Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Ron Burke

By now we’ve all seen the mounds of praise for Grand Theft Auto IV.  The major sites have hurled themselves onto the hood of this title, professing their undying love for everything about it, declaring it absolutely perfect in every conceivable way.  Some sites have given the game 10 out of 10, declaring it the best game of all time.  I’m not one of those people.  I’m not going to declare Grand Theft Auto IV the best game of all time, and I’m certainly not going to call it flawless as it simply isn’t flawless – but it’s close.

Grand Theft Auto IV is actually Grand Theft Auto IX, if you count the London Mission Pack, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto Advance,  Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.  Since 1997, Rockstar Games (then DMA Design) has been creating an increasingly refined sandbox title that gives players a chance to explore the seedy underworld of various cities as they rise through the criminal underground echelon.   While the premise has stayed the same, drastic evolutions in hardware and software have enriched each title, creating one of the largest franchises in gaming history thus far.  Grand Theft Auto IV takes us back to New York *ahem* I mean Liberty City (the first GTA took place here as well) and puts us in the ‘fresh off the boat’ shoes of Nico Bellic.  Nico is a Serbian tough guy lured to America by the lavish stories of his cousin Roman Bellic.  Immediately after stepping off the boat Nico realizes that Roman might not be telling the entire truth in his emails back home.  Roman is living the American Dream, if running a shabby cab depot while being indebted to some low level mobsters is what you call a ‘dream’.  Nico is irritated but undeterred by his cousins embellishments - he has other motives for being here. 

Obviously I’m not going to spoil the story, but if you’ve played a Grand Theft Auto game you know that it’ll be filled with chaos, mayhem, murder, betrayal, drugs, theft, and some of the best music you’ll hear in a game.  Playing through the entire game twice has given me time to really see what this game is all about – let’s back away from the lovefest and see whether GTA IV is as fantastic as we've been lead to believe.

When you think of a sandbox title you have to know that it simply won’t have the graphical detail of a linear title – it is the truth and it is incontrovertible.   The folks at Rockstar are looking to rewrite the rules as Grand Theft Auto IV is by far, the most detailed sandbox world ever created.  A few comparison pictures have surfaced on the Internet that show just how much detail there really is in the game.  Bridges, buildings, parks, and sense of scale have been painstakingly preserved, with a great deal of effort placed into making sure that every block is different than the last, and I’m not just talking about random pallet swaps. Spin around Liberty City for an hour and you’ll see homeless people stumbling around, street preachers screaming their sermons of insanity, car accidents where people get out and scream at each other, random acts of violence in the seedier parts of town, street vendors, pedestrians chatting on their phone while they head to the bus stop, and cops chasing criminals down the street.   Since there are five boroughs in Liberty City, you’ll also see a vast difference in the way people talk, dress, and act between areas.  When you start dating the women from these areas the ‘trends’ in the area become important, so pay attention. 

The detail doesn’t stop with behavior and appearance– there are mechanical differences throughout the game.  There is a ridiculous number of cars moving about the city at any given time, each ripe for the picking, and each handling very differently from the last.  While you can backhand a rider off the back of his bike and simply ride away, stealing a parked car can sometimes be a bit more involved than it has been in previous games.  Nico will glance about and check the door handle of the vehicle.  If the car is open he’ll hop in and proceed to hotwire it.  If not, he’ll smash it with a weapon, his fist, or an elbow before reaching in and unlocking the door.  Some cars have alarms complete with honking horn and flashing lights, so you’ll have to be aware of this as you speed away making a tremendous racket.  If you try to steal an occupied vehicle Nico may brandish his weapon, punch the driver in the face, kick the driver, or get caught up on the door handle and drug for half a block as the driver speeds away.  Little animations like this are present throughout the entire game, bringing the game closer to realism than we’ve ever come before.  Similarly, Nico (and any rider who comes with you) will err on the side of caution and wear a helmet when riding a bike – nothing new there.  It is when you get off the bike and Nico keeps the helmet on for a few moments and then casually tosses it away or continues to wear it until you have a free hand should you be otherwise busy that you really see the mechanics of the game at work. 

As I mentioned, there are five boroughs to explore in the game, and each one is vastly different than the last.  Moving through the starting area of Broker, crime is rampant and the cars are somewhat shoddy.  Life isn’t a lot better in Bohan or the smog-filled Alderny, so don’t expect great things out of those areas. If you drive through the Eastern edge of Dukes however, you’ll find nice cars, condos, and more cops than you can shake a stick at.  High income areas are better maintained, and the epicenter of the city is flush with lights and signs, low income areas are simply falling apart and covered in graffiti.  The art department went all out making every area feel different than the last. 

You can’t take a trip through Liberty City without visiting the landmarks, and they are all well represented.  Hove Beach (Brighton Beach), Firefly Island (Coney Island), Star Junction (Times Square), GetaLife Building (MetLife), Booth Tunnel (Lincoln Tunnel), Rotterdam Tower (Empire State Building) and the topper – the Statue of Happiness.  All of these landmarks add to the world, even if to simply act as a backdrop, giving the game an air of authenticity that the eventual GTA IV knock-off titles simply won’t have.

As I have both versions of the game, it is only natural that I compare the two.  There is a 8-10 minute install process for the Playstation 3 which does a great job of keeping that version moving, but given that the vast majority of the game streams on both versions, the net result is almost a draw.  The Xbox 360 version seems to have a deeper color palette and a little less motion blur/bloom, but the Playstation 3 version seems to have less pop-in and sharper anti-aliasing.  Both versions have a few framerate hits here and there, but it never seems to drop the game into unplayable territory.    In point of fact I’m going to rate them the same as they are for all intents and purposes equal.  The only way you’ll see a difference is if you own both versions of the game. 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City had the best soundtrack thus far, in my opinion.  Perhaps that is just my slant towards 80’s music, but that’s just how I see it.  That said, Grand Theft Auto IV sports a pretty decent track mix this time around.  There are a total of 19 radio stations with over 200 songs from such artists as Kanye West, Fat Joe, Jeru the Damaja, Killing Joke, Justice, Gong, Marc Moulin, War, Femi Kuti, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Michael Shrieve, Philip Glass, Tangerine Dream, Suzy Q, Bad Brains, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Genesis, ZZ Top, Heart, Shaggy, Greenskeepers, Don Omar, Bob Marley and the Wailers (they get a whole station), Jodeci, Marvin Gaye, Marakesh, and even Barry White.  The track list is as varied as the locations in the game, once again bringing something for everyone.  If you can’t find something to listen to, three of the stations are talk radio programs with some hilarious commentary on a wide variety of topics.  While I don’t see myself putting together a box set like the Vice City collection, there is certainly enough there to keep you busy throughout the entire game. 

Rather than pick up big name actors for the voice work this time around, Rockstar stuck with less established voice actors like Michael Hollick (Nico),  and Jason Zumwalt (Roman).  If those names don’t sound familiar, don’t be surprised – almost everyone in the cast has less than 5 completed projects.  With so much untested talent you can expect a Resident Evil-like performance, right?  Wrong.  While some folks swing pretty heavily from remorseful to vengeful in the span of a minute (including Nico), everyone turns in a solid performance.  When coupled with the genuinely funny writing, it is a hit.  In all honesty, my only complaint isn’t much of a complaint at all – I’d just like more radio shows.  They are hilarious, but they tend to repeat.

Controlling Nico is a fairly straightforward affair in Grand Theft Auto IV.  While on foot, you’ll use the thumbsticks to steer yourself and the camera.  The Y button enters vehicles/mounts ladders/melees a target, the B button reloads and performs a secondary melee attack, the A button allows you to sprint or answer your phone, and the X button jumps/climbs/or kicks.  Left trigger means business as it locks onto your target, and the right trigger unleashes the business end of whatever weapon you are holding.  The left bumper picks objects up; although you won’t use it much after the tutorial shows you how.  The right bumper enters and exits cover – important for the whole ‘not getting shot’ plan.  The D-Pad up and down controls your cell phone functions, and hitting left or right on the D-Pad cycles between your available weapons.

When driving a vehicle, you’ll use the left trigger to brake, left bumper to fire your weapon, right trigger to speed up, and right bumper to engage the handbrake (if available).  The left and right stick control the steering and camera, as you’d expect, and the left stick engages slow-mo when you are using the cinematic camera.  It’s neat for showing off some crazy jump, but you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. 

Overall the controls are much improved over the previous titles, but still suffer from some of the same ‘stiffness’ during firefights.  Occasionally you can’t un-stick from the landscape, and other times you can’t get into cover to save your life.  Neither scenarios is particularly frustrating or frequently occurring, so it doesn’t end up being a huge deal.

There was one thing about GTA III and all of the spinoffs that really got under my skin.  Rockstar, with the best intentions, asked players to complete missions using specific items.  You might have to track down a particular target using ONLY the bread van and then shoot him using ONLY the pistol.  These restrictions prevented players from running rampant with Banshees and Rocket Launchers, but it locked players into replaying missions ad nauseum until they could manage to complete the objective in the exact method specified.  When polling friends who had played the previous GTA titles, they all cited frustration with this mechanic, and a great many of them had not completed the games as a result.  To make the game more accessible, Rockstar has eased the requirements on missions.  A great example of this is a chase that asks you to run somebody down on a motorcycle.  After a few attempts and subsequently flying over the top of my motorcycle too many times I nabbed a Banshee and parked it near the mission start.  Needless to say the target didn’t stand a chance against a half ton of speeding steel, making the mission much easier.  Similarly, assassination missions seem to be much easier with a sniper rifle or rocket launcher. 

One of the best additions to this title is the cell phone.  You can contact all of your friends and contacts, as well as receive pictures and text messages.  This extends directly to the missions as you’ll get a text message should you fail a mission.  Simply hit up on your D-Pad and select retry and you are right back in for another shot. 

The phone is used extensively in GTA IV – it is your lifeline to the world.  All new contacts will be added to your phone for you to call at your whim.  If you are friends with a contact you can either call them up for a special service they offer (some will bring you weapons, others will pick you up in a vehicle) or simply to throw some darts, drink beer, hit the strip club, or catch a bite to eat.   You’ll also use it to coordinate dates with your girlfriend(s).  While the dating scene isn’t particularly helpful most of the time, it does add to the overall ‘realism package’ – just like real life!

Also just like real life, there is a good chance that the first car you get will suck.  It won’t handle corners well, it’ll slide all over the road, and is generally a pain to drive.  In fact, it seems that there isn’t a car within the first two boroughs that doesn’t handle like a cement block on an ice skating rink.   Before you throw your hands up in despair, know that you’ll be swimming in fantastic cars, motorcycles, and eventually helicopters before too long, so the cars with the floating car physics will be in your rear view mirror. 

There are a few things that have changed since Vice City.  For the better, the fat/skinny working out nonsense is completely gone.  Nico stays fit and trim without the tedium of grinding out reps or boxing minigames.  Unfortunately, your real estate speculations and business entrepreneurial skills will atrophy pretty quickly in Liberty City as you are simply ‘granted’ safe houses within the confines of the storyline.  Unfortunately this marginalizes the need for cash pretty quickly as you’ll have difficulty outspending your missions rewards, even if you spend every waking moment between missions in strip clubs.  Even ammunition and armor, which is prohibitively expensive in the beginning (as it should be) becomes almost a nuisance to even go out of your way to purchase – a fact that even Rockstar seems aware of as eventually you’ll have a friend who provides these items with a simple phone call. I can’t be the only one scratching my head as I lay down in my roach-infested flop house wearing a $1000 dollar suit and $350 shoes, wondering where I might spend my quarter of a million in blood money.

Another vast improvement over the previous title is the use of a ‘search perimeter’ for the police.  Rather than have omnipotent police that will kill themselves to get to you, as was the case in GTA III through this title, now the police have a small search circle on the map.  If you are within the circle, the police will call for backup until they bust you.  If you exit the circle your star level will flash and fade away after a few seconds.  If you really piss off the cops the circle will be far larger and the police will be a little more apt to put themselves in harms way to take you down.  Once you get closer to the five or six star range, the helicopters and assault rifles come out and the circle becomes massive.  The beautiful part about all of this is that you have access to your map at all times, so you can do a bit of planning in the pause menu for your escape route.

There are a great deal of moments where GTA IV really shines, but in my opinion there is no better mission than one that occurs roughly half way through the game.  Partnering up with a loud-mouthed low-level mobster and his brothers you’ll engage in a mission that can only be described by saying “Rent the movie Heat – it’s like that”.  As the mission goes completely sideways (and when don’t they?) the difficulty ramps significantly.  Tempers flare, bodies drop around you, and poor planning makes itself apparent.  Savor this mission as it represents some of the best action you’ll find in the game – it’s that good.  The beautiful part is that it was tense, hectic, chaotic, but I never once felt the pain of frustration.  The weapon mechanics, the friendly and enemy AI, and the cover system worked exactly as expected, making it an incredibly polished mission.  Major kudos to the designers and testers who fleshed that one out – incredible work from start to finish. 

The mission mentioned above really sums up my feelings on Grand Theft Auto IV.  Even for the silly stuff (Explosive barrels EVERYWHERE) you’ll enjoy this game from start to finish.  The mechanics have changed, and for the better.  The addition of a cover mechanic gives players a bit more control over their avatar, even if it is breaks at times.  The game isn’t flawless, but it gets so much right that it is hard to fault it for the little things.

Let’s be brutally honest – the Xbox Live system kicks Sony’s online offering in the teeth.  Many people that I talk to are avoiding the PS3 simply because they don’t want to fight with a cumbersome online component for their games.  Rockstar obviously has some of the same complaints so they did the best thing they could possibly do – built in an online component of their own.  Virtually identical on Xbox 360 or PS3, the online system is as simple as tapping “Multiplayer” on your cell phone.  You select your desired game type and either host a server of your own or join an existing one.  The online component features Team Deathmatch, Team Mafiya Work (rival crews fight to complete objectives fastest), Team Car Jack City (steal specified cars and get paid for how pristine they arrive at the chop shop – team with the most money wins), Cops and Crooks (pick your side of the law.  Crooks try to get their boss out of the city – cops try to shut them down),  Turf War (fight rival gangs for control over city sections),  Co-Op Free Mode (open city, dowhatchalike), Co-Op Deal Breaker (recover the goods, dust the witnesses),  Hangman’s N.O.O.S.E. (protect the mobster from the cops, escape), Bomb da Base (just like the 8-ball mission from GTA III – steal the explosives and bomb the ship), Deathmatch, Mafiya Work and Car Jack City (complete contracts for the Mafiya in co-op), Racing (helicopters, pasta rockets, jalopies, motorcycles, scooters – race em in any path you like), GTA Race (Same race as before, but add a dash of weapons into the mix), and finally Party Mode (8-player party stays together through multiple multiplayer matches).  If this looks like an incredible amount of gameplay modes, that is because it is.  Just like choosing which car to steal from a crowded parking lot – there is something here for everyone. 

If multiplayer isn’t your thing, that isn’t a big deal at all – Grand Theft Auto IV is an expansive title giving you far more than your money’s worth.  For the $60.00 offering price you’ll get roughly 30 hours of story missions, another 30 to 40 of side missions, and countless hours of non-mission things like dating, darts, billiards, and simple exploring.  When you count in that you’ll be given the chance to determine who lives and dies at a few points in the game, it makes for a compelling argument to play through again to see the repercussions of those decisions.  It would have been nice to see more of these moral decisions come up throughout the game, but that complaint is so minor in a sea of excellent gameplay that it goes essentially without notice.

It is almost impossible to review a title as large or as detailed as Grand Theft Auto IV.  Even at over 3,700+ words, this review only scratches the surface of Grand Theft Auto IV.  If there are shortcomings, they are easily overmatched by the things that the game does well.  There is literally something for everyone in this title – racing, a great storyline, well written and genuinely funny dialog, crazy car chases, a dash of mayhem, and even a dating simulator make for a complete package that doesn’t raise the bar – it tosses out that bar and makes a new one for the entire genre.  While the game is by no means perfect, it is still head and shoulders above anything else we’ve ever seen in terms of a sandbox title.  The pointless debate rages on whether to buy this game for the PS3 or Xbox 360, but the root of that argument is correct – you need to buy this game. 

Gaming Trend Score

97

1. Graphics: 97
2. Audio: 95
3. Controls: 95
4. Gameplay: 97
5. Value/Replay: 100
6. OVERALL:97