Grand Theft Auto IV

by Ashley Coomer - 2008/02/25 11:57am

Book the time off work, school, college, or wherever you spend your days, and mark April 29 on your calendar… it’s going to be a special day that will go down in videogame history. IF you’re not aware – and you’ll need a damn good excuse for not being! – then this is the day Grand Theft Auto IV is being released in stores across the world. After countless delays, forums exploding with a strange mix of anger and happiness, and the PlayStationBeyond hype detector (which doesn’t actually exist) overheating, the revolution we’ve been waiting for is just about to happen, bringing with it an impact similar to that which GTA III had on videogames as an entertainment medium.

Before we get to the point of telling you about the game, which is what you want, we need to tell you something. From what we’ve gathered so far, GTA IV is nearly perfect in every sense of the word. Therefore this preview is going to be very difficult to write, in that we don’t want it to sound like a large press release for the game. As it is, that’s exactly how it’s going to read, because GTA IV looks absolutely groundbreaking…

The team at Rockstar North has the same goal as ever: making the best action/adventure game it can. The only difference this time round is how it is going about achieving this. As you’ll have gathered just by taking a glance at a trailer for the game or looking at screenshots plastered all over the net, the world of GTA IV is a very different place… different in the sense that it’s decidedly more realistic. You might laugh at the suggestion – after all, you’re still a man going around killing people, stealing vehicles and taking on tasks that even hit men would shy away from – but what is more realistic is how you go about taking on these tasks.



We’re not lucky enough to have been hands-on with the game, so we can only report on what we’ve read elsewhere to demonstrate how the missions have changed. For unknown reasons, the main character Niko Bellic has attracted the attention of Francis McReary, a crooked cop with info about Niko’s past. To his advantage, Francis uses this as a way of getting Niko to do work for him, and your first task is to ‘deal with’ Mr Goldberg, a lawyer causing Francis all kinds of trouble. In other GTA games, this is where you’d head off to Ammu-Nation, but this is GTA IV – you’re still going to need a gun, but walking into a street store without a license is not the way to go. Instead, you use your cell phone and contact an arms dealer, agree on a meeting place and time, and get over there.

Round two involves getting an interview at the Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster law firm. Heading over to the TW@ internet café, Niko gets to upload his CV and hope to hear back from the law firm. Not too long after leaving Niko gets a call confirming a date for the ‘interview’, and until that day comes, you’ve got a bit of free time to see the sights New York has to offer… at least, that’s what you think until the phone starts ringing and Francis wants another favour in the meantime. Someone happens to be using photos of the cop as leverage, and if they ever reached the public it would be very damaging to Francis and, in turn, to Niko too. After reaching McReary and having a conversation, it’s clear what has to be done – you’re provided with a location and a phone number, and you need to gun someone down.

There’s no blip on the map to follow or an arrow above your target’s head, but as we mentioned, you’ve been given a phone number, and really, that’s all you need in this situation. As you might have guessed, you call the number and start scanning the area for people who might be on the phone at the same time. After having what we imagine to be an awkward conversation, Niko cuts off the call and if you’ve been watching, you should notice someone else take a phone away from their ears at the same time. Coincidence? We think not! We didn’t spend hours worth of our time playing Grand Theft Auto for nothing, and we knew this was where the fun would come in – you pull the trigger a few times and that’s one man down.



Just as we expected, there they were. The familiar sounds of innocent pedestrians screaming in conjunction with the sirens of several police cars. Here is where the revamped Wanted Level system comes in. On the map you’ll see blue and red flashes resembling the line of sight for the cops and in short, you’ve got to stay out of it for long enough, before the enforcement goes back to eating doughnuts and trying to look busy. That’s not the only way of getting out of trouble, though. Since the cops are always on the lookout, they’ll use all the information they have to put the odds against you. For example if you’re wearing a tracksuit, putting on some shades and a t-shirt would be a good decision to make.

By the time Niko has escaped and handed over the memory stick containing the pictures to Francis, you’re reminded that there’s still something to do, namely putting a bullet in Goldberg’s brain. Before he can do that, though (because we imagine lawyer’s don’t take too kindly to candidates turning up to interviews in outfits with the scent of death) it’s time to get a change of clothes. Niko goes across town to a tailor and picks up a fine suit and a new pair of shoes… then smashes the window of a parked car and makes his way to Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster’s! Here Niko is taken into the offices and without wanting to do the disservice of talking BS about what he’ll be able to offer the company, unloads a few bullets into Goldberg, sending him falling backwards through the window appropriately placed behind him. With the alarm raised, you must escape the building by passing security and running as fast as you can. Wait for it… there are the police sirens again!



That should give you an insight about what to expect from GTA IV’s missions in terms of changes, though it really is only the tip of the iceberg. Rockstar has put a lot of work into making the littler elements of the game more realistic, as ever. A lot of the emphasis is on character actions and controls, with thanks to the NaturalMotion engine. What Rockstar has created here is a way of making everything blend in, almost to the point where it would be hard to believe you were playing a game if you weren’t holding a controller in your hands. For example, as you walk down the steep slopes of the Big Apple, Niko will begin to move more quickly, with his body weight shifting forward slightly.

Something else making the game more realistic is that Niko doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb – he’s far from the Tommy Vercettis and Carl Johnsons of this world, instead fitting in with his surroundings. Whether you want to admit it or not, Niko is a little fish in a big pond, he just happens to know the right people to talk to about getting his hands on some firepower!

Along with this the graphical style of the game has changed accordingly. Of course there was going to be a new engine for the first ‘next-gen’ Grand Theft Auto title, but with this Rockstar really has gone to town. Take a look at any of the screenshots on this page and you’ll see what we mean by this – GTA always prided itself on looking realistic for a game, but it always refused to be too serious, opting for a cartoony look. Testament to this is how not only has the look of the game itself changed, but also the artwork created for it, which is still a lot different than it was for the games of the GTA III era.



Rockstar has even given the fighting system a reworking to give it a fresh and more realistic feel. There is now much more to taking cover than pressing the crouch button in hope of not being gunned down. Instead, there will be an enhanced and original system, but the striking factor comes from realism yet again! If you’re in an office, for example, and decide to crouch behind a desk, enemies will be able to do damage to your cover, forcing you to move around and make the most of the situation. Locking on to targets has also been improved, and now once you’ve initially locked on, you will be able to move around your target while still locked on, which has been done in several games before and it’s something we like.

It’s all of these things which will make GTA IV a phenomenal game at the very minimum, and we really can’t wait. That it’s going to have a huge impact on the videogames industry is dead cert. When we look back at Vice City and San Andreas with fond memories, we like to remember that they were really just GTA III expansions… they just happened to be bloody brilliant. With that said, it actually hurts our heads just thinking about how good GTA IV is going to be.

Team Opinions//Team PlayStationBeyond reveal what they think of Grand Theft Auto IV so far…

“I’ve pretty much summed up everything I wanted to say in the preview itself, but since you asked so nicely (not really, I am writing this myself, but roll with it) I’d like to add that this is going to be the game of ’08… actually, stuff that, how about game of the century?” – Ashley Coomer, Staff Writer

“I believe Rockstar will take the sandbox game to the next level with Grand Theft Auto IV. It practically invented the concept with the early GTA games, and I have nothing but confidence they will deliver another leap in the genre this time round” – Dave Hunt, Office Monkey



“While I applaud Rockstar for pioneering the sandbox game formula, I can’t say I’m excited for GTA IV. While the games are amazing, the subject matter continues to be controversial. I fear the newest, most realistic version will renew the controversy and give the world more reason to blame videogames for violence” – Brig Larsen, Staff Writer