Grand Theft Awesome
Grand Theft Auto gets injected with a sense of realism that turns this free-wheeling action game into a piece of interactive art
"My cousin is here! Niko Bellic! He's the f*cking man, bitches!" The man clad in a silk jacket with an outdated geometric pattern shouts, taking a celebratory swig from a bottle of booze in honor of his cousin Niko, who just set foot on American soil after a long journey via cargo ship. "Where's the sports car?" Niko asks, his thick Eastern European accent unable to hide the disappointment that his cousin Roman—who just picked him up in a rusted-out sedan—has been feeding him made-up tales about his life in America.
So begins Grand Theft Auto IV, the newest—and easily the best—entry in the wildly popular GTA series. The game manages to take the tried-and-true sandbox game experience—take on missions to earn cash and climb the corporate ladder of a criminal operation, or just go sightseeing around Liberty City—and turn it into something that feels, if not completely new, than at least expertly updated.
Whether it's the Hollywood-style plot, the introduction of modern-day conveniences like text messaging, GPS and the Internet into the game experience, or just the fact that the game's powered by more advanced technology, Grand Theft Auto has matured into something that feels as much like a living, breathing piece of interactive art as it does a video game. We have a hard time imagining anyone picking up this game and not feeling like this is one of the best $60 purchases they've made in a long time.
The game starts out slow, easing you into the environment and controls. We appreciated not being thrown into shootouts right away, giving the story and characters a chance to breathe. We were several hours in before even got our hands on a gun.
GTA IV's lead actor is the city itself, beautifully rendered (with different lead artists listed for the different boroughs) and positively bustling with activity. At one point, a hapless pedestrian was hit by a reckless driver (not us, we swear). A minute or two later, as traffic lined up behind the accident, an ambulance pulled up with its sirens blaring. A paramedic actually got out of the ambulance, and while he didn't seem to know what to do at that point and just stood around, it was still an impressive example of how the AI characters inhabit the city as more than just window dressing.
As for the stars in the game, Niko Bellic, his cousin Roman and the other principle characters look great, but some of the secondary characters look a bit like clunky PS2 holdovers. Nico also adds something long missing from games—a decent "walking down stairs" animation.
While the dialog and voice acting are at the high end of what we've seen in video games, there's still a clear difference between this and a B-level Hollywood production. In large part this is attributable to the current limitations of video games as a medium. Computer-rendered characters lack the subtle non-verbal cues you'd get from real-life actors, so in even the biggest-budget games, every story note must be delivered by flat, to-the-point dialog. Hence, we get characters over-explaining their feelings and opinions, leading to some awkward exchanges.
Obviously the biggest area of improvement over past GTA entries is the on-foot game. It no longer feels tacked-on, and while the camera still has a little trouble with tight indoor spaces, the game stands on its own as a competent third-person action/adventure. The auto targeting during shootouts is a dream compared to older GTA games, and the ability to take cover behind objects is also a huge plus. The cover system isn't as advanced as, say, Gears of War, but it helps make the game's extended gun-fests fun instead of frustrating.
Despite the new emphasis on character development and the pedestrian sections of the game, Grand Theft Auto IV is still built around driving. The basic mechanics of jacking cars and racing them through crowded city streets get a few tweaks. Getting into a car now usually involves breaking the window to get in, and then spending a few valuable seconds hotwiring the ignition, rapidly pressing the trigger buttons on the controller to speed up the process.