Grand Theft Auto IV
by Rockstar Games
|
List Price: Our Price: $52.99 You Save: $7.00 (12%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $25.00 (click here) Category: Video Games See more product details |
|---|
Video Game Reviews of Grand Theft Auto IV
Customer Review: Got to get it
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great game and amazon got it to me on time as alwaysCustomer Review: suckes
Summary: 1 Stars
You cannot fly planes,small city,horrible car control. Just wait until san andreas stories comes out (if it does).Customer Review: GTA IV exceeds expectations
Summary: 5 Stars
This game has a lot of content on it that will keep you busy for many many many hours. GTA IV is without a doubt the best in the series. There is so much detail in Liberty city, you will constantly be amazed at how lively and realistic Liberty City looks. Gameplay is great and the plot is very interesting, which will keep you addicted and coming back for more. I still have yet to beat the game and I had it for a month! Maybe I should play more single player and less multiplayer. Yup, this game has many multiplayer options on Xbox Live, from deathmatches to races or even just free roaming. If you are old enough and have an Xbox 360, then GTA IV is a must-have!Customer Review: The Hype Train runs over humanity once again.
Summary: 4 Stars
Everyone knows what GTA is and what its supposed to be by now and whether they will buy it or attempt to condemn it to the gates of hell for all eternity, so I'm not going to try to convince anyone that GTA4 is trash or god's gift to man (and the religious references just keep on rolling. Sorry about that, religous nutjobs.)
It seems like everyone and their mother wants to put this game on a pedistal and say "look, society has finally created its own GOD!" So many perfect scores are being thrown to GTA 4, that Hello Kitty Roller Adventure is trying to get caught in the crossfire.
"So, Hunter, if every major game magazine is saying it's the most perfect game in the world, why should we think carefully before buying?"
Well, disembodied voice, two reasons.
One- Those magazines were pushing GTA 4's grrrrreat(!)ness since they had first heard about it, and were getting loads of advertising bucks from Rockstar and 2K for splattering GTA over their magazines. They weren't the most unbiased group of reviewers before they named GTA "Greatest Game In The Universe," and they certainly weren't unbiased during or after.
And Dos- I've finished GTA, and it's nowhere close to perfect. I was hooked on the storyline, Niko is actually a likeable character(which is a first for rockstar), the shooting is much better (though still very wonky), graphics are good looking, and the music is great, as usual.
But the problems are just as obvious. Everything gets old fast, and once you beat the storyline, there's not much left. After the final mission, you'll end up drifting around, going on stupid "make-me-happy" dates, realize how dull looking the city is, and end up starting killing sprees that end becoming formulaic and boring.
The reason is because there is just not enough to do. GTA's 3, Vice City, and San Andreas all had a bunch of fun little side quests and assorted gimmicks to keep people from getting stuck in the duldrums of driving around a drab cityscape. GTA 4 skimps out on a lot of that. Rockstar expects that people are going to instead play multiplayer, but with horrible servers, incredible lag, and some of the most annoying people to have ever been born playing online, I'm not sure how well that'll work out in the long run.
That said, you should still consider getting GTA 4. I did like it, it's just that I probably won't play it that much anymore, at least until the downloadable content shows up. I would suggest getting another game for after you finish, though.
Customer Review: Finally solved it last night...
Summary: 5 Stars
...so I feel I can properly evaluate the game in its entirety.
And it ain't no GTA 3, Vice City, or San Andreas, and thats a good thing.
Now, not to let it be said that I didnt love/hate all those games and spend far too much of my young adult life playing them, but my major gripe with the GTA series was one that carried over to ever game until IV: linear games trying to act non-linear.
Let me explain...free roam games like this should, in theory, give you the option of progressing on the path YOU choose, not bogged down by some random mission (races that are damn near impossible to beat, flying some remote control helicopter for some random task, etc) that you find yourself spending hours trying to solve. Those types of missions from the past games, while also seeming slightly ridiculous, cancelled out the fun I had with the rest of the game that seemed more or less rooted in reality.
Frankly, after playing Saints Row, I was expecting the GTA-type-game crown stolen and not returned by the SR developers. Saints Row was simply more fun, the missions seemed to make sense and have a clear payoff and impact on the game.
Saints Row also wasnt bogged down by game components that I thought were unnecessary, like having to eat and lift weights in San Andreas. I was expecting the same pointless missions, the same pointless activities in this installment of the GTA series.
But I was wrong. Rockstar chose to base this game a little more in the real world (as it goes) and focus quite a bit more on character development. Rockstar also seems to have included quite a bit more extra content, such as the internet, TV, games, etc that are probably more a result of more powerful consoles being available for their developers.
At the end of the day, these types of games are pure escapist fun. For probably the first couple hours of GTA IV, I was concerned maybe Rockstar had really slowed things down too much, but as the game went on (and the hours and hours piled up I'm sad to say), I found the trade off was a much more immersive world where you cared about things a little more than the past GTA editions.
When the game was over, I can honestly say I'll probably play it through again, if for no other reason than to focus on the parts of the story I didnt get to this time and to take the other paths and choices that the game offers you. If I went right, this time I'm going left.
And really, thats the goal of a game developer, right? To keep you coming back for more?
Great job to Rockstar, great game, and great choice of direction to take the series - you almost sank it, but I think there will now be even more GTA converts lining up to pre-order GTA V thanks to some smart decisions in development.