I took a while to get through this game. Despite rather enjoying it, the game was heavy going. Indeed, I find it hard to think of a game that I’ve enjoyed this much while having this little fun. Because GTA4 is great. It’s the kind of game I’ve been crying out for in this sea of call of duty ripoffs and formulaic dull characters and storylines. GTA4 is Rockstar’s attempt to tell a serious story, to talk about something that they believe is important.
They’re not far wrong. GTA4’s Nico Bellic is a well developed character. In fact, they all are. The extravagant personalities of the franchise’s history have been toned down. People are still assholes and often played for laughs but these are believable assholes, getting into believable situations.
Consider Manny from the second area of the game. Manny is a would be celebrity who aims to draw attention to his communities social plight. This is not an uncommon archetype for the GTA series to explore and they are as vicious with these would be saviors as they are with the people responsible for the problems. In previous games, this was often extravagant tomfoolery against these types, one of many gleeful Fuck You’s interspersed in the history of the game. In the past, Manny’s simpering hero from the streets act would have been turned up to 11 and played for cheap laughs. But in GTA4 it’s kept in check. Rather than being a comedy character, an ineffectual lawful stupid good guy in a sea of badguys, we see Manny for what he really is. Throughout his whole section, there’s a distinctive undercurrent to Manny, implying that he is by and large in the business he is in because he feels it will make him famous. Manny becomes a human character, an asshole but one we can feel for, one with aims and goals not dissimilar to our own.
This philosophy is applied to the whole game and lends it gravitas and far greater emotional impact. Previous GTA’s to a degree glorified crime, in the same sense that a variety of awesome crime movies glorified it. Things like the Italian Job, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and even the eponymous film GTA took it’s name from. This calls on different reference points. It’s goodfella’s, Scum and to a certain degree Layer Cake. Here crime pays, but at a premium. Nico ascends through the criminal underground (although never to the top, the rise of a gang that follows the main character has not been carried over from previous games) killing, thieving and kidnapping to scrape enough money together to carve out a living in the city. Nico lacks options. We stay with him, from the moment he steps off the boat and we spend our time as an immigrant in liberty city, inside it, involved with it but forever an outsider.
The whole experience culminates in what is finally a well written moral choice. Far from the usual “Jesus loves the little children” versus “KILLFRENZY! KILLFRENZY! KILLFRENZY!” we are presented with a simple choice. Not between good and evil, because we’ve spent the last however many hours realizing that Nico is a bad man. He is made such by his circumstance, but he is undeniably a bad man. At the end of GTA4 you simply choose what kind of villain you are.
This is where games need to go, I don’t mean down the more realistic route (and I’ll get to that in a minute) but down the more intense emotional experience. GTA4 is a story, a beautiful story, that exists in a completely interactive way within a completely interactive setting. It shows us how we can go on a journey with our lead character and that journey can be something unique, can be something special and emotionally touching.
It is however, sadly, far from perfect. Much has been said already about the driving system, I doubt I need to say more. I’ll simply point out that it’s an example of this games problem. The things it does right are the things that it does wrong. The whole game is serious and more realistic, including the driving. It lend power to the scenes, make us identify further with the characters. However, it is simply outright less fun. Vehicles slip and slide all over the place and racing around the place is simply not an option any more.
The same can be said of the setting. Liberty City is a real looking and vibrant place. Squint slightly and you’ll really believe you’re in New York. But at the same time, it’s less of a fun place to be. The humor in GTA4 isn’t bad, it’s just out of place. Frankly they should have dropped it completely.
In fact, they should have dropped the whole GTA thing completely. Or even better, given it to the people who made Saints row 2. GTA4 is a better game, undeniably. It tells a fulfilling and powerful emotional story in a way that games rarely do. It’s realism lends pathos and power to it, makes you care about the characters, makes the setting seem more real. Then you drive passed a cluckin’ bell, remember the stealth pun and you remember that “Hey! This is supposed to be GTA! I should be doing something awesome and ridiculous and fun right now!”
But you’re not. You’re trying to keep the car going in a straight line as the girl you kidnapped claws at your face reminding you yet again that crime is hard, a criminals life is full of this hard work and while Liberty City is a nice place to visit, you wouldn’t want to live there. That is both GTA4’s greatest advantage and it biggest flaw. It successfully tells you a story about a horrible tragic man, living out a horrible tragic life in a horrible tragic city. And you’ll spend about half your time wishing you were playing something silly and fun and over the top. The best advice I could give you is to buy both this and Saint’s Row 2. When this gets a bit much (and it will) shove in the other and let off some steam.
