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A Liberty City story
Hands on with “Grand Theft Auto IV”
By Marty Sliva
There simply weren’t enough hours in the day to truly experience everything the game has to offer, so the following opinions are based on roughly 20 hours in Liberty City, and in all honesty, the surface has barely been scratched.
Society is about to crumble, and we can all thank “Grand Theft Auto IV” for that.
While some ignorant talking heads who crave attention will make uneducated claims about how video games are causing rampant moral depravity in today’s youth, the true reason that society will crumble is because “GTA” is so addictive, that once you pick it up you’ll find it hard to pry the controller from your hands.
It must be said that this isn’t a review, so much as a hands on impression. There simply weren’t enough hours in the day to truly experience everything the game has to offer, so the following opinions are based on roughly 20 hours in Liberty City, and in all honesty, the surface has barely been scratched.
Like previous “Grand Theft Auto” games, the story in “IV” revolves around the false preconceptions of the American dream. This time around, you play as Niko Bellic, a European immigrant from an unnamed second world country who has just arrived in Liberty City in order to claim his piece of the pie. While the player originally assumes that Niko is just in America to get rich, it becomes apparent that he has an alternate agenda that is fueled by the ghosts of his past and the eternal literary tradition of revenge.
The characters in the game are all vividly realized through visuals, writing and voice acting. The awkward robotic animations of “GTA” past have been replaced with fluid characters that are as deep and compelling as any the medium have ever seen.
As great as the characters are, the true star of the game is Liberty City itself. Foregoing the massive sprawl that San Andreas, the developers at Rockstar opted to create a smaller environment that was infinitely denser. The result is a New York City facsimile that truly feels like a living, breathing city. It’s the first time that I can remember feeling like I could completely remove myself from the game world, and yet the people who inhabit it would still exist and go about their daily lives.
The term “sandbox game” has been coined to describe any experience like “Grand Theft Auto” that allows the user to play with the world their in and essentially create their own fun. The fourth installment in the series does away with the concept of a sandbox, instead becoming more akin to a toy store stocked to the brim with anything a kid could possibly desire.
The sheer amount of things to do in the game can be overwhelming to say the least. Story missions aside, I’ve spent about a dozen hours partaking in what can only be referred to as blissful nonsense.
From joyriding around a faux-Coney Island to attempting to climb every tall structure I could find, the game constantly presents the player with new ways to entertain myself. My personal favorite of these makeshift pastimes was when I just sat my character on his couch and ended up watching a fictional poker program on television. The writers at Rockstar have honed their satire over the years, and their views on the world of professional gambling are scathingly hilarious.
Sadly, all is not perfect in the city of liberty. From my few hours spent with the game, I’ve noticed that the chronic “GTA” control problem has been slightly remedied, but not fully cured. Although the gunplay is noticeably smoother than any of the previous installments, it still seems as if the player has to wrestle with their character in order to pull off any sort of complex maneuver.
Control issues aside, which may be alleviated as I put more and more hours into the game, “GTA IV” is truly a step forward in the medium, and the trail it leaves behind is one that players will be treading for months.
With an untapped reservoir of online components, coupled with the promise of downloadable content in the fall, “Grand Theft Auto IV” is an experience that will provide more hours of straight up entertainment that just about any form of art ever has.
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