Grand Theft Auto IV. What a hell of a game.
Well it's been out for sometime now and was it worth high and anticipation? From what I hyped it up to be and many other people, no.
Now don't get me wrong it's a damn good game, but I wouldn't say it's a 10/10 masterpiece.
I'll start with the pros.
The graphics are very good for an open ended game (which in my opinion usually don't have the most stellar graphics). I found they have a very artistic style that is designed to make the game look real. Objects in the distance are very blurry creating a somewhat realistic setting. I know some people have a problem with this and I do also think it was added to improve frame rate but in the end I think it looks fine.
The sound is amazing the level of depth in it, gunshots are not only quieter from far away but it's a totally different sound. No ambient noises, everything is real-time sound from cars and pedestrians.
The game play, well its GTA, fun, violent, and …fun. I personally love the euphoria engine. Rockstar really pulled this off, pushing pedestrians into a garbage can and watching them collide realistically like a normal human would is amazing, something I wouldn't expect to see in a game. But for the most part the game play is just standard shooting enemies and driving. My only very minor complaint that I might as well leave in the pro section is that the cover system is kind of sticky. By saying that I mean its not like Gears of War where you can go in and out of cover fluently. I do like how anything can be used as cover, especially cars, that must have been tough to program.
The Story and cut scenes are amazing. The cut scenes I especially love, whenever one would come on it was a joy to watch. I'm not going to say much about the story because I'm sure you already know the basics and anything beyond that would just spoil it but all I will say is that I really liked it.
The Multiplayer, is also simply awesome. My dream for this game was that I would be able to drive around liberty city with 6 or 7 of my friends just shooting up stuff, in other words free roam. Well somehow you can do that in this game. I have no idea how Rockstar managed to sync all the pedestrians and traffic into a multiplayer match. The other multiplayer options are pretty standard.
Now the cons or I guess I should say con.
My main problem with the game and that most free roam games have is the missions. I found that the what you actually do in the missions is incredibly linear. For example mainly what you do is either, go to a location and then get a car and go to another location, or go to a location and shoot some guys and then go to another location. The cut scenes really is the only thing that made the missions make sense. I found that I was only doing the missions so I could advance the story and watch more cut scenes, I really did not enjoy doing missions. But I find that with all free roam games, missions are like a job, but videogames are meant to be fun, if I want to have fun I will drive around creating a massacre of dead pedestrians not go drive to all the way across the city to an alley. But as I said if you are making a free roam game I guess this is a standard problem but GTA could of least had a few more interesting missions.
Overall though this game is an amazing, close to be masterpiece. Rockstar must of spent a lot of time polishing this game up. If you have not played this game, and are reading this review, you should definitely change your ways.