Stepping off a boat in the shoes of illegal immigrant Niko Bellic as he arrives in Liberty City at the start of Grand Theft Auto IV, you can tell immediately that Rockstar North's latest offering is something quite special. Yes, this is another GTA game in which you'll likely spend the bulk of your time stealing cars and gunning down cops and criminals, but it's also much more than that. GTAIV is a game with a
compelling and nonlinear storyline, a game with a great protagonist who you can't help but like, and a game that boasts a plethora of online multiplayer features in addition to its lengthy story mode. It's not without some flaws, but GTAIV is undoubtedly the best Grand Theft Auto yet.
One of the many things that set GTAIV apart from its predecessors is Liberty City, which is more convincing as a living, breathing urban environment than anything that you've seen in a game before, and bears little resemblance to its namesake in 2001's GTAIII. Liberty's diverse population believably attempts to go about its daily business, seemingly unaware that several criminal factions are at war in the city. Niko has no such luck. He's compelled to start working for one of the factions shortly after arriving, when he learns that his cousin Roman has some potentially fatal gambling debts. Niko's military experience makes him a useful freelancer for employers in the business of killing each other, and though his reluctance to carry out their orders is often apparent, he does whatever is asked of him in the hope
that completing missions for other people will ultimately give him the means to complete his own. Actually, Niko doesn't have to do everything that is asked of
him. On several occasions as you play through his story, you'll be
presented with decisions that afford you the option of doing what you
think is right rather than blindly following instructions. You don't
necessarily have to kill a target if he or she promises to disappear,
but you have to weigh the risk of your employer finding out against the
possibility that the person whose life you spare might prove useful
later in the game, or even have work for you in the form of bonus
missions. To say anything more specific on this subject would be to
risk spoiling one of GTAIV's most interesting new features, but suffice
it to say that every decision you make has consequences, and you'll
likely want to play through the game at least twice to see how the
alternatives unfold.
Grand Theft Auto IV's story mode can be beaten in less than 30
hours, and there are so many optional activities and side missions to
take part in along the way that you can comfortably double that number
if you're in no hurry. The majority of the story missions task you with
making deliveries and/or killing people, and play out in much the same
way as those in previous games. With that said, most of the missions
are a lot easier this time around, partly because Niko is a more agile
and efficient killer than any of his predecessors, and partly because
the LCPD seemingly has better things to do than hunt down an illegal
immigrant who's gunning down undesirables all over the city. Some of
the more imaginative missions sprinkled throughout the story include a
kidnapping, a bank heist, and a job interview. The cinematic cutscenes
associated with story missions are superbly presented and are the
sequences in which the game's characters really shine. Without
exception, the characters you encounter benefit from great animation,
great voice work, and superbly expressive faces. They're not always so
impressive when they join you on a mission and refuse to do what
they're supposed to (for example, not following you on an escort
mission, or failing to negotiate a doorway). Nevertheless, these
problems are few and far between, and they're made less painful by the
new "replay mission" option that you're presented with whenever you
fail.
New abilities in Niko's arsenal include scaling fences and walls
anywhere he can get a foothold, shimmying along ledges, and, most
importantly, taking cover behind objects. The ability to stick close to
walls, parked cars, and the like at the touch of a button makes GTAIV's
gunplay a huge improvement over that in previous games, and, in tandem
with the new targeting system, it also makes it a lot easier. Enemies
are rarely smart enough to get to you while you're in cover, and given
that you can lock your targeting reticle on to them even when they're
hidden, all you have to do is wait for them to poke their heads out and
then pick them off with a minimum of effort. Locking on to enemies
targets their torso by default, but you can use the right analog stick
to fine-tune your aim and kill them more quickly with a headshot or
two. Playing without using the lock-on feature make things more
difficult, but you’ll need to master the technique so that you can
shoot blindly at enemies from positions of cover when you dare not poke
your own head out to line up the shot. Given the amount of trouble that you get into as you play through the
story mode, it's inevitable that the police are going to get involved
from time to time, even when their presence isn't a scripted feature of
your mission. Liberty City's boys in blue are quick to respond when you
get flagged with a wanted level of between one and six stars, but
they're not nearly as tough to deal with as their counterparts in
previous GTA games. They don't drive as quickly when pursuing you, they
rarely bother to set up roadblocks, and you'll need to blow up
practically an entire city block before the FIB (that's not a typo)
show up. Furthermore, you're given an unfair advantage in the form of
your GPS system; when you're not using it to plot a valid route to any
waypoint of your choosing, it doubles as a kind of police scanner. Any
time you have a brush with the law, the GPS shows you the exact
locations of patrol cars and cops on foot in your area, and highlights
the circular area (centered on your last known whereabouts) where
they're concentrating their search. To escape, all you need to do is
move outside the circle and then avoid being seen for 10 seconds or so,
which is often best achieved by finding a safe spot and just sitting
there. It's not a bad system in theory, but in practice it makes
dodging the law a little too easy, especially when your wanted level is
low and the search area is small.
When you're not running missions for criminals, taking part in street
races, stealing cars to order, or randomly causing trouble, you'll find
that there are plenty of opportunities to unwind in Liberty City. Some
of these optional activities offer tangible rewards that can prove
useful in missions later on, whereas others are just a fun way to kill
time and take in more of GTAIV's superb humor. For example, you can
watch television, listen to numerous different radio stations, check
out some genuinely funny shows (including some big-name acts) at
cabaret and comedy clubs, and use a computer to surf the in-game
Internet. GTAIV's Internet is filled with spoofs of all the kinds of Web sites
that you'd only ever look at accidentally or when you know there's no
danger of getting caught. Some of them can be found only by clicking on
links in spam e-mails, whereas others are advertised prominently on the
search page. There's plenty of amusing stuff to find if you spend some
time in one of the "TW@" Internet cafes, but the most interesting site
by far is an online dating agency through which you can meet women who,
if they like your profile, will agree to go on dates with you. Dating
and socializing with friends is something you can spend as much or as
little of your time doing as you like, and though the people you meet
can occasionally be demanding to the point that they become irritating,
keeping them happy invariably benefits you in some way.