GTA: The Art of Addiction

There is something about open world games that just keep me coming back for more, and more and more until I either complete them or collapse into a sleep deprived coma vowing not to get sucked in again.  In the years since GTA San Andreas I have sunk countless hours into The Godfather (completing to 100% on the original Xbox, and then nearly doing it all again on the 360 version), Crackdown and especially the blatant GTA knock-off Saints Row.

Hours and days melt past in the blink of an eye and before I know it my in-game clock is showing hours that beggar belief.  In these days of AAA action blockbusters of between six and ten hours it takes a certain type of game to make me throw away all my spare time in pursuit of the stories conclusion.

Step forward Grand Theft Auto IV, a game I wasn’t really that fussed about before release.  There has been such a drip feed of information on the title, and the hype machine was revving up for action nicely last year before the inevitable delay.  So now the game is finally here, millions of copies have been sold, the usual horror stories have appeared in the press and it would be another GTA I would complete over a period of months.  That’s what I thought anyway.

But it is fair to say that GTA IV has completely taken over my life since it thudded onto the doormat last Wednesday.  My in-game clock is currently showing around 28 hours and I spent practically every free moment of the bank holiday weekend playing it, much to the displeasure of my extremely long suffering partner.
I’ve been taking my time, exploring the city, doing the side missions, making friends, going on dates and “cooking fools”.  I chose the 360 version primarily because of the exclusive DLC that will be appearing later this year, and see there is an achievement for completing the main storyline in under thirty hours.  I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get this one, I’ve spent so much time messing around and still have around fifteen missions left to go.  But I don’t really care, it means I can play it again!

On the surface, IV doesn’t appear to be *that* different from its predecessors.  The GTA mechanic is still the same as it has been since the seminal GTA III, open world, missions from various shady types around the city for money, side quests and all that good stuff.
Indeed my only tiny moan about some of the missions is they do get extremely repetitive, chase down people in cars, on motorbikes, deliver stuff from point A to point B.  But then you get sprawling missions like Three Leaf Clover involving a bank heist that can last up to twenty minutes and took me at least a dozen replays to finally perfect.  I had forgotten the sheer amount of annoyance and frustration these multi-part missions can create, especially when you get taken out seconds from completion!

But what sets GTA IV aside from its predecessors and identikit games such as Saints Row is the story.  Niko Bellic is just the kind of protagonist the series needed, someone who is trying to forget his past but is still searching for someone to give himself some kind of closure.  He comes to America thinking he is going to live out the American dream with his cousin Roman only to find the mansion he was promised is a ratty dump in a bad area of town.  If there was ever a textbook example of an anti-hero, it would be Niko.

As numerous reviewers have already stated at great lengths, this is a GTA that is more serious, darker, edgy.  Previous games such as Vice City and San Andreas have taken a more cartoonish, tongue in cheek look at society from the 80s and 90s.  IV goes for a very realistic depiction of modern living, but of course the trademark humour is still here.  But now more than ever it is far more cutting, perhaps a little too close to home for some people.  It’s still incredibly funny, and the talk radio stations still provide a huge amount of laugh out loud moments.

What Rockstar has done with Liberty City is nothing short of breathtaking.  This genuinely is a perfect recreation of New York, and flying a helicopter over the city makes you appreciate just how much work the designers have put in here.  I have seen so many areas of the city I have yet to explore while flying around I know I will be spending many hours after completing the main storyline uncovering all the secrets the world has to offer.

IV is much more refined, tighter experience than previous games.  San Andreas had such a huge, sprawling game world it put many people off (myself included, I believe I only ever completed around 20% of the game), plus the story didn’t particularly appeal to me.  But it is the characterisation here and the gradual unfolding of the story that just keeps me coming back for more and more.  I could probably spend another ten thousand words talking about all the subtle nuances of GTA IV but it would be pointless because if you are reading this, chances are you have already played the game and indeed probably own it.  If you don’t, buy it!  GTA IV truly does live up to the hype, and as I type this now, all I can think about it getting back to completing the main storyline to see what happens.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Filed in: Videogames