Okay, so this is my first entry, and it's likely to be a controversial one, and I might recieve some harsh criticism (if anyone actually reads this), but I'm going to carry on regardless. So here goes.
As with (seemingly) the majority of people who own an Xbox 360 or a PS3 I've been playing Grand Theft Auto IV lately. For those of you who have been living under a rock or on another planet for the last few years GTA IV places you in the shoes of the Eastern European immigrant Niko Bellic, fresh off of the boat in the increasingly New York-esque Liberty City lured by the promise of the American Dream, something he has heard much about from his cousin Roman. However Niko soon realises that life in America is not all fast cars, big houses and loose women that he was promised it was, and ends up gradually finding himself more and more involved in Liberty City's criminal underworld.
And so starts Grand Theft IV. Sounds somewhat familar right? But that's to be expected really. It is Grand Theft Auto after all, and Grand Theft Auto has a way of doing things, and it does these things very well. Most of the time.
So the game arrives on the day of release, and I eagerly make the journey home from work so that I can finally see what all the fuss was about, and why it was getting near perfect scores across the board from both internet and magazine reviews. A few weeks on and I'm still trying to work out exactly why GTA IV deserves these perfect, or near perfect scores.
Yes, it's a good game. No one can argue that it's not. Yes, it's an amazing technical achievement. Liberty City has never felt more alive (or should I say lived in?). Yes, the characters have much more personality this time around, and are far less two dimensional than the characters in previous GTA games. Yes, the missions are (almost) exactly the same as every other GTA game since Grand Theft Auto III.
"But it's GTA, what do you expect?" I hear you all crying. I don't know exactly. I did expect to be able to play the game for more than an hour without getting bored and turning it off. I expected to play the missions and no have a weird feeling of deja vu, as if I'd done them all before. For all the cool new things Rockstar have put in, it all feels a little too samey for me so I just can't get into it.
Oh well. At least there's multiplayer, which is great fun when playing with a group of mates.
In other news, Rock Band hits the UK next week after an excrutiatingly long wait. With any luck Play.com will come through for me and deliver it on the day of release. That should be good.
1 comment:
I didn't find the missions too repetative, simply because I enjoy playing them so much. I also enjoyed the various choices you can make throughout the game which have very real consequences.
**Slight Spoilers Below**
I particularly liked the fact that the game is much more realistic with it's long-term goals. No more rags-to-riches storyline, ending up with you owning every piece of real estate, including three mansions, four penthouses, an airstrip and a Burger Shot. In case you didn't guess, I am of course referring to the FOURTY-SEVEN pieces of available property that were in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
In GTA:IV, sure, you get a couple of nice places. But you aren't some real estate mogul.
**Spoiler End**
The multiplayer is something I agree with you on, most definiately. It's so free-roaming that I can see it holding it's appeal for a long, long time, much like Crackdown did.
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