By ISAAC SERRATO
Staff Writer
Grand Theft Auto 4 remains a popular game out there as its story, good gameplay, hyperrealism, groundbreaking mechanics when it came out in 2008.
The game has a gripping story that still holds up today with 3 stories you play in (if you bought the complete edition). The first story is about Niko Bellic, a Yugoslavian immigrant who comes to America looking to get away from his troubled past, criminal career, but his cousin, Roman, who told him how great he’s doing in America lied. Niko fresh off the boat in poverty with Roman who lies, is full of it, parties, cowardly, unwilling to fix his life. Niko helps him unknowingly get involved in crime while also trying to look for the man who betrayed his unit in the Balkan wars. The second story is Johnny Klehbtiz in “The Lost and Damned”, a violent, hardcore biker. He is a second in command in the motorcycle gang “The Lost and Damned” with their motto “God forgives but the Lost don’t”. Billy Grey (the leader of the violent gang) fresh out of prison leads the gang again but however, he becomes increasingly violent, unstable, violent for no reason, and uses excuses for unnecessary actions. With the gang becoming divided in a civil war, Johnny tries to help out his ex-girlfriend Ashley Butler who is a meth head. The third story is “The Ballad of Gay Tony” which follows a nightclub bouncer who is a part-time hustler, Luis Fernando Lopez works for his nightclub owner who is known as “Gay Tony” or simply “Tony” who runs Maisonette 9 (luxury club), along with Hercules (a gay bar). Luis struggles to provide for his mom who constantly begs him for support while also saying he is a failure, trying to be with his friends who are stuck in a cycle of drug violence who also claim that he isn’t “hood” anymore. With him trying to protect his boss as Tony struggles with addiction, abusive boyfriend, reckless behavior, along with stupid mistakes like being in debt with Ray Bulgrian, the most dangerous, wanted criminal in the game.
The gameplay still holds up despite being 14 years old now, as the cover system is still usable, the shooting is still great. The weapons are basic in Niko’s story but in the DLC the weapons are more fun to use with a greater variety. The driving is known to be hyper-realistic as you can spin out, burn out, hydroplane, drift, deform your car along with the cars being slippery, hard to control. The hand-to-hand combat feels clunky but surprisingly good with its reactive combat, with combos you can do. The missions, along with the side quests are fun, interesting as they can be simple debt collection to diving out of a building. The tone with the music in the game is immersive but since the music was taken out because the license they used has expired years ago, they replaced the music but it still holds up. The visuals of the map change with the story you are playing to gray, dark, to light, pretty colors. The tone changes to light, over the top, crime caper to a dark, sad story.
But the gameplay feels dated, visuals haven’t aged that great, driving can be annoying, the phone calls mechanic is annoying, the story can feel dumb or bad at times.
Overall, the game is well made with a great story, gameplay, decent visuals that is still worth playing if you can get over the old, having flaws.