GTA IV will take the player on a ferocious ride, following Niko on his journey of revenge, death, love, loss and regret.
From the first moment the player meets the central figure in the game you think you know him. You play, no, experience the world through the eyes of an emotionally diverse character, Niko Bellic, driven by vengeance, prone to fits of rage, deadly with an assortment of weapons and unarmed combat, but he's also immensely loyal and caring to his friends especially his gambling addicted cousin Roman.
GTA IV starts and (depending on how you play the game) ends where it begins. We've all seen the trailers involving destructive rocket launching shootouts, high-speed chases with cops, crooks and helicopters, bank robberies, ladies of the night, but that's not what the games all about. Most of those things are just there for the player's amusement. The true heart of the game is about Niko's relationships with his friends, family, and the decisions he and others must make in order to survive the harden streets of Liberty City.
At first Niko Bellic doesn't seem to care about anything other than his cousin Roman and revenge, but as he meets more people and hangs out with them he starts to have a fondness for some, like the player will, and a immense loathing for others.
Interacting with friends by taking them bowling, playing pool, darts, drinking, flying in helicopters is extremely entertaining at first until his friends stop having interesting things to say luckily for the player they rarely stop talking. The only thing that ever bothered me was how much Niko's friends wanted to hang out because while it was never really annoying it was a bit tedious having to pick them up and go play an activity that you'd mastered and didn't feel like doing anymore, well at least for a few hours anyway.
Upon arriving into this world, everything seems familiar. At first, Niko handles like previous GTA misfits, a little awkward. But, you soon adapt to his movements and twitchy reflexes. You start driving immediately and it can be a difficult learning curve for most, eventually you become adept at 180-degree turns, hitting the e-brake to make it around tight corners or weaving through traffic.
Gunfights are more impressive now with the ability to duck behind cover and blind fire at the enemy. However, at times the player might hit the duck button and catch the wrong side of cover allowing the enemy a clear shot of Niko. It happens at least once every time it gets hairy in the heat of battle. And it does feel like you are battling for your life. The cover system can be a little frustrating, but really, the most annoying thing for me was the auto-aim system, which was tweaked from previous games allowing a mix of free-aim and auto-aim luckily the player is given the option to freely aim only.
Free-aiming can be much more gratifying when you hear the pleas of your enemies after you've put two in their belly and are standing in front them aiming a magnum at their head just itching to squeeze the trigger one more time. It makes you feel like saying, "You've gotta ask yourself a question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya punk?" Of course that would only be after having to defend myself. Ahem…
Progressing through GTA IV's story, I was reminded of films like Goodfellas, The Borne Trilogy (with their car chases), Leon: The Professional, by the way, whose title character looks a bit like NB. I kept thinking of Niko as Leon with much of the same sense of humor and ability to "Clean the streets" of LC, trying not to attract attention, dodging crooked and not-so-crooked cops, while working/"cleaning" for some of the most loathsome, yet realistic characters to have ever graced consoles.
Moving right along, the dialogue and acting in GTA IV (which is better than 99% of the straight-to-DVD trash out there) is so engaging that the player forgets it's a game, which happens often enough that you put down the controller just so you don't accidentally skip a cut scene, and it really makes the player regret having to kill any of Liberty City's residents. Between "missions" (I hate that word it should be called story driven awesomeness) I found myself just walking around town eavesdropping on everyone's conversations, finding out what someone is wearing at the moment.
While GTA IV is a handsome looking game with its enormously detailed digital mock up and parody of New York City, with its impressive city districts right down to the trash ridden back alleyways and eccentric citizens the graphics are totally sufficient. The thing is the graphics just aren't cutting edge and not MGS4 spectacular, but that isn't to say GTA IV is a slouch in the graphical department. Niko looks and moves fluidly whether being chased on foot by cops, covering behind dumpsters from gunfire, tossing grenades that erupt and destroy nearby objects beautifully, head butting a thug in hand-to-hand combat, or chasing criminals down in a stolen police car that comes across even better and more cinematic with a push of the "B" button.
Even though GTA IV isn't as detailed as let's say BioShock it does provide some eye candy. The eye candy happens because of the emotional feeling you get when you see Rockstar's physics engine, aptly named Euphoria, doing its thing. Everything acts entirely realistic. Cars crunch and smash appropriately when Niko slams or is slammed into anything. Bullet-hit reactions are incredibly convincing especially when you fire at someone's leg, they grab for it and fall down in all variety of ways. The games like bowling, pool, darts, and Qubed could all be separate games on XBLA. It all feels natural.
GTA IV will take the player on a ferocious ride through Liberty City, following Niko on his journey of revenge and regret, of death and destruction, of love and loss. It is a comfort that when the credits finish rolling and we see Niko, a man changed, holding his cell phone to one ear allowing the player to know that it isn't over just yet and that come October the episodic adventure will continue. It seems like a long way away, but luckily all of the unique GTA IV style of gameplay caries over to multiplayer as well to keep us busy until then.
Revil, signing off...