sometimes it's difficult to divorce the feelings that surround you while you play a game from the game itself.
in this case, for me, a two-plus month depression that made playing this way more of a slog than I initially desired it to be.
on the other hand I found it a sort of safe recluse from everything else. it was nice to have an hour or so a night a night (or every other night (or every other other night)) to come home to this waiting for me, and just murder my way through an insanely detailed AI recreation of New York City as Niko Bellic, sociopath with a heart of gold.
in many ways this feels like an episodic adventure, a long form game that's meant to be played piecemeal over an extended period of time, not shoved down your gullet in a week (how I originally played it 13 years ago).
that said i feel like the game takes ages just to say one simple thing. and that length might be the point but it's also very wonkily written. it's weird to say that it either needed to be way shorter and tighter; or way longer and more meaningful. i feel like it's a huge slab of meat of a game that's undercooked in the middle.
i think the beauty of GTA IV, as much as there is a beauty to any game this bloated and wide, is all in the smaller brushstrokes of the world creation. the details in the environment, from the graffiti and murals on the walls, to the ethnic makeup of the NPCs in each neighborhood, the cars and traffic AI, the talk radio, the different uniforms and shapes of the police officers, the steam and hiss that rise from the streets. the fact that you have to pay a toll to go from Broken to Bohan and nowhere else. the useless atm and car washes. the stupid Ricky Gervais comedy act you can attend. the dating "mini games". it's a highly detailed game to no end except to create a larger diaroma-esque level of immersion. it's cool.
the ugliness of this game is just in its banal, flavorless story of revenge. none of the character and charm present in the world of Liberty City shines through in the story or actual characters. just broad cliche after broad cliche with a few somewhat vageuly memorable shootouts in the middle (the Heat inspired bank robbery still a standout). I forgot there's some overarching plot about stolen diamonds that's used as connective tissue between this and the two expansion DLCs that kind of adds up to nothing as well. it's all so meh. i guess i liked the shooting enough, the combat shotgun is S-tier, but honestly all this time spent replaying this could have been spent replaying the much stronger Max Payne 3.
eh. i wish i was in a better mood and finished this quicker because I am mostly thinking about all the games I could have played instead.
in this case, for me, a two-plus month depression that made playing this way more of a slog than I initially desired it to be.
on the other hand I found it a sort of safe recluse from everything else. it was nice to have an hour or so a night a night (or every other night (or every other other night)) to come home to this waiting for me, and just murder my way through an insanely detailed AI recreation of New York City as Niko Bellic, sociopath with a heart of gold.
in many ways this feels like an episodic adventure, a long form game that's meant to be played piecemeal over an extended period of time, not shoved down your gullet in a week (how I originally played it 13 years ago).
that said i feel like the game takes ages just to say one simple thing. and that length might be the point but it's also very wonkily written. it's weird to say that it either needed to be way shorter and tighter; or way longer and more meaningful. i feel like it's a huge slab of meat of a game that's undercooked in the middle.
i think the beauty of GTA IV, as much as there is a beauty to any game this bloated and wide, is all in the smaller brushstrokes of the world creation. the details in the environment, from the graffiti and murals on the walls, to the ethnic makeup of the NPCs in each neighborhood, the cars and traffic AI, the talk radio, the different uniforms and shapes of the police officers, the steam and hiss that rise from the streets. the fact that you have to pay a toll to go from Broken to Bohan and nowhere else. the useless atm and car washes. the stupid Ricky Gervais comedy act you can attend. the dating "mini games". it's a highly detailed game to no end except to create a larger diaroma-esque level of immersion. it's cool.
the ugliness of this game is just in its banal, flavorless story of revenge. none of the character and charm present in the world of Liberty City shines through in the story or actual characters. just broad cliche after broad cliche with a few somewhat vageuly memorable shootouts in the middle (the Heat inspired bank robbery still a standout). I forgot there's some overarching plot about stolen diamonds that's used as connective tissue between this and the two expansion DLCs that kind of adds up to nothing as well. it's all so meh. i guess i liked the shooting enough, the combat shotgun is S-tier, but honestly all this time spent replaying this could have been spent replaying the much stronger Max Payne 3.
eh. i wish i was in a better mood and finished this quicker because I am mostly thinking about all the games I could have played instead.