the.blog @scwleung

Can’t believe I sat on this one for a month… I guess that just shows how busy I’ve been lately. But that’s for another post… Let the reviewing begin!

Grand Theft Auto IV!
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Platforms: XBox 360, Playstation 3

What they say:
What does the American dream mean today? For Niko Bellic fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and get dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don’t.

What I say:
There’s already plenty of people who have written their thoughts on this game, so I’ll keep my comments brief.

Wow. This game was a big leap from the previous GTA games I’ve played in the past [I and II], and I have to say, I am very impressed with the robustness of the world. Rockstar did a bang up job recreating New York City, its inhabitants, and the overall feel of the entire world. The storyline is immersive and puts up a good attempt at getting players to empathize with Niko’s situation. Like previous iterations of the game, Niko can commandeer cars, motorcycles and other vehicles in his journey through the city. The player can also ensue in all the mayhem that made the other games in this series a success.

There are a couple of really great points to this game: the story, the realism and the dialogue. It really shows that Rockstar has put a lot of time and effort in making the game feel as much an interactive graphic novel as possible. The story itself keeps drawing me back to my 360 more so than any other aspect of the game.

Despite it’s high level of realism, I still found some parts of the game lacking. Firstly, I find that the cops are really far too gung-ho to chase you down for the tiniest misdemeanor. This only annoys me as I would end up spending more time running away from cops than I would be trying to further my beloved storyline. With such detail to the game, I was surprised to see that Rockstar didn’t incorporate some way to gauge fuel consumption and stall the car when the tank’s running a bit low. The game already embeds a number of different socio-political messages into the gameplay, why not put in others that matter as well?

One of my personal concerns with the game is that players may just gloss over the story in favour of shooting things and doing all things that are Grand Theft Auto. I find this a true shame because the game really does present itself as a reflection of who we are as a society, and how well-intentioned our actions may be, the result can still be dire. This is a message that needs to be reiterated in today’s world.

In spite of some of these shortcomings, I would still recommend this game. Even if you don’t want to be in the driver’s seat [so to speak], it’s still an enjoyable experience to sit back and watch the game being played as if it were a decent drama. Even not having touched the game for a fortnight, I still feel that this game was a very solid investment.