It's fun, and worth buying, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it's the best GTA yet. I can see how they've tried to pare off some of the excess fat that San Andreas was carrying and preserve the good bits, but the unfortunate thing is that they seem to have made the wrong choices of what features to keep and what to chuck. For example, gone are the fun car customisation garages and property markets, which were at least a good way to spend some hard-earned money; and yet they've opted to retain and even
expand the annoying 'girlfriend' feature. Except now it's not just girlfriends, you have an entire phonebook of chums you are expected to wine, dine and entertain at every opportunity and they all share the annoying habit of calling you just as you are on the way to a mission. I've just taken to cancelling all their phonecalls and living with the guilt-inducing thumbs down that pops up above your map.
Other enjoyable side-quests from the older games which seem to have missed the cut include the dirt bike/stock car/DD track racing, driving/bike/plane lessons and the omnipresent car boosting lists. Sure, there's Brucie's car requests, but half the fun in the older games was having to keep your eyes peeled trying to find the cars on the streets.
There are, of course, plenty of decent improvements on the older games. The car handling for one feels much, much better. The various car types carry far more differing characteristics this time around, so that light, low-slung sports cars feel rapid and nimble, but about as robust as an empty Wotsits packet against the brutish, loud and heavy Fort Knox on wheels that is the Packer. The new physics engine also makes the 4x4s a hell of a lot of bouncy fun over bumpy roads and grass verge, and I'm glad to see that the Patriot has made a proper comeback - with even higher suspension that GTA3.
I have to say that I had a go on GTA Vice City last night, just to see how the physics from that game compared to IV, and the difference is a lot larger than I would have believed. I think I definitely prefer the newer physics
Another area that has come on a lot is the weapons and cover system, which was undeniably clunky and impractical on the PS2 incarnations. It just feels much more refined and tactical, and you really get a sense of needing to dive for cover when under fire rather than just taking it and blasting away with heavy weaponry like in SA. Ducking behind corners and walls feels pretty natural, the only problems being that Niko likes to stick to the wall a little too much when you want to pull him away, and the cover-to-cover dodging system seems a bit hit-and-miss. Still, the warehouse and construction yard firefights were pretty thrilling. I dare say there is a little room for improvement - sometimes Niko aims at the wrong man, and you find that the analog stick gives you a harder fight trying to select someone than the actual mobsters themselves. I've found these issues compromising my missions on a couple of occasions, like once I was edging toward the corner of a corridor and failed to see a man standing right on the opposite side of the corner until the last minute, but the sticky walls and aiming screen that prefers to look directly into the wall rather than down the corridor saw me losing a good 1/4 of my health before I could finally coax Niko into shooting the guy. Annoying on occasion, but certainly a big improvement on the old system.
Now, the graphics - which happen to be about the only thing next-gen systems can do better than last-gen - are again a bit hit and miss. What was I praying for the whole time in the run up to GTA IV? Please do NOT overdo the graphics and cripple the system like you did with SanAn on the PS2. What happens? They cripple the system with overdone graphics ... When will they learn! I'd rather have smoother framerates than ornately detailed name badges on cars, less pop-up than picture-perfect smoke effects and crisp objects over multiple heat-haze, smog, polarising, 'twighlight-grey' and coffee filters. But apparently Rockstar fail to get the message. There some isolated areas where the graphics shine, like rain, puddles and water are done beautifully, and the character models themselves, whilst a little plain and comical, stand up to close scrutiny. But COME ON, stop grinding the thing to halt and making the heatsink throw in the towel.
One final point of note is the story, or lack thereof. Usually, if there's one thing I could have trusted Rockstar with it would be for them to weave a delightfully absorbing tale of gang-mobbery, murder and revenge sprinkled with top humour and great narrative. However, aside from a few interesting characters later in the game, there really doesn't see to be all that much of a story. He's pursuing the American Dream and he wants money to fund a mysterious revenge mission, but that's about all you're given at the start and it's all you're left to go on for about half the game whilst a stream of largely forgettable faces flash past your face in all-too-short mission series. Some characters have only about 3 missions before ending, usually with a bullet hole in the head courtesy of Niko Bellic and his schizophrenic (I want to be the good guy, but I can't help but pull the trig.. oh shit, there goes another one) personality, which really isn't enough time to let the characters grow on you. Another problem, which I mentioned earlier, is that there is very little use for money in the game and that, coupled with the lack of tangible progression, takes away a lot of the incentive to do missions. It wouldn't even be so bad if the missions themselves were fresh and fun, but aside from some good assassination and assault missions it's just the standard 'find this guy, car chase ensues, whack him' fare that I've grown tired of after 3 previous installments. Fair enough, there really isn't much more besides that that you could expect low-level hardmen to do, but it'd help if there was at least evidence of an attempt to do something out-of-the-ordinary. Woozie's casino and The Truth's country drug farm missions from SanAn spring to mind.
Honestly, I've gotten onto the third island, it looks much the same as the other two and now I'm bored with it a bit, preferring to play Final Fantasy 9 instead which is a much better example of a 10/10 game.
Hmmmm, I'm a good doom and gloom merchant these days
In this case it stems out of disappointment of what potential the game could have had and lost, but all in all it's just as fun as the next game and you'll find it enjoyable for the time being.
To summarise, it's the same GTA you've played for the last 8 years with some new stuff thrown in, some good stuff mysteriously gone missing and a fresh lick of paint. Enjoyable as a GTA game, but not the legendary era-defining showpiece I would have expected it to be. 8/10
