If ever there was a 5/5 game it's this one.
I'll get the negatives out of the way first:
The multiplayer ain't great. The co-op missions can be fun, races can be great & Cops 'n' Crooks can be superb if everything falls into place, but this is very hit & miss. Deathmatch is poor (the 3rd-person aiming just isn't suited to it) & Mafiya Works can sometimes be grossly unfair.
The lobby system (or lack of it) is an odd design choice & I can't help but feel the whole multiplayer would've been better served had they not cast the net so wide. Complaining about too many game types seems a bit silly, but with a more concentrated choice perhaps the overall quality would've been higher. Their net code seems a bit dodgy sometimes as well, but I suppose it would be asking a little too much to have a silky smooth experience in such a huge free-roaming world.
All things considered it's still a pretty impressive achievement to create the multiplayer content that they have & the anarchic chaos it sometimes descends into is in keeping with the tone of the game as a whole.
Singleplayer grievances:
1) It's too easy. I can't be arsed with rock-hard games anymore, but I do like there to be some challenge involved. The previous games in the series could be unbelievably frustrating with their dire shooting mechanics & Rockstar are to be applauded for tightening up this aspect, but they took it a little bit too far imo. Once you get hold of the carbine rifle you're a virtually unstoppable headshot-machine & by the last third of the game I was going off to do missions even if I only had half my health, because there was very little fear of me dying.
2) The missions weren't quite as diverse as I'd hoped. There are some that mix it up a bit, but really 90% of them consist of: drive there, shoot them up, drive back. I love the new missions that take place in buildings, involving shoot-outs on stairwells & the like, but once you've done a few of these they become quite repetitive. By dispensing with the crazy multi-part missions of San Andreas involving jetpacks & skydives they've certainly added to the more grounded realism which aids the tone of the game as a whole, but I would've liked to have seen just a little more variety.
But aside from that it's fan-fucking-tastic & the most fun that I've ever had with a videogame.
In purely free-form mode it's a fucking riot. Everyone who plays GTA will go on rampages at some point because it's just so much fun. Unscripted situations arising out of the chaos in which you can basically create your own stories is an area in which GTA has no peer. With the added subtlety of the driving & shooting mechanics & the extra solidity & sense of the world reacting to your actions GTAIV has more opportunity for these gloriously hectic episodes than ever before. Ducking down alleyways to lose the cops, getting into shootouts on the freeway, becoming embroiled in running gun battles in the park, trading bullets in the projects... and on it goes. The possibilities are endless & although the previous games enabled this too, this time it feels far more real & far less susceptible to the irritating unfairness that marred those titles.
The writing is for the most part exceptional by videogame standards & Niko is a brilliantly drawn character. Tragic & nihilistic, yet ultimately sympathetic, within an hour of playing the game I was rooting for him all the way. It's a massive step up from the cartoon clichés of Vice City & San Andreas & any game that when it offers you choices on the fate of characters makes it seem a genuinely difficult decision to make deserves a round of applause.
The great writing extends to the radio chatter as well. This has always been a hallmark of the series, but in this game it's more cutting, more acerbic, even more finely observed & the most bitter satire yet of modern America & its woes. It's also hilarious. Not as overtly so as the previous games but even with this game's laughter in the dark approach it's sense of humour is still so far beyond anything else any other developer would dare to try it simply beggars belief. See the spoof TV shows for another example.
The sound design is peerless. From the muffled boom of a stereo coming from inside an apartment as you walk past the front door to the distant sound of roadworks & sirens as you walk down the street, from the reverberating crack of a pistol in a plaza to the growl of a Banshee's engine, every single sound in the game is captured perfectly.
There's something for everyone on the radio but rather than just chuck a load of catchy tunes on there the eclectic mix of soundtracks has evidently had a great deal of care & thought put into it. They've also managed to coax some great performances out of the likes of Iggy Pop ("I've got a yoga bill like a motherfucker!") & Karl Lagerfeld; who incidentally chose many of the tracks for The Studio109 himself. Not to mention getting Francois K to do a mix specifically for the game. Genius.
Then there's the seemingly endless talk & chatter of the pedestrians. There must be tens of thousands of lines of this. Walking past a fat, hairy biker who turned to me & said: "I'm pretty fucked on meth right now. Fancy a handjob?" had me absolutely pissing myself. If you play it through a set of good headphones, just stand on a busy corner, close your eyes & listen to the sounds of the street rolling past it feels as if you're in a real city.
And then there's the hundreds of little touches & details that add nothing to the core gameplay but absolutely everything to the atmosphere. The Burger Shot worker polishing the windows out the front, the forklift driver stealing a smoke out the back, the graffiti, the trash collectors hanging off the back of their vehicle, the buoys that bob in the water which in turn ripples & shimmers with the reflections of the distant city lights, the hot-dog vendors & their calls of "You motherfuckers think you're too good for these?", the way newspaper dispensers flutter their contents across the street when you drive into them, the way the tarmac in the shitty parts of town is all patched up, pedestrians getting inadvertently run over & then a paramedic turning up & attempting CPR, the street-sweepers, the fog, the people talking on payphones...
And ultimately that's why I love GTAIV so much. My favourite games are the ones that have compelling worlds for you to lose yourself in; a dose of pure escapism that provide an interactive element that film can't provide. It's why I play games in the first place: a chance to immerse myself in a completely alien environment from the comfort of my sofa, safely relegating the occasional mundaneness of everyday life to a back-seat for a few hours in the evening, & so, in creating the richest, most authentic & meticulously designed gameworld ever seen GTAIV has delivered this experience for me like nothing I have ever played.
I've lost count of the number of times I've just hopped in a car, put on The Journey & just gone for a cruise round Liberty City, soaking in the atmosphere to the strains of Philip Glass & Aphex Twin. Just hopped in a cab, dialled in LRR & smiled as my favourite song ever (1979) has come on, gazing out the window & watching the city roll on by. Just tooled up & walked serenely down to the middle of Star Junction, taken in the soaring skyscrapers & gleaming lights reflecting off the wet tarmac & opened fire, seeing just how much chaos I can create. Picked a spot on the map & just strolled there using only my intimate knowledge of the maze of streets that once felt so alien & unknown.
GTAIV represents a progression for the series in just about every possible way. The fundamentals remain essentially the same but by drawing a world of unparalleled depth & interest it raises the bar for videogames in general & is a landmark title whose influence will be felt for years to come. It's the first game that I've played that feels genuinely adult & has made me think that with such creative talent & endeavour at work in the industry this medium could go on to do culturally significant things. I find it ironic that the one game that generates more controversy & stokes the fires of the violent videogame debate than any other is also the only one to tackle these issues head on with the wit & knowing intelligence that its critics could never understand.
It's not perfect, some of the parts of the machine are a little loose & there are a few blemishes, but they pale into insignificance when weighed up against what it gets right. And GTAIV gets so much right.
It's going to be years before anything matches up to its audaciously ambitious vision.
5/5