Review – Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
- Ethan Cole
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RUNDOWN
Liberty City, some déjà vu lite, the city: familiar, but much has changed since the last few visits. Now; as Niko Bellic; hit the shores in the land of opportunity and such. Take the odd job; branching out; building connections to find the people that fucked him over by way of: shooting stuff, jacking cars and crashing a lot… and then some, in a city that never sleeps.
STORY
In this outing the player follows Niko in a well written and scripted story, which is easily the best of the series, and tops a number of Hollywood movies and TV shows. It makes sense why Lazlow mentioned The Wire, as GTA IV reflects on similar themes and cyclical elements; the old generation VS the new generation; the changing rules in the game and commerce and the device of betrayal.
The element of choice introduced into the game isn’t some tacked on device that only has bearing on a generic outcome, rather; these are actual choices derived from an investment in the characters; that feel real and have proper personality. As a result some of the choices require some thought, though only a few of them are pivotal to the greater outcome of the story. It’s these elements that elevate the title beyond just another open world title, complete with solid voice acting.
Complimenting these choices is Niko’s evolution, often times his sentiment will inform the choice of the player – a testament to characterization. The player at times may sympathize and decide “this is what Niko would do in this situation”. Additionally his character bears an interesting background, as well as expressing a specific outlook that motivates him and his responses to different situations; exuding appropriate humor and or menace. This is also evident in his replies to e-mails, as there is many a game that loses the character when it comes to text. One minor thing is it would’ve been nice to hear him swear in his native tongue initially and then progress to swearing in English.
Supporting characters too; are well written. Thus even minor characters or random ‘friends’ on the street have personality and further imbued with some form of back story (which they like to fill you in on). Even some of the more annoying characters provide some use if not light amusement.
The main story takes roughly 30~35 hours to complete, with some events being specific to time of day or after a certain amount of time has passed. The endings however, may leave some disappointed as it leaves a few loose ends and isn’t as dramatically fulfilling as one might expect. It is fairly expected given the preceding events and the characters reactions are appropriate; in some respects paralleling that of the player’s, but it lacks a satisfactory sense of closure. Needless to say it’s something that will no doubt raise questions regarding DLC on the internets… have fun.
PRESENTATION/GRAPHICS
The PS3’s mandatory install activates upon loading the game; music plays and a slideshow of 6 images loops; which is also standard loading screen upon successive boots. The game’s title sequence is fantastic and rivals many films (when they actually bother to have opening titles). Complete with great shots and excellent pacing. The inclusion of a Thai hooker was amusing, though despite the line being delivered by a Thai person (yeah… I sat through the credits) the dialog sounded a bit forced.
The city has changed a fair amount since some players may have last visited, with some areas that feel distinctly familiar, but one’s bearings don’t quite add up the direction in memory; giving a greater sense of urban evolution; the sprawling growth and development of a metropolis. Whilst there’s a whole lot more available; there’s also a fair bunch less than one might expect to do in Liberty City. There’s range of mini games like bowling, darts, pool etc, as well as TV shows and entertainment venues to check out; consisting of two strip joints, a comedy club and a cabaret place. The latter is home to some wtf-ness such as a cowboy-mime (no bareback), juggling, questionable magic tric… illusions (sorry GOB) and some weird looking Zatanna dressed singer.
TV shows are now available for viewing but no porn channels are available, although one instance of static unclear images passing for porn is evident in a story related event. The shows are mostly amusing, including previews of the Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams stand up routines. It’s a nice production touch utilizing low poly models to convey the shittier-looking types of real TV. It’s a nice addition which expands upon the radio elements, and they get props for the felching reference in one of the reality TV show spoofs. Given all the shows available, it’s surprising there wasn’t Liberty City Survivor, unless they’re saving this as some special DLC. Could almost be a whole set of its own where Niko participates akin to Liberty City Stories.
The camera seems to be the a step up from the one in San Andreas – bearing with it some annoyances where it tends to op for the best composition or most cinematic in presentation, therefore the fucking thing tends to jam up the ass of the car when reversing instead of pulling back to see what’s going on; much like the standard views that are evident in games such as Burnout: the cinematic vehicular ass-shot.
The cinematic camera and adjustable slow-mo looks great, particularly the camera shake on long shots, not to mention there’s something cool about the camera locked off behind the flashing lights of a cop car with the roof fired up; sirens blaring. However, the mapping of the quick-cinematic camera button to the same one that rejects a phone call can prove to be a minor nuisance.
One thing that becomes apparent with early on is the dodgy framerate which is evident as soon as the motion blur kicks in or some visual effects/particle/physics elements are in play. Regardless the visuals are impressive and appropriately cinematic particularly the depth of field, especially at night where distant cars and lights reduced to blurry blinking orbs. The weather effects look great, in particular the fog and rain. To the latter Niko will react by putting his palm out and looking up to the sky, a nice touch. These are complimented by a greater range in the color palette permeating through times of day, different districts and weather elements. From the yellow flames of the power plants contrasted against the black of night, to the soft-shadows look fantastic; a cool blue to the warm surrounds.
The internets is well implemented – capturing that nineties style with some modern flourishes minus the pop-ups and ads, but there’s always spam. The conspiracy styled site with maps and other useful bits of information is a nice touch. No need for the real internet for someone to post their own maps.
The hooker banging is kind of amusing with the head bobbing – that is unless you live in Australia, but in the words of Magnus: no one cares about you. So they’re irrelevant and maybe still bitter about that Australian-American war. Crikey! Typically you cans still Jack the Ripper them, with some added Euphoria bonus – sure some of you may get sticky controllers from strip clubs and the available private booth lap dances {insert sex-axis joke here if bothered}.
Perhaps one of the most amusing elements of NPC behavior is when they’re shot they don’t always die immediately, with some of them even trying to give lame excuses of why you shouldn’t shoot them – which as we all know is like an invitation to execute them.
The city is brimming with life and activity, just about the closest incarnation to a real city; complete with the ambience and metropolitan elements and districts. However a minor peculiarity is not being able to enter some buildings, especially pizza stores – with health being available from burger chains, diners and hotdog stalls (just be sure not to crash into the latter).
There’s a lot to do; enough to keep stoners and some other drug abusers amused with the assorted mini-games – which is good why waste money on some PSN/XBLA game. To some degree, it’s almost like there should be more content, particularly taking into account the Bluray capacity; so perhaps, this is due to the limits of the Xbox 360 DVD. The radio shows for one seeming a bit short – not helped by a lack of custom playlist in this run.
Magnus: obiwa… 360 is holding me back
Ethan: DLC bitches! Buy more missions!
The much hyped Euphoria engine provides much in the way of enhancing the immersion, but it’s something that will be taken for granted by some, and obsessed over by others – both are reasonable given they’re seamless and natural. The most apparent feature is the inertial effects on display – some almost throwaway effects such as the effects of inertia on the passengers in cars; all without seatbelts; at the right speed and right force propelling them through windshields. As far as physics are concerned it’s the next logical step up from ragdoll, and thankfully there aren’t any real ‘puzzle’ style elements that arethere solely to show off the physics that we’re accustomed to seeing in other games. Rather, they’re implemented with more subtlety to enhance gameplay and the action set pieces. Further elements that add to the immersion are things such as stepping on heads of fallen enemies, reacting to each step when walking up a staircase, reacting to point of impact or characters hanging on to the vehicle. As for vehicles; it adds a great deal to the visual performance; from the dampening to the over steer; the vehicle rocking back and forth in accordance with the suspension. From the cinematic camera these features are more apparent and look fantastic.
Given the amount of crashing and the byproduct of vehicle based mayhem, cars visibly take on damage in both subtle and massive ways; through minor decal scrapes to the crush/scrunch. Vehicles take more damage before catching fire and eventually exploding. The explosions themselves are pretty satisfying (both the visuals and the audio). Additionally, if the vehicles take too much damage they won’t always catch fire, but will stall – Niko yelling as he tries to get the engine to turn over.
The character model’s expressive facial features effectively enhance the nuance of the lines delivered; therein augmenting the comedy – now less cartoony in its movements. The motion capture work pays off, as its overall more natural, rather than utilizing over exaggerated gestures as compensation.
There aren’t any military bases present in Liberty City, nor are there any tanks – the nearest are the helicopter gunships available at police stations and the airfield. And whilst there aren’t any hidden packages to find yielding ammo/weaponry delivered to the safe house, there are weapons and clothes scattered about the city to be found. A fair range of clothes are available for those who want to accessorize, in some instances adding a degree of amusement such as a Hitman looking suit and there’s something fun about running about in a pair of bloodied scrubs – I am Dr. Death; massacre is my art… or something. The clothes become blood stained from injuries.
GAMEPLAY
The mobile phone is as much an integral element to the game as it is to modern life; as such there are certain features that are initiated directly though the phone; effectively it’s a mini-activity hub of sorts. The device itself can be customized to a certain degree, changing ringtones or shit like purchasing them… which is fine in game since its not real money (which there’s a lot of; easy to have lots of cash left over). Additionally you can call 911, get Cops, Fire Dept, or the Paramedics. The latter however are pretty much useless if you’re trying to be a good Samaritan, in which they ignored three dying police officers and one civilian (but the yuppie prick had it coming).
Whilst it’s cool that phone numbers can be manually dialed, it’s almost unacceptable that certain numbers (such as Serrated Edge) don’t work, they could at least have included some answering service message, as opposed to restricting the call by the numbers exceeding the accepted input.
The ZiT! phone feature; the song you’re listening to is identified by recording a bit of the track is well implemented in an amusing and effective manner, a nice gimmick that doesn’t break the immersion with something popping up on in the HUD, rather informs the player via SMS, which is also convenient since it allows you to copy the name down at your convenience… and [legally] download it later.
The GPS is solid, with the option of a custom destination marker – a feature no open world game should be without. Some vehicles now come with a talking GPS guide, adding to this realism the GPS calculates routes based on the proper routes of travel, so it won’t get you to drive the wrong way down one-way streets, but may guide you to make a U-turn at some point.
The new aiming mechanics for the most part well implemented and easily the best of the console incarnations. The new auto aim system being effective, but having to half-hold the trigger for free aim is on the dodgy side. Whist this could be due in part to the six-axis trigger buttons, it’s also unlikely the player will half-hold the trigger button to free aim in the middle of intense fire-fights.
An issue that arises with this shooting-mechanic is the inability to switch Niko over screen-left/right; pretty much standard for most third person shooters now. Which means more often than not he’ll be shooting straight into a wall in a few given instances where the cover-mechanic is used. It’s not quite as smooth as it could be, despite being able to stick to just about any surface for cover. The movement from cover to cover can be a bit sticky (maybe worse for those of you and your virtual Liberty City Strip Club loving) whether it’s sliding or switching. Regardless it’s possible to hop out of a car and use the doors or the actual vehicle as cover (as bullets don’t penetrate). When not in cover, rolling to avoid being shot is possible – a nice and effective feature.
It’s almost as if someone thought that the Euphoria physics was something that wouldn’t be recognized and seen by all gamers, thus they decided to make a majority of the cars absolute shit to drive. “There we go, the cars crash into every mother fucking thing in sight, behold that brilliance”. The vehicle handling is perhaps the most fickle, and therefore; the most annoying of the recent GTA titles. Varying degrees of handling is one thing, but when most of the cars available wont make the fucking turns; it takes away from the enjoyment of the game. Especially when it’s called ‘grand theft auto’ implying vehicles… A lot of the sequences would be more fun than tedious were it not for the handling; one such instance involves chasing a train – holding promise, particularly with the chase cam, however being stuck in a shit car can kill the mission, where learning the route takes away some of the excitement, and upon compounding with abundant crashes it equates to frustration; at times tainted by framerate slowdowns.
This time around motorcycles are even more fickle to control than they were in previous titles – more prone to spinning out of control and flipping over. Thankfully the controls for the helicopters are still pretty much the same. Unless the Sixaxis is used – in theory this would be a comfortable alternative, given the likes of Warhawk, this isn’t thecase. Further the controls for the helicopter gunship are cumbersome; given the square button (as all other buttons are utilized) is used for firing the guns. It also tends to be worse in so far as depth can’t be judged accurately – particularly when flying over water at night.
The Sixaxis control, oddly, seems to be the most effective with motorcycles. There is however, a fairly steep learning curve; in so far as it takes some time to acclimatize to the foreign action of moving the controller about like a spaz. The ‘Sixaxis tutorial’ can be accessed at anytime via the mobile phone menu (also a quick way to get to the airport).
The driving control issues tend to be exacerbated by the fact that a majority of the time you’re just thrown into the situation “ite bitch, now see if you can drive this vehicle which you probably haven’t tried yet… What training? This is your fucking training”. Whilst the car handling has never been the tightest in GTA, at least in the past vehicles would at actually fucking turn when they’re supposed to. This factor is worsened by the already dodgy framerate – which as we all know; is ok, because the game does and offers so much that we should be looking past it. Not to mention it’s something familiar from previous titles. Well fuck you. I’d rather have had a title with less mini-games (that have no real bearing on the actual story) and a more solid framerate.
The best missions tend to be the multi-tiered ones, in particular the bank robbery (an excellent sequence), but unfortunately marred in this player’s experience where the ally AI decided to switch off; standing there like a bunch of retarded twats. The game, in its friendly way not noticing this, kept sending an onslaught of cops after us –only for me to have to gun them down and raise the wanted level higher. Rather than restarting the whole damn mission; I headed for the waypoint. Meanwhile, the game kindly informed me that I’d left the two fuck-heads behind. Thankfully they weren’t too shot up by the time I returned… and it was more luck than anything (technically it’s more that I spent all the cash on a healthy cache of weaponry) had a bunch of RPG ammo handy.
A number of these sequences and missions almost feel like partaking in an action movie, particularly with chases. However the camera and controls tend to sully the experience. Alternatively there are more on foot/shooting sequences that bear this positive heightened element through some subtle scripting, such as the distant chimes of a church bell after an execution.
In previous titles, the protagonist would usually grab the door handle and pull on it, or the door would be unlocked. The same is still apparent for cars being driven, except now, characters may still hold on to the handle whilst the car is moving; dragged along until eventually losing grip, falling off, and probably ran over. A cool element added to the car jacking is the smashing of windows – as he’s not walking around with a Slim Jim or a Lemon Pop. Though he’s not using a dent-puller either, mashing the accelerator button will determine how fast the car is hotwired. The reward for vehicle theft is determined by the condition, with even the most superficial of scratches devaluing the price. Depending on the weapon carried, will determine how Niko smashes the window, either using his steel elbows or the butt of the gun. The glass shattering looks great; whether it’s broken to gain entry, for shooting, or because you’re being shot at.
Upon completion of the story-based missions, the remaining missions entail of: vigilante missions (by accessing the onboard police computer – which oddly is mapped to the same key as fire), races, the odd drug running gig, shooting flying rats (pigeons) and ‘friends’. Then there are mini-games and Niko’s contacts to interact with. Most of the contact ‘missions’ entail of hanging out and playing the mini-games as well as picking them up and dropping them off. It’s not mandatory, but a few of them have their perks.
Game’s now autosave after each mission is completed successfully. It’s a welcome feature so saving after every play session isn’t a requirement (unless you’re one of those stat-obsessed leaderboard types). Mission failure grants a quick restart via a text message, provided the player responds in a timely manner, doing so restarts the mission at a predetermined point in the mission. Alternatively it’s possible to stock up on supplies, but doing so requires a manual restart – the mission effectively reset.
AUDIO
Featured herein; the best soundtrack (consisting of source music) to date, easily better than any of that EA Trax trash. Vladivostok FM is a highlight capturing a range of Eastern European flavors. A GTA game wouldn’t be complete without Lazlow – providing a show reminiscent of the real Lazlow Show “back when 16 year olds can drink and listen to metal music and you can smoke in bars”, with a highpoint of the show being his encounter with the hotdog vendor.
The range of music and stations available is impressive; providing enough variety to please fans of different genres. So there’s sissy soft rock and pussy-hold-me-and-cry music for some of you. Though the latter might be there strictly to be heard in the strip club. In addition, the stations will update with news stories based on your actions and events in accordance with the story.
A cool feature is the radio stations can be heard from within vehicles driving by, with each one listening to a different station; depending on vehicle and district. This element further augments the metropolitan feel of the city, as well as each area possessing its own personality. This too, is conveyed through the wallah and the pedestrian’s responses and accents. In some instances there’s a compelling drive to stop the car, pull a 180; to mow down a bunch of the civvie-bitches that say "what the F". Actually it is quite hard, since it requires a fairly responsive car – which seems to be a rare commodity.
The ambient audio breathes life into the city, capturing the time of day and weather conditions, in addition to traffic density; all adding up to a greater vibrancy. Adding to this realism is audio distortion heard over the radio due to the cell phone signal, either when there’s an incoming call or when exiting a tunnel.
The impacts; crunches of metal at varying speeds, the slight dent, tires squealing, gunshots and explosions are all solid; possessing that much needed punch. Another nice feature is the variety of engine sounds for each vehicle – and depending on their condition.
Grand Theft Auto has always featured stellar voice work, and this title is no exception; possessing and exuding appropriate emotion and personality that brings life and believability to the characters.
WRAP UP
To a certain extent the “open world” and sandbox concepts have worn out their welcome. Therefore it’s a good thing that GTA IV has been scaled back from the ridiculous-look-how-big-this-world-is of San Andreas, to a more manageable set of islands. Primarily it’s the narrative drive that keeps the title fresh. However, upon completing the main story, some of the interest dwindles. Regardless of how amusing it is to kill flying-rats (complete w/ the exploding feather effects) and taking the odd job, there doesn’t seem to be as much replay value as previous titles. Perhaps if it were possible to hang onto vehicles in the regular sandbox mode; grabbing onto rooftops; climbing forth; a challenge when trying to steal certain vehicles. There is however, multiplayer and the promise of DLC to expand upon the faffing-about that remains after the main story is complete.
Regardless of the well scripted story and strong open world design, the game is marred by a number of technical issues, and just because a number of them were evident in the previous titles doesn’t make it fucking acceptable. Some might say this is as good as it gets, but they’re delusional with their full 10-out-of-fucking-10 bukkake cumjackulate blasts, particularly when technical hitches hinders gameplay.
To some degree this delusion is justifiable, given there’s a belief that the game is glitch free and this is god’s greatest gift to the gaming public (aside from Halo of course, as it pretty much invented the first person shooter concept). Then again if I were also delusional, perhaps some of them maybe industry insiders referring to the super-secret-as-yet-unannounced PC edition of the title coming out probably 6-months later, until it's delayed because Microsoft tries to push Vista and their console-concept of gaming on the tribal PC gamers who wont have any of their shit. That's right Microsoft, leave this shit the fuck alone.
In spite of this, Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the ‘must play’ titles of this year (unless you’re under age then should you be playing this you should go out buy a gun, then kill both your ‘parents’ and yourself – don’t nibble on the barrel, put it in your mouth and pull the trigger, kill yourself properly you useless little wanker).
It’d be interesting to see if the PC version suffers from the same framerate issues. Chances are it probably will; given it maybe due to the engine and Microsoft would pull some more “This truly is the next-gen experience where DX10.1 is fully realized”… etc.
Until such time…
Rating: 9.1/10
Cumjackulation Rating: 10/10
(ratings explained)
ADDENDUM
Would be nice if they revisited London in the next title, running over chavs and tearing that city up ought to allow me to look past the control and camera issues.
Magnus: Oi Niko mate
Ethan: Wohsopp wohsopp mahn, ‘got me shaggin… bollocks NB, yehz goht a mishun tae finnish: oroight ey, yeh run up doez apples an' pears traiyn yor shootah on ‘im an’ blag the geezer
Magnus: *mute the tv*