I had a choice: Wait, don't buy it, go home, study like a good boy, and get it friday. -or- Get it now.
In a demonstration of incredible willpower, i chose the latter.
The game then--
The intro is like "SHABAAM! guess what you're watching a movie." Niko, our BAMF european with a heart of gold, gets off the boat where his irritating cousin meets him. Quality cinematography in the cutscene, (of course there are no cameras but whatever,) excellent intro, i'm intrigued. i can tell off the bat that the game has been polished to a mirror shine. First few minutes take place at night, so viewing the city is less than interesting, as such, my initial opinion on visuals was "meh." Then the sun comes up and my jaw kindof-sortof drops to the floor. It has to be seen to be understood, the level of interactivity, physics affecting every minute object in the game, inside and outside, detailed interiors of buildings, endlessly diverse pedestrians, dynamic lighting. . . Okay so we've all studied up on the various new features so i bestn't list them all. But It's sweet.
First few missions are. . . identical to the first few missions of every GTA game. You drive people around, threaten some stupids about their late debt, etc. Pretty straight forward. The format of the game is familiar, perhaps TOO familiar: go to glowing thingie, start cutscene, shoot some people, end cutscene. Thazzit. I wouldn't mind a little mixup of that system, but i'm not going to complain considering the sheer amount of stuff to do.
The missions are similar, but generally more interesting than previous incarnations for a number of reasons: better layout, enemies are placed in reasonable locations as opposed to random chumps coming at you from the street, AI is generally improved, they take cover and shit, though the intelligence is not quite comparable to recent shooters.
Oh, PS: aiming no longer INHALES DICK. Which is a huge plus-- adjustable lock-on is very intuitive, however it often aims at the absolute wrong target, and while having the option of regular shooter controls, pulling the trigger half-way is tedius. I'd have definitely preferred full 3rd-person-shooter controls with morecpolish than a lock-on system. But thats a matter of taste, as a feature in the game it works well, aside from needing a better way to swap targets.
When GTA San Andreas came out, i thought about what Rockstar would do with the next generation concerning the violence. I figured, with these barely-human polygonal disasters causing so much controversy already, they would have to either tone down the amount of death, or make it cartoony, even more so than it already was. . . They did just the opposite. The violence has been turned up about eleven notches. Realistic Euphoria-powered physics make hitting people with cars absolutely thud-tastic. You'll drive away to see pedestrian juices smeared all over your bumpers. The blood has gone from cartoon showers to good old fashion Bam-thud-splat blood splatter, in addition to body wounds (on occasion) and pools of blood that shimmer in the light. OK so i KNOW it sounds odd to describe this so extensively, but the attention to detail they payed to every other part of the game is found here as well-- its violent. Really violent. There's a hint of added realism that may put some people off the game.
Apart from basic gameplay, what i'm most impressed with so far is the quality of the voice-acting, and general cinematic feel of the cutscenes. These are hands down the best collection of likable, or at least believable, characters i've seen in a game. Niko is a (somewhat brutal) human being with a troubled conscience, but you actually find yourself liking him. His cousin reminds me of someone i actually know, and the baddies are amply evil, crooked, or just plain crazy. The character set is almost as impressive as those from valve, however there are many more to learn about and focus on.
An amusing observation: Niko is portrayed as a troubled, but caring individual who has a conscience, and feels bad about his deeds. In fact, in one scene he executes an important NPC, and regrets it, creating a very emotional moment. The fact remains though, that no matter how careful you are, you'll still go about MURDERING DOZENS OF INNOCENTS. But no matter, right? The contrast is rather jarring. This isn't really a critique, as this is only an issue because Niko is such a well-drawn personality.
Okay so this report is a bit too positive-raving-esque, its not so much that the game is perfect as i've only played it enough to give brief observations. Does it deserve a 10? i doubt it. But i can say the first hour or so was quite excellent indeed.
