POSTMORTEM – GTA IV

2008. The year of perfect tens, it seems.

GTA IV shocked the world when it was released last April. Mostly not because of the realistic open-world environment, the Hollywood-style story or its delay. It’s because GTA IV was released to the biggest fanfare of any game in the last 10 years. It has a aggregated score of 98 on Metacritic.com, with most of the reviewers calling it “the greatest game ever made.”

Do these bold claims hold up after 2 months or were the scores a result of years of hype? Grand Theft Auto IV produced one of the most widespread cases of hyperbolism in video gaming history, producing such quotes as “It’s not a stretch to say that, were this a film, some of the “performances” would be Oscar-worthy,” and “I now know how film critics felt after screening The Godfather.” Many game critics compared the game to a film, and like a film that it gives that good feeling after walking out of the theater showing a good movie.

Grand Theft Auto has always been a good franchise. GTA III pushed the envelope on gaming in general with its new concept of what an open world game should be. The two sequels further expanded on the idea, but the games’ main mechanics stayed largely untouched. Now, some would say that GTA IV did not innovate that much, and that I mostly agree with. However, it evolved the gameplay and refined it so much that it felt like a new experience while maintaining that GTA-feel. For instance, the cell phone and GPS feel like natural progression. The density is also a welcome progression in the game, unlike San Andreas’ boring and dead open spaces. This game has definitely evolved, and has made it one of the greats.

2 months from now I don’t feel nearly as much impact from the game as I did back then. Other gamers are feeling the same way too, though to a more negative extent. Many have said they’ll probably prefer Saints Row 2 because of its over the top action, but that’s something GTA has already done. That’s old news. Sure, Saints Row is going to be enjoyable for that fact, but its scores will probably not be has high because it doesn’t have character, and it doesn’t have development like in GTA IV. Well, that’s the impression the marketing has given me.

Character is something the series has greatly built upon since its beginnings. Evolving from GTA III’s nameless hero comes Niko Belic, a generally likable guy with a deep back story and motivation of vengeance. This is something GTA has never don’t fantastic (although CJ in SA was pretty good). In the latest iteration, the person you play feels like a real person. He talks, makes jokes, has a story and is a generally good guy. This is how you feel during big cut-scenes and smalltalk in the car. This is how the game shows Niko.

But when you play the small-time missions, it’s an entirely different story. Niko says he kills only when he has to. Yet he kills so many people in the course of his missions simply because he’s told to. This is where it breaks the illusion that Niko is a good guy. In these situation it just seems he doesn’t have principles and only kills for money. Even driving around, accidentally killing someone, Niko will only sometimes utter, “Oops, sorry,” but shows no real interest in the matter.

Speaking of breaking the illusion, while boasting its non-linearity, it has some extremely linear missions. Such as if you know someone is going to run out the back door, and you park a car there before hand so they can’t get out. Yet, when they run out that door, the car is gone, and you’re forced to undergo a chase where most of the time its impossible to kill the person until they crash their car because the game made it or a scene triggers. Its understandable why they did it, though. They meant to maintain the illusion of fast paced excitement all the time, but sometimes it just does the exact opposite.

These flaws are there and apparent, but they don’t detract from the game a lot. This game is very, very good. Maybe not the 10 people have given it, but just about. The story, its characters, its city in general are all fantastically well done, and probably took the most effort to make game in history. The game is fantastic, and has definitely lived up to the hype. The game still as good as it was 2 and a half months ago, even after the endless dissecting and prodding of the game. While some gamers are bashing the story, the extra curricular activities, the non-’over-the-top-ness’, I disagree. I applaud all those things. They make the game amazing.

Do yourself a favor and play it. Anywhere, rent it, buy it, borrow it from a friend. You will like this game. It will be fun.

~ by Patrick Nguyen on July 12, 2008.