reviews

Name: Grand Theft Auto IV
Genre: Third-Person Sandbox Action/Adventure
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (Reviewed on Xbox 360)

The fourth installment of the ever-popular Grand Theft Auto series is centered on one immigrants messed up journey through the mean streets of Liberty City. This is a place where little difference can be told between your friends and your enemies. This city is like a creature, ever changing, adapting, and praying on the weak any chance it can get. But any place is better than Niko’s former home, a war torn land in Eastern Europe. Our story starts off with some impressive cinematic camera work as our main character Niko Bellic arrives by cargo ship to meet his cousin at the docks. After what could of bin the opening to a multimillion dollar movie Niko finally plants his feet in the country where the streets are supposedly paved with gold. But it doesn’t take long for this immigrant to realize that his cousins stories of titties, exotic cars, and living lavita loca weren’t all they were cracked up to be. This was a much different place than his cousin described in the letters he sent back home. This was a city where you had to stand on your own two feet, take whatever you want, and kill anything that gets in your way.

 So far this is just like any other immigrants story that braved cold weather and storms to cross an unforgiving ocean. Promised with a better life they arrive to find out it all was a bunch of lies and they will be working their way up from the bottom of the food chain. Taking odd jobs and sometimes taking part in the occasional criminal activity they scrape the bottom of the barrel to get by. But Niko is not your average immigrant he is an ambitious man with plans of his own.

 The first half of our adventure starts off with your cousin Roman taking you to your new lavish apartment in a swanky part of town. The only problem is once again you’re misled: the apartment is in the ghetto and it is invested with roaches. The disappointment with your cousin only grows shortly after you find out he is in trouble with some of the local lowlifes because of his gambling debts. Playing on your heartstrings he convinces you to help him out of this predicament, unbeknownst to you Roman is constantly landing himself in hot water. So here you are arriving in a new country just to become someones errand boy, picking up Roman’s customers, and doing the occasional odd job for him.

 Your flirtation with the criminal element of the city only grows with the passing of each choir you are sent off to do. Developing relationships with the underworld is something, maybe the only thing Niko is cut out for in this city, and his ex-military background doesn’t hurt his chances of finding an employer either. Criminals like him and he likes the money that they fork over upon the completion of each task. As you climb through the ranks of the underworld you start to form solid relationships with many connected people, people who you will ask you for favors and help you in return. But first you have to prove your worth. So once again you are sent out as an errand boy collecting debts, transporting goods for one location to another, and occasionally sending a message to a rival criminal faction. Either way you’re making money and getting one step closer to finding what you’re looking for. First comes the money, then the power, and then the respect.

 
 My particular journey through Liberty City was one where the streets were paved with the blood of my enemies. Being a fan of mob stories I am quite familiar with how organized crime works. So I conducted my business like a true goodfella: taking out anyone who stood in the way of my money and me. When there was choice to be made that would affect the outcome later in the game, I choose to follow the cash and whoever possessed it. I ran through the streets of Liberty City with a fist full of cash in one hand and an AK47 in the other. I mowed down pedestrians and drove away laughing as their bodies lay dead in the streets, took on countless numbers of law enforcement officers sending them off to an early retirement, and navigated my way through the city in every vehicle that was available listening to Tuff Gong radio.

 By the end of the game I lost a few friends, made a few new ones, and had to cope with the loss of a loved one. I learned many things in my stay in Liberty City: everyone besides me was a moron, money isn’t everything, the cops occasionally help out the wrong guy, and drugs are bad.

 This iteration of Grand Theft Auto saw some advances made in the way of how you played the game. First off if you managed to flag down a taxi and rode as a passenger instead of jacking the driver out and throwing him on the pavement, you made a trip from one part of the city to the other a lot easier. A better aiming system was implemented this time around that allowed you to quickly and efficiently lock onto your targets and take them down with a few simple pulls of the trigger. Along with some tweeked gameplay mechanics Rockstar also managed to pack some entertainment into the nooks and crannies of the game. Taking some time off to relax you could visit anyone of Liberty City’s hot spots. There were plenty of places you could grab a bite to eat whether you were in the mood for a week old hotdog from the corner vender, a burger from burgershot, or just wanted to sit and have a nice meal at one of the city’s many upscale establishments. And if the desire to gorge yourself wasn’t up your alley you could take in a comedy show, shoot some pool, go bowling, or tour the city in a helicopter. Either way you could spend thirty plus hours just enjoying all the sites and sounds that surrounded you.

 For every game that plops onto the market there are always a few downfalls and thankfully GTA IV only had a few, and they were bearable. First off the lock-on for the aiming system would sometimes shift from my target to some civilian running by. This became annoying only in only a few cases when I was in an intense gunfight in the middle of a crowded city street. I just chalked this minor inconvenience up to my erratic spray and pray style of gunplay. The second and last thing that bothered me was that there was no off button for the radio, and while I enjoyed listening to Liberty city’s radio stations there were some occasions where I wanted to just cruise and listen to the sounds of the city around me. There are no real substantial faults to this game, the gameplay is relatively smooth, and for such an immense environment as the one in GTA IV the Euphoria Engine chugs along with little or no change in the graphic quality.  

In the end Rockstar definitely raised the bar for the next installment of GTA. They poured their blood sweat and tears into this game and it shows. Rockstar produced a solid title that has a huge replay value. Adding a multiplayer mode where you can own all of your friends, and the rumors that are floating around about how the future downloadable content will consist of additions to the actual size of the island, this gamer will be hustling on the streets of Liberty City for the next couple of months.

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