Grand Theft Auto 4 and the Gift of Hindsight....

I said a while back that I didn't plan on doing a full review of GTA4 - and I still don't. But on Friday I finished the main single player story and on reflection of playing the game virtually to its end, there's a lot of things which have struck me about it. Rather than writing a proper paragraphed review, I'm instead just going to outline the pros and cons of the game in comparison to its previous incarnations and then give a score at the end like I usually do.

PROS

1. Graphics - a huge step up in terms of GTA. Still nothing compared to Metal Gear or Uncharted, but everything is well textured in GTA4 including water effects and generally just great.

2. Euphoria engine - the physics engine governing the game brings a whole new realism to the series. Collisions and damage are more realistic, physical interaction between objects, people and their surroundings is more natural, everything just feels like it should.

3. City - this incarnation of Liberty City is easily the best yet. Every corner, alleyway and building has its own feel to it. Modelled on New York, the developers have certainly put a lot of thought into making Liberty feel more like a real city. Taxis, buses, subway, overheads, everything adds to this bustling metropolis.

4. Technology - GTA4 includes an in-game internet, a mobile phone and GPS. This is the first game in the series that really feels it's more current and up to date. All of the above are used quite well in the game itself.

5. Story and Characters - the story in GTA4 is easily the best yet, leaving you wanting more and wanting the characters to succeed. You can genuinely feel compasion for some of the characters at times and the introduction of "choices" for missions in the games give the series a sort of moral side - something which it has been lacking for a long time. Allowing you to interact with your "friends" more is also interesting, as you can finally experience the effects of doing work all the time on your relationships with others in-game.

6. Controls - are very streamlined and are very comfortable. They are different to previous games but you easily adapt to them and appreciate just how well the developers worked on making it more fluid.

7. Multiplayer - a nice addition though a little chaotic at times, and equally fruitless at times aswell. The inclusion of multiplayer is an essential part of any game nowadays and for the first incarnation of multiplayer in a GTA game, it's not too shabby.

CONS

1. Lack of FUN - some of you might be surprised to see this, but its true. Once you finish the story there's virtually no "fun" things to do. There are no tanks, no wacky vehicles, no interesting weapons, no strange locations, nothing. Compared to what San Andreas had to offer in Harrier jump jets, jet packs and virtually everything else, GTA4 is just missing that "umph!".

2. The Taxi - while initally a great idea, the availability of reaching your destination immediately without driving begs the question "Why bother driving at all?". The inclusion of the Taxi as a usable vehicle has led me to feel that driving is actually boring in GTA4.

3. The GPS - again, the inclusion of GPS tells us the "fastest legal route to your destination", so when I AM driving I'm more looking at where the coloured line is leading me on the mini map rather than where I'm driving and learning the surroundings and geography of the city.

4. Money and Property - you get too much of it and have nothing to spend it on. This was a problem in GTA3, but when Vice City came out and introduced buying property and businesses, earning money in missions had a purpose and use, an idea that was further pushed in San Andreas. A lack of the above means not only fewer side missions, but nothing to do with all the money you earn. I now sit on a $900,000 bonanza with nothing to do with it!!

5. Extra activities - again, San Andreas had a lot to offer with buying clothes, gambling in casinos and warring over gangland, but in GTA4 everything has been pulled back. You can still buy clothes but it's much more restricted, and there is no working out and eating in restaurants is a case of getting health, the consequences of eating too much are no longer felt.

In short, GTA4 is very much a case of one step forward and two steps back. By making the game more realistic they have sacrificed things which people loved. Tanks, wacky cheats, planes and so on are all absent, leaving a very dull experience once the game is finished. The stand out point of GTA is that once you're finished, there's still stuff to do, but sadly that's not really the case here. There are nice features like hunting down wanted criminals and shooting radioactive pigeons to unlock the bonus vehicle but then, the vehicle is a FUCKING HELICOPTER. Like the Hunter in Vice City!!! We've seen that before...and in fact, the one in GTA4 isn't nearly as good as the Hunter. We expect something better at this stage.

GTA4 is also a case of "If it ain't broke don't fix it!". The GTA3 series catapulted Grand Theft Auto into superstardom and like so many others the anticipation for GTA4 was sky high. Now, I am left underwhelmed, eagerly anticipating MGS4 in two weeks time. Rockstar had a winning formula with Vice City and San Andreas, and while trying to revolutionise the genre, they have sacrificed the one element which is essential in all video games.... FUN! Yes the single player is FUN - to an extent, but a lack of planes for example and key interesting areas means the range of missions to complete is very short and shallow, leaving you wanting more. The tell tale sign for me that is a let down came very early on, when I found myself not overly bothered to try and finish the game - unlike when I was playing the previous installments. Now having finished it, I really couldn't be bothered to go back and pick it up.

I'm well aware that I've outlined more PROS than CONS, but really, the CONS equally match the PROS. I think reviewers were too quick to rate the game with 100/100 and 10/10's and so on, with only a few websites giving realistic scores of 9.7/9.8 . For me, GTA4 doesn't deserve the perfect scores it's getting, and it's a sign of how shallow reviews have become when games are rewarded such scores when they are not deserved.

Graphics: 10 (only because for a GTA game they are excellent)
Gameplay: 9.8
Sound: 10 (can't flaw it anywhere)
Longevity: 9.5 (short for a GTA game)
Presentation: 10
Extras/Unlockables: 8 (poor for a GTA game)

Overall: 9.6

~The Damo