Futility

Why can't things work like they're fucking supposed to, for once?!
No context, that is all.

Thoughts on Grand Theft Auto 4: Liberty City

After 3 weeks with an average of 4 hours a day of gameplay (undoubtedly driving my roommate nuts in the process), I've finally beat both endings to GTA4. And yet the feeling the predominates is sadness that it's over. Sure, I could replay the game and go through the motions again (which is sadly, what I am doing) but it's really just tracing along a path that I've already seen to the end. And I'm not the first to feel this way, which is a testament to the incredible world of GTA4.

GTA4 doesn't skimp on the mission-based gameplay either; it clocks in at least 40 hours of story-missions and this doesn't include the nearly limitless detours one could take in the rich environment of Liberty City. Make no mistake, this game is HUGE. And yet reviewer after reviewer confesses that they didn't want to see it end. THAT is a pretty rare achievement.

OK so enough vague praise, exactly what makes Grand Theft Auto 4: Liberty City so great? Well to start, while all the previous GTA games starting with GTA3 have been described as non-linear due to their open-environment gameplay, this has always been somewhat of a disingenuous claim because the missions were still largely linear. In GTA4, players are truly presented with non-linear gameplay as their choices impact later missions and speak to the way they perceive the main character.

One of the greatest pleasures of playing GTA4 is the gradual development of the main character, Niko Bellic, which is slowly revealed and variably so depending on the amount of time the player spends with side characters who elicit Niko's background story. In this way, GTA4 aspires for more than just cinematic breadth (ahem, MGS4) and takes advantage of the uniqueness of the videogame medium.

The nuances of GTA4 don't end with the choose-your-own-adventure style of gameplay. This is best explained by contrasting the character of Niko Bellic to his earlier predecessors in GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas. While I love all the GTA installments (esp Vice City), the main characters in each were generally flat caricatures without much depth-of-character. Claude (from GTA3) didn't even speak, and Tommy Vercetti (Vice City) and CJ (San Andreas) were only fleshed-out so far as their singular motivating purpose: revenge. Thus, they felt more like vehicles of destruction rather than protagonists; and honestly, going on killing rampages didn't carry much weight in those games. I'd argue that GTA4 is the first installment to bring us a multi-faceted character with a moral code, and it is the first time that I actually gave thought to my actions in the game.


While Niko Bellic is also initially driven by revenge, his motivations become much more profound and tragic as he reveals how deeply traumatized he is by his past. Niko's motivations become less about revenge and more about restitution, and it's then that we realize that there is no happy ending awaiting him.

Wow, I didn't intend for this entry to sound so stiffly academic, esp for my return from a long blogging vacation. If anyone is still reading this, I highly recommend getting an XBox or PS3 and playing GTA4. Not only does it deserve all the praise it's received for its storytelling, it is hugely fun to play and full of surprises.