I went back and played IV recently to wet my appetite for the Remastered Trilogy and honestly, I kind of wish I hadn't. Sometimes nostalgia is best left alone because I remember this game being one of, possibly THE greatest when I first played it, but now, the controls feel sluggish, driving is insane/unwieldy, combat is made even more difficult by the wonky cover system, whole city just looks brown/gray, and the much-derided relationship system deserves every bit of criticism it's gotten over the years. Unless you look up stuff like what characters sleep schedules are or what dates like what clothes on Niko, you've got nothing to work off of. Worse, the systems are not well integrated to the rest of the game. Example: I was on my way to meet Packie for drinks one time when I got flagged down for a follow-up stranger mission. There was no way to avoid it, and when I failed, not only could I not re-do the mission, Packie was all pissed off I blew him off!! Literally had no choice though so I just rage-quit after that.
The story and writing is still good, maybe not as a sharp as I thought it was when I was 13 years old and playing it for the first time, but still good. Plenty of great characters, even if some are obvious stereotypes
It seems wrote to say V is the best because it looks/plays the best, personally I think the 3 character idea didn't really bring anything to it, and the writing was off. I will say VICE CITY is the best because it struck a perfect balance between III (not having much to do) and SA (having too much to do). Had the best setting + far and away the best OST as well (Greg Kasavin said you could buy the game just for the soundtrack and honestly, he's right).
Most impressive of all, the game came out only a year after GTA III, but had so many improvements it's tough to believe the turnaround was that quick
Log in to comment