Grand Theft Auto IV: From a Fanboy’s Perspective

Grand Theft Auto IV is the most difficult game you’ll ever play. I’m not talking about the mission difficulty, but the reluctance you will be having when it’s time to put down the controller after a game of Grand Theft Auto IV. Yes, it’s that fun.

So, as most of you noticed, I have taken a long one-week long break from updating the blog, but I’m back today with our own Grand Theft Auto IV review. As much as I’d like to make this article a spoiler-free one, I cannot pass a grade on this great masterpiece without first assessing the Story mode of Grand Theft Auto IV. So, here’s the review…

The Story - 10/10 - Superb Story, Witty Characters, Comedy & More Choices

Grand Theft Auto IV’s main character is Niko Bellic, a Serbian who fought in the war when he was young. Traumatized, he is a good guy forced into doing bad things by circumstances. He was betrayed by a soldier in his old army unit, being the one of the three to survive.

After the war, he dealt with several Eastern European smugglers. During one of these voyages, the ship unfortunately sunk. His business partner thought that it was Niko who betrayed him. Niko then left Serbia for Liberty City, where the fun begins…

So, the story starts from when Niko and his mother recieving letters and e-mails from his cousin Roman about the good life he has been living in Liberty City. Roman claimed that he had the women, fast cars and a luxury condominium, living the American Dream. Now, with smashed dreams and in hopes of finding new opportunity and “that Special Someone” who betrayed him back in Eastern Europe, Niko goes to Liberty City.

After Niko has arrived in Liberty City, he realises that things are very different from what it seems. His cousin is a poor bloke who owns a small apartment and runs a Taxi business in Hove Beach. Soon after, you realize Roman owes money to some Russian gangsters. You also get introduced to Roman’s girlfriend, Mallorie, and her friend Michelle.

The action starts when Niko fights these gangsters off. To avoid any trouble, the Russian gangster Vlad wants Niko Bellic to work for him, which you do. You work very closely with Roman, and almost everything centers around his debts. You then get introduced to Little Jacob, Roman’s Jamacian friend.

Soon after, Roman becomes aware that Mallorie has been cheating on him by going out with Vlad. Niko decides to go deal with him, but Vlad tries to run away. After which, you need to fight your way thorugh more armed Russian gangsters and chase down Vlad. Despite Roman’s reluctance, Vlad gets killed.

You continue to work with Little Jacob, but soon after, Roman and Niko gets kidnapped by Faustin, which was angry over the death of Vlad. Niko does some jobs for him but Dimitri, his assistant, orders you to kill Faustin later on to make peace with Petrovic, a dangerous gangster you’ll never meet.

Dimitri then betrays Niko after having realized that he was the one whom they thought betrayed Bulgarin, Niko’s business partner back in Serbia. Bulgarin is Dimitri’s new ally, which leads him to be Niko’s main enemy to fight off. Little Jacob helps Niko fight off Bulgarin and Dimitri’s men, but they managed to escape.

Roman’s Taxi Depot and apartment in Broker gets burnt down by Faustin, and they excape to Bohan. There, Mallorie, Roman’s girlfriend, helps you get an apartment and introduces you to Manny and Elizabeta. Roman also calls you to meet Brucie, which you do work for.

After running errands for Elizabeta and Manny, you get introduced to Packie McReary and Frankie McReary, which you later found out are brothers. You do some more work for the McReary brothers including a bank heist, and a point where you choose to kill between two McReary brothers.

Meanwhile, you also discover that your girlfriend, Michelle, is a government agent. Her boss, U.L. Paper, needs some work done, ad you run errands for him, which aids Niko in finding the man who betrayed him.

After doing many errands, you get a call about Florian Cravic’s whereabouts, one of the three survivors of his old army unit. It turns out that he was not a betrayer, and he is now homosexual. You do some work for him, and more for the rest of the McReary family. Ray Boccino, Phil Bell, Jimmy Pegorino and Jon Gravelli also has work for you. You also meet Kate McReary as your girlfriend.

Soon, you find out that Darko Brevic has been kidnapped and brought to Liberty City by your old associate, U.L. Paper. You get to choose to kill him or let him live, but the choice doesn’t affect much of the story. Jimmy Pegorino then asks you tot do a deal with Dimitri. At the same time, Roman is also about to get married with Mallorie.

Niko gets to choose to do the deal or take revenge against Dimitri. If you do the deal, Dimitri betrays you once more. He will turn up at Roman’s wedding and kill him. If you decide to go for revenge and kill Dimitri, Jimmy Pegorino will turn up at Roman’s wedding and kill Kate instead. In the end, Dimitri and Jimmy gets killed by Niko respectively in each ending.

As you can see from above, the story mode of Grand Theft Auto IV gives the player some choices, a somewhat new form of innovation Rockstar Games have given us. You can choose whether or now to kill some innocent (or not so innocent) people. The ending can also go two different ways, tragedy or not-so-bad tragedy. The cutscenes are full of humor, but do crank that speakers up and turn that subtitles on for the the maximum effect. Witty characters and superb voice actors makes this Grand Theft Auto experience the best ever yet. Better than Vice City.

Controls - 9/10 - Better and More Realistic Controls

The controls are solid and very effective when you get used to them. It certaintly feels natural shooting and driving with the Triggers. The controls don’t differ much in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, and they are mapped similarly to their respective buttons (and triggers).

However, the controls sometimes encounters glitches and bugs, which hampers the experience of playing Grand Theft Auto IV. The control scheme isn’t perfect, but it’s suited to both controllers effectively well. I have to give it a 9/10, because the controls are buggy sometimes.

Graphics - 10/10 - Believable and Breathtaking Views of the City

Everything in Liberty City looks great - the night view of Star Junction and the Algonquin Bridge is magnificent. The Dask and Dawn sunlight effects are just plain beautiful. Everything is made so beautiful and believable by the RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine) graphics engine.

The cars and mirrors also have real-time reflections, and everything in Liberty City is very detailed. There are potholes on the road, simple markings and parking lines. The floor is also littered with newspapers, cups and well… litter.

The road reflects light when it’s raining heavily, and the screen shows blood when you kill someone or are being shot at. The water drips down the camera when it’s raining. The pedestrian also carry umbrellas. Everything boasts of detail. The draw distance, immersive details and graphic filters are superb and believable, which I think it deserves a 10/10 score.

Physics - 10/10 - Euphoric to the core

The Physics of Grand Theft Auto IV is powered by the Euphoria Physics engine, one of the world’s best physics simulation engine for video games. Objects, Vehicles and Bodies now look realistic in motion. This is one of the major plus points for Grand Theft Auto IV, being a sandbox action-style video game.

Some of the really amazing and realistic simulation I’ve seen in the game is that you can actually barge through pedestrians by running through them and they will fall. It’s also very easy to get runned down by a car, fly through the car’s windscreen, or fall off a motorcycle and lose a big chunk of health

Grand Theft Auto IV has random physics and a realistic driving control - every vehicle handles differently and the walkng style and driving control changes with the terrain. Although what this amazing physics engine can do is limited by the game, a PC port of Grand Theft Auto IV would certainly expand the fun factor, if it ever comes out.

Gameplay - 9/10 - 200% Action-Packed Criminal Gameplay

The 90 story missions are scripted and designed very well, which allows for player choices. Kill this bitch or let her live? Go for the money or the man? No matter which choice you choose, the missions are full of action, crime, wit, humor and drama.

The side-missions are also more fun than in previous Grand Theft Auto games. The hidden packages, Taxi, Paramedic and Firefighter missions are gone and replaced with Races, Assasinations, Flying Rats (diseased pigeons, 200 of them to terminate), QUB3D (a fun arcade puzzle game!) and a little more exciting Vigilante missions.

You also get to go and hang out with friends and do some exciting activities such as Boating and going out for a Heli-ride. This version of Grand Theft Auto is much more exciting in gameplay than in any other previous ones too.

Also, the HUD is minimalistic and stuff like weapons and cash indicators and wanted levels only appear when you need them to. The clock can now be seen from your Mobile Phone, and it is much easier to travel around Liberty City now with the waypoint and GPS system. For those who were fustrated with other open-world driving games, this one is the best of them all.

Features - 10/10 - Surprising and Fun Features

The new features in Grand Theft Auto IV are great. They are fun to mess around with, and they’re also surprising. Well, for example we have the mobile phone, which is used for Multiplayer and cheats, as well as for mission purposes.

One of the many new features is the new cover and combat system. You press LB or L1 to cover behind objects. Any kind of objects: Cars, Walls, and all the sort. Shooting also gives you and over-the-shoulder view and an enhanced damage system. Everything is more realistic - for example, you (and your enemies alike) will have to take cover behind objects during combat, because just like in real life, a few shots can take a man down. To add to the fun, Grand Theft Auto IV has 15 weapons for you to choose from that are all suited for different occasions.

Also, there’s the wonders of the internet that we cannot forget. There are a few hundred webpages in Grand Theft Auto IV’s in-game internet, and there are lots of funny content in there. The guys at Rockstar Games really put in a lot of work into the webpages, and I must applaud them. There’s full of parody of the internet. Amazing stuff. The biggest feature, however, is the Multiplayer option, read about it under its own section.

Of course, there are a lot of other cool features too, like the ability to watch TV. Once again, there’s also lots of stuff in there, which really makes Liberty City feel like a real place. There are mission-specific features too, like the ability to cling off a helicopter and a truck or better still - calling the guy that needs to be killed to identify him. Very interesting features which I feel can be expanded.

Music/Audio - 10/10 - Superb Sound Quality, Best Selection of Music

Few hundereds of songs sit on the radio dial of Grand Theft Auto IV. All of them are amazingly, quality songs. There are big names such as DJ Green Lantern, Nas, Kanye West, Elton John and Busta Rhymes. But, there are also many indie artists which make good music. The 16 radio stations provide a wide selection of music which fit in very well with the games’ ambience.

The Audio is also in superb quality. You can almost feel the ambience of the city. The city sounds real and the cutscene audio is in perfect quality too. For example, you can walk out on the streets and hear a combination of sounds - radio blasting, cars honking, vehicle engines. Actually, it’s the only video game I’ve played with the most superb audio quality.

Cutscenes/Video FX/Animation - 9/10 - Realistic Facial Expressions and Animation

Occasionally, the animations in Grand Theft Auto IV encounters a glitch. Forgive them by all means, and you get superb animations in cutscenes and in the game while you’re on a mission or even driving or running down the street. However, if we forget the glitch, this should be 10/10, but the glitches can get annoying sometimes.

Also, if you’ve played the game, you should have realized that the facial expressions are rather realistic. You can see the emotions of the characters - Happy, Sad, Dissapointed, Angry, Surprised. All of these cool animations are fully realized with the help of Image Metrics. I really can’t help but praise it.

Multiplayer - 9/10 - The best video game that can played on Xbox LIVE or PSN

Grand Theft Auto IV includes the standard modes that you can find in any other multiplayer video game, but with a Grand Theft Auto twist to it. You select Multiplayer from the in-game Mobile Phone, and you can customize your character with a variety of clothing options.

The Multiplayer option expands on the story missions by including co-operative multiplayer missions, although they’re all Petrovic’s mission for each of these modes that you choose. They are repetitive, meaning that the mission structure is the same for the same multiplayer mode everytime you play. It might get boring after a while, but the race and deathmatch modes can make up for this.

The online multiplayer interface isn’t really user-friendly, but the rest of the experience comes from the people (or douchebags) you’re playing with. What’s bad though, is that you can’t play the mini-games such as Bowling, Darts, Pool or QUB3D with people online. Other than that, it’s the best video game you can play multiplayer with your friends on Xbox LIVE or PSN. We hope this goes onto the PC.

Setting/Location/Ambience - 10/10 - Liberty, anyone?

So, I left this to the last, to sum up everything. Grand Theft Auto IV has a great overall New-Yorkish ambience. The graphics, physics, controls, story, music, audio - everything contributed to the amazing ambience of the game.

Liberty City is a cool place, you can really have real fun in any part of the city and there’s really no limitation to the fun you can have. The In-Game TV shows, Radio Stations and Internet Websites are so vast that you cannot really ever get bored. Grand Theft Auto IV, trust me, is the best video game you will ever be able to play this year.

Grand Total Score: 96/100
Fun Factor - 11/10 - The ONLY Video Game you can play for a lifetime and it’s still fun

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