words: Kevin Yuen
Great successes are always challenges in disguise. The third edition of Rockstar’s timeless, flagship franchise Grand Theft Auto revolutionized the way people received gaming, and undoubtedly contributed to the massive success of the PlayStation 2. After two iterations of GTA3 and the rise of another generation of consoles, it’s time for the next chapter of Grand Theft Auto. But where to go? The freedom and awesomeness of the previous game entrenched developers in an uphill battle to
break new ground. Well, it seems that they decided to firmly plant the new game in reality, giving gamers a more authentic experience. They did a good job too, to the point where New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had to issue a statement regarding the game’s setting, Liberty City, which strikes an uncanny resemblance to a certain major metropolis. “The Mayor does not support any video game where you earn points for injuring or killing police officers,” he said in a statement earlier this year. Well, luckily you don’t do anything—main character Niko Bellic does all the slaughtering. And he’s fake. Probably.
The story begins with Niko, an Eastern European immigrant with a
criminal past, who is lured to America by his cousin, falsely promising
endless riches and thrills. Once in the country and living in Liberty
City (legally? Where’s that immigrant wall?), however, Niko uses
his unscrupulous experience to stay afloat and have adventurous
encounters in the Gotham-looking town. Harnessing the new power
of the next gen systems (PS 3, Xbox 360), GTA4 has crystal clear
graphics, featuring beautiful recreations of famous landmarks and
tourist traps, details such as individually named streets and zero
load times once the game begins. The game not only looks stunning,
but feels quite real as well, with the new abilities to access missions
from the internet on any computer, call out to contacts from a cell
phone and the need to build relationships with characters in the
game before they really hook it up. Word is still out on whether you
can post nasty pictures of yourself on Craigslist.
While GTA4’s Liber ty City is about three-fourths the size of GTA:
San Andreas’ entire map, the dense world remains lush and
teaming with life and has representations for four of N Y’s boroughs
(sorr y, Staten) and New Jersey. In this spirit, t here are instances
where the people behind GTA4 decided to trim some of t he extra
fat that was tacked on to later versions of GTA3 to make the
game better. No more gun training sessions, no more eating to
increase the character’s mobilit y, no more wor king out and no
more customizing your body type to look like Big Black with a
clown afro. Sure you can change clot hes, but it’s more for things
like going to a job interview (yes, really) and less for traipsing
around like bozo in a cost ume shop.
Isn’t Life Grand?
Things just got a little harder for the gun-and-run folk who love to
terrorize neighborhoods and then elude the coppers by running
around in circles like Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl. The police now
work on line of sight, and you must maneuver Niko out of this “crime
radius” that shows up on the mini map as they radio for backup and
trail in relentless pursuit. To top that of f, breaking into random cars
has turned into an actual task, with Niko elbowing out windows and
hotwiring ignitions instead of just tearing elderly women from the
driver’s seat. GTA4 offers another, legal, option—taxi cabs. From
what Mass Appeal saw of the game, the main concern was that Niko
Bellic might spend too much time living life rather than obliterating
it. However, the combination of more nuanced interactions and
hyper-powerful showdowns with law enforcement seems to create
an intricate, replayable game. Sure, you can go on a rampage to
appease the inner Martin Lawerence, but with juiced visual and
audio components also comes a more immersive gameplay that
enhances the highs to unthinkable limits. Mayor Bloomberg thinks
it’s too real. Hopefully we do too.
