GRAND THEFT AUTO IV review

Grand Theft Auto IV is a sandbox game developed by Rockstar North. It was released last April for Xbox 360 and PS3. Although it was released some time ago, I decided to make this review because the PC version was recently released and the exclusive X360 downloadable content The Lost and Damned will be available early next year (February). Furthermore, since this is the end of the year, many articles will be written about which game should be considered game of the year. I believe that Gears of War 2 (see my previous review) is no doubt the game of the year (sorry Wii gamers and Little Big Planet mini-game fans, we are talking about real games here ;p), GTA4 is still one of the bests.

Story
The story begins with Niko Bellic (the character you control), an Eastern Europeen war veteran with a troubled past. Hoping to start a new life in America, he is greeted by his cousin Roman as he jumps out of a boat. Is he really trying to start a new life or is he still haunted by the demons of his past? Without giving too many spoilers, I won't surprise anyone if I say that the later is the answer... As you progress through the story, you will learn more about the past of Niko and will make choices about how he will deal with this past.

The story itself is quite good. The missions make sense and make the story progress, unlike similar sandbox games like Saints Row. The missions are used to introduce many interesting characters. These friends and enemies are well developed and really have a unique personality. Some characters give the story a more dramatic twist while others are there for comedy (Brucie is the coolest!). Furthermore there are many possible interactive activities that you can do at any time with your friends besides the more "scripted" missions of the main story.

Another great aspect that really makes GTA4 shine is the attention to details. Rockstar created a universe within this game. A special attention was applied to every TV/Radio shows and commercials. While not always politically correct if you only understand them literally, they are really funny and are thrown jabs at different aspects of our current societies if you can think for a second.

Gameplay
Basically GTA4 is a 3rd person shooter game with important driving parts. You can pretty much do the missions in the order that you want but some missions will unlock new ones. Sometimes you will also be given some choices as to how to complete a mission. I completed the game twice to see every possible scenario and while the latest choice will have an impact on the last mission and the ending, the other choices have very minor consequences. While doing the missions you will, of course, hijack cars, kill people, escape from cops, deliver packages, protect allies, pursue enemies, race sport cars...

The game can last for a long time if you want it to. On my first run, I did absolutely every single possible thing (100% completion in the game statistics). This includes finding the 200 hidden pigeons (which nets you a cool military helicopter), doing the 50 unique stunt jumps (the ones that require you to jump over a river are simply crazy, not easy but so much fun!), doing all the friend side-missions, stealing all the exotic vehicles, doing all the assassin missions, finding all the special people... I spent about 80 hours to do so. If you want to go quickly and simply do the main missions as I did in my second run, you can spend less than 10 hours to complete it.

The controls are generally good but sometimes they don't feel right. The aiming and cover system when you are on foot is effective. On the other hand, running feels clumsy. Unlike other games where you use the left stick to control your speed, in GTA4 the left stick is only used to control your direction. You have to hold another button to run and if you want to really sprint you need to press the same button for every step you take. When you try to run and shoot/take cover at the same time, this control scheme is not very intuitive. The controls used for shooting while driving are good. The only annoying aspect of driving is that the brakes are not very effective, you will pretty much always need to use the hand brake. Once you are used to it you won't have any problem driving around.

Sounds and Graphics
The sounds are good. The music available from the different radio channels is quite diversified. The graphics really get the job done but they could have been better. I played the Xbox 360 version which runs natively at 720p and I found the image to be really soft. It looks even more blurry on the PS3 as the native resolution is 630p (so much for FULL HD Sony... ;p). Still, you have to keep in mind that GTA4 is played in a wide open area and to get a good framerate Rockstar probably has to decrease the visual quality of their engine. Bottom line is the graphics are not amazing but they won't annoy you.

Multiplayer
For the first time GTA can be played with other people. Rockstar developed many multiplayer modes, they implemented pretty much every possible idea (from the simple death match to the rival gang missions). While it looks good on paper, when playing it it falls flat. I can't really explain why but it seems something is missing. In my opinion the best multiplayer mode is not the versus modes, it is the 4-player cooperation mode. These coop missions (only 3 are available) play like a big single player mission but with allies controlled by other people instead of AI. This mechanic makes it really similar to the single player mode but it simply works well and it is a lot of fun. You can also try to beat the time required to complete the mission and you will be rated on how much time you spent. Beating the Rockstar times is quite a challenge as often you will get 1 or 2 players in your team that are clueless as to what to do or they are simply bad at the game ;p.

Conclusion
GTA4 generated a lot of hype before its release but it delivered. It is one of the best game of 2008 and if you haven't played it you are missing something.

Score: 9/10