Lowbrow Humor, Driving and Shooting
As interesting as Liberty City is as a playground there's one thing in particular that began to irritate me. For a game aimed at adults there's an abundance of juvenile humor and almost everywhere you turn there's sexual innuendo. It doesn't offend me but it becomes tiresome. For example the internet café is called Tw@, there's a store called T&A Produce, there's a restaurant down near the water called the Poop Deck and the radio content is chock full of bad sex jokes and obscenity. Do adults laugh when video games curse at them? Is that even funny to kids anymore? I'm not against authentic criminal language but a constant bombardment of nonsense obscenity is a little much.
I know this is standard operating procedure for GTA but it's unnecessary and it diminishes this game. The impression I get is that it's there to make the game more controversial or get a giggle from a twelve year old boy. It's a shame really because GTA IV is better than this. I've read where people refer to it as "The Sopranos" of videogames but I don't think that's an accurate comparison. Maybe if "The Sopranos" was full of dick and fart jokes it would be.
Behind the Wheel
GTA IV is not a "driving game" but you'll spend a significant amount of time doing just that. Whether it's getting to your next mission or going to pick up a friend for some darts you'll be on the road a lot. It's fortunate then that Rockstar was able to craft an elegant driving experience. Perhaps "elegant" isn't the right word considering the amount of damage that is usually caused by driving: multi-car pile-ups, pedestrian bodies cart wheeling through the air and even occasionally shooting Niko through the windshield of his own car. The driving in GTA IV takes some getting used to but once you get the hang of it you'll be weaving in and out of cars on the Algonquin Bridge like a skier through a slalom course.
I will take issue with the way GTA IV handles the cars you grab because it's difficult to keep them. Outside of every safe house there's a spot where you can park two cars that will stay there as long as you never drive them. The problem arises when you take one on a mission that requires you to get in a different car or even leave your car for a period of time. What inevitably happens is that the car you were trying to save will disappear. What's the point of collecting cars and saving them at the safe house if you can't drive them on the missions? In order to continue to save the car you have to return it to a safe house parking spot which isn't always an option. I'd rather the game break with reality the way it does for Roman's cab and always put the cars I want to save in their spots no matter what happens to them. I left Roman's cab a smoking heap several times but it was always there when required for a mission.
Niko evades pursuing gunmen.
Bringing the Heat
If you're not driving in Liberty City then you're probably shooting although the two aren't mutually exclusive. Combat was a weak point in previous GTA games but it's been retooled for IV into a system that works remarkably well. The new cover mechanic allows Niko to slide behind almost anything for safety. While in cover Niko can blind fire or pop-out to take shots at enemies. It won't come in to play much in the beginning of the game but by the end you'll be intimately familiar with it.
Cover systems change the dynamics of action games a great deal shifting the focus from run-and-gun to stop-and-pop. It's a welcome change for GTA but the shootouts can suffer because of it. The game is at its best when you're fighting out in the open city with bullets whizzing by, cars crashing and the civilians in a panic. Some missions later in the game are shootouts in isolated areas and they feel a little too "Rainbow Six." Not that there's anything wrong with Rainbow Six but if that's what I wanted to play I'd put it in. Isolated shootouts are the kind of gameplay that is better done in other games and doesn't play to GTA IV's strengths. I don't want to slowly clear 75 enemies from a four story building floor-by-floor; I want to lead a car chase through downtown while some guy leans out the passenger side of my car shooting a submachine gun.
The other combat feature is auto-aim which snaps the targeting reticule to enemies but still allows precise targeting of body parts for head shots. I played through about half the game with auto-aim turned on but the combat felt too easy so I turned it off for the remainder. Playing with AA on or off is a personal preference although playing with it off makes the guns more important. The longer zoom of the assault rifles becomes a necessity rather than an asset. Dealing death is exhilarating either way but longtime shooter fans will probably opt to turn AA off.
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