GTA 4 broke my 360! I say this statement in a mix of fear and pain, and yet I refuse to hold grudges against game for it. Instead I’ll hold grudges against this game for creating controversy and unrivalled praise that it doesn’t deserve. I’ll hold grudges against it for acting as a tutorial for the majority of the game, and I’ll hold grudges against it for giving the player the illusion of choice!
I’m going to start with the plot, a plot which has previously been called “genuinely engrossing” and “compelling”, and is neither of these. Having said that many of you can anticipate my opinion of the plot and I’m happy to say your all wrong! Grand Theft Auto 4’s plot certainly isn’t devoid of merit, indeed at points in the game I found that I had become genuinely attached to certain characters and found events I couldn’t control truly upsetting. Here lies my main problem with the games plot.
The game tries so hard to create the perfect plot, including elements such as romance which the player can pursue if they wish to. Unfortunately the games plot is set almost in stone (with a few minor choices that give a choice between money or instant and violent gratification), and characters that I didn’t spend to much time with were often integral to the plot. This often left me with a feeling akin to “who cares” and the game somewhat lost my respect because of this.
I have many problems with the plot of the game yet one of the main ones was it’s pacing, which often involves the player performing menial tasks in order to play an (often outstanding) climax mission, after completing these missions the player then has to complete more menial tasks. The main problem with this is the fact that the game barely rewards the player for completing these missions until the huge cash reward which is often available for completing the “climax mission”, and in a game where money does little more than allow a player to purchase weapons, ammo, and health in order to be able to complete more menial mission, this seems a little stupid.
Another problem with this method of storytelling is that the bank robbery mission, which occurs halfway through the game, is the most exciting and brilliantly realised mission available within the game, which in turn leaves no motivation for the player to continue the games storyline until the end mission. Now, whilst we're on the topic of the games final mission, I intend to rant about it (see my next paragraph).
I came to the final missions of the game expecting a shoot-out which would excel the bank mission in every single way, a driving section comparable to finest moments in any driving game, and a bitter-sweet ending to the plot, which by this point was confusing and broken. I sort off got one of these things, the endings bitter-sweet. The shooting section of the mission is all-right, a bit bland, but it's okay. The driving section of the mission is annoying, and uses boats (boats are bad in GTA 4).
To sum-up the plot is no mean feat, considering it's not finished, and never will be on the PS3 (this doesn't really effect me though, considering I own a copy of the 360 game), but if I absolutely had to, say if I was cornered by several angry Wii owners, I would say that it's okay, but nothing compared a good film or to a lesser extent the Metal Gear series. Needless to say any argument I may have in this area is useless, as everyone, their mother, and their pets now owns at least five copies of the game, and beholds the plot as the Goliath of God.
Now to the game play, which I have mixed feelings about; sort of like a retarded squirrel regarding a pile of nuts. I like the lock-on feature, as it works well the majority of the time (100% of the time being an unachievable goal) and genuinely helped me to find and kill people who were shooting me. I liked the guns, and I support the decision to take out about 50% of the guns from previous games. But the entire shooting section of the game is completely ruined by the cover system, which often embeds Niko in walls and refuses to let him go, and occasionally caused him to stand on top of the thing I was ducking behind.
Even on the few occasions that I did manage to separate Niko from the wall he had thrown himself head first at, he then proceeded to attach himself to a piece of cover directly behind him, and expose his entire back to every enemy in the area. This led me to the conclusion that Niko has all the survival instincts of a rabbit in a monster truck rally held at night.
A lot of people have been talking about how the driving in the game handles a lot more realistically, it doesn't really; most of the cars handle like one of two things:
Good cars: Handle like a cheetah on speed.
Bad cars: Handle like a slug on pot.
If you learn which cars fit into these categories you'll be fine. Basically these rules define the driving of the game, and prove that any claims that the driving is realistic; profoundly wrong.
I have one other major problem with the way that driving has been implemented into the game, and that is the selection of vehicles available in the game. Okay lets take a look at all the classes available in San Andreas:
1. Cars
2. Motorbikes
3. Pedal bikes
4. Boats
5. Helicopters
6. Tanks
7. Jet planes
8. Trucks
9. Golf carts etc.
10. Jeeps
Now lets take a look at the vehicle classes available in GTA 4:
1. Cars
2. Motorbikes
3. Boat
4. Helicopters
5. Trucks
6. Golf carts etc.
So on closer inspection we've revealed that four whole vehicle classes have been removed from the game. Now I don't know about you, but when I hear that a new GTA game is going to be released I immediately begin to think about what vehicle types Rockstar could add to the game. This time I was expecting hot-air balloons, submarines, and loads of other weird and wonderful transport systems – and reality we aren't even allowed to drive tanks, a benchmark of the series!
Don't get me wrong, I understand that Rockstar are trying to take the series in a new, realistic direction and it's unrealistic to assume that Niko, an uneducated thug, already knows how to pilot every vehicle under the sun; but when realism gets in the way of the tried and tested formula which has made the series fun, then I don't see the point. Recently I've been having the very same gripe with a lot of games, and I'm starting to wish that the games industry as a whole
would stop trading fun for realism or artistic direction.
Right, before you (well at least those of you who can form a grammatically correct sentence) start spamming my inbox with complaints about how things like realism, artistic development and complex plots are advancing the industry, not only as a form of entertainment but also an art form, please allow a chance to explain myself. I whole-heartedly agree the aforementioned argument, but only up to the point where these things (realism, artistic development and complex plots) don't stop the product from being entertaining. For the purpose of an example, lets take a look at the Metal Gear series.
Hideo Kojima, the director of the series, has created in the Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid games one of the most complete, complex, and meaningful video game plots ever; and as a result of this the Metal Gear series as a whole has suffered. The game play is often overlooked, complete understanding of all prior events in the series is often mandatory, and only the few hardcore fans (myself included) of the series remain able to sit through the often feature length cut-scenes. So whilst the Metal Gear series undoubtedly has an accomplished plot, and remarkable art direction; it does not qualify as an excellent video-game, because at times it is dull to it's target audience.
So anyway, back to GTA 4. I'm going to sum-up now because nothing I say about this game is going to do anything other than mildly amuse you. The plot's okay, the gameplay's underwhelming for the series, and the graphics are all right for the current generation of consoles. Ultimately get the game if you want a slightly less wacky GTA.
7/10
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