JUST OVER TEN years ago now, some of my more financially endowed acquaintance’s started telling me about a new game called GTA. Enthralled, it seemed, by the gratuitous violence I was inundated by phone calls and conversations that consisted pretty much of “lolz, I brok da lawz”. Within minutes I equal parts bored and confounded that something so banal could keep grown men entertained for hours on end. I finally had the chance to play one of them in late 98 and was less than enthused. Then again a year later when a friend picked up Grand Theft Auto II on the Playstation and lent it to me for a while. Yeah, it was fun randomly blowing things up and killing everyone in sight for the sheer hell of it.

For about ten minutes.

Fast forward to 2003 and I decided to give Grand Theft Auto : Vice City a try because I’ve always been something of a Ray Liotta. And this time my attention was held for much longer than ten minutes. Yes, all of the childish propensity for random acts of violence and gratuitous law breaking was still in place. And, yes, our good chap Tommy is an homicidal, sociopathic maniac hell bent on earning as much money, and screwing over as many people as possible as he can. But this time there was also a strong plot to propel us forwards. And though many have accused Grand Theft Auto, and Vice City in particular, of glorifying this kind of behaviour, it simply isn’t true.

Yes, the Grand Theft Auto series does focus on the criminal underworld. Dredging up the very worst possible examples of Human behaviour. But glorifying? Nee I tell you. A simple representation. Like it or not, accept it or not, these kinds of people really do exist in the world around us. And there are strong arguments in favour of exploring this darker side of our nature via the medium of film and video games. Surely, ’tis better that than doing so in the real world. But I digress. This article is to discuss my impressions of the latest chapter of the Grand Theft Auto series and is not intended to be a sociological thesis (though I’ve been known to do those as well from time to time).

Once again, before the game was even released there was a furor of controversy surrounding it. Mostly by people who have been condemning Rockstar right from the beginning without ever actually stopping to fully explore the games themselves. Of course, the argument there being that the games are so intrinsically warped and criminal in their nature that these good, upstanding people would never sully themselves by stooping to such practice. But then, how can you truly know the games are so bad if you haven’t taken the time to see for yourself and are judging only from second hand information?

Which brings us to the meat of the matter. How does Grand Theft Auto IV compare to it’s predecessors?

Well, the technological advances that have been made since the previous generation of video games consoles show immediately in both the appearance, and the scale of the game. The environments are impressively large and extremely well realistic. Though the people themselves are still obviously animated, at times you could almost believe that the vehicles at least have been photo-captured rather than graphically rendered. But still, this is only the window dressing. Is the game any good?

Well, in short, yes it is. Though it’s never that simple. As with anything, some people will like the game, and some people won’t. The story is typically convoluted and follows pretty much the same pattern as each of the prior titles in the series. Our boy Nico Bellic arrives on a boat from the Motherland and is met by his cousin Roman who, it turns out, is well versed in the ways of hyperbole. Far from being a wealthy entrepreneur with a girl on each arm as his letters back home have attested, the lad lives in a grotty, cockroach infested dive of a place. And so our erstwhile anti-heroes quest for fortune begins.

As with each of the games before it this is the motivating factor throughout the entire game. Even after your fortunes have turned greatly for the better. There’s a bank job about half of the way in which earns you a nice, tidy, quarter of a million dollars so the whole “I need the money” argument doesn’t really work so well. But this is typical of Rockstar, and has lead to phenomenal sales of each installment so far. So, basically, if you liked the previous games then this will be more of the same. If not, well, it will still be more of the same.

However, just because the meta-plot is, to put it mildly, a little flakey, it doesn’t mean the game itself suffers from poor scripting. The dialog is strong and the voice acting is, as ever, top notch. And where, in previous games, we were used to a half minute to sixty seconds of cinematic before heading out on our latest mission, some of them now go on for four to five minutes at a time. A definite plus.

Add to this the introduction of some new gameplay features such as being able to pop out and fire from cover and “micro aim” (using the right analogue stick to shift your reticule from the default chest target after lock-on so as to pop out for head shots, or shoot someone in the legs as they flee), as well as the option of controlling the speed of your vehicles via R2 (no more tapping the X button to keep from driving too fast for those of us who like to cruise rather than speed our way through the cities) mean that the game flows a lot better.

Another, on the surface minor, but in actuality huge new feature of the game is that Niko can actually smash open the window of any vehicle he comes to and reach in to unlock the door. No more of this running around madly trying to find an unlocked car in the middle of a gun fight. Extremely useful I’m sure we all agree. Also, now that we’ve moved firmly into the present day, we have the opportunity to visit internet cafés and download new themes and ring tones for your mobile. All of which add to the immersion of the experience as a whole.

The greatest feature in my opinion, is that at certain points in the game you have to make key decisions (mostly of the kill or don’t kill variety) that will have some minor, and some not so minor effects on the flow of the story. Culminating in two possible endings. Neither of which is particularly happy, and this has lead to some degree of animosity from many people who have played the game. Some going so far as to accuse Rockstar of preaching about the dangers of leading a criminal lifestyle no matter how moral you choose to be throughout the flow of the game. But when all is said and done, those moral opportunities are very few and far between, and though Niko is as much a victim as anyone, and is actually quite a likable individual, the fact remains that he is still a criminal. And some of his actions show a truly callous undertone to the primarily quite approachable man on the surface.

Unfortunately, this seems to be, once again, an effort by Rockstar to argue back against it’s detractors which will go unnoticed by all except the wrong people. And whilst I doubt it will have any significant overall impact on their future releases, it has gone some way to alienating people. Personally, I liked both endings. They’re very sad and dark, but that fits with the entire feel of the game. Liberty City has always been a harsh, forbidding place in previous titles, and even more so now that it has been realised in such intense visual detail. It only makes sense that the events that take place there should be equally depressing.

One final feature I would like to discuss before summing up is the new “random encounter” system which has been introduced. At times you will notice a small green cross on the radar. Approaching these areas will lead to short sub-missions both with unknown, and previously encountered residents of the city. They have no significant impact on the flow of the game as a whole, but, again, they heighten the experience as a whole and add a sense of life to the city in so far as that there are people leading lives that have nothing to do with the primary events of the plot.

Overall, I rather enjoyed the game. Though it was on the short side (only around eighty missions) it still took a long time to get through it all because the missions themselves were notably longer than we have had before. Though some, still, were of the couple of minutes to finish variety, others would keep you going for significantly longer. Though it has to be said, this is a controversial game because it does break away somewhat from previous chapters as I have said above. Still, on the whole, this gets a recommendation from me. Just be aware that the game is both very similar, and radically different from previous experience.

Graphics 8.5/10
Gameplay 8.5/10
Audio/music 9/10
Plot/Scripting 9/10
Overall 9/10

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Liberty City is back in the limelight in Rockstar’s latest take on the Grand Theft Auto world. With the title of IV, this installment is arguably the first “true” sequel to the game that made the entire franchise famous, GTA III. Vice City and San Andreas both took place earlier in the time line and in other locations, whereas Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories were more like side shows.

Set in the present day, complete with cell phones and internet cafés, GTA IV also features a completely new take on Liberty City, a lot more faithful to its real world role-model New York City than its predecessor from GTA III.

The game puts you in the role of Niko Bellic, a Serbian immigrant and veteran of the Bosnian war, who at the start of the game is literally fresh off the boat. You are greeted by your cousin Roman, who has been telling tall tales of his success in the land of opportunity.

As it turns out, you quickly notice that Roman is just barely any better off than yourself, and so the game’s traditional journey through the underworld takes off, starting from the very bottom.

It is, in some respects, difficult to talk about Grand Theft Auto IV without mentioning the incredible hype that surrounds it. Few games have been as anticipated, and fewer still have reached the same kind of early sales figures. Much of this hype the way we see it, stems from building on a very successful formula, which was pioneered (and subsequently widely imitated) in GTA III.

The prime features of this formula include an open, sandbox-style and very alive world where the character is given a lot of freedom; a central car-theft and driving game component; plenty of tongue-in-cheek western-world criticism; and, well… frivolous amounts of violence.

GTA IV follows this formula closely. In fact, the core of the gameplay is pretty much exactly the same. You start out with little more than the clothes you arrived in, and slowly work up your fortune through a long series of varied missions from a multitude of characters, some more colourful than others.

When you aren’t doing missions, the whole of Liberty City (at least toward the latter parts of the game) is open to you. You can call a friend up on your cell phone to visit a comedy club, go bowling, get drunk, visit a strip club, or several other options.

If you take care of your friends, they will ultimately take care of you, by way of certain in-game bonuses achieved by getting them to like you enough. You can also just drive around to take in the sights, listening to your favourite radio station and observing the very well-designed inhabitants of Liberty City go about their business.

This part in particular, making sure the game world is alive and authentic, has received extraordinary amounts of care. In no other game so far has the stage been as detailed, or your personal agenda been such a small part of it. You pass by people talking on their phones, jogging, or trying to pick up a date, and even if you hang out at one specific place for a long time, it’s unlikely that you’ll see the same situation come up twice.

You can stay in your room and watch TV, featuring several shows by and with people living in Liberty City (and some real-world ones too), or go to an internet café and visit a great many websites not unlike today’s offering, whether you’re looking for blog circles or a mail-order bride. To sum it up, Liberty City really feels like a living, breathing entity, whose existence goes on whether or not you happen to be there and observe it.

Having said that, your options for interacting with all this variety of people and places are, much like in earlier games, with few exceptions rather limited. You can’t deal with people in more ways than bumping into them and getting them annoyed with you; or in the spirit of the franchise, going on a killing spree and taking them out, eventually getting the police to come after you.

One thing that is new though, is the addition of “friends”. Now and then showing up on your map, they are little encounters with random people trying to get by in Liberty City, who for one reason or another are in need of Niko’s friendship. They are like little side missions, widely varied, and with a certain continuity in and of themselves.

If you choose to help a friend the first time around, chances are you might bump into them again at a later time to see what became of them. This is a very small part of the over-all game, but you still get a heart-warming feeling from many of these minor missions, and it’s easy to think that real people just like that are most likely somewhere out there in the real world, right now.

While some things are new, other things have been removed. Unlike GTA: San Andreas, IV seems to go for an at least slightly more realistic take on the Grand Theft Auto world, and certain elements that may have been considered too over-the-top have been removed. There is no more jetpack for instance, nor can you strafe the highway in a fighter jet, or skydive down to the ground when you’ve had enough.

The only vehicles you can fly in GTA IV are helicopters, and the gimmicky bicycles have also been taken out, along with the ability to customize your character at gyms and hairdressers. You can still change what you’re wearing, but the selection of clothes and accessories is surprisingly limited.

Graphically, Grand Theft Auto has never looked better. This may not be all that strange, given the new-generation systems, but still, whether you’re up in a helicopter, on top of a skyscraper or driving across the Algonquin Bridge, there is a lot of eye-candy to be had. Many of the locations look remarkably, almost photo-realistically like their real world counterparts.

The audio is top-notch as well, be it the voice acting or the sound of your car glancing against another at 110 mph. The offering of radio stations and colourful DJs is more diverse than ever, and as a couple of nice touches, not only can you change the ring tone of your cell phone, but there is also a number you can dial in-game whenever a track is played, to get the name of the artist and the song sent back as a text message.

Not everything has made the move to next-generation consoles as smoothly though. GTA IV still suffers from a, even for consoles, clumsy and limited save game system. Like in previous titles, you can still only save your game between missions, either through the auto-save just after completion, or from one of your safehouses.

Now, several of the missions you will be undertaking are lengthy and contain several steps. It’s not uncommon to start at your safehouse, drive off to get the mission, drive to location A to pick someone up, drive to location B for the actual job, go through a shootout or a pursuit, and then reach a critical part where there’s a decent risk of failure. If you do fail here, it’s back to the start in order to go through the entire thing again, spending 10-15 minutes just to get back to the challenging part.

It may not sound like much, but when you’re restarting the build-up section of a mission for the fifth time, it gets frustrating. It could be argued that this doesn’t have anything to do with limited system resources, but is just Rockstar’s traditional and intended way of making GTA challenging.

However, forced repetition isn’t a challenge; it’s just a waste of time. With GTA IV hyped up as GTA on a next-gen console, we don’t think a save-anywhere feature or at least checkpoints throughout missions would have been too much to ask for.

Another arguable drawback with the game is that when all is said and done, it is essentially more of the same, and deviates very little from the trends set by its predecessors. If you loved them, you will love this. If you on the other hand loved GTA III, thought Vice City was pretty darn cool, felt that San Andreas started to get just a little bit repetitive, well… chances are you will feel like the formula is starting to wear a little thin.

We say arguable though, because there is a case to be made for not fixing what ain’t broke. Judging by the success of the GTA franchise, there’s bound to be enough people out there who think Rockstar’s formula is where it’s at.

Our final bone to pick with Grand Theft Auto IV, is how it ends. Without giving too much away, there are branching endings depending on a choice you have to make in one of the later missions. The problem is that no matter what you do or how you play it, the story ends on a rather dark note, seemingly delivering the message that crime doesn’t pay, and criminals ultimately cannot be happy.

We won’t argue this case, but with a game that goes to great lengths to present the moral choices involved in working your way through the criminal world, and also to build a rather likable character in Niko Bellic; that kind of moral sermon at the end doesn’t sit very well – especially not from a game labelled Grand Theft Auto.

Finally, can GTA IV then be said to live up to the hype surrounding it? We say, not really. It is by all means a good, well-made game, but in the end it’s also a somewhat aged formula delivered in a fresh package. It’s definitely worth playing, but unless you’re an already made fan who loved all the previous games, don’t expect your world to be rocked the way the buzz would make you believe. Of course, if you by chance have never played any GTA title or derivative thereof, this would be the proverbial golden opportunity.

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It has to be said that Grand Theft Auto IV definitely has what it takes to qualify as one of the best games of 2008. It’s so popular and admired in fact that it can be referred to as IV and everyone knows what you are talking about.

It’s been so long awaited and so eagerly anticipated that it doesn’t need a subtitle. Throw that Liberty City label out of the window, because this time round it’s never looked so immersive!

You play as the dangerous, cynical and somewhat witty Niko Bellic, who has been enticed by his cousin Roman’s constant references to making it big and living the true American Dream.

While Niko’s motives are far from clear at the beginning of the game, the storyline can go just the way you want it thanks to multiple choice missions and even two different endings depending on the the character you want Niko to turn into.

Never before has Grand Theft Auto delivered such a solid, realistic and practical storyline and from the very first mission you see just how complex Liberty City’s working actually is. Taxis ferry pedestrians with true direction, citizens buy overpriced food from roadside vendors and even criminals give the LCPD a run for their easily earned money.

However, something to point out with IV is that it isn’t San Andreas. Comparing the two would be like comparing Vice City with Liberty City Stories; it’s not so much a sidestep in terms of innovation, but a massive enhancement when it comes to gaming experience. Don’t expect to dive straight in and be as good as you were in San Andreas, as this is a whole new experience.

Gone are the features that made San Andreas. Car modifications, extensive weapons and outlandish hobbies have been binned in favour of activities with acquaintances such as drinking, bowling and even helicopter rides. While the features in San Andreas were certainly fun, you’re not going to miss them at all as you’ll be sutured in just how much IV can offer you in terms of longevity. While it may take time to get used to, give it your full attention and you’ll be busy for months or even years to come. Viva la Liberty City!

Best Bits:
Flagging down a taxi and drinking in what Liberty City has to offer through a backseat window.
The new executions feature, which allows you to kill key characters with such grisly and gory grace.

Worst Bits:
Getting used to the driving at first.
The new aiming system, which can often lock onto something you don’t wish to.

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