Yesterday, Rockstar's magnum opus Grand Theft Auto IV for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 finally hit store shelves. Perhaps you've heard a thing or two about it.
It's been the darling of critics, receiving more than a few "perfect" scores. Given that the game is supposed to be good or something, we figured, "What the hell?", and decided to try the game for ourselves. With the taste of the Grand Theft Auto IV hype still in our mouths, we've been spending more than a little time with the game.
Out of the ashes of a heated internal Destructoid email thread comes "The Morning After," a round-up of our first impressions with what appears to already be a shoo-in for 2008 "Game of the Year." What do we love? What do we hate? What could we possibly warm up to?
Hit the jump to find out.
[Note: These comments are based on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, but it should be noted that everyone but Topher and Samit has been playing the game on the Xbox 360. Also note that all of these impressions were arrived at individually; each editor was not privy to the comments of others prior to this post going live.]
HOT
Hamza Aziz: "There's just TOO much now. Being able to hide behind cover, blind firing, all the entertainment stuff you have to do to please your friends ... just way too much. I love all the options that are being thrown at me. Even the stupid pointless crap like being able to switch your headlights from high to low. GTA has always been about freedom, and I know people said you'd have a lot of freedom in IV, but I had no idea it was going to be so much. I'm still near the beginning of the game and I know there's still so much to do. I can't believe I've only scratched the surface so far."
Topher Cantler: "Niko. (Damn you Nick, why did you have to make it 'Hot, Cold?') One of the things that has bugged me about this series in the past is that I usually find the main protagonist be an obnoxious douche, but not Niko. He's a surprisingly likable dude, with a decent personality, and for the first time in a GTA game, I actually care about what's going to happen to him. I won't mind finishing out the rest of the game in his shoes."
Nick Chester: "I love that I've put hours into the game already, yet have barely touched or followed the game's main story missions. I took a girl on a bowling date (I didn't get lucky), I tried to beat a high score at an arcade game at a local bar, I went to a nightclub with my cousin ... there's a story I'm supposed to be following here, and I know I'll eventually get to it. That I've only had a little nibble of Liberty City is amazing."
Dan Lingen: "The flow of gameplay is beyond impressive, and I welcome the changes they've made in order to make it so. I was expecting gameplay to stop -- as I had to stare at a loading screen with some sort of bald overweight white trash -- as I pushed on the door to an apartment and, to my surprise, I simply walked outside. I freaking love just busting into places; it makes the game flow that much faster and makes me much more willing to go into stores and restaurants."
Samit Sarkar: "This game has an absurd attention to detail that really makes the city come alive like nothing I've ever seen in a videogame before. When you stab a guy, and an EMT comes and yells, 'Don't you fucking die on me!' while performing CPR, you know you've got something truly unique and special on your hands. You really feel like you could do anything or nothing at all, and the denizens of Liberty City would go about their business either way."
WARM
Hamza: "It was a bitch getting used to the driving. I was totally expecting the 'arcadey' style from the last game, and not this more realistic take. I'm getting better at it and figuring out what cars really work best for me, but I still get really annoyed when I mess up the turns and lose control of my car."
Topher: "Mini-games and sidequests. I normally hate this part of GTA, but this time I'm not sure yet. Bowling felt like a chore, but yet I played pool with cousin Roman and very much enjoyed it. The Cabaret show? Kind of funny, but not really worth sitting through for me. Yet, taking someone out for drinks resulted in virtual drunkenness, which I think the team at Rockstar pulled off brilliantly. There's always a fine line here between 'fun extras' and 'pain in the ass,' and I'm not sure which side of it I'm on yet. However, I will admit that about half of it is genuinely enjoyable, and I've never been able to say that about this part of the game before."
Nick: "The reason I had never stuck with earlier GTA games to completion is because there were too many 'fetch' missions -- pick someone up, drop them off; pick someone up, help them shoot people; chase someone in your car. Repeat. The early missions in GTA IV seem to follow this formula, but I'm still hoping that the game compels me to see it all the way through.
Dan: "Your cell phone seems like a cool idea at first, but I'm afraid it will get annoying over time. The last thing I want is some woman who constantly calls me and needs attention. I'd also like to see text messaging work with your Xbox LIVE friends list, but there's only so much Rockstar can do."
Samit: "I'm not as big a fan of the soundtrack in GTA IV as I was of San Andreas' music. So far, I've stuck mostly to the talk stations (priceless, as always) and Liberty Rock Radio 97.8. It features a number of my favorite songs, such as 'The Seeker' by The Who, 'Edge of Seventeen' by Stevie Nicks, '1979' by The Smashing Pumpkins, 'Evil Woman' by Electric Light Orchestra, 'Jailbreak' by Thin Lizzy, and 'Rocky Mountain Way' by Joe Walsh. But of course, that's a completely subjective thing; I'm an old-school rock kinda guy."
COLD
Hamza: "I don't like that you're given the option to restart a mission. I'd rather have the game force you to replay through the mission again. I don't want to go and see what happens when I've failed a mission. This is mainly due to the OCD in me with games. I love having multiple options in games, but I hate having multiple options in the story line. I'm not exactly sure what the results are when you've failed a mission though, as I always just restarted the mission. That, and I'll probably end up hating anything involving boats in the game. The boat levels always suck in GTA."
Topher: "The graphics. My initial reaction was, 'This game looks like dog crap,' and the character models look like the same blocky robots we've always gotten with GTA, only now they have acne and stubble. Too much of it seems like a shinier coat of paint on the same old jalopy. Trees and plant life are laughably two-dimensional, and anything you might find pretty about the current-gen lighting, bloom, and particle effects is quickly countered when you turn to look at a building or car and see it covered in seams and jaggies like an early PS2 game. However, the longer I play, the easier it is to overlook this stuff, and while it may look awful for a current-gen game, it still looks fantastic for a GTA title. I'm settling in and getting over it."
Nick: "This probably only applies to the Xbox 360 version, but why in the hell does the game ask me where I want to save every single time I save for the first time each time I continue my game? I told the damned thing last time I wanted to use the hard drive ... so just use the damned hard drive again. This is made worse by the fact that I don't even have a damned memory unit in my system; there's only one option for Christ's sake -- use it!"
Dan: "DRIVING! I've always liked how easy driving was in this series, and now they've gone and crammed hookers in the physics engine. In the past, you simply had to hold the emergency brake and have a little corrective steering, and you could pull off any turn in the game with a stylish drift. Now when I pull the e-brake, my car loses absolutely all sense of what physics should feel like, sends itself spinning into the building I was trying to turn around, and worst of all it, makes the camera spin around with it. I don't understand what Rockstar was going for; they gave us cars that are comically difficult to drive, and matched them with a physics engine that doesn't seem to understand how a car would actually react to hitting a bum crossing the street."
Samit: "I couldn't think of a single thing that I hate about this game. But if you have to ask (and Nick did -- *grumble*), I really wish you could save anywhere. I mean, I know there's an autosave system that saves after any sort of event (e.g., a date with Michelle, finishing a mission, etc.), but I still find it annoying that I have to schlep all the way back to my safehouse if I want to save my game manually."
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We'd love to hear your first "Hot, Warm, Cold" impressions of Grand Theft Auto IV; let us know in the comments.
Contest:
3:36 PM on 04.30.2008
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I'm so getting this after my exmas though! :P
Also, i've had a few hiccups while playing on my ps3, the game will freeze for a couple of seconds, usually only 2-3, and then keep going, anyone else had this same problem?
Other than that i really enjoy the game, although i agree with Dan about the cell phones;it's going to get annoying to have to keep calling up people to hang out with them so they don't get upset.
The driving takes a bit of getting used to, but I like it. The cars are distinct, as opposed to having car classes drive differently, now they all do. I think you will feel better about the driving when you find a few rides that you feel comfortable with. God knows trying to chase with a Bobcat is insanely hard, but you get more leeway in hitting stuff. I think they did a good job of giving each car a balance like that. Unfortunately though, the e-brake is your mortal foe...
You don't progress the story arc, but you can still do runs for Little Jacob, Roman, or anyone else. You can hang, or shoose not to. When you want to kick the story back up you just turn it on. epic/10 option.
i have to get up off the couch, and walk to the TV to read text messages. there is no way to view these like subtitles. the first cellphone you get, with the black on grey LED is very hard to read. i changed the text size to large, still can't read it.
other than that, the gameplay improvements are impressive. liberty city looks tits, and the characters have tons of personality. you will genuinely either like or dislike the people you come across in this game, but you'll never be indifferent.
It's bothered me more than anything. It's a small thing, but it's stupid and could have easily been avoided. What can I say... this is a quick, first impression.
What....are you talking about? Of course I read the whole article *runs away crying*.
The graphics aren't very great but I'll accept them. Everything else in the game is so amazing. I even really love the driving.
Also, you can turn off your phone to ignore whiny bitches.
GTA4's Multiplayer modes are the most fun I've had online outside of PC TF2. And that's saying A LOT. Cops and Crooks is amazing. Battling your friends and the cops all across the entire city is insane.
The characters are surprisingly likeable... So much so that in order to keep Niko a nice guy, I've made some choices in the story I'm sure I'll regret later.
I really like the driving this time around. Vehicles have a sense of weight. Compact cars handle nimbly, while SUVs and vans really require some deft handling in turns.
Melee and gun combat have their improvements. I love the cover system, melee combat counter system, and the sucker punch.
Overall, I wouldn't say GTA4 is perfect...but outside of some JRPG's we may not get a game this deep for a very long time.
Brakes, people. use them.
I have to agree with Husky about the driving physics... I was running from the cops, and I was on a sidewalk where there there was an outdoor restaurant... instead of smashing the tables and chairs with my speeding car, I did a fucking flip and landed upside down! That pissed me off to no end.
I was expecting more out of the graphics of this game, but I can't say that they're bad just not as good as I had expected from the trailers and hype.
Finally, I love the fact that you can spend hours in this game doing NOTHING. "I'm Rich!" (on Niko's TV) had me cracking up!
Warm? I'm alittle iffy on the driving. I'm all for relearning a system but this seems rather awful. It feels like if you push to hard on the handbrake button, you're done no matter what. But because of this, it makes those racing matches online so much fun cause everyone really can't just drift a corner so easily anymore.
Cold? Custom Soundtracks. Why the hell wsn't it implemented? Xbox version of San Andreas had it, why not here? Custom station as a downloadable later please?
you got owned
As for the good, well I've pretty much enjoyed everything so far. The one thing that surprised me the most, and this brings me back to the good ol' days of Max Payne, is the TV. Have any of you just sat in the apartment to watch TV? So far I've watched like 2hours of original content, and man you gotta love that commercial for Cluckin' Bell! Anyways, back to Liberty City for moi!
WARM- I'm still getting used to the friends system, and it seems that they call too often to get anything done. It's cool, but it can be a little overbearing at times, especially when they call you during a mission. More customization to your character for Online Multiplayer would've been nice, maybe as some DLC later down the road I hope. I still need to get used to the fact that there is a cover system, as I've failed a couple missions because I didn't use it, but that's on me. and the missions seem to be pretty cookie cutter like the rest of the series, but I was pretty much expecting that.
COLD - WHERE THE FUCK IS HEAD RADIO!? That's probably the only thing that pissed me off about this game. It was practically a staple of Liberty city as far as I'm concerned. Also, this game is going to consume what little of a social life I have.
I've already flown out the front window of my car (which also helped me get away from the cops.) so yea. Love it.
Anyone else get the bit on the radio on Chatterbox's fall and trying to come back?
What i like: almost everything else.. oooh the rasta man. respect.
Lol no, you're doing it wrong :)
I actually like the driving, each car feels distinct and has weight. Sorta like, y'know, an actual car.
I do understand the whole "touch the handbrake and I lose my shit" problem. You've just got to learn to drive again, and suddenly it all begins to work :)
I like the graphics, considering the scale of the world and all the stuff going on. It manages to outdo "Dead Rising" by miles as far as being pretty goes, and has a much more complex world.
I'm a bit iffy on the cover system. What it does do, it does pretty well. I just felt it could have been a bit more polished. Stuff like when you're crouching while in cover, and the you move away from cover to get a different angle/position and Nico automatically stands up :(. I mean, I can deal with it and just crouch down again really quickly, but I'd rather he stay crouched till I say so.
Having said all that, I'm mostly pleased that it didn't Red Ring my bought-at-launch-and-never-needed-repair 360 :)
I'm waiting for these to get released. I'm getting used to the triggers, but this little $9.99 piece looks like it might save me some headaches in the future.
Also, I did get used to the driving rather quickly, basically because I haven't played a GTA game since Vice City and knew going in that it was a different experience. But the camera angles when you're driving pisses me off sometimes, I'm manually moving it behind the car during sharp turns, I feel its staying at the previous angle to long and would like it to whip behind the car faster so I can see what is up ahead of me quicker when I'm chasing someone down or running from the police.
@Nick - I had that happen to me once with the 'choose storage device". It was after I loaded up my game from yesterday and the first autosave it did that happened. I'm guessing that it will happen when you boot the game up after turning it off and it autosaves. I can't say it is a distraction or a drawback though...If it did it all the time it would suck.
Good times, good times.
But then again. I loved The Getaway for its driving. It's probably because when i actually Do something awesome in a game that hard, I'm way more pleased with myself than anything I did in previous GTA's.
COLD - Its a silly complaint I know, but with my PS3 version why can I not invert the horizontal camera control? I can invert the vertical finally in a GTA game, thank god, but how hard would it have been to make the X-axis twist the other way? Answer, not very.
HOT - Running people over has never, EVER been so much fun. Not even since Carmegedon for PC. With the new rag doll physics and the car damage along with the extra blood that squirts I often find myself just running people over for the fun of it to watch them crumple in different ways. Never gets old!
*chu-CHUNK*
"What was that?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. Just another pedestrian buckling underneath my hood. Its cool. Come on baby, lets go bowling."
Yeah, it's only after you turn the game off and turn it back on, but damn is it annoying. I know, it's small, but it's one of my gripes nonetheless.
It's not like I complained about the driving (which I've had no problems with).
The Orange Box always asks me where I want to save to before starting a game, even though I've only ever played it on my friend's Box which doesn't have any other form of storage attached to it. It's pretty annoying.