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Review : Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

Last week the hands down biggest game of the year came out. Grand Theft Auto IV is the first true sequel to Grand Theft Auto III and is a game that is not rivaled in ambition or execution. Built from scratch for Xbox 360 and PS3 it blows away all previous GTA game in scope and scale.

The story follows Niko Bellic a Serbian veteran of the Yugoslavian civil war who came to Liberty City to meet up with his cousin Roman. Roman is a screw up who has gotten fat, lazy and in debt with various organized crime groups. Niko is quickly drawn into the criminal underworld and has to do the dirty work of the gangsters and eventually take them on and take them out. Unlike other GTA protagonists Niko is pretty personable and the story is truly compelling.

The graphics are a massive step beyond previous GTA games and previous GTA like games on the Xbox 360. I did like Saints Row and I absolutely loved Crackdown but now that GTA IV is out I don't see myself spending my time to go back and play them when I can now play GTA IV.

The gameplay is a pretty decent evolution of previous GTA games. There is new enhanced driving and shooting game play mechanics but anyone that has played GTA games should have no problem picking up and getting a hold of GTA IV. It takes criminal violence and action to new grounds.

Instead of some period setting in the past the game is back in Liberty City. This iteration of Liberty City is not just roughly based on New York but the hard work of the Rockstar New York offices has raised the representation of the city to a whole new level that has never been seen in video games. It is not a street by street clone but it looks smells and feels like New York. It is an extremely impressive work of graphic art. It has been reported to be the most expensive video game to develop at around a budget of 100 Million. There was a pretty good size army of animators and programmers working on this game for a very long time and it shows in a big way.

It is not all just criminal villainy but there is a new dating sub-plot where Niko must take a girl out to dinner, a show, playing pool or bowling. The impressively rich mini-games could very well hold their own as XBLA arcade games. When you end your date you can try and get a kiss or press your luck and try to spend the night. When you do manage to get lucky with the lady the Xbox 360 achievement is called Warm Coffee is a nod to the make out minigame that got accidentally included in GTA San Andreas and generated a lot of controversy.

The music and radio stations are probably the weakest part of the game. I found the music of GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas is much more notable. There is tons of stuff to listen to but the tracks are not as bitchin as the other games. The voice acting is really top notch. Ricky Gervais and Wil Wheaton were contributing actors for the TV programs. The dialog is well done. The writing is genuinely funny and I found myself chuckling along.

This game integrates simulated cell phone and in game Internet use that is really innovative. Liberty City does not just look like a breathing city is communicates like one. Niko with send and receive calls and messages as he carries out is dirty work.

This is the first console GTA game to have Internet multiplayer. There was Ad-hoc in-room multiplayer with the GTA PSP games. Last night my pal BBQ and I had a pretty good time in a multiplayer death match with a bunch of other virtual gangsters over Xbox Live.

This was the first GTA game to be released on both PlayStation and Xbox on the same day but there were a number of differences between the version of game. Microsoft has secured the exclusive rights to extra downloadable episodes. The PS3 version requires a nine minute install that takes several gigs of hard drive space and has a corruption file save glitch that causes random lockups. That is not so good for Sony since they really needed this game to help sell the PS3.

This game is not for kids. If you let your kids play this game than you suck as a parent, pure and simple. The games writing is extremely self-aware of the controversies and reputation of the previous games. It is unapologetic in it's content but it is not as bloody as other games on the market. I completely agree that kids should be protected from content that is inappropriate for them. There is millions of gamers all over the world that are over 18 and I don't want the medium of video games to be regulated and censored to the point of blandness.

I don't think that government regulation of video games in other countries has been effective. I have a reader of my blog who lives in the UAE (hey Monkey! I see they just banned GTA IV in UAE. Now you would never ever think of defying the goverment ban and order a copy over the net would you?) and while they have banned Call of Duty 4 and God of War it is readily available played and enjoyed by gamers. Just because something is regulated and banned by the government doesn't mean that it does not exist. You can't buy Gears of War, Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 or River Raid for the Atari 2600 in Germany but I would hardly call Germany a bastion of family friendly media. Of course I played Mortal Kombat and Night Trap for the Sega CD and my mind was warped by it. You can go ask Joe Lieberman and Jack Thompson to confirm the extent of mind-warping power of casual exposure to Night Trap.

If you love video games, own an Xbox 360 or PS3 and are old enough to buy a six pack of beer than there is no real reason to not get copy of this game. The game was worth the wait that Rockstar needed to polish the game it its shine. It lives up to the immense expectations and lives up to every single word of the hype.

Jake at May 5, 2008 Reviews

Comments

Posted by: pete at May 5, 2008 7:07 PM

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