Grand Theft Auto IV descended on the game industry like a plague of locust and took up most of the gaming time most gamers on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have. But how does it hold up after almost a month of gameplay? Well, it finally got kicked out of the first spot on the Xbox Live top ten. In fact, it got kicked down all the way to number three.
That’s right, people have gone back to playing Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 on Xbox Live. With that, I think it’s a good point to start on the multiplayer side.
Essentially, multiplayer is a two trick pony. There’s free mode and cops n’ crooks, the games version of cops and robbers, and everything else really isn’t worth mentioning. Sure, there are races and deathmatches and other crap like that, but none of it is as fun as free mode or cops n’ crooks.
Cops n’ crooks is a relatively simple idea that turns out copious amounts of fun. There are two sides: the cops, and the crooks. The crooks have to escort their VIP to a getaway vehicle and the cops have to stop them. The catch is the cops can see the crooks on the radar but not where they are going. They also start out in a cop car. In most games, this would be a main online game mode, but in GTA it’s just one of many, although one of the only ones worth coming back to.
Free mode is free mode. Whatever fun you have by yourself in Liberty City can be replicated with your friends online. That’s where this mode shines the most: with friends. There is almost nothing like it in online multiplayer today. Just log on and mess around with your friends. Simple and highly effective.
Single player is also a bit of a mixed bag. Although the city is technically impressive and the story is compelling enough to push you along there are a few things that detract from game playing. The whole friends system is a nice concept and it’s wonderful to get the extras some of them offer for your friendship, I can’t stop the feeling that it gets annoying at times. When you’re about to do a mission or finishing a game session and going back to your safehouse to save they’ll call. If you don’t pick up it effects your relationship and you might lose some perks. And if you pick up and decline an offer to hang out it also hurts them.
The friends don’t call a lot, but towards the end you begin to rack up quite a stable of friends and it does get a bit annoying when they all start calling. On top of this there are quite a few girls that you can date, and they contact you even more frequently than your friends. Though this is all quite realistic in terms of appropriating time to handle all of your matters, I don’t think going too realistic is the best for Grand Theft Auto. It just begins to feel like too much at one point and you begin to do away with relationships altogether.
As I said, the main story is a compelling one of Niko Belic. I’d rather not spoil much of the story, but it’s a coming to America story at it’s core. Niko is probably one of the better characters in the franchise as he entertains with one liners throughout and is deep enough to care about. The other characters too, although not as deep, lend themselves to be cared about enough. The one complaint that could be said about the main story is that you’ll be doing what are essentially training missions for the first 50 + missions.
Getting around to those missions is quite a thrill with the new driving physics. It does feel a tad more realistic though it could ruin the fun for some as you can’t drive like a crazy madman as effectively. In fact, all the new physics are put to good use. Especially the “oh crap” moments where you’re blowing things to hades.
There’s plenty to do in Liberty City even if you don’t care for the story missions, and that’s what makes this game so great. Hell, that’s what has made this series great. The cornucopia of choices that you have in what you can do. You can play this game any way you like and extract as much fun as you can from this game. And that is what sets Grand Theft Auto apart from most other games.
Though the number of choices from San Andreas aren’t present, it’s a large enough choice to keep you occupied for at least two months.
Be warned however, as this splendid game is not without it’s limitations. Perfect this game is not. The combat system is pretty generic and both the auto aiming and aiming system leaves much to be desired. The cover system actually works very well and is the saving grace of any sort of combat, armed or unarmed, in this game. If you can bear that, you’ll love this game.
Score: 4 out of 5
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