Fox's Review: Grand Theft Auto IV (360, PS3)

[Fusion]

So I will admit it here: I do play Grand Theft Auto, but not on the basis everybody would like to think.  In fact, I don't play Grand Theft Auto for the satirical story because it just tends to get boring.  This is the muchly hyped 4th entry into the series, only released recently, and has been given shining reviews by some of the most "reputable" of gaming reviewers (god forbid we see more reviewers get fired after the whole Kane & Lynch thing) to the point that it gets a bit sickening.

Instead of doing this review in a usual fashion of my own, I've decided that I'm going to point out all the things that are kinda boring and are otherwise stupid about the game just to list all the cons because I can't really be bothered to play through the actual storyline in favor of the sheer amount of mass genocide and destruction I can cause instead.  But with that said, let me get to my point.

In the story you play as Niko Bellic, an import from Europe who wants to escape his past, but his past follows him and you do the same thing you've done in every other Grand Theft Auto game the same way using the same methods and just, the same everything.  It gets kinda boring to see the story all samey, but where else can you really go?  I'd like to see a GTA game where you weren't a criminal but instead were a vigilante.  Now that would be an interesting take on Grand Theft Auto, because you'd actually have to control what you do.  The story does have a few good elements but unfortunately the one most useful addition is also one of the most repetitive features in the entire game.

The random vehicles return, only with even more variety than before.  They're all based on modern vehicles, going as far as looking like them, the Banshee looks like a Dodge Viper, the Corquette looks like, duhr, a Corvette (the name even sounds similar) and as well as your usual standard of common cars, muscle cars and the like.  What do I find problematic about this, though?  Not only is there not a flyable plane in the game, but there also isn't a tank.  I mean, part of the reason people played the Grand Theft Auto games was to spawn the tank and run rampant in the city laying everything to waste and this game is mysteriously lacking one of these behemoths.  Instead we get Helicopters.  That's right, just Helicopters as our aerial transports.  There's not even really anything fun to them, you pretty much have to have military-level piloting experience with an X-Box 360 controller to even hit anything with the guns mounted on it.

The cops are even easier to avoid this time around, and you could probably escape a full 6-star warning by just leaving the circle and hiding out for a while while the cops eventually gave up everything about hunting you down, kinda like Metal Gear Solid where you could assassinate 15 people and eventually they'd just stop looking for you entirely.  That's the level you can avoid people at in this game.

As far as the cheats go, while the method of entering them has changed a bit, I've noted that some of the more fun cheats are also gone, such as giving pedestrians weapons and making them riot.  Let's not forget spawning the tank, I loved that as well.  Why DID Rockstar take out some of the fun experiments we could do?  Let's hope they're brought back with the upcoming DLC.  I wanna see Liberty City turn into a war zone again.

The multiplayer component isn't actually all that bad, the game gives you brief descriptions of all the modes you can play though the only ones I'm interested in are Deathmatch and Free Roam.  Even then, some people think Free Roam is Deathmatch, and the weapons feel so horribly unbalanced in gameplay because even if you get an assault rifle with full health and armor, you can still get your ass kicked by someone armed with a pistol.  You don't even really get to see if your bullets hit anything, it's like there's random accuracy at work.  The Auto-aiming and the radar take all the fun out of trying to locate someone hidden in a clever spot because they will always be just there no matter what.  I could appreciate it more if there could be an element of surprise.

As far as the weapons go, I'm not too impressed with the lineup they gave us.  We've got our fists and in place of our usual bat or golf club or sword we've got a damn knife that's even more useless than the fists.  You've got your standard bullet-firing weapons all over the place, grenades and rocket launcher... THough there's something missing.  There's no Molotov, no Flamethrower, or for that matter any real variety beyond the very basics! 

The graphics I'm simply not up to review because to be quite honest there's nothing fun about looking at the "most realistic picture ever" because I get enough realism by just looking out my window.  Impressive effects like actual water reflections that don't look too much more realistic than what the Source Engine could pull off but everything else seems a bit cut and dry, and some of the models suffer from the bad lighting case known as "Plastic Syndrome".

To add to my list of gripes is the new car camera angle system.  What exactly was wrong with the previous system?  Why did we need to keep the player centered in the camera while we were in the car?  Why doesn't the camera actually do shit on it's own unless we're moving forward?  I'd like to see where I was turning, after all.  THe fact that none of the camera angles do anything to fix this is beyond me, and if you really wanted realism I'd so much sooner want them to give us a first-person in-car camera so we can see all this crap from our character's eyes.  That would be far more realistic than the stupid way the camera is now.

Flame me all you like, but I don't think GTA4 is the revolution it claimed itself to be.  It's not any better on the PS3 and it never will be because they are the same game.

[DMK]

Actualy they have Molotov cocktails. You can buy them in the weapons shop and there is even a set of them under the little hallways where you kill Roman's first loan shark.

Far as the story goes I like it. Taking someones life into your hands feels great and some near the end really change how the story goes.

Good review, pretty fair and what I was kinda expecting from hired reviewers around the gaming community.

[Jesuszilla]

I don't think the story is boring at all. Like GTA3 (and to an extent, LCS), the storyline is pretty unpredictable. I had no idea who would screw me over or who I would have to kill later on. San Andreas was fucking predictable as HELL. Not to mention I think it's rather interesting that you get to have a choice of who to kill.

However, I would like to know what has happened to characters in the previous games such as Claude Speed, Tony Cipriani, Maria, Tommy Vercetti, CJ, etc. despite official statements from Dan Houser that many of the characters from the previous games are indeed dead before GTAIV. While I have heard that there is graffiti that says "R.I.P. (name of a character from a previous GTA)" I have yet to see any.

Oh, and what happened to Donald Love? What was in that package he had you pick up in that final mission you did for him? Where did he disappear to? What happened to his business empire? And more importantly, HOW THE FUCK DID LIBERTY CITY NEARLY QUADRUPLE IN SIZE AND TOTALLY CHANGE ITS WHOLE FUCKING CITY PLANS IN A PERIOD OF 7 YEARS?! If it were here in the South, MAYBE I'd understand since we're close to the border, but Liberty City is in fucking NEW YORK, not to mention that Dallas is still how I fucking remember it 7 years ago. Let's not forget that motorcycles are back, but the Liberty City Stories instruction book said that they were planning to ban motorcycles in Liberty City, which as we can see probably did happen since they were not present in GTA3 which gave an excuse for that. So was that law revoked? Maybe some of these explanations are in the ENCLOSED INSTRUCTION BOOK, but I won't bother to check just yet.

As for the cops, I dunno. That one mission where you had to block off the tunnel with a truck and steal the van I had to retry because the cops would not get off my ass the first time around. That was with a mere three stars, too. You're also forgetting how going into a Pay 'N' Spray won't simply do it anymore because if the cops see you going in, you're still wanted.

I personally think we were lacking in weapons too, but I like the improved combat system (save for fist fighting, dear god what the fuck were they thinking?), as well as the ability to throw grenades out of cars.

Speaking of cars, the new car handling system takes a while to get used to, but hey, this is one of the funnest games I have ever played, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. It also managed to do what not many games have done before: make people who particularly disliked the series like it. My friends were not too particularly fond of the previous GTA games, but this one they love just as much as Halo 3, and they are HUGE fans of Halo (competing in tournaments, LAN parties, etc.).


I never thought GTA and multiplayer would work, but this game managed to prove me wrong. It's fucking FUN playing with other people. I know GTA has always been single player-oriented, but this just adds to the fun you can have after completing storyline missions.

[Fusion]

One thing I'd like to add to my list of complaints is the random accuracy of guns.  Sometimes you'll hit every shot and sometimes you won't hit the broad side of a barn to save your life.  That and, somehow, the Uzi and that other handheld machine gun seem so broken.  At least the Sniper Rifle behaves reasonably well, unlike every other game where the sniper round is fast enough to break the sound barrier.  I actually got a few headshots.

[DMK]

I admit most guns are broken and headshots are too easy to pull off.

Crouching + handgun + pushing up on the joystick = God tier

Cops are fairly smart this time around and manuever their cars like Gods. Plenty of times higher wanted level missons go down so fast just due to them hiting my car and knowing when to pull out in front of you in time to fuck over your getaway.  >:(

I have my good times and bad times with the car system. The new e-brake feels crazy and the reguler brake doesn't seem to do it enough even with slower speeds. Not gripeing with it as it easy to get used too, but it can be tweeked for the better if you ask me.

As for cannon characters disspearing and no real word on why LC changed so much in a short amount of time pisses me off as well Jesuszilla. usualy they have cameos or are mentioned in one way or another threw out the games or heck, even show up for a misson or two, but so far nada. Not a single misson has had a nod to Claude, the original familys(at least from what I remember) or any past GTA main characters. Of course Lazlo is there and mentions Vice City mutiple times, but thats really it. In the past even San Andreas made references to Claude. So as far as that goes I'm displeased, but not angerd to the point I hate what they did.

Perhaps once this extra stories and etc are released they will dive into what happened to them and not just be a silly waste of money for stuff they could of easily included in-game. Like cloths, cars, tanks, and especialy more weapons as Matsuda pointed out with a few examples.

[K.O.D]

In the past even San Andreas made references to Claude.

Not merely references but it was a mini prequel to how he met catalina and you had to race against him (and catalina would later betray him in GTA3)

[Jesuszilla]

Well, if you chose to kill Playboy X, you apparently get Claude's outfit after browsing through clothes there. Now what was Claude's outfit doing at Playboy's place? I thought about it, and my idea of what happened to Claude makes sense.


At the end of GTA3, the last safehouse Claude gets is in the projects. That particular establishment is pretty damn similar to where Dwayne lives. My guess is either Playboy or Dwayne, most likely Playboy, killed Claude. I seriously doubt Rockstar put Claude's outfit in that particular spot just for fun. There has to be some reasoning behind it.

[DMK]

Not merely references but it was a mini prequel to how he met catalina and you had to race against him (and catalina would later betray him in GTA3)

Awe yes. I was re-playing SA before GTA4 came out, but I never made it back to that point. Also remember now Donald Love being in it as well....quite a few characters actualy. Like that one army dude who supplied you weapons and etc was in SA as well...

Well, if you chose to kill Playboy X, you apparently get Claude's outfit after browsing through clothes there. Now what was Claude's outfit doing at Playboy's place? I thought about it, and my idea of what happened to Claude makes sense.


At the end of GTA3, the last safehouse Claude gets is in the projects. That particular establishment is pretty damn similar to where Dwayne lives. My guess is either Playboy or Dwayne, most likely Playboy, killed Claude. I seriously doubt Rockstar put Claude's outfit in that particular spot just for fun. There has to be some reasoning behind it.

That does sound rather interesting and fits pretty well. I'll have too look threw the cloths at his place to see if its true.

[Jesuszilla]

Donald Love wasn't in SA. Only GTA3, VC, and LCS.

[DMK]

Bah. I figured I was wrong about the SA one.

It does go too show they have at least one character that stretchs out between each release.

Haven't played VCS yet. Not sure whos in that other then Lance from VC.

[Jesuszilla]

Victor Vance, who is Lance's brother that was killed in the intro to Vice City.