Grand Theft Auto 4 is the hugely anticipated continuation of the GTA series. It boasts an entirely new game engine, making for a surprisingly dramatic difference between itself and it's predecessors.
Gameplay: 9.5
GTA 4 follows the classic mold - you're the new guy in town and you work your way to the top by breaking a myriad of laws and hanging with the wrong crowd, somehow still able to be a quality guy.
This game is primarily a 3rd person shooter, but has a huge element of free roam and adventure-style side quests/missions.
Grand Theft Auto 4's game engine is immediately the first thing a fan of the GTA series would notice. Everything has natural physics and there's almost no practiced animations anywhere in the game. One of the most fun things of the game is getting in a car, driving 100 miles per hour and jumping out, watching your character tumble and slam into objects. During the time this game was released, no other game had that element of free-flowing physics and it was really something to marvel at. When people got hit by cars they'd actually flop around naturally. Even when pushing somebody, they would stumble around trying to gain their balance instead of flinching and coming to beat you up. As a programmer, their methods of writing this engine and the way characters behave is something I really marvel at. I honestly have no idea how they did it.
The biggest problem with this new physics engine was that the driving was actually too realistic. A lot of people hated the difference between Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and this game. Cars felt slow and sluggish, just like reality. Driving frantically involved a lot more crashing into stuff and having your car die than smoothly taking corners at 75 miles per hour and swerving in and out of oncoming traffic.
GTA 4 had an improved aiming system over the previous games, which never had any precision. Gun fighting boiled down to pressing the aim button and shooting stuff until it was dead. GTA 4 also was one of the first games to start introducing the now-popular cover system, where you can hide behind objects and either blindly fire, throw grenades and run between different cover objects, making for more tactical combat.
One big thing a lot of faithful gamers will criticize is the lack of side-quest material in GTA 4 compared to it's predecessors. I didn't see it as that big of a problem considering it was on an entirely new engine.
Another huge difference between San Andreas and GTA 4 is that GTA 4's map is significantly smaller, but condensed to be all city instead of a bunch of wasted space.
Presentation: 9.5
GTA 4 looks really, really good. They crunched a lot into the game to get it to run the way it does. Even the character models walking around the street look great.
The cut-scenes could have been touched up a little bit if they decided to use actual video instead of real-time mechanisms.
Theatrics: 8.0
GTA 4 has a pretty rambling story, and it's something that is kind of hard to relate to. The voice acting, as always, is good, and the cut-scenes are at least mostly interesting. But they do have some really obnoxious characters and it's pretty hard to care about a lot of the story arc.
Controls: 8.5
Decent controls, but as was covered earlier, I didn't care for a lot of the driving due to how slippery it felt. I know, it's more realistic, but this is an instance in which realism is not optimal.
Replay Value: 10.0
I played through GTA 4 twice and played a fair amount of free roam. There is a ton of content in the game, and even semi-competitive multiplayer if you're feeling adventurous. I must have gotten around 100 hours of total gameplay, not including the expansion campaigns.
Fun: 9.5
GTA 4 overall is a pretty fun game. Free roaming is great, as it's always been, and playing around with the physics provides for a lot of laughs. There are very few frustrating missions throughout the game, and the combat is decent.
The final mission is a little annoying though, like over-the-top ridiculous difficulty at some points. A few other missions can really test your patience, too.
My Overall Rating: 9.5
Appeal and Recommendations
Anybody that played and enjoyed any of the GTA games of the past shouldn't pass this game up. It has a huge appeal and a lot of downloadable content featuring new stories if you're a true fan of the game.
Gameplay: 9.5
GTA 4 follows the classic mold - you're the new guy in town and you work your way to the top by breaking a myriad of laws and hanging with the wrong crowd, somehow still able to be a quality guy.
This game is primarily a 3rd person shooter, but has a huge element of free roam and adventure-style side quests/missions.
Grand Theft Auto 4's game engine is immediately the first thing a fan of the GTA series would notice. Everything has natural physics and there's almost no practiced animations anywhere in the game. One of the most fun things of the game is getting in a car, driving 100 miles per hour and jumping out, watching your character tumble and slam into objects. During the time this game was released, no other game had that element of free-flowing physics and it was really something to marvel at. When people got hit by cars they'd actually flop around naturally. Even when pushing somebody, they would stumble around trying to gain their balance instead of flinching and coming to beat you up. As a programmer, their methods of writing this engine and the way characters behave is something I really marvel at. I honestly have no idea how they did it.
The biggest problem with this new physics engine was that the driving was actually too realistic. A lot of people hated the difference between Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and this game. Cars felt slow and sluggish, just like reality. Driving frantically involved a lot more crashing into stuff and having your car die than smoothly taking corners at 75 miles per hour and swerving in and out of oncoming traffic.
GTA 4 had an improved aiming system over the previous games, which never had any precision. Gun fighting boiled down to pressing the aim button and shooting stuff until it was dead. GTA 4 also was one of the first games to start introducing the now-popular cover system, where you can hide behind objects and either blindly fire, throw grenades and run between different cover objects, making for more tactical combat.
One big thing a lot of faithful gamers will criticize is the lack of side-quest material in GTA 4 compared to it's predecessors. I didn't see it as that big of a problem considering it was on an entirely new engine.
Another huge difference between San Andreas and GTA 4 is that GTA 4's map is significantly smaller, but condensed to be all city instead of a bunch of wasted space.
Presentation: 9.5
GTA 4 looks really, really good. They crunched a lot into the game to get it to run the way it does. Even the character models walking around the street look great.
The cut-scenes could have been touched up a little bit if they decided to use actual video instead of real-time mechanisms.
Theatrics: 8.0
GTA 4 has a pretty rambling story, and it's something that is kind of hard to relate to. The voice acting, as always, is good, and the cut-scenes are at least mostly interesting. But they do have some really obnoxious characters and it's pretty hard to care about a lot of the story arc.
Controls: 8.5
Decent controls, but as was covered earlier, I didn't care for a lot of the driving due to how slippery it felt. I know, it's more realistic, but this is an instance in which realism is not optimal.
Replay Value: 10.0
I played through GTA 4 twice and played a fair amount of free roam. There is a ton of content in the game, and even semi-competitive multiplayer if you're feeling adventurous. I must have gotten around 100 hours of total gameplay, not including the expansion campaigns.
Fun: 9.5
GTA 4 overall is a pretty fun game. Free roaming is great, as it's always been, and playing around with the physics provides for a lot of laughs. There are very few frustrating missions throughout the game, and the combat is decent.
The final mission is a little annoying though, like over-the-top ridiculous difficulty at some points. A few other missions can really test your patience, too.
My Overall Rating: 9.5
Appeal and Recommendations
Anybody that played and enjoyed any of the GTA games of the past shouldn't pass this game up. It has a huge appeal and a lot of downloadable content featuring new stories if you're a true fan of the game.
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