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pjbasis posted...

I'm impressed by this topic. Carry on.

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52. Grand Theft Auto IV
Original Release: 2008
Developer: Rockstar
Platform: XB360

Spoilers

I have another crack theory. GTA4 was supposed to be the biggest, best game ever judging from the advertising. It promised absolutely EVERYTHING. Sounded like it was going to completely blow you away. This is why it is not ranked in the top 10 of GameRankings and is often given a score of over 95% from reviewers: they fell for the advertising that they refused to see it the flaws it came with. Ultimately, sandbox is great in HD and this is one of the first games to successfully do so, but it is not revolutionary. RDR, coming out less than two years later, mastered the concept. The real problem consists of the overall "vanilla" feeling I got after completing it.

See, GTA4 may have a big, beautiful city with amazing (for 2008) graphics, but under it all it is a few steps back after the thrill ride that was San Andreas. Everything is streamlined, missions come in but a few varieties, several side content and minigames are gone, and despite the size of the city, the map feels much smaller than San Andreas. This is likely due to San Andreas containing much more than a single city. That felt like an evolution of sorts, and now we're stepping back to basically GTA3's style.

The worst offender is the overall simplicity of the plot. Don't get me wrong, the story is surprisingly good, but whereas San Andreas dealt with family, vengeance, and redemption, Niko Bellic's entire goal is to find the two brothers who betrayed him in Liberty City. Throughout the game he gets roped up in various subplots and side stories involving various gangs, but unlike CJ or Vercetti I never felt like he became any more powerful than he was at the very beginning of the game. He was always a hired gun, and goes from being a goon to a...better goon. The climax of the storyline ends up being disappointing, as your decision on whether to kill Darko has no real bearing on the rest of the plot. There's also a lack of an interesting villain throughout the game. I mean, Dimitri is great, but he disappears from the game for quite a while before coming back at the end.

GTA4 does, however, present you with some decisions which may result in branching outcomes. None of these are really all that big, and sometimes the right decision is the obvious one. Do you side with Playboy X, who is a complete jackass, or do you side with Dwayne, a guy that treats you fairly and can become one of your friends and allies? Yeah, stuff like that. The big decision comes near the end which alters the ending. You choose whether to take revenge or to side with the bad guy. Taking revenge may feel good but if you ally with Dimitri, he still becomes the final boss and you'll have to kill him anyway. On the other hand, Kate dies and Pegorino, a minor NPC and mission giver, becomes the final boss. And Pegorino's a complete douche and should never have been the final boss at any point. But I also thought Kate and Niko was an odd matchup and their attempts at building any sort of romance between the two was misguided.