Grand Theft Auto IV: First Impressions

For the record, this set of "first impressions" comes after nearly twenty hours of gameplay. The fact that I'm only just now feeling like I've sampled enough of what the game has to offer in order to offer some preliminary thoughts should give you all some idea of the sheer size of the game.

So. First impressions, summed up:

Holy crap.

For all the game's myriad flaws, I can see why it is so many game review sites gave it a perfect (or near-perfect) score - the recreation of a living, breathing city of this size is not only hugely ambitious, a generation ago it likely wouldn't even have been possible. And yet, here it is: Liberty City (alias Totally-Not-New-York-ville) set before us, replete with mouthy taxi drivers, litterbug commuters, speed demons getting into fender-benders, prostitutes on the street corner, angry citizens spoiling for a fight, insipid reality shows advertised on billboards or radio, Internet cafés, and hundreds (if not thousands) of average folk lining the sidewalks, answering their cell phones, tossing paper coffee cups at the trash can (and missing), yelling about the latest political uproar, or just standing around watching the world go by. Rumour has it that the game took four years and $100 million to develop, and it definitely hasn't gone to waste. The scope of the thing is unlike any game I've ever played. Even Oblivion kept most of its characters sequestered in individual towns, separated by large swaths of rural countryside. Liberty City just keeps going.

Once I'd managed to pin my metaphorical jaw back in place, I decided to try some of the missions and see what this amazing Oscar-caliber storyline was all about. And from what small part of it I've seen, I can tell you that the voice acting is excellent, the character modeling perfectly adequate for storytelling purposes, the writing witty and occasionally heartrending. The only problem? Getting started, especially if you've never played a GTA game before and aren't familiar with some of the basic gameplay techniques, takes a really damn long time. There's a huge swath of tutorial missions, which helps, but finding your way around can be a tad tricky, especially if you're like me and have a crappy sense of direction in urban environments. The GPS in the corner of the screen helps a lot, but it only works for the driving parts; when you're near the marker but on foot trying to find which door of the fifteen identical nearby doors actually opens, well...it's enough to make one a bit homesick for Oblivion's occasionally over-zealous compass system.

On the whole, I'm incredibly impressed with what I've seen so far, and I'm certain I've barely scratched the surface. But anyone who's interested should take just that into account - this is definitely not a casual game. If you have the time and energy to put into it you'll be very impressed, I think; but if you're not the kind of person who can sit in front of a game for hours at a time (I'll admit, even I have issues with this occasionally) then this is definitely not the game for you.

But, seriously.

Holy crap.

Grand Theft Auto IV: First Impressions

For the record, this set of "first impressions" comes after nearly twenty hours of gameplay. The fact that I'm only just now feeling like I've sampled enough of what the game has to offer in order to offer some preliminary thoughts should give you all some idea of the sheer size of the game.

So. First impressions, summed up:

Holy crap.

For all the game's myriad flaws, I can see why it is so many game review sites gave it a perfect (or near-perfect) score - the recreation of a living, breathing city of this size is not only hugely ambitious, a generation ago it likely wouldn't even have been possible. And yet, here it is: Liberty City (alias Totally-Not-New-York-ville) set before us, replete with mouthy taxi drivers, litterbug commuters, speed demons getting into fender-benders, prostitutes on the street corner, angry citizens spoiling for a fight, insipid reality shows advertised on billboards or radio, Internet cafés, and hundreds (if not thousands) of average folk lining the sidewalks, answering their cell phones, tossing paper coffee cups at the trash can (and missing), yelling about the latest political uproar, or just standing around watching the world go by. Rumour has it that the game took four years and $100 million to develop, and it definitely hasn't gone to waste. The scope of the thing is unlike any game I've ever played. Even Oblivion kept most of its characters sequestered in individual towns, separated by large swaths of rural countryside. Liberty City just keeps going.

Once I'd managed to pin my metaphorical jaw back in place, I decided to try some of the missions and see what this amazing Oscar-caliber storyline was all about. And from what small part of it I've seen, I can tell you that the voice acting is excellent, the character modeling perfectly adequate for storytelling purposes, the writing witty and occasionally heartrending. The only problem? Getting started, especially if you've never played a GTA game before and aren't familiar with some of the basic gameplay techniques, takes a really damn long time. There's a huge swath of tutorial missions, which helps, but finding your way around can be a tad tricky, especially if you're like me and have a crappy sense of direction in urban environments. The GPS in the corner of the screen helps a lot, but it only works for the driving parts; when you're near the marker but on foot trying to find which door of the fifteen identical nearby doors actually opens, well...it's enough to make one a bit homesick for Oblivion's occasionally over-zealous compass system.

On the whole, I'm incredibly impressed with what I've seen so far, and I'm certain I've barely scratched the surface. But anyone who's interested should take just that into account - this is definitely not a casual game. If you have the time and energy to put into it you'll be very impressed, I think; but if you're not the kind of person who can sit in front of a game for hours at a time (I'll admit, even I have issues with this occasionally) then this is definitely not the game for you.

But, seriously.

Holy crap.