This game does do some very impressive stuff, but overall it was more of a jack of all trades and a master of none. I was quite impressed by the scope of the city, but almost wish they had just given us one borough and let me interact with every building and every person in it. I think that would have been a more engaging experience than driving around a large city that did not feel that interactive at times. The game's controls and mission structure are hopelessly archaic, and truthfully come across as plain lazy. Giving the option to load from a checkpoint, restart, or quit the mission could not have been too hard to do. First person shooters have had that option for years.
In conclusion, you may have been told this is a must-play game - but it is not. If you love Grand Theft Auto, then yes this game is what you want. If you are not a huge fan of the series or have grown tired of it, you might want to skip it. If you just want to wreak havoc and see how much stuff you can blow up or kill before you get arrested; you might as well play Grand Theft Auto III.
Grand Theft Auto IV is rated M (Mature) by the ESRB for Intense Violence, Blood, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Partial Nudity, Use of Drugs and Alcohol.This game can also be found on:PS3.
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...