This isn't Grand Theft Auto 4. This is Liberty City.
In this installment, you play as immigrant to Liberty City and America, Niko Bellic. He was tempted by the American dream, the positive (yet not-so-true) words of his cousin, Roman, and is flung into the underworld of the city while he tries to forget his troubled past. The story is not dull at any moment in time, and is filled with believeable plot twists and developments.
The graphics are superb. The game's new engine allows for spectacular views of Liberty City, awesome-looking damange models for players and vehicles alike, and a living environment. Bulletholes will remain on cars. Dents will remain in walls. And two words, my gamer friends: ragdoll physics.
As you play in Liberty City, the physics system is flawless. When you are drunk, running for cover, or getting hit by a car, your character moves fluidly. In layman's terms, it looks like a dude is running for cover, rather than a video game character running for cover. If you are hit by a car, it looks like a dude is getting hit by a car.
The introduction of a single action button is Peter Molyneux's dream at work - most things can be done by pressing the LB button on the Xbox 360 controller, and as I stated earlier, it is fluid.
The voice acting is incredible and at no time, except for sex scenes (which really aren't scenes at all), so I find myself rolling my eyes at what the characters say. The dialogue is dramatic, humorous, interesting... To put it plainly, I put the subtitles on just so I always knew what the characters were saying. The well-animated and well-written dialogue kept me on the edge of my seat. The quality of the script and story is better than that of most movies released today, in this reviewer's opinion.
The great thing about GTA4 is the city is just alive. The cellphone in the game makes it that more immersive, the taxi cabs make it easier to get around, the police are easier but harder to get rid of, and the weather system is great.
The cellphone allows you to contact friends, hang out with friends, progress the storyline, go on dates, and set appointments, amongst other options. The cabs are a godesend for people that don't wanna drive everywhere. The police AI is a lot smarter in this game, in comparison to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and their ability to find you is measured in your ability to keep them from finding you. No more driving five miles and having a cop magically appear - they have to see you, have a witness see you, and you have to be in the area they search. However, a helicopter watching your ass makes escaping very difficult.
I only have a few issues with the game.
First, there are minor AI intelligence problems. They will sometimes have problems getting through doors, but hey, we all push when it says "pull" at least once in our lives, right?
Second, and this comes with all massive games like GTA, sometimes you will drive through what you think is an alley, and run into something that will stop you in your tracks and load up a moment later. However, this occurs much less than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, or Saints Row.
My last problem is what really hurt the game for me - the short story. The smaller amount of things to do. I buy GTA games to waste my time for months, but I find the storyline going too quickly and I want more time with a game like this. A longer storyline does introduce wackier and less believable things, but still, 30 hours isn't that long. If you play this game, savor the side missions.
GTA4 is definitely one of the best games of 2008.