GTA IV - The Final Word
Jun 9, 2008 | Filed under Games, Reviews
Grand Theft Auto IV is a great game. It’s fun, it’s impressive, and it has plenty to justify the $60 price, well after the 30-40 hour single player campaign. So, taking that into perspective, the fact is that GTA IV is more evolutionary than revolutionary.
The single-player story starts out strong, but loses steam near the end. The multiplayer is great on the surface, but feels undercooked. The graphics are impressive until you notice some texture pop-in, or notice a glitch. For every gameplay element that feels right and satisfying, there’s an awkward control, or something that still doesn’t feel as good as it should. For every jaw-droppingly impressive moment, there’s a game-killing glitch. And maybe that’s the most disappointing thing of all: GTA is an excellent game, one of the best in recent memory — but it’s just not as good as it could be. It’s a bit like the really bright kid in class who never does his homework — it’s all the more upsetting that it just doesn’t quite live up to its potential. None of what’s in GTA IV is new, it’s just that all these disparate elements haven’t been together in one game before. It’s not a game-changing paradigm that will shake the foundation of the video game industry to its knees — it’s just a really, really kick-ass game.
Sometimes that’s good enough.
