Grand Theft Auto IV Game Review

Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the most anticipated video game in recent years, does it live up to the hype? Rockstar Games have developed a mass following with the GTA series and it’s time to review Grand Theft Auto IV to see what’s the fuss is all about. The good ole game of shooting up people and stealing cars is back again, this time in the setting of Liberty City.

Colorful hero

The developers of Grand Theft Auto IV lets you slip this time in the skin of the Yugoslavs Niko Bellic. The time you play as a soldier of the Balkan wars which have torn him inside out. When he promises his cousin to takes up the passage to America to seek a new life, he has no idea how fast he is drawn into the circle of crime, prostitution and violence. Nevertheless, the new GTA IV main character has much more depth than the gangsta and stereotyped heroes of the recent series of GTA.

Nikos unscrupulous practice, which results from the experiences during the war, frightened, often even his employers. In quiet moments, he makes the experience as a soldier once more useful and thus also the making the reasons for his actions clearer. Now and then you even have the possibility to decide over life and death of your target in GTA IV.

Do you want to bump the petty criminal who refuses to pay protection money or allowed him to escape ? You might perhaps be given an edge later on during the game? It’s up to you to make the decisions in Grand Theft Auto IV!

Game of opportunity

Roman is the start of your contact in the style similar to GTA New York City Liberty City. The advertised message in e-mails starts your life in the pursuit of luxury, quickly reveals the task as a designated taxi driver – the promised women, power and money curb you to swallow your pride. As in its predecessors, Grand Theft Auto IV makes you progress through successful missions to quickly made a name in the city and thus reaches out to new clients and partners.

At the beginning, these are still some simple taxi rides for your cousin, then meet his acquaintance with leds to rich Russians and more complex operations. You also befriend a Jamaican drug dealer named Little Jacob, who is constantly drugged or intoxicated. Colorful and outrageous characters are a common theme in Grand Theft Auto IV and keep you on the alert during cut scenes.

Significantly expanded in Grand Theft Auto IV, however, is the social aspect of the game: Even in the early stages, the player makes acquaintance with Michelle, a restrained and somewhat boring lady. As in GTA San Andreas it leads them from time to time to go bowling, play darts or just out for a drink. Of course you are allowed to invite her back to “a hot cup of coffee”. The recreational activities of GTA IV provide variety to the main missions and will be handled in the form of mini games.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, similar to Wii Sports or PlayStation Home, you play mini games ranging from the bowling pins, billiard table or aiming at the Bulls Eye. Deepen the friendship with your cousin on the other hand, brings an extended drinking bout. But beware: Niko excessive alcohol consumption can become the hard way. The trip home could be difficult as he dragged his feet to the car and then staggering collapses on the bonnet.

Hotline to the happiness

The missions you get in Grand Theft Auto IV are indicated as colored letters on your map. To date with your sweetheart or find the many gangsters to facilitate the communication, you get an mobile phone. Thus you can always ask for a date or issues a accept or reject call when the phone rings. At the beginning you might only have a mobile phone of the old model but you get a state-of-the-art phone with MP3 player and much more features as the game progress. If you messed up a mission, the game just calls to your client and sets at the same point yet again to restart.

NextGen definitely worthy!

Despite the numerous small gameplay changes you notice in Grand Theft Auto IV, especially in the appearance that it is not just a slightly reamed engine. Liberty City can be no doubt be shown in a video game as the liveliest city. Each individual district within GTA IV offers a special architecture and mood. The vehicles, including an elaborate damage model are inspired by real examples. Along With the Hummer H2 or the Chrysler 300 you also found many new mobile pedestals, old friends like Banshee or Stallion of course you are allowed to “borrow” as well.

The much more realistic elements and always consistent look of GTA IV is at times still a cause for criticism: the vision in Liberty City is enormous, but was accompanied by visiuals that makes a distant building appear only as a vague outline. Building flickers on sunny days, the road will appear to the pixel edges almost like the good old PlayStation 2. Moreover, it is occasionally prone to slowdowns, but have no effect on the actual game. To note as such in view of the huge and vibrant city as similar defects, these are very minor grips of an otherwise perfect environment of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Pop culture in the passenger seat

Just as colorful and varied as Liberty City is the range of musical sound during your extensive city tours in Grand Theft Auto IV. Total of 19 radio stations, hip hop to reggae, to rock, retro and talk shows, the perfect sound design can be found for each person. Newcomers also has a handy navigation system with voice commands during the way through the vast city at first. Also, the sound effects have finally left behind their comic character and become more believable. Intergrating of your own music into the radio station is available for the PC version of GTA IV.

Virtual urbanization

With the excellent player and multiplayer modes, Rockstar Games have finally immortalized in the hearts of the fans of Grand Theft Auto Series. In 14 game modes within Grand Theft Auto IV, you are allowed to let off steam online on Xbox Live with up to 16 participants all over Liberty City. These include the classic death match or a race through the city even with unusual varieties such as Hangman’s Nose. The aim is to escort a mobster who arrived at the airport to his hiding place.

Of course you have the story mode which involve fierce firearms resistance with the police when you start raging in the city center. In the shoot-outs the same battle system is used, as in the single player part: You can target enemies to target, to go behind cars, corners, or waste containers under cover and with the LT button it zooms in on your victim. The online mode of Grand Theft Auto IV should captivate any GTA fan after playing through the actual story countless hours on the screen and maybe even push Call of Duty 4 from the online throne.

Conclusion

Grand Theft Auto is a game title that most of us in the gaming community are well familiar with. It all started on the Playstation game system and has since moved to the Xbox 360 console, PS3 and the PC to the latest incarnation with Grand Theft Auto IV. The Grand Theft Auto series has been popular from the start but gained wide popularity when Grand Theft Auto III appeared on the shelves. This brought a whole new level of violence to the gaming community as it allowed you to walk the streets of a very realistic city where you’re allowed to do pretty much whatever you wanted to do. If you wanted to gun an old granny down as she walked on the sidewalk you could do so without thinking twice.

Now of course the act of doing that is horrible and if that happened in real life it would be national news but the fact that you were able to do that in a game is what made it so fun and unpredictable. Also, the vehicle aspect alone makes the game fun. There are ramps set up in random locations around the game where you could spend hours doing jumps and tricks, the vehicle aspect alone could be a game by itself. Enough about the old Grand Theft Auto games, let’s move on to the final thoughts on Grand Theft Auto IV.

Graphics: The graphics in GTA IV are some that you have never seen before in any of the Grand Theft Auto games before it. They are crystal clear. The level of detail is phenomenal from the way the waves ripple on the beaches to the amount of detail in a thug’s face, its just amazing. Grand Theft Auto IV will not disappoint you as far as graphics are concerned, that’s a guarantee.

Gameplay: The gameplay in Grand Theft Auto IV is much like that of the other Grand Theft Auto games. You go around completing mission after mission for your gang leader, collecting money as you go to spend on fun toys like rocket launchers and such. There are other fun things that you can do such as minigames and flying airplanes but I won’t spoil the fun and ruin the surprise here.

Value: The cost of this game is very reasonable for the gaming experience you’ll be getting with Grand Theft Auto IV. What you will get is one of the best Grand Theft Auto games ever made. You won’t be disappointed with GTA IV if you enjoyed any of the previous editions.