars that I have driven about have got stuck on there sides, in past GTA games this would start the car to burn, not in this game though, the car just sits happily on its side blocking the street… rather annoying.
It’s been hard choosing what to talk about when it comes to this game, there is literally so much to take in and digest. I feel most of the new features don’t really affect the central game play (with the exception of the mobile phone). In summary GTA IV is a triumph! It plays like a GTA game should play, if that makes sense? Looking back over what I’ve said above... it all seems a rather negative, don’t get me wrong I have much praise for Rockstar and especially this title; I’ve just tried to look at the game from a design stand point…
Enough with the talk, I have to go play some more GTA!
