by far my favorite game in the series, the setting and atmosphere is fantastic, the writing and overall storyline may be the best in Rockstar's portfolio up next to RDR2.
the shooting is punchy and satisfying although the cover-system sucks, guns sound great and and the ragdoll physics is unmatched even today, the way enemies react to gunshots is incredible and the self-nature of the ragdolls (grabbing into wounds and stuff, trying to grab an ledge to survive an fall or to stay up when falling) is godlike to this day.
the visuals are surprisingly great for today's standards though the art direction is often lame with the horrible brown color palette.
perhaps the biggest gripe I have with the game is with it's open-world design, after San Andreas most players were probably expecting this game to feature tons of stuff to do with the overall content SA originally had but it is not the case, there is nothing to do in the city expect from some side jobs you can do for certain characters, using the Internet Cafe and visiting Strip Clubs, the money you gain through the storyline is barely useful since there is not much customization available in the game, there is clothing stores but most of the outfits look horrible and only the Suit and Tie which can be bought on the Perseus shop that are decently looking, car and weapon customization is nowhere to be seen either.
overall GTA IV is Rockstar Games at it's peak, it's open world design may suck even when the game first released but the final game is absolutely amazing and totally worth checking out.
the shooting is punchy and satisfying although the cover-system sucks, guns sound great and and the ragdoll physics is unmatched even today, the way enemies react to gunshots is incredible and the self-nature of the ragdolls (grabbing into wounds and stuff, trying to grab an ledge to survive an fall or to stay up when falling) is godlike to this day.
the visuals are surprisingly great for today's standards though the art direction is often lame with the horrible brown color palette.
perhaps the biggest gripe I have with the game is with it's open-world design, after San Andreas most players were probably expecting this game to feature tons of stuff to do with the overall content SA originally had but it is not the case, there is nothing to do in the city expect from some side jobs you can do for certain characters, using the Internet Cafe and visiting Strip Clubs, the money you gain through the storyline is barely useful since there is not much customization available in the game, there is clothing stores but most of the outfits look horrible and only the Suit and Tie which can be bought on the Perseus shop that are decently looking, car and weapon customization is nowhere to be seen either.
overall GTA IV is Rockstar Games at it's peak, it's open world design may suck even when the game first released but the final game is absolutely amazing and totally worth checking out.