Review: Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360)
GTA 4 is the much awaited game that brings the most popular series of the last console generation to the Next Gen Consoles, will it live up to the pedigree left to it by its stellar outings in the last-gen, or will it fall as flat as many of GTA 3's clones did.
Story :
Meet Niko Bellic, a Western European immigrant fresh off the boat, with a dark past, and out looking for revenge, now join him and his cousin Roman on their reunion, and subsequent dealings with the underbelly of Liberty City 's society, on Niko's quest for revenge.
Graphics:
Grand Theft Auto 4 looks amazing! How much so? There are people taking side by side photo comparisons between Liberty City, and the city it was modeled after, New York City if that says anything, but if you were hoping to visit some of the locals that were present at the series last trip to Liberty City, like the Red Light District, you will be a little disappointed that it is no where to be found since Liberty City is trying to emulate New York City so hard that it cant allow some of the fictional parts of Grand Theft Auto 3 to be squeezed in. Graphically this game is more ambitious than it's Predecessors, and Saints Row, the only real game to try to attempt an identical look and style of the GTA series in the current generation. GTA4 has far fewer graphical glitches than Saints Row, and while not nearly as large as GTA San Andreas, the series last outing, the scale of Liberty City is both Larger than the world in Saints Row, by at least double in size and sports at least 3 times the detail including some breathtaking views that border on the cinematic, putting GTA4's competition to shame visually. Though there is this one point in the game that always pulls a "Saints Row Glitch", Saints Row Had some glitches that would make your car disappear, the world disappear, or bits and pieces of the world, or even drop you into a field well below the field of play, while traveling on the East Borough Bridge when you hit the sharp corner the bridge can disappear momentarily, or cars can disappear, but other than that the game its self is sharply amazing too look at.
Music & Sound Effects:
While boasting a much improved graphical system, I think one of the biggest letdowns for me in the entire game were the radio stations in GTA4, as the play lists from both San Andreas, and Vice City boasted much better licensed Soundtracks in variety and quality in that no more than 2 or 3 stations had recognizable music to enjoy in Grand Theft Auto 4 often leaving you to listen to 3 stations, though the audio tracks that have been laid down for the commercials, and talk stations are hilarious, making them easily some of the most enjoyable things to look forward to in this game. The voice acting is top notch and each voice actor brings the characters to life (even some of the corny dates) as effectively as some of the best characters in gaming.
Control & Game Play:
The Good news here is that Grand Theft Auto 4 doesn't try to reinvent the wheel game play wise in that it controls much as it did in its previous incarnations, with some tweaking and refinement, while borrowing some aspects from a few of its "clones" to aid in the game play. One of the biggest and most recognizable changes was incorporated to alleviate much of the confusion that came from not knowing the city like the back of your hand, a GPS system, which helps you navigate, but as you grow to know an area, you all too often find that the GPS gets in the way of finding faster routes, still it serves a purpose, and does it well. The big surprise here is that the online modes are not the just tacked on feeling game add-ons that one would expect, since we have gotten so many lately, and control as they would in an offline game without sacrificing too much graphically, or with any huge amount of lag, making the game play almost seamless as one transitions from offline to online gaming.
Design:
Well it is more than obvious that GTA4 was a labor of love for the development crew, from the look of the city to the Script, to the game play, and the Multiplayer modes this game is every bit worthy of the hype it received pre release and considering the mountain of hype that says a lot. Rockstar Games are beyond a shadow of a doubt doing it's best to remain one of the top developing companies out there. Though maybe they should consider paying residuals to their voice actors, considering some of the YouTube videos that have popped up
Grand Theft Auto 4:
Pros:
Amazing graphics
Great story
Improved Game play
Great Multiplayer
Cons: Thumbs up
Soundtrack not up to snuff with rest of series
A few glitches
All and all this is a must play game if you are old enough to play it so I give Grand Theft Auto 4 an enthusiastic Thumbs Up!