Grand Theft Auto IV is Rockstar North's latest addition to the storied Grand theft Auto series and the most ambitious to date. The opening sequence introduces you to the main character in Nico Belic as he arrives to Liberty City on a freighter in search of a new life of luxury and glamor that his cousin Roman has dazzled him with in sensational letters and emails.

The story unfolds in a the simulated New York City known as Liberty City (the site for three previous games in the Grand Theft Auto Universe), which spans four unique districts that are microcosms of their real life counterparts. Rockstar's attention to detail in the design of Liberty City easily takes hold of you as you explore the islands little by little as the story unfolds. The visuals in Grand Theft Auto have improved exponentially in the four years since the last game in the aeries San Andreas hit the shelves. The characters are greatly detailed and the addition of bloody clothing after meting the business end of flying bullets adds a real feel of losing health when shot. A major element to this new and improved Liberty City is the inhabitants that can all pass for everyday people because they have a very organic feel to them. If you try to slowly run them over, they're going to put their hands out in front of them to protect themselves and they're going to realistically react to a someone being killed unlike previous games where the NPCs would gather around a fresh corpse to catch a glimpse. You're also going to get subtle details like people's cell phones ringing and being answered, people reacting to you bumping into them and dropping what they're holding in reaction to your interactions with them. The NPCs seem almost real at times, one time in particular I was impressed on a trip to Happiness Island (Ellis Island in the real world) when a man took out a camera to snap a picture of the statue of Happiness (Statue of Liberty) . Small details like that really make the whole experience of being a Liberty City surreal.

The Controls in Grand Theft Auto IV have been modified from previous offerings to offer more realistic driving and a better targeting system. The new driving controls make driving like a madman through the streets of Liberty city more difficult and adds great disparity between types of cars and trucks you drive. I found driving to be difficult at first, but after a couple of hours into my first play session I was able to master the driving and was was drifting around corners away from the police with ease.

Speaking of the police, the wanted system has been changed for to accompany a seemingly more realistic fleeing system. Gone are the star icons that lower your wanted level and with that, a new radius system system has been implemented in which your goal is to escape the police line of sight; the more wanted stars you have, the bigger the radius the police have to spot you in. This new system seems to punish you if you try to flee on a straight path as police units will be dispatched to intercept you outside of their line of sight by predicting your path, and if the spot you, the police radius will reset to center on where you were last spotted. Making quick turns and using a less predictable path will provide better results for fleeing the police.

Another new implementation is the use of a Cell phone that will act as a mission initiator and allow you to call your in-game friends, do bonus missions and acts as the launchpad for the Multiplayer game modes, which are new to the series. The phone can be great because it allows you to call for a cab when you don't feel like physically driving to your next location, you can call your lawyer girlfriend (who you can meet online) when you're in a spot of trouble to eliminate your wanted level and it genuinely adds to the story as characters will call you; likewise you will call people you're doing jobs for to inform them that your task has been completed. The phone also can be your biggest source aggravation. There are times when you're just about to start a mission you might get a call from a friend asking if you want to go out to drink or maybe hit up a strip club, or you may get an angry call from a girlfriend that you have neglected guilt tripping you into going out with them again. The phone is a cool concept, but it can act as a ball and chain because your relationships you establish affect the story and will provide you with benefits if they are well maintained.

Of everything I mentioned, the most important, improved, compelling and interesting, the story being told stands out far above the rest. After a few missions Niko will begin to divulge information about his past and at that point I began to grow attached to him as a character and began to pay more attention to what I was doing as I played. When I first started jacking cars I would shoot people in cars in the face to steal their cars because it ensured no resistance. Later I began to believe that even though Niko kills for a living, he was better than killing random strangers for their cars. Sure, he would steal at the drop of a hat, but I began to feel bad for making him kill innocents for no reason. It's a strange effect that I haven't felt in past iterations of the series. The story is a standalone story as GTA typically goes, so there is no need to play any of the previous games before jumping into Liberty City.

Grand Theft Atuo IV is a strong title that can be picked up and played for hours on end. I personally took about 42 hours of play to beat the main story and select side missions. The joy of playing the first current generation title of the GTA series will keep me coming back to Liberty city and I feel it's a must play for anyone who is interested in open-world games, fast-paced driving and shooting and anyone who has enjoyed a previous GTA title.

[Originally posted on [url]lastgenerationgames.blogspot.com[/url]]