The same old GTA minus colour, thrills, and enjoyment.
Lets start with the good. The game does look impressive, from the background renderings, to the ambient lighting effects throughout, it is, technically, masterful. An obvious amount of painstaking detail has been paid to nigh on everything within Liberty City. However, just like current renditions of comic book films blockbusting their way across the silver screen, certain aspects of this attention to detail lead the player down a dreary path. Gritty, grimy, and grey currently seem to be the vogue for colour palettes of most visual mediums right now, and GTA 4 adheres mercilessly to this drab approach. Gone are the colourful, garish clothes, the diverse spectacle that was Vice City or San Andreas, replaced with this all-too-realistic new world.
It isn't just the diversity and colour of the visuals that suffer from this malaise, characters and gameplay seem to be in dire need of a healthy day in the sun. Remember Lance from Vice City? Well lay any hopes to rest if you desired to see such an interesting individual grace a Grand Theft Auto game again. Fair play to Rockstar who've obviously watched some recent crime documentaries to produce some quasi-realistic crooks who are just a bit down on their luck, but do you really want to clock a great deal of hours taking your cousin out for drinks in game al-la Tamagotchi . That's right folks, you now have a scoring system with friends and family, in a long-winded style of that pesky digital palm pet to boot. It can be appreciated that the developers were trying to hammer home that sense of reality; you spend lots of time working with certain people and you're bound to become friends and opportunities arise from such relationships. The problem with this mechanic is that characters aren't particularly appealing, so you won't want to invest in them emotionally. Even getting smashed with them quickly turns the stomach like the oh-so many beers you never see knocked back.
It's obvious that Rockstar have attempted to bring diversity to GTA 4 via these character pets, with the protagonist never really progresses beyond the station of a lowly illegal alien slumming-it, they had to offer you something. This "rags to slightly better rags" may appeal to some, it can't be denied, but wouldn't you rather play a somewhat fantastic, bombastic, character who will eventually become a Scarface or Avon Barksdale?
The drab world aside, gameplay is a tweaked version of the tried and tested formula we've all come to know and love [or hate] throughout the series. There are still minor bugs around, but far fewer than in previous games, and efforts have been made to improve the character model's running physics, though it can be argued whether or not they've gotten much further away from a drunken sailor finding his land legs. There is a new cover system, targeting is slightly better, and gun fights are on a grander scale, but this is GTA; it seems these mechanics are destined to be clunky and unforgiving.
GTA 4 isn't a bad game, it's just lacking in originality, and it's also shed a bit of weight around the middle. But this fitter Grand Theft Auto seems more concerned with counting it's realistic 'calories' rather than being the jovial, colourful, 'fictional', pie stuffing chap that we all knew and loved. If you don't believe me, and haven't yet played this game (where have you been), rent it, listen to the radio-stations and let your disappointment sink in as this geriatric game series bounds out for it's 'Crystal Skull' adventure.