I was hoping to open the final entry in my review of Grand Theft Auto with a definitive statement about its story, to find the game’s essence in the conclusion of its through-the-looking-glass tale of crime, brutality, and the American experience. I can’t. After one month, some thirty-five hours total, of playing Grand Theft Auto 4, I’ve quit. I’m not positive how close I even am to finishing the narrative portion of the game at this point because, not unlike the gameplay itself, there is no arc. After a certain point, the story merely plateaus with no discernible rise and fall. It ceases to be a compelling enough reward to keep playing the game.
Grand Theft Auto 4 is a work at odds with itself. It places you in a gigantic world and allows you to do what you will, but you cannot change it. It allows you to build friendships with the characters surrounding you but keeps you always at their mercy, penalizing you if you can’t answer your phone in the middle of a firefight. The cars control with severe realism but the game demands you drive like Sandra Bullock in Speed. Even the slightest police provocation is an arrest-able offense but you can escape them by turning a corner. But most problematic is protagonist Niko Bellic. In cutscenes and in conversation, Niko is a vicious but principled figure on an alluded to quest for revenge. He takes no relish in murder and cruelty which keeps him cursorily sympathetic, if not empathetic. But like so much of the game itself, his motives are equally confused. One moment, Niko is concerned with nothing besides honor, avenging fallen comrades and protecting his family, and the next he’ll kill his own mother if the price is right.
For all of its artfulness, its carefully constructed and elegant other-New York, its pitch perfect scripting and voice acting, the pitch-perfect satire of its radio and television, Grand Theft Auto 4 is still just Grand Theft Auto: an incredible playground but a broken game. One day, Sam Houser and Rockstar Games will craft their masterpiece - they’ve come awfully close here – but Grand Theft Auto 4 is not it.
GTA4 Review Part 1
GTA4 Review Part 2