For many a gamer the name Grand theft auto (GTA from here on out) brings about a sense of euphoria that no other game can match and let’s face it many have tried to best this beast of a series.

Now from my opening statement you may think that I myself am a GTA fan well let me start off by saying I'm not, I have previously dabbled into the gritty world of GTA but not since GTA 3 have I even attempted to play this series in its entirety.

For me, GTA 3 was the best 3D version of GTA. I found Vice City too bright and the less said about San Andreas the better. The difference between GTA 3 and the other two games is simple...the names. GTA 3 was the next real GTA after the 2D originals whilst GTA Vice City and San Andreas simply felt like they were playing with the tried and tested formula that was established in GTA 3. All this may sound like I am simply ranting but I do have a point here that the title of this game has given me high expectations of this series as a true sequel with a promise to deliver a drastic step change from GTA 3.

The name GTA IV says to the casual GTA gamer that the next true GTA is here and that alone will sell it by the bucket load to said GTA gamer in a hype machine that could even challenge Microsoft’s Halo 3 last year.

So GTA IV, is it any good?

Well let’s start positive, yes it is good, very good in fact. From the moment you first step off the boat you will find yourself falling in love with Liberty City. The city is huge. Just running around the first few areas you come to can be a daunting task (I have gotten lost on more than one occasion) but the game does a really good job of easing you into its world. Nothing is thrown at you and the process of learning how the city works is given to you in stages, heck I didn't see a paint shop until 1-2 hours in at least. Using this method to show the world to the player allows for a smooth and steady difficulty curve that will please both old and new players alike.

My only major criticism for this entire game is the camera and controls. Whilst still feeling like previous GTA games, the controls feel a little heavier than before. As an example, cars don’t turn how you might expect them to causing a fair few crashes, the same is true of the camera system, which tries to give the best view but sometimes it struggles to keep up with the on-screen action as well as you'd expect. Again, as with any other GTA game, it makes you play its own way not yours! After a few hours with it most of your gripes with camera and control will disappear although it’s frustrating that it takes this long to adapt to the controls. Overall, the controls could have done with a little more refining and the physics behind them a little more intuitive.

Once into the City you will find your usual GTA setup. You will quickly introduced to your Safe House, mission icons, a few cars and a Cell-Phone...wait a phone? You might say “well that's been done before”, but what you may not realise is that the phone is one of your main allies. Everything from new missions to setting up a date with a lady-friend in-game can be done from this device. A great example is that one mission requires you to steal a Cop car, now you could go looking for said car or instead call the Police yourself and have a car sent to your location (quickly followed by running like mad from other Cops), it is old features like these that have been brought right up-to-date in this game. It’s good that Rockstar have brought some of the last-gen gameplay mechanics and expanded on them to bring the game up to scratch in the HD Era.

Overall, GTA IV is a very complete and tight package. You get all of the standard GTA gameplay plus a multitude of extra tasks you can do in your own time. Some extras we have seen before such as driving a cab or doing odd jobs but this game adds a lot more game extras and mini games such as: -

Darts
Pool
See a show
Bowling

There may be more but I have yet to see them yet, but still as side attractions each one is integrated great into the main game with some even being used within actual missions (e.g. First date, play it you'll see).

At this point you’re probably saying to yourself "talking about the city is all well and good but what about the characters"? Let me be one of the first to say that I actually love the new main characters in this game. The man you will spend your time in Liberty City with is a man called Niko Bellic, a fresh off the boat, ex navy, war veteran from Russia with an incredibly troubled back-story. Niko is a very honest guy arriving in America under a false dream of grandeur and riches which has been sold to him by his Cousin Roman. As with previous GTA games the game starts off small but quickly ramps up thrusting Niko and co. into more dangerous situations. Alongside Niko is a great cast of characters ranging from Mob-bosses right down to the lowest of the low and each character is voiced perfectly and I really mean that the voice acting is spot on. Rockstar has pulled no punches in the script and the action that accompanies on screen. The game can be quite bloody in places (about an hour or two in you'll see what I mean) but it all just adds to the atmosphere created by the games designers, it definitely deserves it's 18+/M rating. To add to this atmosphere we also have Rockstar’s trademark “sounds of the city”, all of the sounds you expected to hear from a GTA game are here from people screaming, cops chasing crooks, car crashes and of course the usual GTA radio stations each one more offensive than the last. In addition to the radio, Rockstar has also added a TV in your Safe House. I found this to be an excellent feature and allows the player to just sit and soak up the culture of Liberty City, everything from talk shows to comedy the TV has it all.

So with a huge city to roam around, a great cast of characters and a plethora of side-stuff to do we must ask the inevitable question: do the graphics meet the expected HD standards set by games in the last year? The answer is a yes and no. It is true that this is a great leap forward from what we last saw in San Andreas, the graphics are solid and the framerate rarely dips, but to compensate for all this it still feels like there is an over-usage of bloom lighting and blurring effects in place. Not to say it doesn’t look good I just occasionally find these effects to be in your face at times. Effects aside, the game is solid with little pop-up and great draw-distance, it definitely has that distinctive GTA look and feel down to a T. Speaking of the GTA look, all of the game menus reflect that old GTA feel to them, the pause menu is just a black screen showing maps and options, no background picture just what is needed and this “just what is needed” feel is reflected in-game as too with your HUD taking up minimal space on screen allowing you to focus on the action rather than the stats. The overall production value of the game is one of quality, from the sounds of the city to the look and feel of the characters everything screams that Rockstar still love GTA and they want you to love it too.

Well with all that said how can we sum up the experience that is GTA IV? Well....solid a very full package that eases you into its world and then drags you down into the depths of it, you can literally spend hours upon hours in here just finding ways to have fun and of course the fun you have is down to each player and their course through the game. From the view of a casual GTA gamer I can say I'm very pleased with what Rockstar has created and I'm sure every fan and newcomer alike will be too.

Pie scale score: Cornish pasty with lashings of Heinz Ketchup.





Article By: Chris Nelson