I’ll be the first to admit, I was never really a Grand Theft Auto series fan. The frustrating and tedious mission structure combined with not really caring about the “open world sandbox” gameplay style combined to turn me off from the series after playing a few hours.
However, we’re in the next generation of game consoles now, and I’ve become a bit more open minded and patient with my games. The fact that every Tom, Dick, and Harry out there rushed to throw the highest review scores possible on this game didn’t hurt either.
So one week after getting the game, I finished the main story with about 26 hours and 15 minutes and 62.15% completion according to the game’s stat list. I mainly plowed through the story missions using taxi rides and did a bit of the friend/dating relationships management.
Was it the really best game of the last decade?
Maybe.
I’ve always thought of Grand Theft Auto games as “jack-of-all-trades master of none”, because they combine gameplay elements and styles from many different genres into one cohesive experience. If you took a look, for instance, at just the shooter elements of the game, they don’t compare to a Gears of War or Halo 3. Same goes for the racing elements compared to, say, Burnout. All of these elements are vastly improved in GTA 4, though. Rockstar has taken strides in bringing the overall quality of gameplay closer to their benchmarks.
GTA 4’s most incredible achievement is within the living, breathing game world that Rockstar has created in Liberty City. It’s a truly remarkable accomplishment given the scope of what the player can do within the city, which is pretty much anything. I would say that GTA 4’s Liberty City is the most vibrant and awe-inspiring game environment ever created.
The other crowning achievement of GTA 4 is with its story, dialog, and characters. Without going into any detail, the combination of memorable characters and great script writing are unmatched in gaming. If you like gangster films, you would love the story of this game. I’d feel weird putting it in the same category as The Godfather or Goodfellas, but you can make the argument that all three are of similar quality.
GTA 4 is grounded in the real world, and though you may not be as badass as Niko Bellic in real life, you can relate to his struggles, decisions, and life outlook. The game does a good job of setting up events later on where the decisions you make have a real impact over how the game proceeds. I’ll admit, there were some choices that I really had to pause the game and actually mull over. Unlike Bioshock, there’s no clear cut answer as to the “best” decision. I applaud Rockstar for not making choosing a certain way an achievement in the Xbox 360 version. The player is really forced to make a decision on his own, without external factors weighing in.
Do you stick to your beliefs and resolve as a person? Or do you look at things objectively and make a decision based on wealth/practicality? It’s a debate we constantly find ourselves making in our own lives, and the game really does a good job in integrating that within the story.
Though the plot is fantastic, it’s going to take many hours of gameplay before you reach the good stuff. The game starts off slow, as the first few hours are basically a very extended tutorial on game mechanics. It’s always surprised me how successful GTA has been with the mainstream audience, given the slow start and difficulty of the main game storyline. I’d be curious to see the statistics of people who have actually finished GTA 4.
GTA 4 also has its share of frustrating and difficult moments. The lack of mission checkpoints means that even if you fail 99% into an epic hour long mission, you’re going to have to redo the whole thing. I’ve shouted many a curseword as I failed long missions near the end. The last mission, in particular, is egregiously bogus. There’s a segment late in it that is completely unintuitive to both the game context and instructions the game gives you. If you get hit once you fail the mission and have to redo the preceding 20 minutes before you can try again. To make matters worse, this frustrating sequence totally killed the buzz I had from the endgame story because after 3 hours of retrying, I had pretty much forgot/didn’t care anymore. It’s a wonder this got through Rockstar’s QA/focus testing.
If you’re a casual gamer, GTA 4 seems like a pretty daunting game to play if you are intent on finishing the story (which is arguably the best part of the game). If you don’t care about the story and just want to putz around a large city, it’s almost worth a purchase just to do that. The game isn’t as accessible as something like Wii Sports or even Super Mario Galaxy. Somehow I don’t see Bob Lefsetz and his newly earned “cred” finishing this one.
At the end of the day, I personally don’t think it quite captures the essence of gaming fun as, say, Super Mario Galaxy did last year. Nevertheless, GTA 4 might be the most important game of the last decade in terms of mainstream awareness and story/presentation. If GTA 4 is the one game sent to represent what sort of entertainment is possible within the gaming medium, I would be proud to support that.
