Napalm Riot

So I've had GTA IV Special Edition (PS3) since launch day, and I've been playing it regularly since. I'll come clean to start - I haven't completed it, simply because I have other things to be doing right now. All that said, I have spent a lot of time exploring and simply playing around.

As with all high profile games like this, the hype built up before the game launch is phenomenal, which will reflect in GTA's sales this year - no doubt it'll be the biggest selling game of the year, if not ever. But is it worth this hype and the string of perfect 10/10 scores being awarded left, right and centre? Is GTA IV the pinnacle of gaming as we know it?

For those who don't want to read further, I'll just be blunt. No, GTA IV is not worth all the hype. It is not the be all and end all of gaming, and owning it won't make you more attractive to the opposite sex either. GTA IV has flaws, and it's those flaws that I'm going to address. If you want to hear all the positive stuff, go to IGN.

Sound:
I've experienced GTA IV in two ways - plain 'ol stereo sound over HDMI, and full 5.1 Dolby Digital. Yet on both of these, the stunning dialogue of the game is rendered inaudible at many times by the surrounding environment - the growling of car engines, gunshots and sirens. Turning the SFX down in the control panel turns everything down, including the dialogue. Suffice to say, somebody at Rockstar missed the "boost dialogue" option, so you can actually hear the witticisms throughout.

Graphics:
GTA IV looks lovely, but aesthetics can only take you so far. Nighttime in Liberty City is like living in a dark hole, with no ability to see what is in front of you. Turning in-game brightness to full helps - but I still keep dying as I run from the cops and can't find the door I came in due to visibility being poorer than your gran's.

Pop-up is something that doesn't often noticeably rear its ugly head, especially during driving sequences. Get out on the water though, and you'll be having boats appear right in front of your eyes - capsizing them may be fun, as you drive straight over them, but it doesn't help your escapes.

The Game:
GTA IV is guilty of one big failing - the missions are entirely too similar, and ultimately predictable. Get a car, go to point A, collect some weapons, go to point B, take down "bad guys", run away from cops. Job done. There's a few variations on this theme, and those missions are the stand-out set-pieces, but you really wish there were a lot more of them. This predictability impacts on the game's re-playability - how many times are you going to sit through basically identical missions? Once? Maybe twice? Luckily Rockstar have included plenty of side missions to keep you occupied and get the completionists onto the 100% board - but once you've done that, I have a sneaking feeling GTA IV will be seeing shelf-time.


So that's GTA. Good game? Sure. Worth buying? Yes, it is. Going to save the world? Most definitely not.