DarkDragoonX
05-03-2008, 07:21 PM
So I decided to go ahead and rent GTA IV when it came out, and after spending enough time with it to finish story mode, I can safely come to the following conclusion:
That is what all the fuss is about?
About halfway through the game, I realized that I had played this game before, back when it was called GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas. Sure, GTA IV has a few improvements... better combat is nice, online multiplayer doesn't really matter matter to me but most folks love multiplayer, so that's good. They finally added the ability to instantly retry a mission without driving all the way back to the guy who hands it out. Oh, and I guess they made driving more realistic, but I think most everybody prefers the ninety-degree angle handbrake turns from the previous games.
Despite these additions, there are still plenty of gameplay problems ranging from boneheaded to frustrating, some of which have been around since GTA III. First, partner AI is still completely brain dead. After all these years, you would think that Rockstar could have come up with, if not great AI, then at least AI that doesn't get stuck on corners or get itself run over by traffic. In one mission, I was tasked with killing the three managers of a strip club. To find them, you're supposed to stand near people and eavesdrop on their conversations. Now, one person standing in front of a door told me to back off, because one of the managers was inside. Fair enough, I'll go locate the other two, then decide how to deal with this. On walking away, I accidentally brushed up against him. Apparently this is some sort of terrible crime, and I was instantly shot by approximately twelve thousand different people at once. Hooray. They could have just programmed the door guard to shove you away, but instead they decided that even the most glancing contact is a death sentence. It's completely retarded.
Then there are a few things that are actually a step backwards from previous entries. There are fewer vehicles (in particular no planes, jetpacks, etc), which is definitely a bummer. Like it's past installments, the missions are all very same-y, with maybe one interesting, memorable task for every ten yawn-inducing filler missions. And have I mentioned yet that driving is much less fun than it used to be?
Remember Vice City, when you could buy certain businesses, finish a small quest chain, and then get extra money and/or special bonuses from it? Well, now you get a "relationship" system, which essentially boils down to getting bonuses by bowling a lot. As you progress through the game, you meet new friends, who want to hang out with you. By taking them to shows, bowling alleys, pool halls, etc, you can make them happy, and if they become happy enough, they'll have extra services for you. Make friends with your cousin, and you can call him up for a free cab ride. Date a nurse, and you can give her a call for a free health boost. It sounds like a good idea in theory.
In theory.
Unfortunately, you can only do the stupid pool, bowling, whatever minigames once, maybe twice, before you never want to see them again as long as you live. The constant demands your friends have for your attention, especially as you get more and more of them, causes an excessive amount of grunt work to keep your relationship level high and your bonuses available. The old method of buying property, doing a quest chain, and never having to worry about it again was so much better it isn't even funny.
For all the hubbub surrounding the characters and the story, it's not really any better than previous entries. The main character is certainly well-done, and the "reluctant antihero" is pretty interesting, but all the people you work for are the same "one-sided crazy guy" archetypes seen in previous entries. The plot is pretty standard criminal "Sopranos"-type stuff, and not anything particularly notable compared to previous entries.
Multiplayer is, well, multiplayer. The ability to use the entire city as your playing field is nice, but gameplay-wise, it's really just the same thing you've seen before in countless other games, except now you can steal cars. I'm not really into multiplayer shooters much at all, but this game didn't convert me, so take that for what it's worth.
Oh, and before I forget, let me mention that Rockstar really needs to learn how to write jokes that don't resort to toilet humour. At one point I actually sat down and counted how many sexual references I could see and/or hear over the radio in a period of ten minutes. The answer? Twenty-seven. That means I was encountering a sex joke more than once every thirty seconds. I don't mind sex jokes. I don't mind a spot of vulgarity here and there. But when it's as constant and unrelenting as it is in GTA IV, it just gets annoying. It's like they hired a fourteen year old as their head writer. The game has some legitimately clever humour in places, but the vast, vast majority of the time, they avoid wit and go for the cheap laugh with a vagina joke, which is a real shame.
So, I'm not going to buy GTA IV. It's really the exact same game as it's previous iterations with a new coat of paint. It's not a bad game, it's actually a good game, and hardcore fans of the series will love it. If I were a professional reviewer, I'd give it a solid 9 or a 9.5 because again, it is a very good game. It is also, however, the same game they released the last three times. It doesn't push the sandbox genre forward. It doesn't even push the series forward.
GTA is basically following the same pattern that Street Fighter II, Megaman, and Madden NFL have before it: releasing the same damn game over and over with minor tweaks. If you're a hardcore fan, you'll think it's great (god knows I bought every Megaman and Megaman X game), but from an objective standpoint, it's really pretty meh. Any other game series would be (and has been) heavily criticized for releasing minor variations of the same game, but somehow, the GTA series is not only allowed to get away with it, but is praised for it. It makes no sense. To repeat yet again, GTA IV is a good game, but it's certainly not worthy of all the hype and perfect scores the gaming media has been lavishing on it.
That is what all the fuss is about?
About halfway through the game, I realized that I had played this game before, back when it was called GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas. Sure, GTA IV has a few improvements... better combat is nice, online multiplayer doesn't really matter matter to me but most folks love multiplayer, so that's good. They finally added the ability to instantly retry a mission without driving all the way back to the guy who hands it out. Oh, and I guess they made driving more realistic, but I think most everybody prefers the ninety-degree angle handbrake turns from the previous games.
Despite these additions, there are still plenty of gameplay problems ranging from boneheaded to frustrating, some of which have been around since GTA III. First, partner AI is still completely brain dead. After all these years, you would think that Rockstar could have come up with, if not great AI, then at least AI that doesn't get stuck on corners or get itself run over by traffic. In one mission, I was tasked with killing the three managers of a strip club. To find them, you're supposed to stand near people and eavesdrop on their conversations. Now, one person standing in front of a door told me to back off, because one of the managers was inside. Fair enough, I'll go locate the other two, then decide how to deal with this. On walking away, I accidentally brushed up against him. Apparently this is some sort of terrible crime, and I was instantly shot by approximately twelve thousand different people at once. Hooray. They could have just programmed the door guard to shove you away, but instead they decided that even the most glancing contact is a death sentence. It's completely retarded.
Then there are a few things that are actually a step backwards from previous entries. There are fewer vehicles (in particular no planes, jetpacks, etc), which is definitely a bummer. Like it's past installments, the missions are all very same-y, with maybe one interesting, memorable task for every ten yawn-inducing filler missions. And have I mentioned yet that driving is much less fun than it used to be?
Remember Vice City, when you could buy certain businesses, finish a small quest chain, and then get extra money and/or special bonuses from it? Well, now you get a "relationship" system, which essentially boils down to getting bonuses by bowling a lot. As you progress through the game, you meet new friends, who want to hang out with you. By taking them to shows, bowling alleys, pool halls, etc, you can make them happy, and if they become happy enough, they'll have extra services for you. Make friends with your cousin, and you can call him up for a free cab ride. Date a nurse, and you can give her a call for a free health boost. It sounds like a good idea in theory.
In theory.
Unfortunately, you can only do the stupid pool, bowling, whatever minigames once, maybe twice, before you never want to see them again as long as you live. The constant demands your friends have for your attention, especially as you get more and more of them, causes an excessive amount of grunt work to keep your relationship level high and your bonuses available. The old method of buying property, doing a quest chain, and never having to worry about it again was so much better it isn't even funny.
For all the hubbub surrounding the characters and the story, it's not really any better than previous entries. The main character is certainly well-done, and the "reluctant antihero" is pretty interesting, but all the people you work for are the same "one-sided crazy guy" archetypes seen in previous entries. The plot is pretty standard criminal "Sopranos"-type stuff, and not anything particularly notable compared to previous entries.
Multiplayer is, well, multiplayer. The ability to use the entire city as your playing field is nice, but gameplay-wise, it's really just the same thing you've seen before in countless other games, except now you can steal cars. I'm not really into multiplayer shooters much at all, but this game didn't convert me, so take that for what it's worth.
Oh, and before I forget, let me mention that Rockstar really needs to learn how to write jokes that don't resort to toilet humour. At one point I actually sat down and counted how many sexual references I could see and/or hear over the radio in a period of ten minutes. The answer? Twenty-seven. That means I was encountering a sex joke more than once every thirty seconds. I don't mind sex jokes. I don't mind a spot of vulgarity here and there. But when it's as constant and unrelenting as it is in GTA IV, it just gets annoying. It's like they hired a fourteen year old as their head writer. The game has some legitimately clever humour in places, but the vast, vast majority of the time, they avoid wit and go for the cheap laugh with a vagina joke, which is a real shame.
So, I'm not going to buy GTA IV. It's really the exact same game as it's previous iterations with a new coat of paint. It's not a bad game, it's actually a good game, and hardcore fans of the series will love it. If I were a professional reviewer, I'd give it a solid 9 or a 9.5 because again, it is a very good game. It is also, however, the same game they released the last three times. It doesn't push the sandbox genre forward. It doesn't even push the series forward.
GTA is basically following the same pattern that Street Fighter II, Megaman, and Madden NFL have before it: releasing the same damn game over and over with minor tweaks. If you're a hardcore fan, you'll think it's great (god knows I bought every Megaman and Megaman X game), but from an objective standpoint, it's really pretty meh. Any other game series would be (and has been) heavily criticized for releasing minor variations of the same game, but somehow, the GTA series is not only allowed to get away with it, but is praised for it. It makes no sense. To repeat yet again, GTA IV is a good game, but it's certainly not worthy of all the hype and perfect scores the gaming media has been lavishing on it.