Well, now I feel empty.

GTA IV is a game I've struggled with for a long time. I've been playing it on and off for almost 3 years now, and today I finally finished it. (I got my least favourite ending, sadly.)

The story in this game is an obvious 10/10. I haven't played many games that tell a story this meaningful so well. However, the game design can be very frustrating at times. Bad AI, no checkpoints, mediocre driving...they don't ruin the experience, but they make it significantly worse.

It's still a great game despite its many flaws, and I would recommend it to just about anyone. I mean, it even made me cry a bit. Overall, GTA IV is a phenomenal game, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

I'll start with the bad things, I guess:

- weird mechanics, cause I'm obviously used to GTA V and San Andreas

Escaping police, fighting, you don't recover life at all if you don't find a restaurant and eat, TOLL and making a character IMMORTAL just so rockstar's story would make more sense making you get to the right part of town to watch a cutscene

- Bad performance

This on pc is UNPLAYABLE without patches and mods you find on internet

- Too much tutorial

Everything has a goddamn notification "press this, do this"

About the good parts:

+ The radio...

Rockstar never gets it wrong! Jazz, rock, calle 13, Elvis Crespo, some russian raps/hip hop and, of course, the messed up chit chat in it.

+ They payed attention on every detail on this GTA

When you get near a running car, you can listen to the muffled radio, when someone tries to enter the car and you start driving, they are dragged with it, the moves your character does, you can feel they tried to do it as real as possible for a 2008 game and you can hear people in radio talking about a mission you just did

+ The story

It's much more deep than GTA V, for example, emotional charge, etc. Unfortunately, I felt it just got like this towards the end, cause most of the game is the GTA recipe: go there, kill this man, come back, etc. But It's a goddamn fine story

My verdict? Give it a try. I'd say It's the third best GTA, behind San Andreas and V, clearly.

I finally finished the game's main story today. This is something I should have done long ago when I played it in high school but did not manage to complete the last mission due to its length and difficulty. This time around I was able to immerse myself in and let myself take things slow experiencing the game by doing the random encounters, dating, minigames, races, and other aspects of the game that were overlooked by teenage me. GTA IV was something else in terms of its world, story, characters, and the overall immersion I felt that I could not get from other GTA titles.

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.

Man does this game hold up all these years later. It sometimes gets understandably overshadowed by San Andreas (which was a major effort in pushing the boundaries of what a video game was capable of at the time) but this game is just about perfect in what it accomplishes. Between its laser focus on engaging storytelling, character development, and emotion, its virtually flawless tone balancing and its gritty atmosphere, its timeless gameplay systems, to its deeply immersive world filled to the brim with depth and plenty of side activities to get lost in. There’s never a moment playing this game where i feel bored or as though my attention is waning in any way. That’s not to diminish how important the other Grand Theft Auto games were (and still are) for the gaming industry or the indelible influence they left on the genre of open world games. However for me personally Grand Theft Auto 4’s more personal and mature narrative, combined with its more centralized focus on themes of revenge and violence, its searingly cynical social commentary and its protracted evisceration of the american dream, makes it the most emotionally gripping game in the franchise and thus my favorite. It’s also precisely that level of depth that elevates this game to the top of rockstars incredible oeuvre.

GTA 4 é definitivamente o melhor jogo da franquia na minha opinião, essa atmosfera pesada, triste e sombria, reflete bem com oq o jogo quer te passar com a história, os personagens são EXTREMAMENTE bem feitos e bem escritos, principalmente o Niko, além dele ser badass pra krl namoral, o jogo é muito imersivo e do início ao fim me passou uma vibe meio melancólica, ele aborda boas críticas sobre o capitalismo dando ênfase nessa coisa de "o sonho americano" ele foi pra liberty city esquecer do passado, começar uma vida nova, e acabou voltando pra mesma vida q ele tinha antes, a história desse jogo é INCRÍVEL, as missões desse jogo são muito bem escritas, não são missões irreais nível gta san andreas, q pede pra um cara sozinho invadir uma base militar e roubar um jetpack, são missões simples, realistas, "mate um cara no hospital" "finja q está indo fazer uma entrevista de emprego, quando chegar, mate o cara" qual é as missões são muito boas, a física dos carros, por mais q eu ache meio exagerada é uma das melhores q eu já vi em um jogo, a coisa q eu mais odeio no gta 5 são as físicas dos carros onde vc da um toque no controle e o carro faz 5 voltas, a destruição dos carros tbm é muito boa e eu achei superior a do gta 5, tomara q no gta 6 a rockstar faça uma mescla das físicas dos npc's e personagens de rdr2 e gta 4, e uma mescla das físicas dos veículos de gta 4 e gta 5. Enfim, ótimo jogo, perfeito, apenas jogue.

Niko: Durante a guerra, fiz coisas ruins. Depois da guerra, não pensei em fazer coisas ruins

Ileyna: E você não está preocupado com a sua alma?

Niko: Quando você entra em uma cidade e você vê cinquenta crianças, sentado em uma fileira contra a parede da igreja, cada um com uma garganta cortada e mãos decepadas, você percebe que a criatura que fez isso não tem alma.

COMO EU TIVE A CORAGEM DE NÃO FAZER REVIEW DISSO ANTES??

Brother, simplesmente perfeito. Niko é um personagem que eu consegui me cativar de mais com, o cara sofreu tanto, tanto, e genuinamente quer melhorar de vida sem foder com a dos outros, ele real nunca foi um filha da puta como muitos protagonistas da franquia, mas parece que em todo lugar que o cara vai, destruição, morte e sangue seguem ele. De longe os melhores personagens são o Niko e o Roman, que é o primo do prota (protagonista eu falo prota pq sou otario liga nao). O cara é a personificação do carisma, muito divertido e genuinamente se preocupa com o Niko, e quer ajudar ele (mesmo tendo mentido sobre uma caralhada de coisas e chamar pra partida de boliche a cada 3 segundos NÃO ROMAN EU NÃO QUERO JOGAR BOLICHE CARALHO)

A história é de longe a mais sombria de todos os GTAs, com uma Liberty City que pode não ter um clima tão pesado quanto a do GTA III, mas não deixa de ser cinza e ter uma vibe deprimida. É triste pensar que muitos vão pra LC em busca do tão aclamado "sonho americano", quando, na realidade, a única coisa americana que eles conseguem é pirocada do governo e dos outros residentes de LC, já que a maioria é tudo arrombado. Ah e tem brasileiro no jogo, eles são pedestres mas é muito foda ouvir eles te mandando tomar no cu e ir pra casa do caralho. Jogo perfeito.

E sim eu chorei no final, que nem um bebê. Desculpa.

O GTA e o protagonista mais SUBESTIMADOS de toda a franquia.

Uma galera que curte a série GTA não se apega muito por este game e eu consigo compreender totalmente o motivo:

A história de GTA IV é a mais séria e profunda de toda a franquia. Além disto, "Liberty City" tem uma atmosfera totalmente diferente. GTA IV é denso, pesado e real, mostrando os efeitos colaterais e traumas de uma pessoa que participou de uma guerra.

Sua jogabilidade também é a MAIS REAL de todos os GTAs (Sim, mais real que o GTA V, em questão de JOGABILIDADE). A direção dos carros é SUPER REAL, o mesmo acontece com o sistema de tiro do jogo. Uma física surpreendente até mesmo pros dias de hoje.

Niko Bellic também é um dos protagonistas mais bem desenvolvidos da série (FACILMENTE carismático com sua ironia).

O desenvolvimento da história é ótimo (As escolhas feitas durante a gameplay são ótimas e abrilhatam o game).

O "único" contra do jogo e seu maior problema é a falta de otimização (Eu lembro de zerar ele no Xbox 360 e NOSSA, era muito bug de textura, principalmente ao acelerar muito com o carro, a cidade simplesmente não renderizava). Teve algumas boas vezes que o jogo simplesmente engasgou.

Niko!! Let's Go Bowlling!!

PRÓS:
- História e protagonistas MUITO BONS.
- A física do game.

CONTRAS:
- Alguns problemas de perfomance.

I appreciate ambition and veering off in a different direction for a specific vision, especially one that to this day makes itself stand apart from even other entries in its franchise. I just don't think it was for me.

There's a clear obvious intent that GTA IV was meant to be different bold new direction for the series, not only to jump into a new generation of consoles but to restart from first base after the new highs and ambition that San Andreas had set. Unlike its predecessor which was concerned about the sheer scale of its content and variety, creating something unabashedly charming and actively engaging at every moment, IV is concerned about realism and being grounded. So many of its overhauled systems and structure are geared towards setting an oppressive tone, a different kind of immersion that's not based on "how do we make sure the player cannot possibly be bored at any second" but really making sure the player's firmly in the shoes of what sets Niko apart from every other protagonist in the series and the circumstances that led him to Liberty City. San Andreas wanted the player to not just be CJ but actively transform him into a power fantasy, something you earn over time with every activity you did as you gained control over every part of San Andreas you set foot in. Niko doesn't get to have that power fantasy even as he reaches towards the end of his journey, because every action you take are in the favor of those seemingly in control of that power, which in itself is also torn down to shreds as you quickly learn just how truly miserable and lacking that power of theirs actually is. The closest comparison here might actually be GTA 3, whom not only shares the same location (albeit mostly in name and a very general surface level similarity) but also an initially similar love for its crime lords and mafia gangs duking it out between each other as you change between sides as a yes man before taking matters into your own hands. But unlike 3, the crime lords and mafia gangs you're working for are nearly all drugged out of their minds, in far beyond over their heads for what they're actually dealing with, in a needless desperate hopeless cycle of petty killings just to maintain a status quo that all gets shattered in the end anyways. Claude, Tommy and CJ all get what they wanted in the end for the insane climb to power they go on. Niko only digs himself deeper into a hole that takes away everything from him for his selfish desires.

It's all a nihilistic self-defeating prophecy and vision that Rockstar does faithfully commit to from start to finish. But it's not a vision for me, over a decade after its release with so much other media with unique ideas and spins on cycles of violence, revenge, the falsehood of an "American dream", and just general nihilism. It's Rockstar's satire and edge at its most extreme to an unpleasant degree, and while I get on a surface level that it's why GTA IV is considered the best and darkest story in the series, it's also mind numbing to the core. For a game so deeply focused on wanting to create something "real", so many of its characters feel like South Park stereotypes being played up to their extremes. A lot of them you're not meant to like, only working with as a means to an end, but there's also others that you're just supposed to be indifferent or even like which is all the more baffling when body image obsessed definitely not gay Brucie's calling you as you drive around town asking to go to the strip club to go stare at tits like the real men you both are, or Little Jacob who essentially amounts to an always high on something that asks to go eat out at Burger King stereotype that eventually just serves as a convenient arms dealer to Niko that conveniently shows up towards the end of the game.

I've never liked the excuse of "it was just the times!" because in most cases for media I've seen it used for, I could equally argue that it was rotten from the beginning and it's especially true for just how much of a weird issue GTA IV seems to have against LGBTQ+ people. It's shockingly common for characters to just suddenly bring up how much they don't want to be gay or homosexual, to such a degree where it's used as a negative stigma, a point of comparison for an idea of something someone shouldn't be. A corrupt government officer wonders how Niko could think he's working for the FIB, "those homosexuals." Manny complains about how he's presented on live television by his cameraman's work, "making me look gay, like a transsexual." The only excuse GTA IV has for itself on the way it continually uses a group of poorly represented minorities as a stereotype not to be, is when it introduces Florian/Bernie, the most over the top extreme textbook definition of a gay man who lusts for a man running for city mayor that also happens to be cheating on his wife while using "family values" as his campaign selling point. Niko gets to call him a slur only to then say right at the very end what a good friend Bernie is even if the man he loves is a hypocrite and should do better. Great fucking representation Rockstar, A+ work right there. "It was just the times!" is an excuse that does not fly in my book for this game because Rockstar managed to go three whole mainline GTA games without needing to kick down towards a group of people like this, and because it frankly just reeks of that weird feeling South Park gives off whenever people try to defend the targets it uses for bad taste humor. GTA IV doesn't make everyone a "target", I know it because I just played through the fucking game. There's characters it represents with a genuine honesty that stick with you, like Little Jacob's Jamaican background and incredibly strong accent that never dares to reach for a "can you translate that for me" joke, earning my respect despite how much I don't think he's that interesting of a character story-wise. I shouldn't have to give the game a free pass because it came out in the mid to late 2000s because I have played games in that era and console generation that didn't need to talk down and poorly misrepresent something I feel personally strongly about, let alone games in its own series and the same developer.

Beyond all that though and a bit less grim and upsetting, GTA IV does take new spins on the gameplay formula, and it's the part where I understand that I'm probably in a minority in for just not liking as much as its predecessor. I like game-y video games, and San Andreas fulfilled that want to a T, whereas GTA IV ends up taking away a lot of the sillier stuff like dancing rhythm games, playing dress up all the way to hair styles, working out and exercising to raise up stats; since IV wants to treat Niko as a character of his own and not something that the player gets to evolve, the formula has somewhat stepped back to the basics that GTA 3 actually started with. IV is almost entirely mission focused with only a small number of distractions and side things to go after, the majority of which I quickly grew tired of because they don't change no matter when or where you do them, and sometimes who you do them with. Bowling is a meme and all, but I don't even think it was that bad compared to having to constantly bring people to the pool table or the bar to raise up their friendship meters because otherwise they angrily text and call Niko about how crappy of a friend he is while you're in the middle of driving a truck filled with explosives to some gang you have to take out. Again, cool for the grounded realism! I see the vision there! And again, I just don't think it's for me.

A lot has been said about how vehicles control in IV. I understand the intent behind wanting to make the vehicles heavier, visibly weightier when they sway around off the ground and leaning to the sides when you make sharp turns at fast speeds, because Rockstar wanted to make driving a challenge after how admittedly easy San Andreas made driving around the city at stupid fast speeds and still nailing corners was. Driving around in essentially New York City in modern times should be tougher, and there's an element of satisfaction and tension when you are either chasing someone or are being chased by someone when every screw up means spinning out, watching everything get badly destroyed and bent out of shape, and just barely getting the gas moving again. But I also think the comparisons that vehicles in GTA IV feel like boats or sliding a wet bar of soap along the ground to be too accurate; the realism factor stops really being "real" and actually fun to play when vehicles can't make turns when going above 10 miles per hour, and frankly less skillful compared to all the stuff that San Andreas had a whole in-game driving school to teach you about how its physics worked. Going fast in that game felt exhilarating yet still meaningfully challenging because nice cars that could go fast weren't common and badly damaging them could seriously screw you over when the AI in that game could also drive incredibly fast. The vehicle physics are so undertuned here that even the AI seems to struggle with how cars are supposed to move around; if you even grasp the basic timings of when to slow down around corners and accelerate again, you'll be able to outrun all of the AI drivers in IV because none of them seem to know how to nail it down unless they are intentionally scripted to drive a certain way like in missions. I wouldn't even have an issue with how cars are generally slower period in this game compared to San Andreas if it wasn't for just how bad steering feels in this game and how much it cripples the experience in a series that involves driving cars so heavily.

Combat is an area that does feels meaningfully improved over its predecessors and is maybe the aspect I liked the most out of IV? Rockstar definitely took the criticisms of the PS2 era games to heart here because combat feels brutal and snappy, firefights come and go in that "realistic" instant when headshots always mean an instant kill, people stumble and scream out when shooting and getting shot at, and weapons feel and sound devastatingly impactful; the joke pea shooters of San Andreas are long gone here. The lock-on aiming for console/controllers was also improved to have an actual interactive skill element to it, now letting you try to aim for specific body parts for different reactions instead of being stuck always locked onto the chest unless you were at point blank range like San Andreas was. The snapping can be an annoyance, mainly whenever it just refuses to lock onto new opponents when they come into view unless you let go and hold the left trigger again or when Niko randomly snaps onto something completely separate from what you were just running towards or looking at. It's overall an improvement on what San Andreas set up, even if it fully makes sense why GTA V would later completely step away from the system and opt for more generic free aim with forgiving aim assist.

Rockstar deserves credit for being this bold with a mainstream AAA blockbuster release with a vision that wasn't only just making things prettier and more detailed for a more powerful generation of hardware, but also trying to reinvent the tone and direction the story they told went in a manner that I'm honestly shocked didn't spark more controversy with a general audience as well as fans of the series. It's a game that feels upset with the world but indifferent, not angry enough to change it and instead just continue going with the status quo no matter how terrible and oppressive it may be. It's the start of Rockstar spending countless hours building up insane technology that impresses to this day (even if the atrocious PC port still does not) and paying attention to little details few would probably notice until repeat playthroughs, and also where I think Rockstar's notorious satirical edge really began to show itself. I just also think it's too rough around the edges for me coming after an entry that was so purposefully endearing and charming at its core, happy that it was able to have fun with itself rather than wanting to say something and coming up short instead.

The thing about conspiracy theories and perhaps most ideologies is that, while the broad outline is inarguable, the actual specific details tend to vary from person to person. ‘Flat earth’, for instance, can be anything from ‘the earth is flat and this is being concealed from us’ to ‘the earth is flat so that, when the rapture comes, God can put all the sinners on one side and throw them off the planet’. The commonly accepted tenets among believers are thus nearly impossible to meaningfully categorise.

And… In my time with GTA4 over the years, ever since it came out, I’ve come to realise that the game posits the ‘American Dream’ itself as a conspiracy theory, with both the same general failings and the net negative effect it has on almost everyone.

Before I really get into this, I need to lay my cards on the table:

I fucking hate the GTA series. Ever since I was exposed to it (against my will, by a friend who thought it was the best shit ever made), I’ve seen it as nothing more than South Park for people who have panic attacks when they’re forced to think about something.
My opinion has only plummeted as time passes, with each replay of the PS2 games or GTAV crushing my already abyssal opinion even further into.
Not helping this is that the last ten years of GTA have simply been GTAV, whereas in 2013 the last ten years of GTA had been a whole bevy of entries and spinoffs. Granted, most of them were bad, but still. GTAV is my least favourite GTA, and perhaps one of my least favourite games of all time. Its supersaturation is exhausting.

But I’ve never applied any of this to GTA4, a game I view as not only the best GTA but perhaps one of the best stories/worlds ever realised in the medium.

A pretty significant part of why I give GTA4 a pass is down to the level of self-awareness it has. Previous (and future.) GTA protagonists had a tendency to come across as robotic, amoral psychopaths with no character consistency and a pretty significant disconnect between gameplay and narrative.
GTA4, meanwhile, portrays its characters as psychopaths on purpose. It’s the entire point; these people are assholes. It’s a welcome relief from GTA5, but I can’t really get into why this early in the review.

You may have heard, in the past, people decrying GTA 4 as the odd one out or even ‘the bad one’ and I feel it’s important to understand why.

This game opens with a broad, faceless Scottish man getting whipped while screaming ‘DADDY’S BACK YOU BITCHES’ several times. As opposed to immediately setting up a plot hook, a big bad or anything of the sort, GTA4 simply features Niko pulling into Liberty City, meeting his alcoholic brother and doing his best to make ends meet. It maintains this slow, grounded pace for the entire runtime up until the credits roll.

And… people didn’t like it! GTA fans specifically hated it. That ‘daddy’s back’ declaration in the intro was because the game took 4 years to come out. Which, in the 00s, was basically an eternity. They wanted another San Andreas - a content-rich, needlessly bloated long game headed by a poorly written psychopath - and instead they got what’s essentially The Sopranos in videogame form. This is primarily why GTAV is Like That and why GTA4 tends to be forgotten.

It’s hard to actually blame Rockstar for this swerve, though. Their intentions were pure: Assuming that GTA fans really loved the social satire and the madness of their protagonists, Rockstar developed a game where the critique of America is at the forefront and the narrative actually focuses on why the main character is like that.
Unfortunately for them, however, the humans behind GTA evidently changed their tune between San Andreas and GTA4 whether they were aware of it or not. At some point, America ceased to be funny to them and started being horrifying. It really, really, really shows.

GTA4 opens up with Niko’s arrival in Liberty City and almost immediately the game sets its tone. Roman - his cousin - arrives drunk off his ass in a shitty little car, the radio is playing Ukranian pop music and all around you is just… absolute fucking poverty. Roman’s taxi business is a cheap converted warehouse, people live under rail bridges, the nearby amusement park is completely abandoned and shit dude even the nearby park looks like ass.

What really strikes me, though, is that for all the talk of ‘a new life’ in America the game actually makes it clear that the first area is nothing of the sort.

In the story, it takes several hours for named characters with typical ‘American’ accents to actually appear. Till then, it’s primarily Serbians, Albanians, Jamaicans, Russians, Puerto Ricans and others scattered around. Outside of the story, the vast majority of pedestrians you encounter are ostensibly foreigners. As opposed to creating an alien atmosphere, Broker is rife with familiarity for Niko. So much so that his declaration of ‘I swore I wouldn’t kill anybody here’ rings hollow regardless of the player’s actions up until that point.

In this overly familiar world, Niko succumbs to fatalism and returns to bad habits like so many other characters you meet going forward. Fatalism runs through this game like a fault line, and a very early line sums it up perfectly;

“We can pick the game, but we cannot change the rules.”

GTA4’s cast is mostly people who’ve succumbed to this fatalism… Except Roman.

I often run into people who decry GTA4 as overtly cynical and pessimistic. It’s not difficult to see why, but I’d honestly argue that GTA4 is a relatively realistic-leaning-optimistic title and Roman exemplifies this tenfold. Despite having experienced the same horrific Yugoslav Wars in Serbia that his cousin did, Roman is a relatively optimistic man who takes the events of the game in stride despite the odd breakdown. He saw all the horrors, moved to America and actually accomplished the surprisingly difficult goal of establishing a business and owning a home.
Roman has a presence throughout the entire game, and serves as a fantastic foil to the relatively cynical Niko who constantly sees the worst in every situation. It’s telling that the ending in which he dies is almost universally considered to be the worst ending. I also hold a special fondness for his repeated calls to go bowling/play pool/etc. I didn’t realise it in my youth, but his and other friends’ calls serve as excellent stopgaps in a story that can kind of rush ahead at times.

Looping back to what I said at the start though, this game’s approach to the ‘American Dream’ is distinctly ahead of its time. It came out in 2007, when Call of Duty 4 had made imperialism mainstream again and American jingoism was still surging. This was a point in time where even games not set in the ‘modern day’ were rife with it - it’s omnipresent in Mass Effect, for instance, and still there in Gears of War. GTA4’s stance of ‘America fucking sucks’ isn’t revolutionary, but it is notable considering it’s peerage.

Unlike a lot of its themes, this one isn’t subtext. Early on ‘American greed’ is explicitly referred to as an infectious disease and it’s reiterated several times over. One of Niko’s first and most defining lines is “Capitalism is a dirty business”, which is pretty impressive given how ‘capitalism’ has become a no-no word in AAA gaming and its equivalents in other mediums. Can’t bite the hand that feeds, after all.

As for the American Dream itself, GTA4 treats it as a conspiracy theory. Several characters buy into it, most notably Roman, yet none of them can agree on a core definition. For the actual Americans, it mostly means some acquisition of status or wealth which is considered deserved due to their efforts. For the immigrants, it’s a mix between a fresh start and a relief from either past horrors or past crimes.

For Niko’s it’s all of the above.

He accomplishes none of these.

The last line spoken in GTA4 discounting phone calls is:

“So this is what the Dream feels like. This is the victory we longed for.”

There’s no definitive answer to what GTA4 thinks the Dream is, only that it’s considered abominable.

Moving on for a bit, what struck me the most during my replay is how well this game has aged. Barring some off-colour jokes about trans people and an oil baron being treated as a good person, there’s nothing particularly eyebrow raising or even just painfully dated. The humor is still funny, sharing much of its comedic DNA with something like Always Sunny, and despite the muddy models/texture I’d say Liberty City is still beautiful. A combination of great lighting and ambience only helps.

And the story, man the story… Easily one of the greatest crime fiction stories ever told.

At its core, GTA4 asks one really simple question: “What kind of person would you have to be in order to do the things most GTA protagonists did?”. Unlike its immediate successor, it doesn’t glorify any of these people. There are no attempts to make rapists likeable, antisemites/homophobes are universally awful people with no exceptions, and those obsessed with wealth are at best portrayed as sad souls flying too close to the sun. At worst they’re rightfully portrayed as selfish vain pricks who believe they’re owed the world.
As opposed to being about an event or what have you, GTA4 is an exploration of one man’s conscience and his experience with a world that’s paradoxically alien and familiar.

Well, not just his.

The friend system in GTA4 is much-maligned by more mainstream audiences, but even in 2008 I considered it an excellent system that only adds to the world and cast. As I said up above, they help pace the story especially from the midpoint onwards, and the dialogues Niko has with them tackle some subject matter that AAA games just completely shy away from even when they’re being ‘dark’.

Dwayne’s friendship chats dig deep into existentialism, suicidal despair, and other aspects of depression that are painfully salient in the 2020s amidst a growing loneliness epidemic. At one point, Dwayne muses that years of hardening himself to misery only left him unable to care, and that he’s struggling to remember how to care about anything outside of prison.

Packie meanwhile digs into the concept of being closeted, the pressures of toxic masculinity and how awareness of them doesn’t lessen them, and the double consciousness suffered by Irish-Americans who were born in America yet raised in an Irish Catholic upbringing. For a 2008 game, the treatment of queer people is surprisingly gentle and respectful and Packie’s self-questioning is approached with unexpected seriousness.

I realise now that it’s… very, very difficult to talk about GTA4’s story without spoiling it. Instead, I’ll just talk about the last act.

After hours of befriending people, working as a hitman/chauffeur and swapping out employers like they were a tarot deck, Niko is given two subsequent choices.

The first choice is, to be vague, a decision about whether or not to hold onto his previous identity, his life and trauma from Serbia. If you refuse, Niko and the rest of the cast state that it’s pretty unequivocally a good thing. If you accept… Well, TVTropes might suck but it rightfully lists GTA4 as the progenitor of ‘Vengeance Feels Empty’. Niko finds no catharsis in clinging to his old life, admits that he feels nothing, and while he’s not condemned by anyone it’s pretty clear that they don’t approve. Most tellingly, though; regardless of choice, Niko turns off the radio. Such a small thing, but it’s an impactful use of removing player control.
That said, refusing is very clearly the choice the developers want you to pick.

The second choice is essentially Niko being asked how he feels about his life in America. He can either chase the Dream, at which point NPCs mock him for being so stupid, or he can protect the people he cares about. Again, this choice is clearly weighted in favour of the latter (as the former costs you a vital gameplay feature), but what strikes me is how bitter the ending of the former is.
Niko greets the antagonist with ‘Welcome to America’ before putting an end to him. In essence, Niko gives himself over to the American Virus. It is fantastically grim, and only compounds how much the story nudges you to pick the latter choice.

But… I’ve done nothing but sing GTA4’s praises for the last 2000~ words. I unfortunately have to talk about the mission design.
When GTA4 came out, almost everything was decidedly ahead of its time. Other AAA games wouldn’t even try replicating the depth of its story for another five or so years, same with its open world simulation (which even GTAV took a step back from).

This does not apply to the mission design, which was archaic even at release. Missions are typically either shootouts, chases on foot, chases by car or tailing missions. These aren’t hard, in fact they’re quite easy. Unfortunately, the devs are aware of this and missions gradually become filled with either instant-fail conditions that can catch you off-guard because they’re not told to you until NPCs stop speaking, OR enemies simply become invulnerable until an event ends. Double unfortunately, the game also really likes to slam character building into the prelude of a mission, before the main event.

There’s no checkpoints.

None. Not until the DLCs.

A typical late game mission consists of a 5-10 minute drive with some impressively written and engaging character writing, followed by a shootout/chase/whatever you fail because of some poorly telegraphed condition or NPC with a rocket launcher spawning out of nowhere. You then have to do it all again. To the game’s credit, almost every mission seems to have two different sets of prelude conversations to pull from, so you’re rewarded - in a twisted way - for fucking up. Still, it gets grating towards the end as missions skyrocket in length and difficulty.

There’s also a small but grating matter; Rockstar didn’t renew the music license for the PC version and thus many stations are nearly gutted. This may not seem like much, but IMO the mid 2000s music and especially Vladivostok are crucial to the game’s atmosphere. The replacement music is not exactly up to snuff, and while it can easily be modded back to its original 2008 state it’s still quite the nuisance.

And… Man, if I don’t cut this review down it’ll go on forever. In the original draft, there were another 5k words after that music comment. Ruminations on how the game portrays immigrant solidarity, dissecting the ways in which the game carries a strong and tangible anti-capitalist message (ironic, Rockstar’s future considered), the surprising depth that comes with not portraying characters as white/black/hispanic/asian but as Irish/Slavic/Russian/American/Jamaican/African/Dominican/Spanish/etc etc, examining how the lack of customization and purchases is meant to reflect how Niko has nothing/how little money means to him and so many more little paragraphs.

But, honestly, not only is it a lot of filler (even by my rambling standards, see the Pathfinder review) but it is essentially nothing more than me dictating the entire game to you. While I would LOVE to write an actual thesis on GTA4, it’d take so much work that I’d have to be paid for it.

Ultimately, I’d say GTA4 has aged perfectly. It was amazing then, and it’s arguably even more amazing now. I considered it one of the finest games of all time when I first completed it as a youngling, and now that I’m an old fuck my opinion has only been reaffirmed.

Truly, when they put their minds into it, nobody does it like Rockstar.

I will always say this is the best GTA to release thus far.
Believable environment, Story that has its serious moments, shockers and jokes at times.
A Prick of a villain, bizarre side characters, and absolute Gs Big Up Lil Jacob.

Seeing a completely new realised Liberty City all the way from GTA 3 was incredible especially for 2008!
Better protagonist from 3 Niko Bellic is a badass, has morals and uses quotes that I even still quote today.

88 Missions looks like a small amount when you look at it, but some missions are actually quite long, tricky because of the health not regenerating and the driving.

The driving is the biggest complaint in this game, which I can understand BUT the cars on the 1st island are crap, when you unlock more high end cars the handling is easier, I found myself being able to turn corners like they were nothing!

This would be 5 stars btw BUT, There is a very common bug that stopped me from finishing the final story mission so the fact I couldnt complete it without having to look up a fix is ridiculous.

Also Swing Glitch is hilarious ;)

through its many, many pain points and rough edges, it still ends up telling a great narrative with some really compelling characters. really fun environment too. when you finish the missions up in north algonquin they start introducing a deluge of faceless mafia or government goons to give you missions for the rest of the game and that's honestly my only real "issue" with the game as it were... why should i care about this revolving door of characters who will probably die at the end of their mission line to set up the next one anyway? then the game ends completely unceremoniously. you're winner.

i felt like i hated this game a lot of the time i was playing it but there was just something always bringing me back to get some more mission progress and just explore such a beautiful city (when they have the colour grading turned down) every day for the ~2 weeks it took me to beat it. i'm absolutely sure my feelings would sour towards it if i played it again but the first part of this game, sans the introductory few missions, is just the pure perfection of open-world gaming, especially when you're settling into the mechanics. maybe that's just because they don't make you do any close quarters non-cover combat until algonquin?

The driving is not hard and anyone who complained about it should be banned from reviewing games forever.

O jogo é absurdo, a história é EXCELENTE, o Nico é um personagem maravilhoso, varios personagens carismaticos, uma ambientação incrivel, a cidade de Liberty City por mais cinza que seja, guarda uma vibe MUITO boa, amei demais tudo isso

agora vamos falar do real problema? que port RIDICULO esse de PC. é PATÉTICO DEMAIS ESSE PORT, simplesmente dropando FPS no meu PC com uma config otima, jogo bugando TODA HORA, eu NÃO CONSEGUI FAZER A FINAL DE PULAR NO HELICOPTERO DO PEGORINO PQ LOGO ESSE MOMENTO O JOGO BUGA E NAO DEIXA EU SUBIR, tive que ver esse pedaço no YT pq o jogo simplesmente não deixa eu terminar ele

o pior port da história do PC, é simplesmente patético o trabalho da rockstar nesse port, é ridiculo o quanto esse port estraga a experiência do que estava sendo uma das aventuras mais fodas que eu estava tendo nessa saga GTA

o primeiro jogo que não deixou eu terminar ele, e olha que joguei mafia 2 remaster, que tem sim um port porquissimo, mas esse aqui deixa qualquer homem simples parecendo o coringa.

vai tomar no teu cu Rockstar

I love this fucking game. My fave GTA by far.

It's only flaws are the depressing endings and that it doesn't work properly on PC. Everything else, from the car physics to the map to the crazy DLCs, is just pure gorgeousness. I would play this over GTA V any day.

It seems like Rockstar have gone back in this direction with RDR2 which is heartening.

é genérico dizer isso, mas esse é realmente o gta com a melhor história, e também provavelmente o melhor vilão da franquia
esse jogo tem as melhores cutscenes do gta, são todas muito bem construídas e bem cinematográficas, o que é bem maneiro
o jogo, na minha opinião, alonga um pouco demais, com muitos personagens que não levam a nada, mas o jogo tem tantos bons momentos que dá pra ignorar isso
é no geral um jogo muito bom, com momentos muito impactantes e momentos que te forçam a fazer coisas que você não quer, fazendo ser um jogo bem sério e marcante