InsomniaReview: GTA IV (360)

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 7 years, you already know the name of the terrible threat to the American way of life that reared it's ugly head in the later months of 2001. No, not Osama bin Laden. If he was really that big a threat, I imagine we'd still be looking for him. Besides, his cousin is running for President or something, so he can't be all that bad. No no, I'm speaking of Grand Theft Auto 3.
Since October of 2001, the Dark Lords of Rockstar been corrupting our youth, degrading women, glorifying crime, and training our children to be murders/homosexuals/communists/liberals. Or, at least that's what the cable news networks have been telling me. Personally, while I have noticed that the world has become a much more horrible place in the last 8 years, I'm pretty sure we can attribute most of that to a wasteful and incompetent government. But, hey, if people want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend all the world's ills come from a video game, they can go right ahead. But enough about the rediculous claims of right wing decency mongers and absentee parents. On to the game.

I don't think we need to go over the history of the GTA series. You either know about it by now, or you don't care. If you really need to know what's going on with Rockstar and Take2, wiki it. And likewise, we don't need to spend too much time on the series' backstory, since each entry features a new protagonist and independent plot. And while GTA IV does return to Liberty City, you'll barely recognize her from GTA III. 7 years of console graphical upgrades and Rockstar's talented graphical department have made this faux New York a real sight to behold. I'm even told that Liberty City now resembles NYC to such an extent that even the street layouts are nearly identical. That's pretty impressive. It can be difficult to find a nice vantage of the city, however, and more often than not, you'll be too busy driving from one end of the city to the other for a mission to take in the view. And while the city itself looks spot on, some of the character models just look strange. A little 'uncanny valley', perhaps. Not the worst I've ever seen, by far, but it can be a bit disorienting when everything else looks so realistic.

Aside from the streets and people of Liberty City, then next thing you'll spend most of your time interacting with is the cars. Here, again, this title shines. The cars have a decent variety to them, and are much more believable than previous GTA titles, overall. Rather than just crumpling bumpers, cars can now be smashed up to a frightening degree. Smash into a telephone pole at 80 MPH, and you'll see about a two foot indentation in the front of your car where you hit it. Cars also explode a lot less often. When they do catch fire and explode, it's a sight to see, but let's face it: It's far more realistic for your engine to quit on you than for your vehicle to turn into a fireball. Pyromaniacs might hate the new addition, but I like it. Trying to evade cops after a difficult mission, only to have your car spontaneously explode was a frustration I had with previous GTA titles. GTA IV also seems to have taken a page from their competitor, Saint's Row. Every once in a while, Niko will forget to "buckle up for safety", and a sufficiently fast head on collision will send him flying out of the windshield. It can be pretty amusing, (depending on whether or not your on a mission) but the amount of damage you take from the event is usually minimal. That's a little freaky.

Aside from a few tweaks here and there, the bulk of the game is what you've come to expect from GTA. You do missions for a contact, who eventually introduces you to a new contact. Occasionally, a mission will introduce you to some new gameplay feature. There is the addition of being able to choose whether or not to kill certain targets. I'm not sure how much it affects the events of the game overall, but I doubt it's anything major. But aside from a few minor feature additions, it's the same GTA we've been playing since 2001, and that's a little disappointing.

The story behind the missions, however, is noteworthy. With San Andreas, Rockstar made an attempt to make GTA a series crime story. One with elements of morality and honor, even in the criminal underworld. That trend continues in GTA IV with the story of Niko Belic, an immigrant who comes to America to live the American dream. But it isn't all he thought it would be, and in the process of discovering what it's REALLY like in America, Niko's tale gives us a chance to look beyond our preconceptions. It's part crime drama, part satire, and part cultural analysis. And while I'm all but sure no 'serious' literary critics will look beyond the game's title and reputation to discover what's beyond the cover, GTA IV has a solid story at it's core. That's refreshing for any new title in an industry dominated by silent protagonists and stereotypes, but it's especially nice to see it in a game like GTA. It makes you think there's hope for game writing after all.

Aside from the constant, unrelenting grind of doing missions for your contacts, GTA IV does offer a few additional diversions. Throughout the course of the game, you make a number of friends and/or girlfriends. At any point when you aren't on a mission, you can call them up, and offer to take them out somewhere. And if your friends have a good time, eventually they'll offer to do you favors, like sell you discounted weapons, or send a taxi to your location. However, for some odd reason you can only go out with one friend at a time. This phenomenon, which I've taken to calling a 'man-date', means that maintaining all your friendships can take up a lot of time. Eventually, it becomes clear that this is just another "drive to point a, see a cut scene, drive to point b" mission.
As for the activities themselves, they vary significantly. Going out to eat is an empty experience, you drive to pick up your friend, drive to the restaurant, walk in, then immediately walk back out with your buddy telling you how they liked the meal and drive him home. Going out for drinks is pretty much the same, but at least there you get to see some amusing drunken conversation and stumbling, and drunk driving is a unique experience. Aside from that, a number of locations have mini-games, like darts or pool you can play, but they get old after the first time. The only activity of note is the 'shows', which are cut-scenes that can, on occasion, be pretty amusing. In particular, there's a comedy club that features performances from actual comedians, such as Katt Willaims and Ricky Gervais.

But that's pretty much all there is to Liberty City. Aside from these fixed areas, there's not much to do on the streets except go to the next mission. And even those missions don't typically bring any variety with them. And unlike San Andreas, there's no territory control or posses. Sure, you've got a bunch of friends, but you can't exactly call them up and ask them to cover your back on a mission. While exploring the city, you might eventually find something interesting, amusing, or useful, but by and large there's no reason to go anywhere aside from the icons on your map.

The multiplayer is also pretty bland. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, etc. No multiplayer co-op. There is a cops and robbers mode, but from what I heard, it's not that great. Basically hide and seek with guns. Why not have a game mode where one team plans out a robbery, and the other teams responds as the cops, driving to the location in SWAT vans or helicopters? The cops gain points for every criminal killer, the crooks gain points based on how many of them escape, and with how much cash.

All in all, it's a pretty fun game, but it's also a game you've played before. The details have changed, but this is still GTA III. All the new gameplay elements that were introduced this time around were just window dressing, and they even went back a step from San Andreas in more than one area. Hopefully, GTA V will see some major steps forward, since presumably they won't have to worry about developing for unfamiliar consoles. If not, GTA risks turning into a more violent and controversial version of EA's Madden franchise... a game that comes out year after year, and takes no risks.

VERDICT: Rent it. If you're not sick of it after a week, go buy it.