Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)

This is a gritty, mature open-world action game that pushes storytelling and realism to new heights, and in my opinion, a way more serious, depressing and heavy when it comes to it's story, compared to the previous titles. And this is why this is my favorite GTA title, I'm not really a fan of the sandboxing, I'm more interested in the story, and the story of this one is the best, at least for me. Set in a detailed and atmospheric Liberty City, the MC this time is Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant navigating the American dream through crime and violence.

The PC version features enhanced graphics and mod support, but was plagued at launch by performance issues and technical bugs, as most console-to-PC ports are, unfortunately. Still, once optimized, it delivers a rich sandbox experience with deep characters, dark humor, and memorable missions, even though again, I'm not that big of a fan of GTA's sandboxing myself.

The game's driving physics and cover-based shooting were divisive but added realism, this GTA has the worst driving gameplay out of all, due to it trying to be more realistic than arcady, so the driving doesn't feel as smooth compared to all the other GTA entries. I highly recommend this one to any GTA fan, or for those who like a darker story telling, similar to something like Max Payne for example. At the same time, it has some lightweight moments, such as every GTA has, can't help but to enjoy those more comfy sections while they last.

I got nostalgic about this game and decided to play it again after something like 10 years.

I like the Euphoria ragdoll physics on NPCs and how the cars get procedurally damaged. That was cut from GTA V. I don't like how everything is shades of grey—and with no AA, the game looks kinda bad on PC.

I was very determined to finish the game this time, but I got incredibly sick of it at the same part where I dropped it years ago.

The game begins with a good balance of storytelling, interesting characters, and various activities. But somewhere after the 20-hour mark, it becomes a tedious chore. Missions shift into: "ride halfway across the city, kill 30+ guys (shooting isn’t fun here), chase the target in a car, flee from cops."

Cutscenes also get repetitive. Sometimes even Niko seems bored and just wants the other person to get to the point.

Another one of those games that I skipped. I remember that, for a little while, the general hype about this game was motivating me to get a PS3 and play it, because at the time it would have been impossible for me to find a computer that was able to run it. Turns out it was also impossible for me to find a PS3 (or a TV, or a steady home) at the time so yeah, another 17 years passed before I finally had the opportunity to play the successor of the GOAT, the marvelous GTA: San Andreas.

And the plot twist for this is that in those 17 years I kinda got tired of those type of games, Alanis be praised. I tried to play GTA V last year and only could give it like a 5 hour spin before being absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of meaningless shit to do in that map. That experience really allowed me to measure just how much of a different mindset I had about games before and how different the approach. I can't really explain it precisely but even when San Andreas frees you up to do an incredibly amount of shit from the get-go, somehow the world didn't feel so big and so empty at the same time. Maybe it was the limited draw distance or the tint or the fact that you could not get out of Los Santos without being bombarded to smithereens.

I thought that maybe I made the jump to fast and playing GTA IV would prepare me better to tackle GTA V afterwards, and the reality is that I get bored with sandboxes now. Like I need a clear objective, an overarching theme or something to start bulding up because this thing of having a massive map full of shit to do in the first half hour of playtime is annoying. I find it annoying.

In all fairness, the story of GTA IV is very good, and Niko Bellic is a great character. More often that not I see takes online about how Niko is probably the best protagonist in the franchise, and I see the vision. I don't want to sound like a non-commital centrist but honestly I don't care enough about this franchise to say "Niko is the best protagonist" with certainty, especially when CJ and Claude have such a nostalgic weight around them, but re-introducing Liberty City through the eyes of an immigrant was a bold and clever move, and the twist and turns in the narration were satisfying, even when they were a little muddled by the amount of dumb sidequesting you end up doing just by the fact that you don't really know which one is a story mission or a side quest.

This is a good game, I can see it, but holy moly I got BORED playing it. I didn't even bothered looking at the achievements because half-way through I already knew I was not going to go for the Platinum trophy. Would I replay it? Maybe, I don't know. If something this game made me realize that there is NO WAY IN HELL I am spending a hundred bucks on GTA VI on release. Thanks, but no thanks.

The fictionalized NYC looks beautiful here. Historically, this is the first GTA with a convincing interactive open world.

Like the other old GTAs, this one is also unfortunately spoiled by the backtrack after mission fail-mechanic.

The movement outside of cars feels incredibly clumpsy and unnatural. That is paradox, as Rockstar tried to be realistic here I think. This is a problem that they didn't resolve in GTAV as well btw.

Oh, and moving in a car does not feel as good as it used to be. Again, trying to be realistic I guess, the curve ratio of most cars makes driving a little less enjoyable than in former GTAs.

In general, missions are way too easy, and if you fail them, it was not because they've been a challenge, but because you've been confused as it was not clearly told what to do and that under the pressure of time.

Niko Bellic's fake slawic accent is always on the verge of cringe, and most characters are written in the same old rockstar way as we know it: sometimes a little bit funny, sometimes a little bit more towards the a little bit too 'oh my, this didn't age well'-end.

Again, the best part is the absurd humor of the radio programs and tv shows.

Rockstar has questionable writing and the missions opt too much for quantitiy than quality. The game is allright, but not more.

Leaving the cartoonish stylization behind, Grand Theft Auto IV took the Grand Theft Auto series to a whole new level by creating a more realistic experience from driving mechanics and car damage to shooting mechanics and rag doll effects.

Liberty City has never looked so good. From the glimmering waters to the highest skyscrapers, Rockstar has impressed the world yet again.

Aside from the grittiness beauty of the city, this game offers a great story for our new immigrant protagonist, Nico Bellic, one of the better main characters to come from Rockstar. Though after the story is complete, you are left with little to do, something reoccurring throughout the series.

A must in the series, any GTA fan will find something to like about this game.

Coming immediately off of San Andreas, this game somehow feels more dated than its predecessor. GTA 4 is a very clear example of the late 2000s in game design, where everything had to look dark and grimy and have awful color saturation, and the tone of the story had to match. There's a lot of improvements gameplaywise, such as the limb damage system, and you can appreciate a lot of what would eventually make its way to the far more polished Red Dead Redemption 2. Unfortunately, the game is so visually unappealing that it's hard to want to pay attention to any of its story. Which is made all the worse by GTA 4 taking its story incredibly seriously.

The real problem here is that this is a story about revenge and violence, and how those tendencies in Niko Bellic actively make his life worse. By the time he gets any closure on the quest that brought him to this country, Niko remarks that he feels nothing. He still feels empty. But of course, this is immediately followed up by a decision to either continue the cycle of revenge or try to move past it. Roman, Niko's cousin who helped him get on his feet when he first arrived and who has been dealing with most of the consequences of Niko's actions, begs him to let the past lie. Kate, Niko's new girlfriend who ostensibly is trying to pull him away from his violent life, tells him to stick to his principles and kill this guy - a piece of advice that flies in the face of every conversation Niko and Kate have had up to this point. But sure.

But of course, because this is a late 00s game, the person whose advice you follow has to die. Niko's gotta be distraught and go on his final revenge quest, and he's gotta end the story unhappy. If Niko goes on his revenge quest, Kate is killed at Roman's wedding. If Niko tries to let the past die, Kate refuses to go to the wedding, ostensibly breaking up with him, while Roman is killed at his own wedding. Somehow the better ending is the one where Kate's fridged, which speaks volumes to the quality of the ending.

The mission design in GTA 4 is a step down from San Andreas, which had a variety of races, chases, shootouts, and random stuff like sneaking into a rapper's mansion to steal his rhyme book. Here it's just shootouts, shootouts, shootouts, and shootouts. Oh, and maybe a car chase that leads to a shootout. Made worse by the fact that the driving is just not fun. Rockstar tried to do more simulation-style driving than the arcadey style of the past couple of games, but it means every car chase is a battle with the car as much as the obstacles on the road.

There's something there in this game, something in the bleakness coupled with the immigrant story and the atmosphere of Liberty City's take on New York, but it just... doesn't click. And right when the story's themes are about to cohere, the game decides to go into a shock-value ending that doesn't hold up to the narrative up until that point. It's a disappointment to say the least.

The game is pretty buggy. My guess is that it wasn't tested properly. What's truly dreadful in this game is the control of cars which feels extremely unnatural and annoying, and also the control in combat mode.

Apart from the clunky controls, the story is nice, the characters have a good sense of humor and I enjoyed playing through it after the first 1-2 hours of hate.

GTA V is miles better than this :)

GTA serisi benim çok sevdiğim bir seri değildir aslında. Özellikle şehirde kaos yaratmak filan. Lakin benim bu düşüncemi kıran bir noktası varmış oyunun. O da görevleri ve hikayesi. Oynamadan önce oyunu sadece kaos çıkarmak üzerine kurulu, tekrar eden görevleri olan bir açık dünya oyunu sanıyordum. Fakat öyle değilmiş.

Oyunun hikayesi benim dikkatimi çok çekmese de diğer GTA oyunlarından ayrı olarak karakterimiz bizden biri. Yani diğer karakterler gibi suç dünyasında olmaktan fazla keyif almıyor. Rahat bir hayat için Liberity City'ye geliyor. Onu çok seven bir kuzeni çağırıyor onu buraya ama onu çağıran mektuplarında burayı çok daha mükemmel bir yermiş gibi, bir Amerikan Rüyası olarak, tanımlıyor. Uzun sürenin ardından suç dünyasını bırakıp rahatlamak isteyen biz bu durumla karşılaşınca biraz sinirleniyoruz. İnsanların davranışlarının geldiğimiz ter olan Rusya'daki gibi olmadığı için biraz garipseniyoruz. Yani biz yabancıyız oralara. Daha fazla spoiler vermemek için devam ettirmiyorum.

Oyunun harika görevleri var. Çok çeşitliler ve sıkmıyorlar. Her görevi yaparken heyecanlanıyorsunuz ve istediğiniz görevler arasından birini seçebiliyorsunuz. Fakat görevlerin bir eksisi var. Görevleri tamamlayamayınca oyun sizi görevin başında değil geldiğiniz yerin başında atıyor ve bu durum çok sıkıcı olabiliyor. Bazen ta şehrin diğer ucuna onlarca defa gitmek zorunda kalabiliyorsunuz.

Mekanikler anlamında eksisi yok sanırım. Tok ve gerçekçi vuruşlar, gerçekçi sekmeler ve sesler.

GTA serisinin en önemli noktalarından biri araba kullanımıdır. Lakin GTA 4 de fazla gerçekçilikten kaynaklı olarak gereksiz kayan veya sanki bir noktaya çarpmayacakmış gibi ilerlerken aniden savrulma sebebiyle çarpmalar yüzünden araba mekanikleri biraz sıkıntılı olmuş. Bu herkes için bir sorun değildir ama beni biraz rahatsız etti.

Bu oyunu ara sıra açıp takılacağım için Playing kategorisini seçtim.

ГТА 4 — потрясающая технодемка... и очень плохая игра.

После ГТА Сан Андреас серия уже не могла расти вширь и попыталась расти в глубину. Получилось, ну, как получилось. Взяв курс на серьезность и мрачность, игра растеряла не то что веселье — она потеряла даже увлекательность. В ГТА 4 мучительно скучно играть.

При этом начинается игра даже интригующе. Нико Беллик, ветеран югославской войны, приезжает в Либерти-Сити к своему кузену Роману, успешному бизнесмену. Нико надеется найти здесь человека, который его предал, отомстить и зажить спокойной жизнью. Но быстро выясняется, что Роман врал, а вместо успеха у него есть паршивая квартира, чахлый таксопарк, девушка и куча долгов русской мафии.

Кажется, ГТА повзрослела, сделала ставку на драму, а не пародию, и нас ждёт как минимум неглупая, может даже глубокая история о судьбе иммигрантов и крахе американской мечты. Но, ни хера подобного.

Вся серьезность сценария мнимая. Персонажи по-прежнему карикатуры и пародии, состоящие из одной черты. Да, катсцены стали продолжительнее и уровень постановки вырос в разы. Но практически все заставки затянуты и полны «воды». Да, во время поездок персонажи еще больше болтают. Но вся их болтовня — одна нота, на протяжении всей игры. Роман постоянно трепется о том, как разбогатеет и шикарно заживёт. Нико — о том, что американская мечта дерьмо. Брюси — только и делает, что хвалиться своими накачанными мышцами.

И самая главная проблема в том, что эти одноклеточные персонажи подаются на полном серьёзе. Даже Нико Беллик, по идее неоднозначный герой, на деле оказывается безвольным бревном, мотивация которого мечется между «главное, чтобы платили» и «мне нужно найти предателя». Чаще это пытаются оправдать тем, что у работодателя есть на Нико компромат, но где-то к последней четверти игры на это забивают и Беллик ведет себя как типичный наёмник, которому важно только бабло.

Сатира осталась во внутриигровом интернете, радио и телевидении. И она какая-то, натужная что-ли.

Серьёзность настигла не только сценарий, но и все остальные аспекты игры. Убрали РПГ-элементы, сильно урезали гардероб, отняли тюнинг. Взамен выдали детально проработанный город, переработанную физику машин и человечков, боевую систему с укрытиями и мобильный телефон, чтобы дружить и вызывать такси. И вроде как обмен равноценный, вот только все новые штуки работают не слишком хорошо, и только мешают получать удовольствие.

Новая физика машин кажется крутой и реалистичной до первой продолжительной погони, а там становится понятно, что машины слишком тяжеловесны, и любой поворот превращается в дрифт. Чувство скорости убивается на раз.

Стрельба с укрытиями тоже реализована сомнительно. Во-первых, Нико криво прилипает к углам. Во-вторых, из-за продвинутой физики тел, персонажи теперь реалистично корчатся при попадании в разные части тела. Казалось бы, замечательно. Но врагов и так плохо видно, ведь палитра в игре серо-зелено-коричневая (реализм!), а когда они падают за ящик, от попадания в ногу, очень трудно понять убил ты врага или он ещё встанет.

И венец творения — мобильник! С его помощью к игре приделали симулятор свиданий. В ГТА 4 игроку настойчиво предлагают дружить с разными NPC, чтобы в итоге получить от них различные бонусы, вроде бесплатного такси от Романа или оружия со скидкой от Джейкоба. Но дружба это очень обременительна, а бонусы малоценны. Друзья обижаются, если с ними долго не гулять или согласиться на встречу и не приехать. А деньги всё равно тратить не на что, кроме оружия и того самого такси. Покупку недвижимости из игры убрали, а квартиры для сохранений выдают по сюжету.

Серия попыталась повзрослеть, но не получилось. За кучей ненужных мелочей (зачем в игре возможность мыть машины?! И зачем этому уделять целую миссию?!), кроется серость и уныние. Как сценарное, так и геймплейное. Геймплей состоит из утомительной езды и посредственных перестрелок. Ездить заставляют столько, что уже с середины игры я перемещался между миссиями исключительно на такси. Так что заставлять игрока мотаться по всему городу и давать ему при этом возможность фастревела — дурацкая идея, чтобы похвастаться проработанным окружением.

История — примитивный боевичок о мести. Персонажи — плоские карикатуры, поданные без капли юмора, бесконечно обсасывающие одни и теже темы.

Я очень удивлен высочайшими оценками этой посредственности, в которой из неоспоримых плюсов только потенциально крутой движок: сама ГТА 4 что на консолях, что на ПК работает отвратительно. И очень рад, что серия не загнулась, на мой взгляд, после такого количества плохо реализованных идей, у неё на это были все шансы.

Played on PS3, May/June 2017

Pros: Niko was a good character. Rockstar created an impressive game world for 2008.

Cons: I did not enjoy the driving or the shooting gameplay. A checkpoint system was almost nonexistent, meaning lots of driving the same routes should you fail a mission, so I abused cheats. The story takes itself too seriously and is long-winded. Almost every character besides Niko is unlikable and has too much edgy dialogue, and there are too many characters to keep track of. The audio levels on the PS3 version were all over the place: cutscene dialogue too quiet, radio too quiet, other sounds too loud. The music selection on the radio did not stand out to me at all.

Do not replay.