What is so good about GTA4?

[Mr. Google]

Every time i ask some one this question i get the same response, "The story is really fun and good". I have played lets say the first 5 hours of the story and it defined repetitive and annoying. Follow the car for 20 minutes oh shoot you got 5 inches too close restart from the beginning, alright you got done with that now go into this random warehouse and kill everyone. YAY you win congrats! [b/]The story itself was nothing special in my eyes their was no time when i felt like i needed to keep playing.[/b] When i point this out to my friends they always say oh well good point i guess it wasnt that good when i think about it. Then they have nothing left because the online was sub par at best. But they always seem to say Free Roam and even thats repetitive you get to shoot civilians the cops chase you, you run away, repeat. So tell me is there something here that i am missing?

[Edit] I already said that the story was nothing special it wasnt interesting at all it was stupid and cliche do i have to bold it for you people? And to add i would have liked the game more if every single character had died they all were so annoying and the cousin would call me every 5 minutes to "hang out" im sorry you just told me to go on a mission why would i want to go bowling!

 

[Nom Pretentieux]

That's the gameplay you're complaining about not the story. Anyways, those are some of the key points that make me hate GTA IV. They made GTA III, great game, then vice city, perfection, then san andreas, which was maybe not as good, but RIPE on content, variety and amazing missions. Cue GTAIV, the biggest budget, yet less innovation in mission variety than the freaking first one.

To me, gta IV is just not fun. At all.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

You're complaining about the gameplay. Not the story.
The story is the cutscenes, the dialogue, the voice acting.
I loved the story, enjoyed the gameplay, didn't mind the repetitiveness. So, yeah, there is something that you're missing, but, if you haven't found it yet, you probably won't. Unless you're skipping the cutscenes. Because that's just wrong.

 

[Varrdy]

One thing that appeals so much is the attention to detail that's gone into Liberty City and it's inhabitants. Most of it is just little things like random conversations between citizens, the radio shows and the scathingly piss-taking adverts. It adds to the immersion and even the internet, not that it's much use, has tonnes of funny but irrelevant content. Just like the real world then. The game has such a huge sense of humour.

The story itself has many twists and turns it resembles a great big twisty-turny thing and several of the characters make my brain hurt but by and large I can spend ages playing it.

I realise not everyone will "get" it but it's all down to what you like I suppose.

Wardy

 

[The Procrastinated End]

Well considering your main complaint is repetition why not try going sandbox happy and doing something completely random.

 

[Dexiro]

I've never heard anyone say it was good, it's nothing in comparison to San Andreas at least.

The GTA reviews are probably the most obvious use of bribes ever too, every freaking one gets 10/10 from everyone other than user reviewers.

 

[Nom Pretentieux]

One thing that appeals so much is the attention to detail that's gone into Liberty City and it's inhabitants. Most of it is just little things like random conversations between citizens, the radio shows and the scathingly piss-taking adverts. It adds to the immersion and even the internet, not that it's much use, has tonnes of funny but irrelevant content. Just like the real world then. The game has such a huge sense of humour.

The story itself has many twists and turns it resembles a great big twisty-turny thing and several of the characters make my brain hurt but by and large I can spend ages playing it.

I realise not everyone will "get" it but it's all down to what you like I suppose.

Wardy

I get what you're saying, but it just brings up another huge problem: The game is in a radical identity crisis between the light hearted satire and the grimey, meaningful story depicting an immigrant making all the wrong choices in a strange land.

The game needs to decide whether it takes itself seriously or not. It seems like they wanted to go a new direction with it, but were afraid to let go of a big selling point. In which case, grow a pair. Red Dead suffers from this exact same problem at times, though not as blatantly.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

The story is actually decent. Yeah, the realism isn't needed, but it's still fun.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

snip

Oh, I missed so many opportunities to argue with you, dear sir, due to that damn holiday, so I'm not missing this one.

I actually consider 4 a serious step down from what made SA great. That is, the atmosphere...

Is it? Because, as far as I've seen, it's the most atmospheric one since Vice City.
Maybe I just didn't get San Andreas, but I sure as hell got GTA IV and the feeling of atmospheric value and the work that went into creating this living, although a little too inconsistent, world.
Here's my personal example - this is the first foreign game that set up a Russian district in the town that actually felt like a Russian district and hired GOOD Russian VAs to voice the pedestriants.

the humour

But there was. It's just that it really was removed far away from the story.

the rich and detailed world

Well, it's not particularly rich, but it's detailed as hell, imo.

and the freedom to act like a complete maniac in a consequence free environment.

Well, yeah, that one is gone.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I went back to it lately and found it to be a mixed bag.

The world design and immersive atmosphere are great, but there are so many horrible flaws in the gameplay:

No mission checkpoints

Horrendous controls on foot

Shit framerate

Dumb Freindly AI

Dumb enemy Ai

Repitition and lack of mission variety

Hand to hand combat is redundant

I played for 5 hours until a police chase when my car drove into a ditch, I got stuck and I had to run around for ages looking for a new one, while my AI partner got himself shot. I quit and didn't go back.

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

The atmosphere, the story, the characters, the combat, the city and the immersion.

Without doubt, GTA SA has a bigger variety of environments but everything feels dead. San Andreas is like your personal playground. Liberty city is like a living, breathing monster. I feel sucked into it. The immersion is amazing, sometimes I just walk down Star Junction and really feel like I'm in it. GTA IV is the first game where sometimes I just walk around and enjoy the environment. I love driving around the city, I like the feel of it.

I also love the combat, it's solid and it feels great to jump from cover to cover. In IV you actually have to worry about surviving a gunfight and use cover. For me, gunfights in IV were far more exciting than gunfights in SA. In the latter, you can easily run n'gun.

The story is one of the best I've ever seen in a game and Bellic is an amazing and extremely likable character. He had a brilliant backstory. I felt sorry for him at some points of the game. I couldn't identify with CJ at all, I couldn't take him seriously.

 

[moose_man]

F*cking autoaim. When I want to blow up my car, STOP AIMING FOR OTHER PEOPLE.

 

[Woodsey]

The atmosphere, the story, the characters, the combat, the city and the immersion.

The story is clichéd and has some serious pacing issues, some characters are pretty funny (Brucie) but for the most part remain 1-dimensional (Niko is huge hypocrite, and not particularly likable), the combat is DREADFUL (anyone to claim otherwise is simply wrong), and the immersion is frequently broken by shit controls, the vaseline-smear and the unrelenting satire.

That's my personal take at any rate. It's not a bad game (hell, I'm playing it right now) but I think everyone knows it only got the scores and reviews it did because it's called Grand Theft Auto, not because it's truly amazing.

 

[Estocavio]

You're complaining about the gameplay. Not the story.
The story is the cutscenes, the dialogue, the voice acting.
I loved the story, enjoyed the gameplay, didn't mind the repetitiveness. So, yeah, there is something that you're missing, but, if you haven't found it yet, you probably won't. Unless you're skipping the cutscenes. Because that's just wrong.

Same here; Though GTA IV is for a particular audience. The thing is though, all the things that people complain about in GTA (Repetition, 'bad' story, simple missions [Even though no other game has missions like them] 'Brown' [Though all is grey] graphics, and the realism angle)
You can apply that logic to Every COD game to date, the Halo franchise, Gears of War, Assassins Creed, Mass Effects 1 and 2, and basically everything else.
You either like it or you dont, and people have every right to dislike it, but i can fault the most common reasons.

F*cking autoaim. When I want to blow up my car, STOP AIMING FOR OTHER PEOPLE.

{Start/Escape>Controls>AutoAim>Off.}

I've never heard anyone say it was good, it's nothing in comparison to San Andreas at least.

The GTA reviews are probably the most obvious use of bribes ever too, every freaking one gets 10/10 from everyone other than user reviewers.

Im not contradicting you, but the matter there is more of who you asked, and furthermore, people here have said exactly that.
San Andreas was a fun-loving game, but in all honesty, if they made a San Andreas remake in a different city, people would complain about that instead.
Also...

Spoiler

http://au.gamespot.com/users/hamood2213/?tag=player-reviews;username;3
http://au.gamespot.com/users/whipassmt/?tag=player-reviews;username;1
http://au.gamespot.com/users/it22318/?tag=player-reviews;username;2
http://au.gamespot.com/users/goodpie5/?tag=player-reviews;username;4
http://readerreviews.ign.com/rrview/tv/grand_theft_auto_iv/827005/126577/

Actually, i suppose i am contradicting you. I mean no offence however.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

That's not the plot, that would be the gameplay of the missions. There is a very big difference between what the game does for a story and the actual gameplay.

The reason I loved the game so much was because it simply had a city that actually felt alive. It had citizens that actually seemed like they were part of the city. The game looks awesome in itself, probably one of the best looking Free-Roaming games I have ever seen. Combine those two with the awesome characters, funny dialog and tons of things to do, then you got yourself a winner and in my opinion, a game of the year candidate.

 

[Lust]

It's fun when you fly out of a car, flip in the air, and just roll around. Or run around with a live grenade in your hand, just waiting to go sky high.

Ragdoll physics are fun.

Also, the story's alright and the voice acting is pretty good. Combat could've been improved, though.

It's dumb fun. Pure and simple.

 

[Mobynick]

One thing that appeals so much is the attention to detail that's gone into Liberty City and it's inhabitants. Most of it is just little things like random conversations between citizens, the radio shows and the scathingly piss-taking adverts. It adds to the immersion and even the internet, not that it's much use, has tonnes of funny but irrelevant content. Just like the real world then. The game has such a huge sense of humour.

The story itself has many twists and turns it resembles a great big twisty-turny thing and several of the characters make my brain hurt but by and large I can spend ages playing it.

I realise not everyone will "get" it but it's all down to what you like I suppose.

Wardy

I get what you're saying, but it just brings up another huge problem: The game is in a radical identity crisis between the light hearted satire and the grimey, meaningful story depicting an immigrant making all the wrong choices in a strange land.

The game needs to decide whether it takes itself seriously or not. It seems like they wanted to go a new direction with it, but were afraid to let go of a big selling point. In which case, grow a pair. Red Dead suffers from this exact same problem at times, though not as blatantly.

To address these points, my good sir, I would say these things aren't conflicting identity at all. For one, who says satires can't be meaningful? the US is a strange and confusing place, full of colorful characters, chaotic scenery and ethical dilemmas. How foreigners react and decide in such an environment is near unpredictable, yet this is part of the beauty of the American dream, arguably a central theme of the series.

My point is this: the two seemingly incompatible aspects you described are really two components of the same big sandbox world Rock Star tries to create, and, in my opinion, is combined quite successfully.