I admit, I am a dirty, dirty pirate, and have been playing way more Grand Theft Auto IV than is probably healthy this weekend. I hadn’t played a GTA game since II, which was still top-down, and a different experience entirely. So I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Sure, I’d seen videos, maybe even watched my friends play San Andreas for a few minutes, but I wasn’t sure if the gameplay would be something to really drag me in.
It is amazing.
What really stands out for me is the way the game makes you feel like just another part of the world that they’ve created. This is related to one of my main complaints, but I’ll get to that later. It is rare for a game to make you feel like you are not the sole catalyst in its world, that things would continue without you. Characters you encounter appear to have their own lives, and do not exist subject entirely to your agency.
Sure, when you are introduced to a new character, you can expect that they will offer you chores and missions to perform, but that is due as much to the nature of your character (a common thug, really) as to limitations of the game.
I think I’m around 20% of the way through the plot, and my main complaint is a lack of any significant progression. I am still essentially the same hired muscle I was when I got off the boat. I’m just doing jobs for drug distributors instead of my feckless cousin. That said, depending on how the game progresses, I may not look back on that as a bad thing. If, instead of tracing your progression from thug to crime lord as I am lead to understand that earlier installments did, IV concentrates more on your advancement as essentially a mercenary as well as character development and pursual of your personal agenda, then great. That sounds awesome, too.
Similarly, I’m not sure if this is really a problem, but the development in my character’s efficiency that has occurred isn’t an in-game thing, but rather my personal development, learning to drive better, navigate the city, and efficiently fight. Still, it has a certain appeal. It generates a certain appreciation of Niko’s inherent skills, and gives things a larger sense of accomplishment. Doing something that seemed impossible earlier is made that much more satisfying when you know that it wasn’t just made possible because you had an extra point in Strength, or a better piece of armor. The closest GTA comes to that is that when you have more money, you can afford to keep buying body armor or bullets for your favorite gun.
So, I’m actually kind of surprised at how much I’m getting into the game. I hope my impressions about how things will develop aren’t too far off.