Customer Reviews
gta 4 - By: Ij Howells, 16 Sep 2008 
i was hugely disappointed by this game because even though it's step forward in graphical terms it's a massive step back in game play & to be honest i just found it alll a bit of a chore. the humour you had in 'vice city' has disappeared & the freedom you had in 'san andreas' has been limited to cityscapes & not the rambling countryside you could spend hours exploring away from the main game, overalll this game isn't what it should be & i sold my copy after only one playthrough (i still own & play alll the others).
Hmmmmm...... - By: G. L. Donoghue, 01 Sep 2008 
I'd rather play San Andreas again than this average game. Considering the power of the Xbox 360 i would say rockstar have hit a reverse gear. GTA IV is absolutley nowhere near the level of playability that SA had. What happened the aim??? GTA always had aiming isues when it came to shooting/killing folk, but with GTA IV the aiming has gone right back to square one. It's hopeless.
The missions are unbelivably samey. I can't reallly see a huge difference in graphics from previous versions of GTA either.
All in alll, the game seems rushed with nowhere near the amount of thought gone into it as previous versions.
Disappointed.
A masterpiece in hype - By: N. Pearce, 15 Aug 2008 Choppy framerates & boring missions. still full of the annoying "quirks" that have plagued previous incarnations, such as awkward aiming.
an average, over-hyped game.
Nothing special - By: Pigsworthy, 13 Aug 2008 Oh dear, this game sports a dissapointing framerate, uninspiring visuals & a distinct lack of originality. The amount of fun features has been cut down from san andreas & the violence has been toned down; the blood looks like grey paint. Dissapointing.
Different, but better - By: Dan H, 05 Aug 2008 
Now, you may agree or disagree with my title but for me it was a better game. There were just certain things which made it feel like a much more solid product than the other GTAs. I remember when I played the 1st GTA, it was quite fun though it never felt like a very grown up game, this one feels like it's more for the guys rather than the boys.
Graphics: It's not hard to see that this is the best looking Grand Theft Auto title produced, everything looks more solid than any of the others & the bullet holes & scrapes on the cars helps to make them look more real.
Story: Another strong point of GTAIV, the story has a more gritty feel to it as such & (I don't think I need to explain it since it has been already several times) yet again feels more like a real story rather than the more fictional ones of the past, though it does present the game with a problem.
Gameplay: For me, my idea of fun in a game wasn't racing around in a ambulance or a taxi, it was more about the more basic things such as how the cars handled & how combat was. It's good & bad news on this front. Get a decent car & the handling is pretty good (In the beginning it is a problem but it is easier to get use to I found) but it can be annoying at the start & some of the car chases are annoying later on. The combat has too been improved quite a bit though still isn't trouble free, I found hand to hand combat more awkward this time so never reallly bothered with it & the lock on sometimes doesn't do what it should.
Audio: The music is good with a large variety of styles for alll different tastes, however I got quite fed up of it as the radio stations seem to be shorter than they use to be. The voice casting is reallly good & does help the story to be one of it's strongest points.
Lifespan: Now, this is probably GTAIV's main problem. Extra chapters will be available sometime in 2009 however could I see myself keeping this game for that long? Probably not, since there isn't much else to do other than the story & get more money which you reallly don't need, & money is what proves a weakness in the story. I find it hard to see Niko as a poor, Russian immigrant who kills people as he has no other options when he has $500,000 in his bank account. I think having large amounts of money to go missing from it would help to make the story more believeable since he claims Roman gambles it alll away & this would help to make you more careful with what weapons you buy with your money.
Also, making it so that you can put 9mm bullets into a Desert Eagle means there is no reason to be careful with ammo & no reason to buy it, it is quite an old problem with the GTA series but it would help to flesh out the combat a bit more than just being able to blind fire with a Desert Eagle for ages.
All in alll, a good game though to an extent a disappointing one. It can be difficult to get into, but it can be worth it if you stick it out, it's just a shame that it's lost out on part of it's soul (the ambulance & taxi missions weren't exactly my favorite missions, though I appreciated why they were there) as it could have appealed to the boys & the guys/men. Would I suggest buying it? Possibly not, maybe a rental then buy it if you reallly like it.
