To call this game amazing would be a gross understatement

User Rating: 10 | Grand Theft Auto IV X360
Grand Theft Auto in my eyes is one of the best game series of all time and is destined to be a classic remembered twenty years down the road and beyond. It was to my great joy that Grand Theft Auto IV was hinted at some three years ago and what a journey has it been. Thankfully on Tuesday, April 29th 2008 the game I waited oh so long for finally came out after a couple of mind numbingly annoying delays. I had huge expectations from this game as it garnered the first 10 from Gamespot and IGN in a decade and had critical acclaim from media outlets that had previously bashed it. Let me just say that my expectations of an amazing game were not just met but were shattered. This truly is the best Grand Theft Auto game of all time and it truly earns the first perfect review I have given.
Let's start off with one of the highlights of GTA IV, the wonderful graphics. I have never been so amazed by a games graphics in all my life. This game literally was the first game to make me say, "Wow" when I first feasted my eyes upon it. The game has some very technologically proficient graphics courtesy of the RAGE engine upon which it is based. For the first time in GTA history the characters function as life like humans, each finger has its own motions, the characters express a variety of facial expressions, and the world is living and breathing. The water has also become beautiful in its own right and of course Liberty City is one of the most beautiful landscapes ever rendered into a game. The sheer amount of detail that was put into cars and civilians simply is amazing. The cars look in my opinion near life like and look as good as the cars in any racing game, and that's not even the main focus of the game. The car damage has been vastly improved as well to make it more realistic. The civilians and other people in the environment look just as great as Niko and I have yet to see the exact same person twice. The city is a living and breathing metropolis. Perhaps the most amazing graphical achievement I have seen in this game is the explosions and gunplay. Every bullet hole is seen on a wall and gunfights just look great. Shooting up cars now displays to you cracked window shields with blood in the cracks and it just looks good. The explosions are the highlight of the graphics in my opinion, each one is amazing and the smoke bellows and the fire send an inferno within a large radius. These truly are mind shattering explosions. The physics engine is really put to use, for instance blowing up a police car with five officers around it will send all the police flying in different directions flailing and screaming for their lives. It's just satisfying and brings a new sense of realism and is an amazing achievement in the game.
As far as game play goes Grand Theft Auto IV has fixed and changed many things about the game, despite these changes though the game still has the unique feel of a Grand Theft Auto game and not something totally different. Perhaps the most important game play change to mention is the new and redone combat system. Apart from improved aiming Rockstar has also added in a cover system. All of this works very well and it's a blast to get into gunfights knowing the combat will be seamless and easy to get the hang of. I have never had a problem with combat though I understand some people have. I don't blame them for having these problems but I think what they complain about is trivial. The combat system still has slight room for improvement but it is much better this time around and I really had a lot of fun. The melee combat is also a lot different now as it is far more complex and deep but still a lot of fun. It has made the melee combat a lot more fun and a lot more brutal. Another excellent game play element is the cell phone which is probably the best new feature in the game. I absolutely love this thing; you can arrange dates with your friends, take pictures, play multiplayer, and take calls from mission givers. It's just a great feature and feels seamlessly integrated into the game. It doesn't feel tacked on but rather it feels as if it's always been apart of GTA. In a sense it has as cell-phones were used in the past in Vice City and San Andreas but never to this level of depth. The other new features in the game play are all great but somewhat negligible to mention as they don't add a lot to change the experience but certainly if you access them they make the game a blast. Some of these include being able to go to comedy clubs and cabaret clubs which are amazingly funny and entertaining.
The sound of Grand theft Auto IV is top notch. The soundtrack in my opinion is amazing and Rockstar really did a good job of using licensed music in the cut scenes and to set mood. The radio stations are all great and I was happy to see Rockstar taking risks with the types of music they chose to put in. This soundtrack is my favorite yet as it didn't distract me like it did in previous Grand Theft Auto games but rather made me feel more into the game. It was also great to hear plenty of new music I never heard before. Unlike San Andreas or Vice City where I heard it all before Grand Theft Auto IV allowed me to hear plenty of new stuff that I surely enjoyed. The script is also top notch; the dialogue is snappy, smart, and funny. Niko is the most real character yet thanks to his dialogue and the other characters are brought to life through excellent writing and excellent voice work. One notable change in the voice work was no celebrities were brought in this time around unlike in other Grand Theft Auto games. This is a welcome change and I didn't miss them one bit, the voice actors in the game were amazing and I thought they did a better job then any of the Hollywood actors did in the past. The sound in the game is of the highest quality and should be a bar that all games should shoot for.
Grand Theft Auto IV is in my opinion simply the best game ever made. Previous to it my favorite game of all time was Grand Theft Auto San Andreas but this game easily tops it. It highly deserves a ten score and all the critical acclaim it has garnered from various publications. Its value is excellent, the single player clocks in at around 50-60 hours with all the side missions you can do and the multiplayer lasts forever with 15 modes to play around with. This is a game I will have fun with for a long time and I am glad I bought it opening day. Paying 60 dollars for this game is a steal of a price as it is worth a ton more. Buying this game isn't a choice but rather an obligation at this point as this is quite possible the best game I have ever played, hears waiting for Rockstar's next entry into the Grand Theft Auto series. In the meantime I'll be playing Grand Theft Auto IV until my eyes fall out, simply outstanding from start to end.