"The fish market smells fishy?"
IV tells the story of Niko, a slav ex-soldier who travels to not-NYC under false promises from his cousin. Niko is a very charismatic protagonist and works perfectly as a vehicle to bring home themes of loyalty, betrayal, revenge and moving on. The story sprawls for about 20 hours, has a very interesting supporting cast, with memorable and colorful characters whose presence doesn't just end at a cutscene, they're constantly dipping in and out of the story and after hanging out enough they reward the player with further details, secrets, development. It would afterwards be expanded with two DLCs starring characters whose stories intertwine with Niko's and show the city from different points of view.
On the technical side, the game is still amazing to see. I do remember being blown away in like 2008 seeing the gameplay videos on YouTube back when I was playing VC. Must have been quite mind-blowing to play this back then. Everything built around the player is just as great. The damage models, the way ragdolls react to projectiles, the driving, the world's density and how the player can interact with so many objects in the world, an open world setting that feels alive, dense and almost tangible thanks to its physics simulation systems and attention to detail. The absolute flex that is to have all of this running on consoles with 512mb ram is something special.
The world is constantly throwing stuff at you, be it the TV system, the phone calls, the radio shows that often address your recent crimes, the music (featuring a reggaeton station hosted by the man himself daddy yankee), the dialogs during missions, the strangers, it is quite multi layered and constantly engaging and makes it the opposite of a podcast game.
There are two mechanics that were quite novel and further expanded the world, one of which is the internet. Emails that show more about Niko's backstory and allow him to take on certain missions and date. It also allows the player to find some more comical, satirical websites that are somewhat funny to read.
The other one is the phone, it keeps you connected to the other characters, allows you to call the police, get the title of the song that's playing, call for backup, call a cab, take pictures, enter cheats, among other features.
The gameplay is solid, the vehicles are notorious for their driving being a big departure from the previous games but I quite enjoyed them, cars do have a lot of weight to them this time around and so do guns. Sadly there aren't enough guns (DLCs add a handful but aren't available on main game), but the shooting is good, it rewards careful positioning and introduces a cover system that goes well with the new combat style. Works particularly well with how enemies react to bullets, as one well positioned shot will take them out of cover or stagger them. The movement from cover to cover is somewhat of unpolished and can lead to unfortunate deaths.
There are some things lacking from the previous games, namely stuff like planes and the more ambitious, grand missions. I think the ones in this game make sense the way they are, not having jets work well with the dense city map, but some variety could have been good to see, at some point it's very much just "drive to x, chase x, kill x, escape the cops". The weakest point in the mission design I think is how some enemies just are invincible during certain sections for spectacle's sake. There's a certain mission where Niko chases a biker, where it doesn't matter how many bullets you put in him, he will stay invincible until they get to a park, and there are more missions with this kind of plot armor.
However, as a whole package it is a great game, Rockstar proving to be shoulders and head above the competition. GTA IV is still one of the greatest crime epics in all of video games as a medium, a crowning achievement for the industry as a whole.
IV tells the story of Niko, a slav ex-soldier who travels to not-NYC under false promises from his cousin. Niko is a very charismatic protagonist and works perfectly as a vehicle to bring home themes of loyalty, betrayal, revenge and moving on. The story sprawls for about 20 hours, has a very interesting supporting cast, with memorable and colorful characters whose presence doesn't just end at a cutscene, they're constantly dipping in and out of the story and after hanging out enough they reward the player with further details, secrets, development. It would afterwards be expanded with two DLCs starring characters whose stories intertwine with Niko's and show the city from different points of view.
On the technical side, the game is still amazing to see. I do remember being blown away in like 2008 seeing the gameplay videos on YouTube back when I was playing VC. Must have been quite mind-blowing to play this back then. Everything built around the player is just as great. The damage models, the way ragdolls react to projectiles, the driving, the world's density and how the player can interact with so many objects in the world, an open world setting that feels alive, dense and almost tangible thanks to its physics simulation systems and attention to detail. The absolute flex that is to have all of this running on consoles with 512mb ram is something special.
The world is constantly throwing stuff at you, be it the TV system, the phone calls, the radio shows that often address your recent crimes, the music (featuring a reggaeton station hosted by the man himself daddy yankee), the dialogs during missions, the strangers, it is quite multi layered and constantly engaging and makes it the opposite of a podcast game.
There are two mechanics that were quite novel and further expanded the world, one of which is the internet. Emails that show more about Niko's backstory and allow him to take on certain missions and date. It also allows the player to find some more comical, satirical websites that are somewhat funny to read.
The other one is the phone, it keeps you connected to the other characters, allows you to call the police, get the title of the song that's playing, call for backup, call a cab, take pictures, enter cheats, among other features.
The gameplay is solid, the vehicles are notorious for their driving being a big departure from the previous games but I quite enjoyed them, cars do have a lot of weight to them this time around and so do guns. Sadly there aren't enough guns (DLCs add a handful but aren't available on main game), but the shooting is good, it rewards careful positioning and introduces a cover system that goes well with the new combat style. Works particularly well with how enemies react to bullets, as one well positioned shot will take them out of cover or stagger them. The movement from cover to cover is somewhat of unpolished and can lead to unfortunate deaths.
There are some things lacking from the previous games, namely stuff like planes and the more ambitious, grand missions. I think the ones in this game make sense the way they are, not having jets work well with the dense city map, but some variety could have been good to see, at some point it's very much just "drive to x, chase x, kill x, escape the cops". The weakest point in the mission design I think is how some enemies just are invincible during certain sections for spectacle's sake. There's a certain mission where Niko chases a biker, where it doesn't matter how many bullets you put in him, he will stay invincible until they get to a park, and there are more missions with this kind of plot armor.
However, as a whole package it is a great game, Rockstar proving to be shoulders and head above the competition. GTA IV is still one of the greatest crime epics in all of video games as a medium, a crowning achievement for the industry as a whole.
Reviewed on Feb 13, 2023