Grand Theft Auto IV

What do you say about the game that’s been reviewed a thousand times? Especially when 90% of those reviews give it a perfect ten? There’s a pressure – to see in this game what all these other people are seeing, to play the same game they are playing. If, somehow, it doesn’t live up to it in your eyes, you begin to wonder if you’re missing something.
GTA IV is a complex, and important game. Almost every game in this series so far has felt like a technological leap further than we thought possible. Rockstar, for me, has acquired an identity as a development studio that is always reaching just a tiny bit beyond its grasp, always wanting more, and always almost getting it. This is by no means a bad thing; it’s the gaming equivalent of NASA going to the moon in the sixties - there are things that were achieved which, by all logical reasoning, shouldn’t have happened with the current technology. It wasn’t perfect, but they bloody well managed it anyway.

And that’s the feeling with GTA IV for me, more than ever. Here is a game that in so many ways surpasses all I’ve come to expect – but at the same time feels rushed in places, cobbled together in others. The result feels, as I said earlier, like this is a frontier; as if, in carving new territory, Rockstar have had to set up a shanty or two.
So let’s get down to business. Let’s start with the good points. Obviously, as has been said many a time before, the city really is an absolute marvel. The detail is insane, from the banana skins that fall out of toppled dustbins to the way each street feels unique. One thing that struck me was just how flat all the other open world environments now feel after playing this. The Liberty City of today feels as if it has real depth – looming overpasses, cobbled streets weaving over each other in a web of bridges and walls. It’s a simple thing, but it gives the whole place character and scale – as well as helping to differentiate the various boroughs. Just walking the streets is a pleasure that feels new to gaming in general – because for the first time, I feel like this could be a real place.

This attention to detail is ubiquitous. No matter how long and hard you search, you simply won’t find an area that feels out of place, or dull. And this applies to more than just the city. The story is also crafted with the same amount of care and skill.

When I put the controller down after finishing GTA IV’s story, I was genuinely speechless. It’s rare that a game can imitate the feel of a good movie, because the time spans involved are so different that usually by the end of a game, you’re less connected than you would be with a film which you have watched from beginning to end in one sitting. Here, though, is a master class in characterization and narrative in a video game. Niko is loveable, shocking, and tragic in equal measure. The people he meets range from downright hideous to similarly misunderstood and unfortunate – but all of them are extremely well realized and written.

And when it comes to the crunch times, you are handed the narrative reigns. Instead of just killing everyone, you occasionally have the option to walk away. Whilst at the beginning this feels a little like a novelty, it soon becomes an integral part of the experience. This is because whilst it does relate to the story – in a very significant manner – these decisions are more closely associated with Niko’s character development. In other words, by the end of the game, you feel significantly differently about him if you make certain decisions than if you had taken a different route. I, for example, felt as if he’d walked the road to redemption; others will have felt as if he’s a man who has lost his soul. I’ll not say any more, but needless to say it’s a refreshing and surprising change to see a game that has a bit of meat on the bone when it comes to narrative.

So those are the big winners in GTA IV. The environment, the story, and the characterization. Backing these real selling points up are the other details, which help to make the experience truly unique. But in discussing those, you will begin to see the game’s issues cropping up.

Firstly, there is the combat system. Gone are the days of previous GTA outings where you would stand at the end of a long road with the longest range weapon and just try to take people out, hoping they don’t hit you. Now there is depth to the system. Diving behind cover, blind firing, popping out for accurate shots – Niko is a decidedly more agile and intelligent creature to the CJs and Tommy Vercettis of the virtual world. There are moments of pure cinematic bliss in the fighting within this game – storming abandoned buildings, going on difficult assassination missions – these are the moments that stand out head and shoulders above the previous games in the series.

However, there are still issues. The lock on still feels as if it has no sense of priority sometimes, aiming at a distant guy with a machine gun rather than a closer nutcase with a rocket launcher. And the cover system, whilst a great addition, can feel clunky and inhibitive sometimes, making it difficult to run out when there is an opening, or clipping to the wrong side of a pillar – leaving you completely exposed. And so we find the first of our “shanties” on the frontier. In the end, the combat system is a wonderful thing; but the fact that this environment means that there are no perfectly organized set-piece corridors to fight down, that in fact anywhere and anything in the world can be used as a battle ground, means that there are a few glitches.

And this double sided approach applies to a great deal of the much promoted details of GTA IV. These things, designed to create a greater sense of immersion, do just that – and yet also serve to point out that this isn’t a real, living world at the same time. For example, the “internet” incorporated into the game is a great touch. Funny, well observed and pretty extensive, it’s an entertaining diversion. On the other hand, most of the sites are not really interactive – you can’t post pictures from your camera phone onto the GTA equivalents of myspace, for example (and, in fact, you can’t even create a profile). And so you end up feeling as if a lot of potential has been wasted, rather than acknowledging how great this thing is, that normally wouldn’t have even been there in the first place.

The same goes for the clothes shops – which are, individually, excellent. Browsing the racks of jackets and trousers feels natural and enjoyable; but there are only four of them in the whole of Liberty City, and two are identical. Then there are the fast food diners and restaurants – detailed and with the right atmosphere, but drive along almost any street and you’ll see an array of other food chains that you are never allowed to enter.

There’s the police computer, found in any cop car, which gives you a great many interesting things to do – ‘solve’ current crimes (kill the criminal is apparently the be all and end all of the American justice system), or track down each of the ten most wanted, for example. But jump in a taxi or ambulance, and all mini missions and side missions have been removed completely. No radio telling you to get to a fare, no medical emergencies. Nothing.

There are a lot of these double edged swords in GTA. Areas where they have gone the extra mile, but also serve to point out what could have been. The fact is, if these were never included, we would never have asked for them – but now that they have, we are. It all feels a little suspicious, really. As if we’ll suddenly see a load of shops open up in a convenient premium download.

So how do you score something like this? A game that gives you a taste of so many good things that you want more – so that your request is almost impossible to satisfy? Well, I’m going to remember that NASA analogy (stretched though it is). This is a game that has done so much more than it needed to. The core elements – the environment and story – are so well done that they warrant enormous praise on their own. But the fact that Rockstar have moved things forward in so many other areas, sometimes with ambition over-reaching reality, makes this a truly special experience.

For me, it all feels like a nine, purely because of so much unfulfilled potential. But that would be hideously unfair. The fact is, the bar has been raised so high that they only just scraped over it themselves; and even though it wobbles and looks as though it could tumble, well, it never really does. In the end, it’s easy to forget that they put it all the way up there in the first place, while everyone else was making the easy jump. So for that, Rockstar, you deserve a little extra.