G4TV

You’re reading a Grand Theft Auto IV review? Really? This is arguably the most review-proof game released in the last four years. Don’t worry about it, it’s great. It’s beautiful, it’s next-gen, it’s incredible. Five stars, get out there and buy it.

Still reading? You must be one of the non-believers. Those people who enjoy the GTA games, but recognize their flaws for what they are. You’re one of the people who, after two games did not fully address the problems present since GTA3, are a bit more skeptical than most players when it comes to the idea of GTA IV being the so-called “Game of the Forever.” Well, so am I, truth be told, so this review is for the skeptics.

All Over Again For The First Time

Grand Theft Auto IV is instantly recognizable as a GTA game. Walking, driving, listening to the radio, the perennial hooker abuse. It’s all there. Even with the flood of open-world games that has risen steadily over the last few years, GTA IV retains that certain something that has always set Rockstar North’s sandboxes apart. A little time spent in this brand new version of Liberty City, however, reveals that the Rockstar gang didn’t just upgrade GTA for next-gen systems. They ripped it apart and tuned all the parts before putting it back together again.

This time around you play Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant just off the boat in Liberty, joining his cousin Roman in America. Niko is, in no particular order, smarter than he looks, a war veteran, a human smuggler, and a stone cold hardass. He’s a likeable guy, but primarily because GTA IV’s story does a fine job of showing why Niko is who and what he is. While the three GTAs of last generation featured American criminals as protagonists, GTA IV puts you in the shoes of a newcomer to America, who becomes a criminal to survive in the so-called Land of Opportunity.

The main story in GTA IV is told mostly without the satire and irony that permeated GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas. Because of the much improved character models and facial animation, the digital actors are able to pull this off admirably, with the help of some exceptional voice work. This GTA feels like less of an all-star production, with far fewer recognizable celebrity voices popping up. It’s a believable world, populated by believable people.

This is not to say the edge is gone. Niko encounters plenty of strange fellows in his travels, including self-styled street vigilante documentary makers, a nurse who refers to herself in the third person, and genetically different alpha male Brucie, who may be the greatest character in GTA history. The radio stations make a welcome return, with a huge variety of music. Newly integrated weather and news reports comment on the realtime weather and events in completed missions, making the radio seem much more a part of the game’s world than before.

Euphoric

The most noticeable upgrade in GTA IV is the overhaul of the physics and visuals. Much more detailed geometry, textures, and a gorgeous lighting engine make Liberty City eerily realistic at times. The Euphoria animation engine brings everything in the city to life with stunning results. Shooting a man in the leg results in a limp, a fall, or maybe a desperate inspection of the damaged limb. Smashing a car with a bat leaves a bat-shaped dent in the exact place you brought the timber down on the bodywork. Hit a stationary object while on a motorcycle to watch Niko tumble painfully across the asphalt, with appropriate facial expressions accompanying.

There is some pop-in still present, although not to the degree San Andreas suffered from it. Mostly it’s limited to details like small bushes and grass. It’s very rare to not see a dangerous object until it’s too late. GTA IV is also much better about keeping its traffic consistent. The strange phenomenon of being passed by a car, then turning around to find it has vanished, is no longer a problem.

If You Choose To Accept It

One of the most oft-cited criticisms of the series is the actual missions required to progress in the story. In past games they were mostly automotive fetch quests or aggravatingly difficult tasks that, lacking a retry feature, would often stop players cold. A lot of effort has clearly been put into avoiding this in GTA IV. Nearly every mission in the game has clear motivation, a clear goal, and interesting things to do. There are no more “drive this car across the entire map without damaging it” missions, and since the game autosaves after every completed task, losing progress to an impromptu car crash or police chase is a thing of the past. Perhaps best of all, you can instantly retry any mission after failing it without returning to the mission-giving character, saving potentially hours of busywork over the course of the full game.

A lot of pointless travel is saved via Niko’s cell phone, which is your primary method of interaction with people in the game. From his handheld wonder, you can arrange missions, jobs, leisure activities, and fast travel options. It can identify music playing in your car, pause the storyline entirely, and even take photos that can be compared to police records to find criminals worth a bounty. This centralization of so many necessary features keeps GTA IV from overwhelming you with such a large city to explore and conquer.

The one area that still suffers from a slight lack of polish is the gunplay. GTA has always been infamous for subpar shooting controls, and while Niko is by far the most accomplished gunman in the series, it’s still not quite where it needs to be. Niko can take cover behind almost any object large enough to protect him, then pop out to fire Gears of War style. Pulling the L-trigger all the way in will lock him on target, while a half pull lets you free-aim. This works well for simple confrontations, but if things get chaotic, it can be difficult to recover successfully. Niko moves a bit slow, and the autotarget feature still doesn’t prioritize threats very well. If someone happens to get behind you or past your hiding place, good luck getting out of the situation without losing a good chunk of health.

The Gangs All Here

But of all the new features in GTA IV, there's one above all others that everyone wants to know about: multiplayer. Rest easy, because online multiplayer has been implemented very well.

You can party up with other players, which dumps you into a free-for-all lobby where you kill each other while the host picks game modes. You're all whisked from game mode to game mode effortlessly. And there's a lot to do. Complex objective-based team games like Mafiya Work turn the base gameplay of GTA into a competitive race against intelligent opponents. Cops 'n Crooks is just what it sounds like, and marks the first time in the series we get to play as Liberty City's finest.

There are also more straightforward game types, like standard car racing or X-Play’s favorite, blowing each other up with rocket launchers for ten minutes. There are fifteen multiplayer permutations total, running the range from highly-structured to complete city-roaming freedom, so nearly everyone will find something to like. Hopefully the Xbox Live servers can take the strain.

I Love This Town

There are honestly too many facets and nuances to the game to be covered in a single page review (seven, maybe, but not just one). Even dozens of hours in, you’ll notice little touches that make the game sing, like a tiny change in Niko’s expression during a cutscene or an incoming cell phone call making your car’s speakers buzz momentarily. The important thing is that after many years of frustrating missions, driving back home to save repeatedly, struggling with wonky physics, and dealing with farcical storylines, GTA IV has delivered a polished and almost fully renovated experience with a darker and more mature treatment of the subject matter.

Grand Theft Auto IV is not just a great GTA game, but a legitimately great game. Rockstar North has taken the series that defined the previous gaming generation and not only updated it to meet next-gen standards, but raised the bar for all subsequent open-world games.

Review by: Matt Keil