A Truly spectacular Game
GTA 4 has so many improvements in terms of graphics, audio, and gameplay, that it can be easily called the best GTA game in the series thus far, and could be a major contender for game of the year.
Although some of the story elements in GTA 4 are reminiscent of the previous series, the story of GTA 4 is vastly different from its predecessors. The main protagonist (or antihero as I’ll like to call him) is Niko Belic, an East European immigrant who decided to head to Liberty City in order to see how his cousin, Roman Belic, is doing. However, Niko’s true motives for coming to Liberty City are revealed later on in the game. From hearing all of Roman’s stories about “living the American dream”, Niko’s enthusiasm is pretty high. However, after he arrives in Liberty City and meets his cousin, he finds out the “American dream” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Roman lives in a terrible apartment, gets bullied at work, and has loan sharks stalking him at every turn. It doesn’t take long for Niko to get his cousin and him mixed up in the criminal underworld filled with gangs, mobsters, and crooked cops in order to make ends meet. The story is far more realistic than its predecessors since the big theme in the game is “living the American dream” which is not only satirized in the game, but drives the story throughout the game. Speaking of satirized, the series trademark “satire humor” remains intact. From hearing a crazed liberal spouting his propaganda at his opponent when you turn on the radio, to watching “Republican Space Rangers”, who’s doing the same thing, when you turn on the T.V.
after he arrives in Liberty City and meets his cousin, he finds out the “American dream” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
The graphics for the game are amazing and truly stunning to look at. However, the biggest things I enjoyed from the graphics department were the physics and advance animations in the game. First, let’s talk about the physics. The game features some amazing physics which was pulled off using the Euphoria engine. Things like seeing a jumping on a car and seeing that car support your weight, all the way to realistic car damage (e.g. Niko flying out of the window whenever he crashes at a car at high speed) was never achieved in a game before. Heck, I never saw games with this much advance physics on Next-Gen games! Another great aspect in the graphics department is the animation.
The animations in the game were so advanced; I doubt that any game could mimic the detail. What makes the animation so special? Well, the game features animations that blend with your current action. For example, while running away from the police, I jumped inside the window of a building, run up the stairs, shot some more cops, get to the roof, and scale down the building using a ladder. All of this was done at 60fps and none of the animations were interrupted. Brilliant!
Although I wasn’t paying too much attention to the audio, it wasn’t hard to notice that GTA 4 still had an amazing VO cast, soundtrack, and atmosphere. The voice actor who portrayed Niko did a fantastic job voicing him, since Niko sounded like an authenticate East European. Yes, we all know that GTA 4 is known to have great VO’s, but what about GTA 4’s radio stations? Do they feature any licensed music like San Andreas or Vice City? No. However, Rockstar did pick out a great roster of songs that does match our current time period.
One frustrating part of the game is the fact that you have to press X repeatedly in order to get Niko sprinting. Why couldn’t Rockstar made Niko have a default run like other games? Who knows…
And the other is more of a personal opinion but I liked the fact in the last one there was countryside and mountains that were all fully accessible but I’m not going to let that destroy the sheer class of this game.
There’s should be no excuse for anyone not to get GTA 4, unless they have a weak stomach or are under 18. Rockstar outdid themselves with GTA 4, and I hope that they will continue the formula for GTA 5, or whatever is the next game in the series.
The Bad: Occasional map loss.; Can Become a bit repetative
Gold Y Award