Despite all my problems with the game play I can concede it has some plusses. Sometimes that 15 minute drive to the meat of the mission allowed me to rethink my strategy. Once I decided to take out two carloads of people with two rockets; another time I decided to kill the gang boss with a sniper rifle. I had previously been approaching both of those missions as out and out firefights. If I had restarted from a checkpoint I might have not thought of those strategies. Indeed, glancing at message boards and faqs it seems there are multiple ways to approach many missions.
There are also missions that are entirely optional: hit missions, package delivery missions, race, and grand theft auto missions. I found the hit missions the most fun; they stripped all the encumbering layers away. You simply go and assassinate a target; you do not have to deal with the rest of the rigmarole you do in story missions. The other optional missions I did not enjoy as much, but some might. The package delivery missions and car-stealing missions felt too much like chores. The races would have been fine if they were not so long.
Liberty City is a stunning re-creation of New York City. The sheer size and amount of variety in architecture is something never seen before in game rendering of the Big Apple. The amount of detail in the buildings, parks, people, and objects is amazing. Liberty City has approximations of New York’s Times Square, Radio City Music Hall, and Statue of Liberty that are instantly recognizable. People wander the street acting like real people and there is a massive amount of them. You do not often see a background character that looks or sounds exactly like one you have seen before. The character models are very good; they are realistic with just some slight stylistic touches.
The voice acting also helps make the game feel more like the real world. The cast list for this game is immense, there is easily over 100 speaking parts in the game. Very few of them are done by an actor who does another voice in the game.
Article comments
1 - John
Lame, Lame, Lame! Weak review for a game that came out three months ago. Get with the program buddy.
2 - seamus
I'm glad you got around to reviewing this game.
Given that the *primary* joy of the game is driving recklessly around a big, realistic city, this game is an A+. Agreed that the missions and storyline aren't anything new or spectacular, but they're always second fiddle to the game's main purpose -- engaging in general criminality and running from the cops.
Also, there are a dozen radio stations, and each play about 10-12 tracks (check the manual), so there's about 8 hours of music in there. That's more than enough not to get bored.
3 - Mark Kalriess
I did see, that the most of the stations had over 10 tracks, but while playing the game for 30 hours I hardly ever heard all 10. I listened to the classic rock station mostly and most of heard "Jailbreak" and "Straight on to You" a hundred times and heard the other songs on that station significantly less. I may be misremembering, but it seemed like in older GTAs you could find a station a you liked and listen to it for hours...