From the moment you step off the boat into a reinvented liberty city, you know that you are in for a treat...
However Rockstars first attempt on the PS3 simply redefines everything we know about GTA for the better. Its not been changed so much that you feel unfamiliar with the game, but its changes and improvements to systems already in place make it arguably the best in the series.
Unlike some GTA games, as soon as you step of the boat as protaganist Niko Bellic, you immediately like your character. From his quite sarcastic humour to his evident compassion for his cousin Roman, you straight away are glad that Rockstar got it right with the Ex soldier Niko.
The first change you'll notice in GTA is the graphics, although maybe not as artistically brilliant as some games, like heavenly sword, (its murky, dark, and some of the civilians look a little plastic) however the style suits the game. Its also extremely proficient in terms of frame rate, no matter whats happening on screen it never stutters at all.
The next point you'll notice is the fact that the handling on the cars is different, the initial camera angle may not to be of everyones liking when you start driving so you may need to fiddle around with it for a bit. However the handling on GTA is extremely realistic compared to its predecessors and this doesn't mean that any of the tense car chases you play within the game are any worse, they still make your heart pound when you have to chase a train with a car.
The map whilst your inside the car has also seen some adjustments, now, when you get in trouble with the police, the radar acts as a police scanner, and although you feel it may be a little cheap, it actually works extremely well. The radr shows the location of police cars and the area in which there searching, which when you escape, you have to not attract any unwanted attention again.
The guns in GTA 4 have also seen make over, the detail on them is good and the guns act like their real life counter parts. There are two ways of aiming, either through auto aim like the previous games or manual aim. I ended up using manual aim as it gave me or freedom and prevented me from wasting many bullets.
GTA has also introduced a cover system, pushing the R1 button makes Niko push up against pretty much anything, a car, a car door, a wall, hell even an explosive barrel if your stupid enough. The AI are also extremely good in GTA, firing quite accurately and firing blindly to keep you at bay, meaning that you do have to use the cover mechanic frequently.
The missions in GTA are as fun as ever, from the bank job (easily my favourite mission in any GTA game ever) to the final mission, where you drive several vehicles and engage in ferocious firefights. There are also side missions such as assassin and delivering weed and other products for Litlle Jacob, ( one of the people you meet later in the game) A new idea introduced in GTA 4 is that it offers you multiple ways to complete some missions, like in one mission a guy orders you to kill his ex best friend, but his ex best friend calls you and asks you to murder the other person, and as you have served both, you can decide who you kill.
The single player game is huge, if you complete just the main storyline it takes around 15 hours roughly, however it will take longer than that because you will want to explore everything, from the side missions to just going into the cyber cafe and going on the internet and clearing your inbox of spam promising viagra etc.
The multiplayer is just as good, although there is a tendecy for lag, the multiplayer still looks polished. There are a wide range of matches you can partake in, and the levelling system is also pretty cool. When you go up a level you unlock new clothes you can wear during multiplayer and also your starting weapon. Games in Multiplayer are huge, covering at least a quarter of liberty city for each map.
The only problem i really had with GTA were some of the models looking quite repetitive, however this error has been consistent throughout all the games and although rockstar tried to rectify it by introducing more than one character model for each type of civilian, it gets a bit boring seeing several of the same character model altogether.
GTA is one of the few games that actually achieves being funny, every missions has two sets of dialogue recorded in case you need to retry, keeping you entertained with Packie Mcreary's banter, Niko's comments, and Roman's generaly cowardice. Its also fun taking girls out on dates, such as carmen and kiki, and getting drunk and listening to there drunken rants at you.
Although liberty city isn't as big as other cities within the franchise, it still is a huge city and one of the feautres introduced into GTA 4 is a cab system, you can choose anywhere you want to go and get there by cab by setting a waypoint on your map and asking the cab driver to drive there, you can then sit in the cab or skip the animation and get therea lot quicker, although you'll have to pay a bit more.
Overall, GTA's fantastic single player and polished multiplayer makes this a game not to be missed by anyone that is old enough to appreciate it. Its immersive story and humour make this one of Rockstar's greatest achievements.