If I had never played GTA San Andres, this would had gotten a 10. Also, SPOILER ALERT!!!
Now I have played and beaten this game, and additional storys of Bogt and the Latd. I enjoyed all of them, now I will be reviewing GTA IV solely on what it had and what it lacked from the previous GTA installment, Grand theft auto: San andres.
First I have to say that I really enjoyed the story. It is far better than GTA SA, and it makes sense to some logical extent, which in my opinion SA didnt. The story is very solid and threw ever point of the story, there is reason for you to continue playing threw the story all the way to the end. It does this so much so that it made me actually want to continue with the story rather than goof off and blow some people up. Now this is very good that the story is compelling and makes you want to finish the game, but sadly it relies too much so on the story and when you finially beat the story, unless you start a new game, you have no REAL reason to continue playing, which is a big downer in my oppinion. It lacks content, which I will get to in a bit.
The characters in this game (the main ones, such as your charcter; Neko, and Romian, and others) really form in this game. You get to know things about them, about their past for instance, and they are actually interesting, while other characters, such as (warning spoiler alert!) the guy who goes around with a camera man (who is trying to clean up the streets) really never forms. All we know really know is that he is trying to clean up the streets and then, boom he gets shot and dies. The further you go into the game, the more you learn about your main characters and the other main charactes. Which is very good. The characters also have a good deal of realness to them (besides their grahic modling and great voice acting). By that I mean they have personalities that arent too over the top or crazy or impossible. The cut sense n this arent too long and are enjoyable to watch. They also give you insite to the characters. Trust me, as long as you watch the cut senss and play with the volume on, you'll learn alot about these solid characters.
Now lets talk about gameplay. The controlls are pretty similar to that of SA on the original xbox and very solid and easy to learn/ use, except the weapon selecting controls have been moved to the direction pad (the part of the remote that looks like a +). All I can say about this is that they feel right and as long as you read the little notes that appear a th top left hand corner of the screen, you'll certainly have no trouble using the controls.
Now lets discuss content. In GTA IV, you have a wide selection of vehicles. Which incudes, cars (like SUV, Hummers, etc), trucks, one bus found in multiple locations in the game, helicopters, bikes, boats, and two different armored trucks (one of which is a swat vehicle the other is a bank truck). All the vehicles, includng the boats and helicopters, are nicely modled and detailed. They are to such an extent that they almost look real. The map of Liberty City is pretty large, giving you 6 islands to explore and possible get lost in (although one of the islands is pretty small and can only be reached by boat or helicopter). Within this large game map, you have different locations that you can go to either heal yourself or goof off or buy clothing/ weapons, you have a few bowling allies, resturants (they are scatteredall over the city, but sadly most of them are nothing more than just the same fast food joint that is just in a different location, which in my opinion is a dissapointment), a golf corse (It is playable in the Ballot of Gay Tony, but I have never even tried to play it in the main game, so I dont know if it is playable) two gentlemen clubs, a heliport, a realistic air port (but no flyalble air planes, I am so sad that you can fly them), and a few safe houses scattered accross the map which you unlock as you progress threw the game, though you cant buy any of them and (SPOILER ALERT!) the the house you start out with gets destoryed when you progress threw the story abit. The things on the map that arent clearly labled with an icon or by map design are a few police stations, a few fire stations, happyness island, two main hospitals (there are more, but you can only enter two of them), gas stations, and subway stations. There is alot the map has to offer which will probably take you awhile to properly explore. I apalogize for extending the map part a bit too much. Anway, even though there are multiple resturants threw out the city, all of them are about the same, and you can only order one thing them. That doesnt really bother me, but I was surprised that they didnt try to give this part of the gam as much content as it did in SA. Also, there are alot of weapon stores located all over the map, but sadly all of them offer the same weapons. Which is a small selection. That part is what really disapointed me. Im really going off on a tangent, Im sorry. To summerize my final thoughts on the content,I am dissapointed at the lack of weapons, dissapointed that you cant fly air planes dissapointed at the amount of buildings that you can actually go inside, disspointed at the lag of good cheats, dissapointed at the fact that the fire station doesnt come unless you call them and even then they dont do their job, and very dissapointed at the fact that they GTA IV: Ballot of Gay Tony got what the Main GTA IV should of had which was: sky diving, clubbing, drinking, more stuff that actually gives that M rating the game has warrent, and better weapons. Really when it comes to content, GTA IV lacks it. Okay done wth my rant on content lol.
Graphics, not much you can say about except for that it looks really good, though sometimes if you are going really fast, the loading and detailing of the areas lag behind and you end up crashing into an invisible fense or pole. I dont know if this happens in this game with the other consoles and pc or if it is just with he 360, but I see it as a big problem. They frame rate also drops depending on what you are doing and what is happening.
The only reason why I come back to play this game every day is because of its physics. I dont mean to sound like a crazy person or a potential killer in the future but, it is alot of fun running people over and shooting them (lol) It is just so realistic and running people over just looks funny. I also love the physics of the cars, the way they move, the way how the damage they recieve looks so realistic and possible, how depending on how the car is damage the engine migh die (which, spoiler!, can be turned back on by taking out your cell phone and dailing any sequense of of 10 digits) and even how crashing it in certain ways will kill the people in the car or throw you out of the vehicle (I hope in GTA V, they actually give you seat belts, lol). Really its all because of the physics to why I still play GTA IV (although I'll admit that Im playing GTA IV Bogt, all three GTA IVs are basicly the same, except for story, and characters).
To summerize all of my tangens. The game is really fun, the story is great and you'll find yourself wantig to beat the game, and the physics and graphics are just so amazing but, thanks to its lack of content, you'll find yourself wishing two things: (1) that GTA San Andres was made for the current generation consoles with current gen graphics and that this game never exsisted (2) and that the content found in GTA IV: Bogt and Latd was included in the main GTA game.
Rating:
•Graphics: 9.5
•game physics: 9.9 (thanks to a bug its not a 10)
•story: 10
•characters: 9
•map layout and detailing: 8
•gimicks:9
•voice acting: 10
•content: 7
Overall, Grand Theft Auto IV recieves a well deserved 8.5