GTA IV

First of all, let me admit that this can only be described as a "first look" at GTA IV, as i didn't have the patience to actually play this game until it ended.

After having played through Saints Row 2 and liked it almost as much as cup noodles, I decided it was time to dive into the king of the "kill stuff in big city" genre.

The first thing you notices when spawned into the big city of New Y.. sorry liberty city is that compared to SR2 this looks prettier. Not by much, but the light-effects and filters are more appealing and the city and cars seem more detailed. But then you pick up the controller, and suddenly any will to explore that you might have had is gone. Compared to SR2 the controls feel so heavy that it makes you wonder whether the Protagonist (Niko Bellic) has eaten a black hole, and although you can probably get used to it, it is still annoying in the beggining. The handing of the cars are also a lot more difficult, though this is not such a big problem as it actually makes driving a bit more interesting..

..until you get to a tollbooth or gets a harassing phone call from one of your annoying friends, because for some reason Rockstar believes that its fanbase wants to be interrupted every once in a while to go off and nurture a virtual social sphere. I found these small interruptions a bit annoying as they kept me from my real goal: to be entertained by shooting bad guys and/ or pedestrians.

Then it was time for me to try some of the missions. After all that's the whole point of the game. Let me first of all clarify something. I don't like the GTA IV storyline. I have no sympathy for Nico Bellic and his eternal worrying about killing people. This is mainly because his only motivation to do so is lack of money, something i couldn't identify with as a player at all as i spent most of my time running around with 20.000$ in my pockets and nothing to use them for.

The missions themselves are pretty alright and fairly varied, and it seems they have actually got the targeting system right this time. The only place you will encounter problems is if you die in the end of a mission, because then you will have to restart the whole thing because no checkpoints are present. To further add to your annoyance you will probably have to spend some time driving around and buying ammo before you are ready to restart it (or start another one). These 2 things was what ultimately killed my enthusiasm for this game. all the other problems are minor, bur lacking checkpoints in missions is an unforgivable sin to me.

As said i am probably not aware of GTA IVs full capabilities, but if i had to give it a score now i would say:

Story: 4/10 Gameplay: 6/10 sound: 9/10 graphics: 8/10

Overall: 6/10

Info:
Developer: Rockstars
Publisher: Rockstars
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

I also made a more positive review of this game a few years ago on my old blog:
http://gearandgames.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in how much i liked GTA IV before i tried the Saints Row series.