More Thoughts on ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’
Slightly more positive this time around!
Last time, I mentioned unhappiness that they removed some of my favorite minigames. Actually, my all-time favorite was the time-wasting, mind-numbing cab game — I couldn’t tell you why, but the idea of hustling to get all those people around town was a lot of fun for me. I also enjoyed rooting around town for the lists of desirable cars. Especially in GTA3, those crazy easter egg cars like the ice cream truck made finishing those lists an epic quest. Replacing them with Roman’s laaaame taxi missions and Brucie/Steve’s car-hunting expeditions just isn’t working for me.
However, I found myself quite enjoying the police submissions. So far, the only enjoyable missions in the game are the firefights, so I just login to the police computer until I find something along the lines of “gang activity,” then go have an enjoyable shootout. It’s even interesting because your running around shooting people gets you a police rating of your own, so there’s dual danger. That’s kind of fun. I’ve noticed several fire stations around but haven’t really bothered seeking out whether or not they have a game attached to them. I thought the firefighter missions were a waste of time before, but I’d imagine this game has much cooler fire effects than GTA3. (They were such a waste of time that I never bothered to find out if they had them in Vice City or San Andreas.)
I’m also finding the story a little more tolerable. It’s not great by any means, but it’s moved from “awful” to “almost serviceable.” Niko still doesn’t come close to being a compelling, unique character, but the farther along I get, the more interesting the missions become as a result of the story. So I guess it’s not so much the story getting better as it’s just allowing for better mission opportunities. To that end, another big complete — the near-total lack of challenge — is gone. One or two missions have required multiple attempts, and multiple approaches, before I could beat them. Even the ones I beat on the first try have some interesting challenges. The shootout when Roman gets kidnapped was a lot of fun, even though it was comically easy. I also haven’t fallen victim to quite so many annoying glitches, so that’s cool.
Finally, a friend of mine pointed out something jaw-droppingly obvious: I now have enough money to both take cabs everywhere and skip the endless ride. Since I started doing that, it’s made the game assloads more fun. I still hate the driving (except, ironically, when I’m driving the cab; even then, so much of the time it takes forfuckingever to get anywhere). I’m not exactly happy — I shouldn’t have to find alternate methods to workaround shitty game design — but I’m enjoying the experience a teensy bit more.
The cutscenes are still endless, though. Oh, and Packie just seems like a warmed-over version of Ziggy from The Wire (and since I’ve already compared this game unfavorably to that great television series, the reminder doesn’t exactly help GTA4’s case). And I’m noticing more Britishisms in this game than usual. The only one I can remember off the top of my head is the use of the extremely British “advert” (as opposed to “commercial” or just “ad”), and for those ready to cut me because Niko’s European, it was spoken by an American on one of the radio ads (the one for the electrolyte energy drink, itself a much shittier version of a great running gag from Idiocracy). Is this because they’re hiring unknowns so happy to have a voice-acting gig on a high-profile project, they don’t have the balls to say, “No American would ever talk like this”? Whatever the explanation, it’s not exactly bringing me over to the side that this is brilliant writing for any medium — it’s the little nitpicks that reveal how lazy and/or sloppy a piece of writing is. Trust me: I’m both lazy and sloppy.
Posted by Stan on May 7, 2008 4:14 PM | Permalink | Reviews | Digg It
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