Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto IV

Fourth chapter of the famous Grand Theft Auto, a game much debated for its violent content, sometimes racist, sometimes pornographic, and obviously extremely uneducational, yes, this game is everything our mom, the church, the teacher doesn't want us to do.

Brief summary of previous chapters regarding graphics and plot; the first two Gtas became famous and appreciated by many for their simplicity and originality but certainly not for the graphics, being 2D games with a top-down view. Many people, including myself, hoped one day to see a GTA in 3D graphics, and here comes the third chapter with a story with a no longer anonymous character, even if he never opened his mouth throughout the game, you can hear a groan every now and then when he gets hit. There are other versions of GTA; the very old London in 2D, Vice City (3D) where the character is an Italian named Tommy Vercetti, and finally San Andreas (3D) where the character is an African-American. Basically, mafia stereotypes.

Now let's move on to the actual game, we will play as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant to Liberty City to escape the underworld life he led in his homeland. His cousin Roman convinced him to come to Liberty City, writing via email about living the American dream with women, powerful cars, money, and villas, but upon arrival, he discovers it's all a lie; his cousin ran a modest taxi business and was indebted up to his neck due to his gambling habit. Niko, therefore, is forced to re-engage in a life of crime, gradually meeting more influential and powerful people in the world of organized crime. A not very convincing story but the positive aspect is that later we can make decisions that slightly alter the plot.

The game itself presents good graphics, not exceptional, details were neglected, and I'm not surprised since they practically recreated New York, the characters often look a lot like the protagonist to the point where I thought they were twins, the only thing that differentiates them is a slightly different outfit or hairstyle. The cars have been detailed almost to perfection, in fact, I think when creating it, they focused their attention on the cars; I was very impressed when accidents happen, the car is damaged in the exact spot where it was hit, even if we slightly touch another car, we can see scratches or small dents. Unfortunately, there is always the old defect commonly found in old video games, which is where the graphics correct themselves when we arrive at a place too quickly (or at least that’s what I saw). The sound is definitely average, there are many radio stations of all genres, but there are few famous authors and music groups. I managed to find yes and no two groups that I know and appreciate, one of my favorites being the Smashing Pumpkins with the song "Today".

The playability is very simple, there are no strange button combinations, the aiming system is a bit "heavy" but fortunately, there is the locking mode that I used often and that helped me a lot in completing the missions. The arsenal is nothing extravagant, just the essentials for killing people and destroying vehicles. Money is important for buying ammo, clothes to better attract dates, eating, offering meals when we go out with friends, and other little things. Every now and then, we have to take our friends out, accept their invitations to play darts, bowling, billiards, or simply to eat together, drink a little, or watch a cabaret show, the more we go out and have fun with them without letting them die, the more they like us and help us with criminal work, the same goes of course with women, if we don’t go out with them for a long time, they become increasingly sour and complicated, there are also mini arcade games. The game is excessively long but in the end, perhaps it’s more a strength than a flaw, missions rarely repeat, one in particular that struck me a lot was the bank robbery, a very adrenaline-pumping piece like an American movie.

There is also the online, a bit of a brave idea, disorganized, not challenging, but at the same time can be fun, making the game more complete.

A nice game especially for fans of the series, it manages to entertain for quite a while, some graphical and character design errors, but in the end, everyone plays GTA just to hurt people and cause a bit of chaos in the city with the dear cheats that are now, shall we say, annexed to the game like a tradition. It’s not a title that thrilled me but it's still playable.