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Simply amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It would be impossible to describe everything in GTA IV, because the game is too big to describe in detail. Suffice it to say, if you can think it, you can do it in GTA IV. Previous installments in the GTA series allowed you to interact in a world that was largely oblivious of your presence, only reacting when you made an impression. This time around, Liberty City feels alive, and things happen around you with or without your interaction. The city interacts with you, giving you visual, audio, and sensational feedback on a level that borders realism (or at least as real as an HDTV, 5.1 Dolby surround sound system, and a rumble controller can give you).

The story in GTA is very well done, although if you do the missions in a random order, it does break up the flow of the story, however if you don't choose to do many of the side missions, you feel as though you are missing out. Overall, though, the missions are very fun, ranging from simple pick up and delivery missions to kill 50 rival mobsters by yourself missions.

The gameplay has been improved, and although not perfect, they work well and make the game very playable and fun. You can now take cover behind objects a la Gears of War, and I haven't been able to find a surface I wasn't able to hide behind. The driving has also been improved, making the cars feel more realistic and the damage to cars is incredibly detailed. If someone shoots your tire, the tire will explode and you'll be driving on a rim. If you hit a wall or oncoming traffic at high speed, you'll be hurled through the windshield. If you damage any part of your car, the car will be affected realistically. I even had a tire lock up on the front passenger's side because the damaged metal was wrapped around the rubber. GTA is filled with astounding attention to detail.

The graphics are some of the best on the 360. There are real-time shadows being cast by every object in Liberty City, giving you a sense of time. Weather ranging from fog to rain to intense thunderstorms that send shockwaves through your controller all make the city feel even more real. All of the people, vehicles, buildings, bridges and environments are rendered beautifully.
The sound is equally amazing, with no detail overlooked. Crappy cars will have squeaky breaks, fast cars will have monstrous engines, pedestrians will talk to eachother, pigeons coo, grenades explode, cars crash, sirens wail, and on and on. I've been playing for about 25 hours now and I haven't once seen an action on screen that wasn't accompanied by a perfectly placed sound effect. The music, depending on your own personal taste, is also great. Voice acting is the best I've yet heard in a videogame.

The GTA brand of humor is in full effect, from the advertisements to the radio to the television and even to the internet, its all there. In addition to stealing cars and causing general mayhem, you can also go on dates, surf the internet, watch TV, buy new duds, go bowling with friends, shoot pool, play darts, eat hot dogs from a vendor cart, wash the blood off your new Inferno, pimp out your cell phone, and even get drunk. The amount of things to experience in Liberty City are endless.

A warning to parents: The "M" rating given by the ESRB is no joke. This game is not appropriate for anyone under 17, and should never be played by or around children.

Great, but NOT the Greatest

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I've never played a GTA game in my life. The whole thought of playing as a criminal and killing/robbing random people never really appealed to me that much. But when IGN gave the game a perfect score, I decided to give it a shot. And the result is a game that'll keep you busy for months to come.

Graphics
GTA IV does some very impressive things in the graphics department. The character models are nothing to write home about. It's the environments that make this game a joy to behold. Rockstar has managed to recreate an entire city in realtime. If you can see a building, you can visit it (with little to no loading time I might add). And there are a LOT of buildings. Not to mention some very nice complementary environmental effects, and and an excellent day/night system. When the sun goes down, you really do feel like your in a big city at night time. Everytime I drove by a black guy on the street I had to resist the impulse to lock the car door (I kid, I kid).

There truly is some eye candy in this game, but the average character models prevent it from achieving elite status.

9/10

Sound

Hands down, GTA IV has the best sound of any game this generation. There's voice acting for every character in here. No annoying text that you have to squint your eyes to read every 20 seconds (looking at you Nintendo). Environmental noises all sound great too. From car horns to the sirens of the police cruisers desperately trying to catch you, everything is top notch. But what really sets GTA apart from the competition are the radio stations. Every time you enter a vehicle, you're given the option of listening to one of about a dozen radio stations, each with totally unique content. Everything from conservative talk radio to 80's punk rock is here, each bringing it's own brand of awesomeness to the show. What more can you ask for?

10/10

Gameplay

To be honest, when I started typing this review about a week ago, I had every intention of saying how much the gameplay blows. But in my infinite wisdom, I decided to give it a little more time. And I'm glad I did, because this game is fun. Their are two different types of engines in this game; driving ,and stuff you do on foot. The driving and camera take some getting used to at first. I dropped more than a few F-bombs in frustration because I kept crashing into things during the middle of missions. But once you get a feel for the physics of the game, it's actually a very smooth ride. Heck, even driving drunk is fun. That's right, if you have one too many at the local tavern, you're ability to drive a car becomes impaired. The camera bobs up and down, and you cannot drive in a straight line. Which makes trying to get away from the cops for DUI even more fun.

The controls for Niko on foot are more of the same; good, but not great. What makes this game fun is the sheer variety and amount of things to do in Liberty City. Virtually anything you can imagine, you can experience. Everything from fake internet, television, bowling, pool, and tons more; it's all there. You couldn't even touch the main story for weeks and still have plenty of things to keep you busy. But you won't want to, because the main story is good (at least for GTA). For a cold blooded killer, you really start to feel for Niko after a few hours into the storyline. It really gave me an incentive to complete the game that I didn't think would be there at first.

9/10

Overall

Rockstar games has been working on GTA IV for what seems like forever, and it shows. After several delays to refine the gameplay, I can honestly say this game is something special. But contrary to IGN's opinion, it's not perfect.

9.6/10

Fun game but not a 10

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The game is pretty good...but not a 10 that some mags are calling it...has quirky controls at times and the camera angles get out of hand..I would rate it a 8 at most ..just my opinion..

Another Great GTA Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Another great GTA game. A little too linear; you basically follow a prescripted path to complete missions and follow the story, but still very fun.

just another gta?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

In a sense, yes. It's a sandbox game. Like previous gta's, you have a huge open world environment to basically do whatever you want.

Does this get boring, especially for gta veterans? yes.

But does this game add something new? YES. This is one of the best games I've ever played, period. The story is great and this is the best in the gta series so far.

I recommend picking this title up.

Lot's of fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Although I've only made it through 2% of the game I'm amazed at the graphics and physics they built into this game. I enjoy just driving around and checking out the city. Check out Time Square for instance. At some point I'll play the game seriously but for now I'm just in awe of what they've done. Check out the Cinematic view. It's very much like they've programmed a camera in a helicopter hovering above your car as you drive around the city. Highly recommended.

Great, but San Andreas was better

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game had the chance to be the best videogame in history but it failed. The reason is that it improved graphicwise, controls are much better, the city is bigger, there is much more interaction between the controlled player and the AI, but it is a mission-based game where anything out of the main mission is boring as hell. This is because they did not include the two best aspects from San Andreas apart from the missions, since there is no sense of one becoming powerful by conquering territories, and even though money has no function in this game, they should have had the businesses that were so fun in San Andreas. Also, what happened to the beautiful houses of Vice City, come on.

If it ain't broke don't fix it, but if it is. . .

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The hype machine for GTA4 was working on overdrive, and it worked to a T. Reviewers raved about this game, and it seemed like no one in the media, gaming OR mainstream, could find anything they didn't like about it. However, there are a number of glaring flaws that have been loitering in the series since GTA3. Far and away the most obnoxious part of the game is the jerky, awkward animations. It seems like Rockstar hasn't had the slightest inclination to make it any more natural-looking, and the game absolutely suffers for it.

The one other extremely clunky design choice was the control scheme. From combat to movement, there's at least one thing that really screws you up. The lock-on feature, while nice to FINALLY have in a semi-functional form, doesn't distinguish between civilians and bad guys, and this is a huge problem in more than one mission. And although this game isn't really "parkour-style" a la Assassin's Creed, there are still times when jumping and grabbing onto ledges is essential, but extremely difficult. Nowhere is this better emphasized than in the mission where you're trained to do just these feats. You're supposed to jump up onto a sign then shimmy across it, but the detection element just didn't kick in for me (nor for the three or four others I've seen attempting the same action) the first nine or ten times I tried to grab it. There are some other times when Nico will walk off an edge instead of hanging from it, etc. It's very frustrating, but usually not game-breaking. The driving takes a lot of getting used to, but it's generally okay once you get used to it.

However, the non-mechanical bits of the game are outstanding. The story and the way it's told are phenomenal, as is the voice acting and peripheral parts like the radio stations and the conversations of passers-by. The art direction is also just incredible, especially in the opening sequence. This game may not look nearly as good as some of its contemporaries, but they did the absolute most they could with it. The design of the city itself is also superb. It is far and away the best-designed environment I have ever seen in a game.

It's hard to sum up with a game like this, because you can't in good conscience recommend renting a game this huge, but it is certainly not for everyone. Overall though, it's a flawed but good game that you should at least see in action, if not purchase.

best yet!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is the best GTA to date! The story line is really well done and the AI is great. You never know who is your friend and who is your enemy, so you need to keep your wits about you. Any person wandering around or driving may be prepared to shoot you, so don't just think you can jack anyones ride without the possibility of getting taken down. I haven't finished yet and
it may take a while... which is great, it only took me a week to finish Call of Duty 4... that is like 10 dollars a day... GTA will only be pennies a day at this rate!!!

Just short of a 5star for many reasons

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The GTA series has always been a lot of fun and has expanded more and more through time.
When I purchased this game and popped it into my X360 I was very excited. i know the graphics were tenfold more amazing than those of San Andreas on the PS2 and I was certain that all the same features would be included and so much more.
However, I was rather disappointed to find that many of the extra features that made the game really fun had been removed.
No more tattoos, haircuts, car mods or gym workouts. You could no longer fly planes or pilot tanks and weapons like the sword and flamethrower we removed.
It at first seemed like a terrible tragedy, but it was all made ok by the fact that this GTA game focused on real life much more than others. While the neat little extras were really quite fun, the realism of this game and it's own features made up for what was lost. Blasting 200 pigeons into feathers certainly had its own level of entertainment...

The story is really interesting and in my opinion has more purpose than previous stories. The side missions also have a lot more realism added to them and seem less pointless or weird.

Multiplayer was a bit of a disappointment.
First of all its not quite clear how to access the multiplayer. Once you get to it, its less clear how to get people into a game.
There are not as many people playing game modes other than deathmatch, which is rather disappointing.

All in all the game is absolutely amazing and is nearly perfect. I could only ask for a few more things, but Xbox live is coming out with 2 DLCs and so I am hopeful for more features and a few bug fixes (because a horn constantly blaring in a place where there are no cars is both weird and obnoxious).

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