GTA IV... 10 out of 10... No. This game should not have got a perfect score ever.
After the installation I was greeted with a superbly made opening cut scene that felt rather cinematic. After this short blockbuster you have to hop in and drive a car.. I'd also read that Rockstar had totally re-worked the driving physics, turns out this was true. I'll admit at first I hated the driving in GTA IV, it is totally different than of that in the previous installations of GTA. I was crashing, spinning out and doing complete circles with the handbrake that could give Iron Man whiplash, I thought it was disastrous. In time though I got the hang of it and I am really happy with the job Rockstar have done with the driving. It's a huge improvement, just very different at first. It's pretty nice to see the suspension working away as you burn around corners at 100 kmh. It's also pretty nice to see what Rockstar have done concerning vehicle damage. Another total re-work of the older and outdated vehicle damage seen in the previous GTA games. Vehicle damage is now much more detailed with every panel taking individual damage, windows breaking, lights failing and smashing, tyres bursting and even the engine dying forcing you to find another car or bike. I think Rockstar really have done an outstanding job with the vehicles in GTA IV, even if it took me a while to appreciate their work.
Something you will notice almost instantly are the graphics in GTA IV. The game is actually quite stunning. Especially at day time when the sun is shining. To really experience how good it can look at times you need to fly up really high in a helicopter and just embrace how epic Liberty City really is. I really like the water and rain effects in this game, the particle effects used on the wet roads looks really nice as your flying down the saturated road. It is actually satisfying to see the water come spraying off your tyres.
Sound. Do I even need to say anything about sound? Everyone knows the GTA games have outstanding audio, sound effects, voice acting and of course radio stations. Well I have to disagree with that being said. GTA Vice City is the only GTA game I think has truly amazing radio stations. They are perfect. If I'm ever listening to the radio or a song comes on at work that was on Vice City, that is how I remember it. Even songs I hate I can listen to playing that game. It really did set the mood. The radio went downhill in San Andreas just doesn't seem to climb back up in GTA IV. I find myself almost always switching to the chat shows for a laugh as almost every song on this game annoys me, with Heaven And Hell by Black Sabbath being an exception. Am I the only person who thinks all the GTA games have mediocre sound tracks apart from Vice City and its stellar radio performance?
Rockstar really have done an amazing job with this game. The new shooting system coupled with the cover system really work. Like really work. Gone are the days where you would press L1, L2 or both to look out your car. It's all controlled by rotating the R stick. By pressing L1 you can shoot from your vehicle, and it's not just sub-machine guns this time. This time you will be able to use your handguns and even grenades and molotov's. Implementation of a cover system into GTA was a good idea. It performs just like any other cover system, press R1 to attach yourself to something and R1 again to detach. It's simple, it works, it's good. Aiming in GTA has also been granted a fresh coat and is better than ever. Fully press L2 to lock on to your target while only half press L2 to free aim. When you've locked onto a target flick the R stick left and right to swap targets and move the R stick around slightly to aim at different body parts. This makes for easy head shots allowing you to kill a lot of people quickly and easily.
Towards the end of the game I found the missions to become slightly repetitive and they seem to pay tribute to the missions found in GTA 3 rather than the craziness from GTA Vice City and San Andreas. This is both good and bad. It really works for this game but combined with the serious approach Rockstar have taken it doesn't work at the same time. One area the seriousness pays off really well is the story. I really enjoyed it. It's gripping, well acted and really does draw you in also forcing you to make some decisions along your journey. It may come across as rather weak when compared to something like FF X but this is not a story driven RPG. This is GTA.
I miss trying to survive the 6 star Army as long as I could, I miss stealing a tank and going mental in it, I miss dealing drugs out the back of my ice-cream van, I miss investing in property, I miss climbing to the top of that ludicrous Mt Chiliad in San Andreas then riding off on a push bike and then releasing my parachute.. Or if I felt like, just free fall untill I hit something. These are just some of the things you wont be doing in GTA IV. What I don't miss is extremely farfetched missions that involve stealing jet packs. That is also something you wont be doing in GTA IV.
This is probably the main reason I'm not giving GTA IV a 10/10. I was highly disappointed when I found no split screen multiplayer in GTA IV. I led myself to believe this game would include it I wanted it that badly. So in a sense the multiplayer has been downgraded since San Andreas for me. I don't really care that much for online play and I haven't really played it yet so I don't have a proper opinion on it. Play it for yourself, maybe you'll see me on there one day.
As you should know by now. This review is just my outlook on GTA IV. Play it for yourself and make your own decision. You'll be surprised with it, I know I was. There are plenty of great things to do that I haven't covered so go grab yourself a copy if you don't have one already. Definitely a worthy asset in anyone's library and one of the best games I've played to date.
And just in case you were getting worried.. Yes, the classic GTA humor is still there. Sit down and watch the TV for a few minutes and I can promise you'll be laughing.
*UPDATE*
While most of my review is still accurate some is not. This game is not even worth a 9 in my opinion anymore. I finished it a while back and now that I think about it, this game is good but not I repeat not anywhere near close to coming perfect. Why;
Missions - They are redundant and become tedious once you near the end. It will start to bore you because it seems like you've done the mission you're doing 56 times before
Money - This is so lame. I am loaded with money and I spent little of it. I went through the whole game with the one weapon set and the only thing you can spend money on is weapons and food basically. No houses, No businesses, No-thing cool.
Multiplayer - Is good. Pretty fun but bloody annoying how it doesn't have a lobby seperate to the game. So if you're starting a game and something goes wrong you have to wait while the game loads your save file again then you have to load MP again. Lame. Annoying. Stupid.
There are more things I could pick at but I'm not going to bother. Play the game for yourself.