And now, another Opinionated Review: More Opinion, Less Monsters.
So let’s be honest here, you must be living under a rock if haven’t seen or heard anything about Rockstar’s latest game, Grand Theft Auto IV. That being said you’ve also probably read reviews already, and nothing that I say will blow your socks off. But for those of you who haven’t, here goes:
Grand Theft Auto IV takes place in a redesigned Liberty City, differing heavily from it’s GTA and GTA III renditions. While this one resembles New York City much more closely than its GTA and GTA III counterparts, it is still different enough to not feel like True Crime: New York City (Thank God). Liberty City is a departure from the somewhat cartoony feel of San Andreas, Vice City, and the previous Liberty City incarnation, bringing a very realistic atmosphere to drive in (and shoot up). It is so realistic sometimes I find myself lost in the city doing nothing but people watching. I saw a man push another on the sidewalk, starting a fight, I dialed 911 and the police showed up, arrested both men, and then drove off.
Enough about this city already, what about the gameplay? While in no way perfect, GTA IV shines in almost every aspect. New to the series is the cover system, and while it doesn’t necessarily always work the exact way you want to, I think we can all agree that the game is better with it, than without it. Throught the game Niko did take cover in exactly the opposite place of where I intended him to take cover, however after getting used to the controls, the more I played the game the less he took cover where I didn’t want him to.
Another new addition to the game is the taxi system. While taxis have been in every single GTA, they have never been able to take you anywhere other than back to a failed mission from the hospital. They now can take you anywhere on the map (well okay, not anywhere) and come complete with awkward conversation. If talking to a strange cabby isn’t your thing, then you can skip to your destination for an extra charge. The taxi system works great and I found myself using it much more than I thought I would in the beginning.
But let’s be honest with ourselves, the game is called Grand Theft Auto, not Grand Taxi Taking, and boy does this game deliver on the Auto part of GTA. While there are less vehicles than San Andreas, you won’t notice. You’ll recognize the names, Banshee, Merit, Infernus, Stallion, the list goes on, but they have been greatly redone. Each car is highly has a highly detailed interior and exterior, and looks much more realistic than the cartoony counterparts from past GTA renditions. The new damage system is much better, from scraping a light post and losing some paint, to totally trashing a car by rolling it 5 times or more (thus getting the Achievement) at full speed while going off a stunt jump, I was totally amazed at the new damage models.
Another new key feature is the cell phone, while it may not be as fancy as the iPhone it does what a normal cell phone does, make calls, text message, and takes pictures. You can make and recieve calls, recieve text messages, and take pictures which you can send to contacts or upload to a police computer located within a cruiser. This all being said the majority of your cell phone usage will be recieving instructions, asking or being asked out on a date or to hang out, or recieving text messages that you don’t call *FILL IN GIRL(S) THAT YOU ARE DATING NAME(S) HERE* enough. The camera is really unused in most of the game, which is dissapointing seeing is that I thought of a lot of cool ways to use the camera. Calling random phone numbers whilst drunk in the game is almost as fun as doing it in real life.
One final new feature that I’ll touch on is the internet, and while I have yet to fully use it, I have visited several sites, from scam sites sent in emails, to the dating website, to the autoerotica website, to the famed www.whattheydontwantyoutoknow.com website, each is done with striking resembelence to the real world internet. However I did find it much easier to score with chicks on the in-game internet dating website than it would be in real life (No, I haven’t cyber-dated at all however the in game one all you had to do was hit a button to start dating a girl). One of my favorite sites was the Liberty Tree website, as its headlines and news articles correlated with what was going on in-game. Nothing like reading about yourself in the newspaper!
Of all the new features it’s great to see that Rockstar was able to not forget the classic mix of driving, shooting, and humor that made the first 8 games so enjoyable. There’s a rule that as a young male, the word penis never gets old, and man, there are a LOT of penis references in IV. The only thing that really keeps me from believing Liberty City is a real place and I am really there is the fact that all the advertisements are fake and most are sexually charged. That isn’t a bad thing though, if I found it too real I might go out and start killing people for real (That last one is obviously a lie, but was put in there for good ol Jack Thompson).
All in all, if you like previous GTA’s this one’s for you. It’s a restart of the whole series so even if you’re brand new to the franchise, you don’t need to play the first games ahead of time. The breakdown follows:
The Technical Stuff:
System(s) Played On: XBOX 360, Playstation 3
Display(s) used: 42″ Plasma set at 1080p, 32″ LCD set at 720p, 30″ CRT set at 480i
In Depth:
Graphics: 10/10
Rockstar really pushed each console to it’s limits in this area, and did suffer noticeable pop-in every now and then, but it is understandable. Not once on either system did I experience any framerate dips, even during intense firefights with multiple enemies.
Console Battle: PS3. While the 360’s native 720p resolution tops the PS3’s native 640p resolution, the PS3 gets the nod for better graphics due to less texture pop-in and better effects. When playing in SDTV mode the characters, while fully detailed, due suffer from smoothing issues that are inherent with SD.
Sound: 9/10
While the ambient sound was top-notch, the radio stations were very repetitive, I would hear the same song on the radio over and over again and would never hear other songs. For instance, Liberty Rock Radio was constantly playing Rocky Mountain Way (Joe Walsh), but for the duration of the whole game, in which I never switched off of LRR, I only heard 1979 (Smashing Pumpkins) four times.
The Idea:
Taking GTA to the next generation is what fans wanted, and that’s what they got. Instead of another rehash of GTA III (IE: Vice City and San Andreas), Rockstar really delivered on a whole new game worthy of being called Game of the Year 2008 right now, before 2008 ends.
Replayability: 10/10
The PS3 version got shivved in the stomach by Microsoft when they inked a deal with Rockstar to release exclusive episode DLC for the XBOX 360, but the replayability is extremely high as you can make different decisions throughout, and you can’t tell me you don’t want to play that bank robbery mission again with a straight face. The edition of multiplayer really (as with any game) keeps the replayability of the game high.
Console Battle: Xbox 360. Exclusive episodic content totally shoots the PS3 in the face in terms of replayability.
Multiplayer: 7/10
There are too many multiplayer modes for the amount of people that are on. Wait a few months and it will be a 10/10 when more people are playing online.
Console War: XBOX 360. Shorter load times, exclusive DLC, and achievements give the edge to the 360.
Overall: A+/10
That’s right, the game was so good, it blew off of one grading scale and onto a whole different one, garnering a rare A+ out of ten.
So wtf took you so long Ben: Well I wanted to play through the full game at least twice (Once on the 360 and once on the PS3) before I reviewed it, and because I have a real job and had to get the game well after reviewers got the game, it took this long. BTW I’m on my fourth playthrough right now.