Best Game Since Ocarina of Time? Grand Theft Auto IV Impressions...

By now, many of you have probably already taken the dive into Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City. You've ran around, driven around, shot at pedestrians, and had a few pixels of animated breasts in main character Niko's face. But has GTA4 lived up to your hype?

In the days before GTA4's release, I must admit I was not at all too excited about the game. I was a huge fan of GTA3. I probably put about 200 hours of my life into it, but Vice City and San Andreas never quite struck me as well as GTA3 did (although I did play through them), and I thought GTA4 would simply be another rehash of GTA3.


And then came that big ol' 10 score from IGN's Hilary Goldstein (check out his review here), in which he states:

"Without question, Grand Theft Auto IV is the best game since Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time."

After I read Hilary's entire review, I suddenly felt like a child waiting for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve again. IGN hadn't given a perfect score to a game since 1999, and GTA4 made it a total of only three games in IGN's ten-year history that a game received a perfect score. The other two games, you ask?

• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

• Soul Calibur (Dreamcast)

I can't speak for Soul Calibur (I've never played it beyond a pick-up-and-play match at a friend's house years ago), but is GTA4 really on the same level as OOT?

Don't get me wrong, GTA4 is a truly amazing game. I'm absolutely addicted to it. I daydream about it while I'm parading around town with friends, while I sit wasting my life away at work, and I'll admit I've even dreamed of living the wild life in Liberty City while I'm snoozing and drooling on my pillow at night. As a matter of fact, earlier tonight, I had told Karina I'd go over to watch The Golden Compass, and before leaving, I had to sneak in a few minutes of GTA4 time (Please don't be mad babe!).

"Hey, babe. Are you coming?"

"Er, eventually," I responded as I turned too wide at a corner and slammed my Turismo into a newspaper bin, sending dozens of newspapers flying about.

I did go over eventually, but it honestly pained me to turn my Xbox360 off. Anyway...

Ocarina of Time was a game that redefined what a 3D free-roaming adventure game should be. Sure, Mario 64 was one of the originators, but there wasn't much else to exploring the castle besides finding another picture frame to jump into. OOT gave free-roaming gamers an incredible experience, even if they never ventured deeply into the story. There were different locales to explore, different items to collect, and different characters to meet. It's safe to say that OOT may be what has inspired any open-world game ever since. That is why OOT deserved a 10. OOT was the benchmark for the next decade of 3D action-adventure titles.

Now, is it safe to say that GTA4 also deserves a 10? Sure, the game has incorporated several innovations that are simply stunning. The Euphoria engine is just downright badass. Ragdoll physics, but with a neurological layer that actually let's characters respond to being hit? Wow. Niko actually throws his hands out in front of him before getting into an inevitable crash. Pedestrians reach for their arm in pain if they are shot there. It brings a new level of realism to the GTA experience. Rockstar truly outdid itself with its return to Liberty City. It's mostly the subtle things, like the neurological system in Euphoria, that really bring GTA4 to life. The connections Niko makes with secondary characters via phone calls, text messages, e-mails, and dates is another aspect that makes the title all the more enjoyable. Most of these extracurricular activities are completely optional, yet you feel as if your obligated to give your cousin Roman a call every now and then to hang out, because you don't want him to feel neglected. You truly do want to get a new outfit to impress Michelle the next time you take her over to the cabaret show. You can play through the entire game without taking some time to check out the television in your apartment, but if you do, you'd be in for a treat, as there is a hilarious cartoon show spoof on Halo, a talk show that takes place in a men's restroom, and other equally humorous shows. What Rockstar has done, is taken the 3D open-world, free-roaming adventure genre, and tweaked it almost to the point of perfection.

Sure, there are still some things that some (or maybe just I) would expect to be a given when Hilary Goldstein teases us with "a living city." Still though, pedestrians wander around the streets of Liberty City aimlessly, sometimes sputtering irrelevant quips at Niko as they cross paths with GTA4's lead character. A "living" city to makes me want to believe that if I camped out of someones home until 7 a.m. or so, I'd see them walk out of their home and into their car, as they head out to work. If I went over to this person's job while they were working, and "borrowed" their car, I want to see them get out of work at 5 p.m., throw a tantrum because their car is missing, hop into a cab, and then be relieved and puzzled at the same time as they arrive home to find their car back in its spot (where I had conveniently taken it). Why don't people actually have destinations? Strip clubs are hot spots at night in real life. Why isn't the parking lot jam-packed when the sun goes down? Why aren't there people at the basketball court? I know that is a lot to ask for. It's probably impossible, given the billion or so algorithms of A.I. Rockstar would have to write, but that's what I want a living, breathing Liberty City to be.

The major accomplishment for Rockstar is definitely Liberty City itself. The city is HUGE. Gargantuan. It's that old six-foot pizza that Pizza Hut used to make back in 94'. They've included a social structure similar to any booming metropolis. You'll find the crazies walking around in the less-affluent parts of town, the suits strumming along downtown, and the taxi drivers running you over at almost every corner. They've made Liberty City seem like a real place. Again, it's the subtle details, like covered potholes in the roads, graffiti-laden back alleys, dirty subway stations, and peaceful suburban communities that really make it seem like Liberty City isn't just a random location floating in an imaginative world.

I could write for ages on what makes GTA great, and then again on what's missing that would make it as revolutionary as OOT, or even it's predecessor, GTA3. However, I still can't figure out whether I think this game deserves a 10, not just from IGN, but from the media in general. A 10 from IGN means that a game is "masterful." If that were simply the case, then yes, GTA4 is masterful, so it deserves a 10. Something tells me there should be more to it than that. Either way, if you haven't already, go get it now.

See you soon, folks!

Leave some comments about your GTA4 experience! Does it really deserve a 10? Why? Why not? Do you like cookies and cream? Tell me about it! E-mail me! Tell your parents all about me! Invite me to dinner!