GTA IV Impressions

Okay so for the last 168 hours when I was not sleeping, working, or eating I was playing GTA IV.  As many other reviewers and people have stated, this game is as close to a perfect 10 out of 10 as games get.  The notion that this is gaming’s Citizen Kane is not far from the truth.  It, more than Halo or Madden or anything else, has proven that a game can be a form of art.  

Looking at Halo 3, which previously held the best opening week for a game, it was seen as a game for young guys in college or in basements that will drink large amounts of beer and stay up until tomorrow playing multiplayer.  There is nothing wrong with that, and it did make goo-gobs of money for the people who made it.  There was a target for Halo, and the target was the stereotyped Xbox 360 owner, male, 20’s, white (perhaps).  

Madden is also a perennial for “Best Selling Game” as the 360’s version was the 12th best selling game and the PS2’s was the 15th best selling game for 2007.  As with Halo, Madden has a specific target audience, specifically: people like myself who swear EA is a bunch of assholes who are releasing “Roster Update 08” but find that updated rosters are worth $60.  More specifically, football fans.

What GTA IV does is target humanity.  Similar to Oscar winner Departed, GTA is not going to be liked by everyone.  It is a gritty, violent, game that has a focus on a criminal.  This wards off people like my mother, who would rather watch Pretty Woman for the 30473th time than spend 5 minutes watching a movie with the main character being rewarded for killing a drug dealer or other people who are not exactly the people the world needs to keep moving.  

That’s exactly what this game as been up to about 40% through it, killing people who have screwed over one of your friends.  Not to spoil anything too much, but so far Niko really isn’t a bad guy in the same way Tommy Vercetti in Vice City or Carl Johnson in San Andreas would more or less do evil acts to promote themselves.  Niko does a lot of stuff where it leaves the impression this guy is not evil, just doing what he can to get by.  

That said, the game-play is what takes this game over the top.  Last Tuesday when I was still at work, not played it yet, people told me “it is great, but the fighting and shooting is different.”  Different good or different bad?  “It’s much better.”  Yeah I agree with them, it is much much better.  I don’t know if it’s any different on 360, as I have never played a GTA game on there, but on PS3 it is exactly how controls should work.  It lets you do everything in a way that doesn’t leave you looking at the manual to see how to do things.  

Multiplayer is this biggest problem with this game.  WHAT?  Hear me out, once you play multiplayer your single player game will advance so slow because you will find yourself playing multiplayer more and more.  It is so varied in the sense that nothing is too overpowering.  If you go get the rocket launcher I can shoot you with an assault rifle from hiding.  If you have the assault rifle you can get ran over by a car.  If you are in a car you can get shot at by everyone.  There is not a limit to the things that can happen in multiplayer.

Not only is the Deathmatch mode great, but the Race mode is awesome.  I remember when the game types were revealed I thought, “Race mode?  Those are the WORST missions why would I want to race someone?”  But they included two race modes, and both are great.  The “Race” mode is a plain race, but there is no traffic, no guns, no advantage to killing anyone.  The “GTA Race” mode has guns, grenades, and is what the Twisted Metal series would be if it had a finish line.

I’ll have more on this game as it’s not leaving the PS3 anytime soon, but for now those are my first thoughts.