One of the most revolutionary games in the world alongside GTA 3. It has an elaborate storyline with a dark theme criticizing the American dream, xenofobia and homofobia. It feels like a book, and the characters seem to have come straight out of a Tarantino movie, Niko and company are incredible! The setting and the ambience are astonishing! Liberty City is jaw dropping, i was completely amazed by the attention to detail. Unfortunately, nowadays i feel like the game is kinda dated. GTA 4's game design revolves around a delivery service, summed up as: get a car; reach point A; drive to point B; some random shit happens and the shootout begins; kill everyone; mission complete; sometimes you need to go back to point A to complete the objective. EXTREMELY repetitive missions! Controlling Niko and driving can also be complicated at times. The game is extremely poorly ported for PC. It's NECESSARY to apply ENB mods and downgrade the Steam version. GTA IV is declining, aging poorly. If you're not a lover of the series and are just getting interested in it now, i would say that starting with San Andreas or GTA V would be a more pleasent experience. Besides everything, this game still a banger! A legendary one.

I can see why people like this game so much, I like it too! It's a great GTA game with a revamped Liberty City and I guess a more somber tone than usual.

I just think it is a bit slow and it takes a bit for it to get really interesting. I also don't really like how cars control in this one, especially after coming from GTA V...But I got used to it at this point.

I can still see a lot of qualities that made their way to GTA V and hopefully return for 6. It's definitely a fun time and it still feels like a GTA game through and through.

I like Niko, but I still think GTA V is better.......But it is a better GTA III than GTA III, I'll give it that.

This story is beautiful. Utterly, tragic without a shadow of a doubt. The story is timeless and regardless of your background I think by the end of this game you will feel Niko Bellic's pain. A man where trouble follows him wherever he goes. Now, a phenomenal story is good alone, but it dosen't make a game. No worries as this is GTA in the modern age. The characters and cars move with more "realistic" (ppl around the time said this) movement. It has more weight to it rather than feeling arcade-like in the PS2 titles. You can now swim, ragdoll, and jump from NYC rooftop to rooftop. Now the ragdoll physics makes the shooting incredible. Nothing feels better than letting off a full mac clip into some loan shark bastard. Now this takes me to my next praise, the setting. Unfortunately, NYC for the most part feels dead. Not enough things to do, especially once the game is over besides short hitman missions. Now for what it's worth the pool section, strip clubs, and internet cafe ads a nice touch. Overall, though leaving something to be desired. You can also date, which is used in early missions for plot purposes, but the older I get the more cringe I realize this is. In terms of the campaign, it gets better and better as more of NYC opens up, especially the later missions. The Bank Robbery is kino. Overall, it's not very replayable, but the campaign must be experienced. One of the best stories in gaming.

As a GTA fan, GTA IV to me is the most iconic. While this wasn't the first GTA I played, it was my introduction to the series through YouTube video's at the time. Back then all I could afford to play was GTA SA, so I did. Fast forward to today and I played every (non 2D) GTA game multiple times and I can pretty confidently say that this is still either the best GTA or a shared first position with GTA V.

GTA IV and GTA V are great games for different reasons. While GTA V has a better world map and is a return to the more classic formula of a GTA game, GTA IV shines more when it comes to realism and seriousness.

There are several factors that make GTA IV better compared to GTA V.

First thing being the physics. The way cars and pedestrians react to your actions in the world is miles ahead of any other GTA. Personally I think that the realistic behavior makes the game more enjoyable. Shooting people has a lot more impact and crashing into other vehicles does too.

Second of all the amount of detail is unmatched. While GTA V might have a lot of detail in it's world, GTA IV incorporates more detail in how the environment dynamically reacts to the player. You can shoot guns out of people's hands, when you shoot them in the leg they move accordingly, cops don't shoot with one star and try to arrest you alive instead, npc's react more appropriately to the player on foot, etc... I could go on, it's really an endless list. There is a very popular video showing the differences between V and IV that makes the same point. Although it does not mean GTA IV is necessarily the better game, it is a certain aspect that is much better that I care about very much.

Third point: The story is a lot more heavy and serious. GTA IV took a very different approach to it storytelling compared to other games. The story delved into some difficult topics and it was ultimately a very tragic story. While other GTA games are mainly about criminals rising to the top (for different reasons), this game is about a man that is stuck in the criminal life and doesn't really have a choice in that. It's a man with a tragic past looking for closure and a better life but is in some way unable to because of his unfortunate circumstances.

Now to talk about the game without comparing it to it's successor...

The story I just talked about and I don't really need to add anything else. It's a phenomenal character and a touching story.

All I can say is that the game is a very complete package. The city feels alive thanks to it's various activities and realistic features like the subway. The characters, the story, the activities, the world, the graphics and the realistic physics all combine into a real masterpiece that is underrated in my opinion.
I have a lot of fond memories of this game. This game is what got me interested into gaming all these years ago in the first place so there is also a factor of nostalgia.
Even though I've played this game many many times and have known it for many years, I keep coming back to it and I'll keep doing so for as long as I can foresee. This game really is one of the best games I've ever known.

The only reason why I can't give it five starts is because of the bad state of the PC port and how Rockstar has left this game in the dust. The issues are well known at this point. The performance is terrible and there are many bugs that have been known for years that never get fixed. It's so bad that this game technically isn't beatable at 60fps. The game itself is a masterpiece and the way the game was intended to be is perfect. But the state that they left it in on PC is a tough pill to swallow.

I could write a whole book about everything I like about this game. I could go into detail about the story, talk about features like the internet, talk about the lore and many easter eggs and myths, the atmosphere, the fact that this game serves as a time capsule at this point... There are many things I'd like to talk about that I just can't put into words in this review.

I think you get the idea.

GTA4 is my favorite GTA and it's not close.

I never beat the story, I probably never will. I never beat the story on any GTA game. I just don't care for them. What I do care for is fucking around on the massive open world cities of these games and my favorite way to do that was with friends.

Way back before GTA Online really swept everything with it's popularity here in Serbia me and my friends were in our local PC Club playing the fuck out of GTA 4 LAN baby. That was the real fun. The memories of fucking each other up on deathmatch or just driving around screaming are ingrained into my brain and will stay there forever.

Is this review based purely on nostalgia? Yeah. Could I do all of the things I listed above in GTA 5? Yeah. Would it be the same? Never in a million years.

o tal do GTA cinza é ABSOLUTE CINEMA, personagens, historia e jogabilidade achei tudo bom demais, a direção de arte do jogo deixar tudo acinzentado faz sentido com toda essa historia pesada (e diga-se de passagem boa pra caralho) que é contada, não joguei todos os GTAs mas acho que não tem nenhum que se leva tão a serio como esse. Já na parte da gameplay o que mais me incomodou mesmo foi os veiculos, a fisica muito real acaba fudendo tudo, e os carros não são divertidos de controlar porque o jogador tem que ficar tomando o maximo de cuidado possivel pra nao errar a curva mais facil que seja, porem um GTA igual esse acho que a Rockstar nunca mais vai fazer então ao longo do jogo eu fui entendendo que eu tava jogando algo diferente do padrão, acho que teve tanta reclamação na epoca por causa da fisica super realista desse jogo que a Rockstar fez o GTA V super arcade do jeito que é. As missões no geral eu gostei bastante por mais que tivesse algumas que parecia que eu tava fazendo a mesma coisa de outras, e os finais do jogo são sacanagem por conta da Rockstar, o tal do sonho americano não acabou sendo tão épico pro nosso mano Niko Bellic. Dentre os jogos da Rockstar que já joguei eu nunca vi nenhum jogo que fosse abaixo de "bom" e com esse a barrinha subiu muito, hypado demais pra ver o que eles vão cozinhar pro GTA 6 e como eles vão mostrar denovo que são uma das melhores desenvolvedoras de jogos.