Well GTA4 finally hit our shelves on 20th April 2008 and it was one of the most highly anticipated games of this year. There was a lot of excitement behind it but as you may notice when you read this review or if you have played the game that GTA4, in my opinion, doesn?t deserve half the hype it receives. But to an extent.
I bought this game for the xbox 360 a few days after release. I was unable to get my hands on it as I was unable to pre-order a copy because it had already sold out. I expected so much more from this game but I found it was slightly disappointing.
The player takes on the character of Niko Belic, a man who has come to Liberty City to start a new life and find people from the war to find out who set him up.
A good thing about this GTA game that I noticed that the others didn?t have was that Niko has a history behind him that comes into play within the story. This comes into the missions at stages throughout the game which adds more depth to the missions and the story evolves a bit more as you find out more about the story behind it, where as other GTA games kept the characters quite closed and confined and you just go about doing missions there isn?t much of a storyline or depth to the to the other games.
After the beginning cut scene you run into your cousin and you are given multiple missions to do for him at his taxi firm and this lasts for a while.
Quite a lot of the missions on the first island are driving related which I will say got very samey, tiresome and boring. The action didn?t particularly start until I got to the second safe house but even then it was still quite the same to me.
It eventually picked up around the 1/3 mark on the second island where I was eventually going around killing people and the missions became more action packed and involved a lot of high speed chases and shoot outs and assassinations.
For this game you will probably have read by many other reviewers you may need to warm up to GTA4 before giving up and have a lot of patience because after the very repetitive missions it does in fact live up to some of the hype giving you many highly anticipated action packed missions that make the GTA game so great for example the Bank heist mission which is by far one of the best missions you will play, or the mission where you get set up by gang and have to work your way around the hotel and kill the members.
The great thing about these missions are the fact there so great to play but involve taking cover and shooting behind cover and involves a lot of great action involved.
Bad thing is it does take a lot of time to get there but give it time.
Until you get to the 30% mark of the game it starts to get good but if you want a real taste of GTA4 don?t slam the controller down at first chance you get, id admit once or twice I gave up and couldn?t be bothered but after plying past this mark in the game I actually enjoyed myself.
Another bad thing about this game throughout you will notice that there will be tutorials still set around the place every now and again for new missions. I think to make this game have been a bit more interesting and better they should have put all the tutorials in first and get them out the way and then let you go into the game.
Instead the developers have spread these out along the game which can be frustrating.
I mean there are a lot more controls than the other GTA series and more actions to perform but getting that out the way first and then putting us into the action would have been a better idea.
You also get side missions that can involve mini games such as bowling, darts and pool. These are quite small novelties and wear off quite quick though but are good to pass the time if you have to wait for a certain time period to start a mission or meet someone somewhere. You can also take your friends out or go on dates and socialise with people. But to be honest this isn?t boring its more of a chore and quite irritating and feels like it wants to be your second life. It?s a tad more irritating when you don?t talk to them and they ring you up moaning at you about it half way through a car chase. This is what makes the game a bit irritating because you have to befriend people and take them out to become closer to them which I think they could have really left out. No one wanted to do it in San Andreas and its not really necessary now.
But the good thing about this is there are a lot more controls and interactions than usual. I like all the little things that Rockstar done with GTA. The fact you can now take cover and shoot from cover or shoot out blindly, you can now hotwire cars which I think adds a bit of a rush when you have to get a car to go before the police get you instead of just getting in it and going. Also another factor I like they?ve taken away the instant busted action that happened in the other games now they hold there gun up to you and you have a choice to get arrested or resist and escape.
Also now the cell phone is now more interactive and you are able to call people and receive messages and calls on it which I think is better as you can call for missions.
All the little interactions also that was put into the game made it seem a bit more realistic to. The fact that Niko smashes a car window and unlocks the car to get in and also when you shoot enemies they react like most normal people would. For example you shoot them in the arm they grab there arm and come out of cover in pain or drop there weapon which I think is a good touch to add to GTA.
Its all the little interactions that add some realism to the game which makes it look better on the eye.
A control I think the gamers could have left out though is the auto aim feature. The game is really good in huge gun fights. But if you can automatically aim at a group of enemies and kill them all isn?t exactly skill, but you are given the chance to turn this off which I ended up doing as I prefer the free aiming style of things.
But I now like the fact you cant run into an area brandishing a pump action shotgun and fire away like the others now you have to take cover and take people out one by one it makes you more away of your environment and how your going to tackle the mission.
Also driving can be good for the fact the cars handle a bit more realistic being able to turn more when your going slower and less when your speeding adds the sense of responsibility when your driving. You cant really speed around madly like in the other games you have to be quite cautious because you may either go flying through the windshield, flipping the car so much it breaks down or end up spinning out and crashing into a building or tree and the cars can only take a certain amount of damage before you break down.
Definitely a quarrel I have with the game is the wanted level. Its not really in the slightest bit challenging in the slightest. All you have to do is drive out of the field of the police radius evading patrols on the way which you can identify on the map and your rating level goes immediately down once you have laid low for a while outside the radius. The only time this gets slightly harder is on a 6 star wanted level where you get bashed around by swat trucks and shot at quite frequently but apart from that the police level isn?t challenging. But I like the police AI especially in chases they tend to try and box you in and go for your wheels, or when your outside they hide behind there cars trying to kill you. This is one upside to the police now.
I like the assassination sections in some missions to. Now you are able to choose whether to kill someone which then involves a cut scene and normally the person falling the there death or you can leave them be for them to be spared and for them to redeem themselves. This doesn?t effect the mission layout or story in any way though which I think is a bit pointless it would have been better if there where alternative paths you can go down. All it really does is change what friends your left with.
I haven?t personally played on xbox live yet as my xbox is not connected to the internet currently, but from friends experience the game play online is really good with a huge area to kill each other in and the game play doesn?t lag to much either which I think is good as they?ve made multiplayer good but until I try it for myself I cannot make a judgement.
My final verdict on this game is that it is one of those games you have to have the time a patience to get into. Which is a downside but it does in fact get good once you reach the really good missions, don?t be to quick to trade it back in or turn it off because the good parts of the game you do need to play.
But I can say this game was to hyped for what it actually was and I was expecting a lot more but to be honest it was quite samey with a few more changes than usual.
This game has its flaws but does make up for them in advantages.
I'd give this game a 7/10
I bought this game for the xbox 360 a few days after release. I was unable to get my hands on it as I was unable to pre-order a copy because it had already sold out. I expected so much more from this game but I found it was slightly disappointing.
The player takes on the character of Niko Belic, a man who has come to Liberty City to start a new life and find people from the war to find out who set him up.
A good thing about this GTA game that I noticed that the others didn?t have was that Niko has a history behind him that comes into play within the story. This comes into the missions at stages throughout the game which adds more depth to the missions and the story evolves a bit more as you find out more about the story behind it, where as other GTA games kept the characters quite closed and confined and you just go about doing missions there isn?t much of a storyline or depth to the to the other games.
After the beginning cut scene you run into your cousin and you are given multiple missions to do for him at his taxi firm and this lasts for a while.
Quite a lot of the missions on the first island are driving related which I will say got very samey, tiresome and boring. The action didn?t particularly start until I got to the second safe house but even then it was still quite the same to me.
It eventually picked up around the 1/3 mark on the second island where I was eventually going around killing people and the missions became more action packed and involved a lot of high speed chases and shoot outs and assassinations.
For this game you will probably have read by many other reviewers you may need to warm up to GTA4 before giving up and have a lot of patience because after the very repetitive missions it does in fact live up to some of the hype giving you many highly anticipated action packed missions that make the GTA game so great for example the Bank heist mission which is by far one of the best missions you will play, or the mission where you get set up by gang and have to work your way around the hotel and kill the members.
The great thing about these missions are the fact there so great to play but involve taking cover and shooting behind cover and involves a lot of great action involved.
Bad thing is it does take a lot of time to get there but give it time.
Until you get to the 30% mark of the game it starts to get good but if you want a real taste of GTA4 don?t slam the controller down at first chance you get, id admit once or twice I gave up and couldn?t be bothered but after plying past this mark in the game I actually enjoyed myself.
Another bad thing about this game throughout you will notice that there will be tutorials still set around the place every now and again for new missions. I think to make this game have been a bit more interesting and better they should have put all the tutorials in first and get them out the way and then let you go into the game.
Instead the developers have spread these out along the game which can be frustrating.
I mean there are a lot more controls than the other GTA series and more actions to perform but getting that out the way first and then putting us into the action would have been a better idea.
You also get side missions that can involve mini games such as bowling, darts and pool. These are quite small novelties and wear off quite quick though but are good to pass the time if you have to wait for a certain time period to start a mission or meet someone somewhere. You can also take your friends out or go on dates and socialise with people. But to be honest this isn?t boring its more of a chore and quite irritating and feels like it wants to be your second life. It?s a tad more irritating when you don?t talk to them and they ring you up moaning at you about it half way through a car chase. This is what makes the game a bit irritating because you have to befriend people and take them out to become closer to them which I think they could have really left out. No one wanted to do it in San Andreas and its not really necessary now.
But the good thing about this is there are a lot more controls and interactions than usual. I like all the little things that Rockstar done with GTA. The fact you can now take cover and shoot from cover or shoot out blindly, you can now hotwire cars which I think adds a bit of a rush when you have to get a car to go before the police get you instead of just getting in it and going. Also another factor I like they?ve taken away the instant busted action that happened in the other games now they hold there gun up to you and you have a choice to get arrested or resist and escape.
Also now the cell phone is now more interactive and you are able to call people and receive messages and calls on it which I think is better as you can call for missions.
All the little interactions also that was put into the game made it seem a bit more realistic to. The fact that Niko smashes a car window and unlocks the car to get in and also when you shoot enemies they react like most normal people would. For example you shoot them in the arm they grab there arm and come out of cover in pain or drop there weapon which I think is a good touch to add to GTA.
Its all the little interactions that add some realism to the game which makes it look better on the eye.
A control I think the gamers could have left out though is the auto aim feature. The game is really good in huge gun fights. But if you can automatically aim at a group of enemies and kill them all isn?t exactly skill, but you are given the chance to turn this off which I ended up doing as I prefer the free aiming style of things.
But I now like the fact you cant run into an area brandishing a pump action shotgun and fire away like the others now you have to take cover and take people out one by one it makes you more away of your environment and how your going to tackle the mission.
Also driving can be good for the fact the cars handle a bit more realistic being able to turn more when your going slower and less when your speeding adds the sense of responsibility when your driving. You cant really speed around madly like in the other games you have to be quite cautious because you may either go flying through the windshield, flipping the car so much it breaks down or end up spinning out and crashing into a building or tree and the cars can only take a certain amount of damage before you break down.
Definitely a quarrel I have with the game is the wanted level. Its not really in the slightest bit challenging in the slightest. All you have to do is drive out of the field of the police radius evading patrols on the way which you can identify on the map and your rating level goes immediately down once you have laid low for a while outside the radius. The only time this gets slightly harder is on a 6 star wanted level where you get bashed around by swat trucks and shot at quite frequently but apart from that the police level isn?t challenging. But I like the police AI especially in chases they tend to try and box you in and go for your wheels, or when your outside they hide behind there cars trying to kill you. This is one upside to the police now.
I like the assassination sections in some missions to. Now you are able to choose whether to kill someone which then involves a cut scene and normally the person falling the there death or you can leave them be for them to be spared and for them to redeem themselves. This doesn?t effect the mission layout or story in any way though which I think is a bit pointless it would have been better if there where alternative paths you can go down. All it really does is change what friends your left with.
I haven?t personally played on xbox live yet as my xbox is not connected to the internet currently, but from friends experience the game play online is really good with a huge area to kill each other in and the game play doesn?t lag to much either which I think is good as they?ve made multiplayer good but until I try it for myself I cannot make a judgement.
My final verdict on this game is that it is one of those games you have to have the time a patience to get into. Which is a downside but it does in fact get good once you reach the really good missions, don?t be to quick to trade it back in or turn it off because the good parts of the game you do need to play.
But I can say this game was to hyped for what it actually was and I was expecting a lot more but to be honest it was quite samey with a few more changes than usual.
This game has its flaws but does make up for them in advantages.
I'd give this game a 7/10
