Review

Grand Theft Auto IV

If there were one thing I could say that Rockstar was good at, it would have to be their ability to create engrossing environments. For years, Rockstar has made gamers across the US feel like they are really part of these fictional worlds. One of the ways they have accomplished this feat is by placing focus on the little details of each environment. This trend continues with Rockstar’s latest installment of the hit series Grand Theft Auto. Their first, next-gen GTA is one of the most enthralling games Rockstar has ever made!

The story follows Niko Bellic, an immigrant/war vet/confused criminal who has come to America longing for a new start. New York, sorry I mean Liberty City, sounded like a nice place to visit I’m sure. This was manly because Niko’s cousin Roman, told him that he was rich and lived in a mansion. “The land of opportunity” is what he would say. Once there, Niko found out that his cousin had lied about being rich and was neck deep in debt, barely getting by with his cab business. His addiction to gambling resulted in him owing some dangerous people a lot of money. In order to keep him alive, Niko would be forced to work for goons around the city. These jobs usually led to Niko killing someone. Unfortunately, this was the only way Niko could raise money to bail his cousin out of trouble. Niko was back were he started before coming to America.

Throughout the campaign, you will meet some of the most colorful, yet realistic characters I have seen in video games. Each person Niko meets adds his or her own personal perspective to the story and each conversation drags you deeper into Niko’s world. This is mainly how the story develops, as each character takes you down a different path. You start off thinking that the hail of bullets raining down on Liberty was only meant to help your cousin. Later on, however, you’ll realize that Roman isn’t the only person on Niko’s mind. Things start to get murky as the body count rises. What’s cool about all this is that you will start to believe that you are Niko Bellic. After a while, you’ll start to care about the people around you and will act like Niko if one of them is put in danger. I didn’t just randomly run around shooting anymore. I was more focus. I began relentlessly hunting people that messed with my, er Niko’s cousin. I had to hear everyone out; make sure they were really my friends. Honestly, sometimes I wouldn’t start a mission because Niko hadn’t finished talking to someone and I thought it would be rude to cut them off mid sentence. Again, this is Rockstar’s calling card; the ability to make you believe in their creations.

Of course, it wouldn’t matter how much I cared about Niko and friends if the gameplay was horrible. I assure you that the gameplay never gets to that point. For years I have remained firm in my belief that the best GTA was Vice City. I stand corrected. What helped me come to this conclusion is again, the focus on details. When you walk up to steal a car, you just don’t open the door anymore. If the car is locked, Niko will smash the window, unlock the door, and begin hotwiring the vehicle. If there is a person inside that doesn’t want to give up the goods, Niko will kick them in the face before dragging them out of the car. Pedestrians in the area will react realistically according to your actions. Some will even call the police. If you are still in the area when the cops arrive, you wanted level will rise. Speaking of wanted level, one of the things I couldn’t stand with the other games in the GTA series (besides the horrible aiming mechanic) was the unrelenting police force. In the past, this omniscient squad of crazed cops would follow you everywhere, trying their best to kill you. There was no outrunning them, as your only saving grace was the Paint and Spray shops located throughout the city. Well, in GTA 4, the police act more realistic. Once you start racking up stars (increasing your wanted level) the police will start to chase you. Your radar will display a flashing circle that represents the area of the city the police are currently searching in. In order to escape capture, you must drive/run out of their search area. Once out of the flashing circle, your stars will turn gray and start to flash on and off. If you are spotted before the wanted level is lowered, you will have to continue running as the police will refocus their search on that new location.

Another addition to realism is the ability to have friends. I know what you’re thinking; you could have friends in the last GTA (well girlfriends anyways). In GTA 4, you can opt to hang out with people in between missions by calling them on your cell phone. This opens up a couple of cool things. One is the fact that most places you go to hang out involves some sort of mini game. When you go to the bowling alley, you actually get to bowl. When you go to see a show, you get to see the show (that may or may not be a good thing depending on the show). These “bonding” sessions aren’t just distractions for when you’re tired of the main story. They are also there to make your life a little easier. If you don’t like paying full price for that glock, spend some time Little Jacob. Once you guys are good friends, a new ability will unlock on your cell phone that allows you to call on Jacob for discounted weapons. Hanging out with Roman gives you the ability to call on him when you need to catch a cab (without paying cab fare).

Helping you stay alive in GTA 4 is a revitalized aiming system. If you hold down the left trigger, you will auto aim on the nearest bad guy (in front of you). This will pull the camera over Niko’s shoulder (think Resident Evil 4). If you lightly press the Left trigger, you will enter free aiming mode. This also pulls the camera in close but allows you to pick specific bodies parts to shoot at. Shooting a guy in the arm will make him drop his gun. A shot to the legs of a running enemy will make him fall to the ground. You can see how this can help you take down criminals with ease.

Adding to this is the cover mechanic. By hitting the Right bumper you can adhere to objects in the environment (like walls, cars, etc.). Moving all the way to one side of the object your hiding behind will allow you to see around the other side. This is where you can auto aim, free aim, or blind fire at enemies, allowing you to change you tactics at will. You can even swing from one cover spot to an adjacent one (think Gears of War). Using these mechanics together makes Niko a force to be reckoned with. It’s cool to see a character blown ten feet away from me after blind firing with a sawed off shotgun.

The other functions, like switching weapons, are thoughtfully mapped to the controller. The Left analogue controls movement (click to crouch) while the Right controls the camera. The A button is for running (hold for jog and tapping for a sprint) and answering your cell phone, Y is for getting in and out of cars, X is for jumping and climbing, and the B is for hanging up your phone. If you’re holding the Left trigger (when not holding a weapon) you will lock on to people. This is where you the face button’s functions turn to punches and kicks. Left and right on the D-pad changes weapons while up and down scrolls through menus. As it stands, I never really had a problem controlling Niko. There were some times when I couldn’t get out of cover when I wanted to, but it didn’t happen enough for me to really complain.

So far I have talk about GTA’s story, attention to detail and controls. Now it’s time to the address the multiplayer aspect. For the first time, GTA has a competent multiplayer component. If you count all the variations, you are given the option of playing 15 online multiplayer modes (deathmatch and team deathmatch count as two modes). The ones that stand out the most are; Cops n’ Crooks, Turf War, Mafia Work and Free Mode. In Cops n’ Crooks two teams take turns being the cops, who have to take down the crook’s leader. The crooks have to escort their boss to an extraction point on the map with out acquiring bullet holes. Turf War is all about capturing specific areas of a Liberty City, while defending them from the opposing team. Mafia Work had players racing to complete objectives given by a mob boss. Each completed objective gives you cash and the player/team with the most money at the end of the match wins. Free Mode gives you and 15 of friends all of Liberty City to run amuck in. Magical chaos ensues once you start this mode. The best part is that all the online modes give the option of including pedestrians and cops. You can have a living, breathing city as your playground. My only complaint was the frame rate, which only had issues when the host was too ambitious. Having 16 gamers running around a city with high traffic, pedestrians, and cops made the game hiccup a bit. Other than that, the online modes well implemented. There are four online co-op modes included, but they are really short killing sessions and aren’t really that much fun (compared to the other online modes).

With all that is good in GTA 4, surprisingly I do have some complaints. My major complaint has to be with GTA’s mission structure. Being that this is the first next-gen GTA, I was hoping for a change in the type of illegal activities one could do in the city. Don’t get me wrong; there are some amazing missions present. One of which involves a bank robbery that ends in one of the most adrenaline filled segments of the entire series. However, with most of the missions, I can’t help but feel like I have done this all before. How many times do I have to follow someone on a motorcycle through majority of the city before taking them down? Why do we always end up in construction yards in the GTA series? And for the love of Pete, why is there always a difficult helicopter mission? If you fail a mission, you are given the chance to replay it (via a text message on your cell phone). After like the fifth attempt at completing said helicopter mission, Niko yelled “F**K This!” right before I got the restart text message. It’s amazing; he knew exactly how I felt at that given moment.

Video game critics are always the first to complain about a game being too repetitive. It’s funny how, when it comes to GTA, they don’t seem to mind. I, on the other hand, believe that most games are repetitive and the only thing that makes them enjoyable is whether or not I like the repetitive aspect (Madden players will never get tired of catching a football). What I am trying to say is that GTA 4, with all the new things added to this title, is still very much the same game we have been playing all these years. Is that a bad thing? That depends on the person. As for me, the repetitive nature of the series as a whole is starting to bore me. Shooting random people just isn’t what it used to be. The fact that Niko has to run errands for everyone and their mother (literally) causes the story to drag. And the fact that the missions haven’t really changed since we first stepped into Liberty City, doesn’t help any. What’s worse is that none of the critics who complained about repetition in other video games seem to address this issue with GTA. I guess I will have to play devils advocate.

I am not saying that Niko should pull out a sword and shield instead of an AK47. Just that the mechanics that made GTA big are starting to go stale.