Grand Theft Auto in my eyes is one of the best game series of all time
and is destined to be a classic remembered twenty years down the road
and beyond. It was to my great joy that Grand Theft Auto IV was hinted
at some three years ago and what a journey has it been. Thankfully on
Tuesday, April 29th 2008 the game I waited oh so long for finally came
out after a couple of mind numbingly annoying delays. I had huge
expectations from this game as it garnered the first 10 from Gamespot
and IGN in a decade and had critical acclaim from media outlets that
had previously bashed it. Let me just say that my expectations of an
amazing game were not just met but were shattered. This truly is the
best Grand Theft Auto game of all time and it truly earns the first
perfect review I have given.
Let's start off with one of the highlights of GTA IV, the wonderful
graphics. I have never been so amazed by a games graphics in all my
life. This game literally was the first game to make me say, "Wow" when
I first feasted my eyes upon it. The game has some very technologically
proficient graphics courtesy of the RAGE engine upon which it is based.
For the first time in GTA history the characters function as life like
humans, each finger has its own motions, the characters express a
variety of facial expressions, and the world is living and breathing.
The water has also become beautiful in its own right and of course
Liberty City is one of the most beautiful landscapes ever rendered into
a game. The sheer amount of detail that was put into cars and civilians
simply is amazing. The cars look in my opinion near life like and look
as good as the cars in any racing game, and that's not even the main
focus of the game. The car damage has been vastly improved as well to
make it more realistic. The civilians and other people in the
environment look just as great as Niko and I have yet to see the exact
same person twice. The city is a living and breathing metropolis.
Perhaps the most amazing graphical achievement I have seen in this game
is the explosions and gunplay. Every bullet hole is seen on a wall and
gunfights just look great. Shooting up cars now displays to you cracked
window shields with blood in the cracks and it just looks good. The
explosions are the highlight of the graphics in my opinion, each one is
amazing and the smoke bellows and the fire send an inferno within a
large radius. These truly are mind shattering explosions. The physics
engine is really put to use, for instance blowing up a police car with
five officers around it will send all the police flying in different
directions flailing and screaming for their lives. It's just satisfying
and brings a new sense of realism and is an amazing achievement in the
game.
As far as game play goes Grand Theft Auto IV has fixed and changed many
things about the game, despite these changes though the game still has
the unique feel of a Grand Theft Auto game and not something totally
different. Perhaps the most important game play change to mention is
the new and redone combat system. Apart from improved aiming Rockstar
has also added in a cover system. All of this works very well and it's
a blast to get into gunfights knowing the combat will be seamless and
easy to get the hang of. I have never had a problem with combat though
I understand some people have. I don't blame them for having these
problems but I think what they complain about is trivial. The combat
system still has slight room for improvement but it is much better this
time around and I really had a lot of fun. The melee combat is also a
lot different now as it is far more complex and deep but still a lot of
fun. It has made the melee combat a lot more fun and a lot more brutal.
Another excellent game play element is the cell phone which is probably
the best new feature in the game. I absolutely love this thing; you can
arrange dates with your friends, take pictures, play multiplayer, and
take calls from mission givers. It's just a great feature and feels
seamlessly integrated into the game. It doesn't feel tacked on but
rather it feels as if it's always been apart of GTA. In a sense it has
as cell-phones were used in the past in Vice City and San Andreas but
never to this level of depth. The other new features in the game play
are all great but somewhat negligible to mention as they don't add a
lot to change the experience but certainly if you access them they make
the game a blast. Some of these include being able to go to comedy
clubs and cabaret clubs which are amazingly funny and entertaining.
The sound of Grand theft Auto IV is top notch. The soundtrack in my
opinion is amazing and Rockstar really did a good job of using licensed
music in the cut scenes and to set mood. The radio stations are all
great and I was happy to see Rockstar taking risks with the types of
music they chose to put in. This soundtrack is my favorite yet as it
didn't distract me like it did in previous Grand Theft Auto games but
rather made me feel more into the game. It was also great to hear
plenty of new music I never heard before. Unlike San Andreas or Vice
City where I heard it all before Grand Theft Auto IV allowed me to hear
plenty of new stuff that I surely enjoyed. The script is also top
notch; the dialogue is snappy, smart, and funny. Niko is the most real
character yet thanks to his dialogue and the other characters are
brought to life through excellent writing and excellent voice work. One
notable change in the voice work was no celebrities were brought in
this time around unlike in other Grand Theft Auto games. This is a
welcome change and I didn't miss them one bit, the voice actors in the
game were amazing and I thought they did a better job then any of the
Hollywood actors did in the past. The sound in the game is of the
highest quality and should be a bar that all games should shoot for.
Grand Theft Auto IV is in my opinion simply the best game ever made.
Previous to it my favorite game of all time was Grand Theft Auto San
Andreas but this game easily tops it. It highly deserves a ten score
and all the critical acclaim it has garnered from various publications.
Its value is excellent, the single player clocks in at around 50-60
hours with all the side missions you can do and the multiplayer lasts
forever with 15 modes to play around with. This is a game I will have
fun with for a long time and I am glad I bought it opening day. Paying
60 dollars for this game is a steal of a price as it is worth a ton
more. Buying this game isn't a choice but rather an obligation at this
point as this is quite possible the best game I have ever played, hears
waiting for Rockstar's next entry into the Grand Theft Auto series. In
the meantime I'll be playing Grand Theft Auto IV until my eyes fall
out, simply outstanding from start to end.
