Review – Grand Theft Auto IV (XBOX 360)
- Jim Toshiro Sullivan

The GTA series has been widely regarded as a milestone of the gaming industry in both its technical innovation and borderline moral themes. They continue to do so with their latest installment – Grand Theft Auto IV.

Before I go any further, I would like to note that I am reviewing an Australia version of the game. Although the technology and ideas in the game continue to progress and better themselves, Australia seems to be happy to sit still and leave their entertainment industry outdated along with their laws. I mean c’mon, the police here in Victoria still use revolvers with wooden handles that take a few days to reload. Stupid friggin censorship.

After the release of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, it seemed almost impossible to top that in terms of gameplay (graphics not so much). Rockstar seems to have outdone themselves yet again by making it more about quality not quantity. People coming in expecting expansive worlds akin to that of San Andreas would be disappointed but have comfort in the fact that each inch of Liberty City is packed with it’s own unique personality and feel that was seriously lacking in it’s predecessor.

STORY
Quick summary: Niko Bellic, illegal immigrant fresh off the boat tries to survive by any means necessary. Gunman for hire, driver for rent, blowjobs for lease. (Scratch that last one)

Niko Bellic is a real breath of fresh air. I’m glad they stayed away from African American protagonists as they are too overused. I’m also very glad they chose the eastern European route. Not often have you got a Russian main character that is very well developed but its also very unique for the gaming industry as well as the movies industry.

To complement this, there is a cast of colourful characters that are very well fleshed out.

It was a very wise idea by Dan Houser (and other people) to not include celebrity voiceovers. This makes the characters more real and the game much more immersive.

GAMEPLAY
Let me be generic and bland by saying that this game gives you a huge living breathing world to play in. All your sick fantasies can be played out here. Well, most of them at least. There are 3 main islands for you to fuck around in. Better yet, you can fuck around with a friend! Two of you can be all Bin Laden’ed up and cause havoc around Liberty City. The free roaming multiplayer mode is a God send! It’s a brand new training ground for terrorists! BUT ANYWAY.

The gameplay here is deeper than its previous iterations. You now have a mobile phone with which you call and receive calls! Betcha didn’t know that about a mobile phone! From a gaming perspective, they’re making it an integral part of Niko’s life as much as it is in most of our lives. You can be contacted for missions, you can call 911, call your girlfriends etc. It’s a nifty addition to an already fleshed out game.

What follows is relationship management. Now that you have a phone, you can maintain relationships. When you do them well, you get perks. These perks are well worth the trouble as it adds a new strategy in tackling your missions. You can have a friend pick you up in a chopper! Sounds pretty neat don’t it? Even though I said they are well worth the trouble, they are really fucking annoying. They’ll keep calling ya complaining
“HEY WHY DON’T YOU HANG OUT WITH ME WHATS WRONG WITHCHU” and things like that.  There’s enough nagging going on in real life.

I was enthralled when I found out that they were including real life comedians in the game. The comedians themselves have also tailored their jokes to suit Liberty City. It is amazing the lengths Rockstar will go to make the game as “real” and close to life as possible. It would be great to see more artists and comedians included as downloadable content and or in the next installment of the series.

The DJs and music in the game are great with a very varied music style and plenty of talk shows to listen to. They can get pretty annoying though when the radio gets too loud and you can’t hear anything else. You’ve got some pretty good Russian hip hop to some funky electro music. The DJs are not just some unknowns but they are pretty popular in the real world. The ZiT feature is a really neat inclusion as you can find out the name of the song you’re listening to via SMS. All this adds to the part of the living breathing world that is GTA.

A few other glaring differences (or additions) from the previous GTAs are the cover system, the driving (oh the damn driving) and the Euphoria engine.

The cover system is adds a new layer to the GTA series giving you more control over gun fights and adding some style to them. It’s very cool to see Niko do a baseball slide to cover. The auto locking is very essential for this game as the environment and the enemies blend in remarkably well. (Not a compliment)

The driving has gotten harder and more frustrating but once you get the hang of it, it’s all good. You’ll start off spinning out of control when in your head you see yourself nicely drifting past that corner out of harms way. It takes a lot of getting used to to perfect those turns but it can be done. Oh yes it can. (ETHAN COLE YOU SUCK)

Finally it’s the Euphoria engine. Gun fights have never been more satisfying. These characters now don’t just fall like a ragdoll, but they stumble and try to stay vertical. Not much can be said about it but it must be seen to be believed. It’s fucking awesome.

Oh and then there’s multiplayer! There’s a huge array of modes to choose from. You could also choose to free roam with 16 other people! Imagine the amount of honor-rule games you could come up with in this mode. I’ve played one very interesting game and that was to see how far Niko would fly out of his windshield after a crash. The possibilities are literally endless. Modes include your usual deathmatch, team deathmatch, objective based play and some pretty interesting additions such as race, carjack city and cops and robbers.

GRAPHICS
I’m sure much like many of us; I am too fast for Grand Theft Auto. Things seem to load after I get there – especially when I bolt out of my cab into a weapons shop. There are a lot of pop-ins. It won’t detract you from the experience if you aren’t anal retentive.

Apart from that though, you’ve got a gorgeous city beautifully rendered. The addition of the Euphoria engine really bumps up the “realism” of Liberty City. Just imagine something from a John Woo-esque movie. You’re unloading clips and clips into a guy and hes just stumbling back firing wildly as he loses control. It’s a very awesome sight and it truly gives you “Unique Gaming Moments.” Here’s a tech demo of how the Euphoria physics engine works.

The 360 version hardly experiences any slowdown and it looks absolutely gorgeous. I’ve been reading about a lot of problems the PS3 has been having and I can say this one – although not perfect – runs very well. You’d expect a game of this size to have a few kinks in them but well, I guess one day we’ll have it perfect.

SOUND
Plenty of good music.

CLOSING
Get GTA4. It’s the pinnacle of sandbox gaming and if you can look past it’s minor flaws and take that stick out of your behind – you’ll find that the game far exceeds that price you paid for it. After you’ve completed the main story, you’ve still got plenty more to do to hit 100% completion. Look for the stunt jumps, the pigeons and other side missions. If you’ve got the attention span, it could keep you busy ‘til the downloadable content gets released. Buy it.

Rating: 9.6/10
Cumjackulation Rating: 8.9/10
(ratings explained)