I finally completed GTAIV today(i bought it on launch day)and i felt satisfied with the ending and the game as a whole. Please excuse the fact that this review might be a tad short, this is my first review ever and as such i'm not exactly sure of the nature just yet of what a review explicitly has to(or does not have to)include.
Story:
To me, someone who doesn't watch many soaps, movies or much tv at all the story was the greatest thing in this game. I felt it was original, it kept you guessing and it did something which i never thought were possible for me in a videogame, it made me care about what happened to the characters. The voice acting, the motion capture, facial expressions, everything combined made the story that much more believable and coherent and made me think about what was going to happen to them right up until the very end. The story was well paced and i felt the ending was satisfactory.
10/10
Graphics:
Obviously because of the size and scope of the city one can't expect everything to be detailed down to the smallest button on a shirt but the graphics for GTAIV blew me away, especially during the cutscenes.
The physics(not sure if the constitute graphics or not)are just as amazing. To those who may not know GTAIV employs the Euphoria physics engine which is basically your bog standard ragdoll model infused with actual human behaviours, what this means is that no collision or ped bouncing off the bonnet of your car will ever produce the same animation, it will always be different. Call me sick and twisted but one of the many joys i found in the game was shooting random peds with the pistol to see how they reacted and i wasn't disappointed, every ped reacted differently, some holding their stomachs, some limping when i shot them in the leg, some stumbling and falling because they couldn't go on anymore, the results blew my mind, so to speak. The graphics on Niko, his companions and the city's populace are excellent, the city folk not so much but they are still very much passable given the size of the city itself and the amount of peds situated in the city.
9/10
Gameplay:
This is my first GTA so i am not sure if this is a new feature or not but the cover system employed in this GTA is at times competent and at others mildly frustrating. More than once i found myself sticking to a wall i didn't want to and sliding into cover where there was almost none, that alone wouldn't be a problem, but the fact that it takes an age to attach to cover then unattach yourself does get abit grating but when the cover system does work(which is 99.9% of the time)it works like a charm. Running, shooting, driving, all fine, though i do have to say something about the running. It didn't get to me so much that you had to tap "A" to sprint(like i know it did for some "seasoned veterans")but when you were standing still and then decided to walk, Niko would run for a few steps then go into a walk, this wasn't a problem outside, but inside(specifically the gun shops)where you have to get right in front of a table in order to press a button it did get irksome with him running everytime i wanted to walk. Apart from that, everything else was fine.
9/10
Overall:
I can't think of any other areas i should talk about so i will wrap this review up. I can see why GTAIV got such high scores across the board, it's clearly a cleverly thought out and well executed game that does alot more things right and the things it doesn't do quite so well are easily overshadowed and forgotten when you become immersed in the city itself. To me i think the Euphoria engine by itself makes the game and furthermore the city believable, when i shoot or run over peds they react in a lifelike fashion and that for me grounds the game scarily in the realm of reality, the engine is used to such a great effect it's hard not to notice or be amazed. I'm going to go through the story again, and even though i know what happens, i know i will still be captivated by the characters and their extraordinary performances. In closing GTAIV is a great game, i can't stress through simply words how good this game is, you simply have to embrace it and experience it yourself to truely appreciate it.
Simply 10/10
On a side note, if anyone has any pointers i can include, not just for this review but subsequent ones afterwards then i would be more than happy to take them onboard. I would like to write more reviews in future and if i can do them better than this one then i'm all for criticism, no matter what it is.
Thanks for reading guys
Story:
To me, someone who doesn't watch many soaps, movies or much tv at all the story was the greatest thing in this game. I felt it was original, it kept you guessing and it did something which i never thought were possible for me in a videogame, it made me care about what happened to the characters. The voice acting, the motion capture, facial expressions, everything combined made the story that much more believable and coherent and made me think about what was going to happen to them right up until the very end. The story was well paced and i felt the ending was satisfactory.
10/10
Graphics:
Obviously because of the size and scope of the city one can't expect everything to be detailed down to the smallest button on a shirt but the graphics for GTAIV blew me away, especially during the cutscenes.
The physics(not sure if the constitute graphics or not)are just as amazing. To those who may not know GTAIV employs the Euphoria physics engine which is basically your bog standard ragdoll model infused with actual human behaviours, what this means is that no collision or ped bouncing off the bonnet of your car will ever produce the same animation, it will always be different. Call me sick and twisted but one of the many joys i found in the game was shooting random peds with the pistol to see how they reacted and i wasn't disappointed, every ped reacted differently, some holding their stomachs, some limping when i shot them in the leg, some stumbling and falling because they couldn't go on anymore, the results blew my mind, so to speak. The graphics on Niko, his companions and the city's populace are excellent, the city folk not so much but they are still very much passable given the size of the city itself and the amount of peds situated in the city.
9/10
Gameplay:
This is my first GTA so i am not sure if this is a new feature or not but the cover system employed in this GTA is at times competent and at others mildly frustrating. More than once i found myself sticking to a wall i didn't want to and sliding into cover where there was almost none, that alone wouldn't be a problem, but the fact that it takes an age to attach to cover then unattach yourself does get abit grating but when the cover system does work(which is 99.9% of the time)it works like a charm. Running, shooting, driving, all fine, though i do have to say something about the running. It didn't get to me so much that you had to tap "A" to sprint(like i know it did for some "seasoned veterans")but when you were standing still and then decided to walk, Niko would run for a few steps then go into a walk, this wasn't a problem outside, but inside(specifically the gun shops)where you have to get right in front of a table in order to press a button it did get irksome with him running everytime i wanted to walk. Apart from that, everything else was fine.
9/10
Overall:
I can't think of any other areas i should talk about so i will wrap this review up. I can see why GTAIV got such high scores across the board, it's clearly a cleverly thought out and well executed game that does alot more things right and the things it doesn't do quite so well are easily overshadowed and forgotten when you become immersed in the city itself. To me i think the Euphoria engine by itself makes the game and furthermore the city believable, when i shoot or run over peds they react in a lifelike fashion and that for me grounds the game scarily in the realm of reality, the engine is used to such a great effect it's hard not to notice or be amazed. I'm going to go through the story again, and even though i know what happens, i know i will still be captivated by the characters and their extraordinary performances. In closing GTAIV is a great game, i can't stress through simply words how good this game is, you simply have to embrace it and experience it yourself to truely appreciate it.
Simply 10/10
On a side note, if anyone has any pointers i can include, not just for this review but subsequent ones afterwards then i would be more than happy to take them onboard. I would like to write more reviews in future and if i can do them better than this one then i'm all for criticism, no matter what it is.
Thanks for reading guys
