GTA IV: A Late Night and Hasty Review
Yesterday I took a nap just so I would have enough energy to go pick up my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV and play it for a few hours. My intentions were to check out the multiplayer with some of my Xbox Live buddies and go to bed.
I left the house at approximately 11:55 PM and arrived at my neighborhood GameStop by midnight. I was tired, in line between two chain smokers and ready to recover my game that was being held hostage (since I had paid for it already). Thirty minutes elapsed and I was ready to show the pimply faced kid behind the counter my receipt, I swore if he asked me if I wanted to reserve Saints Row 2, NCAA Football, Wii Fit, or anything else I would go postal. Lucky for him, he did not ask.
I rushed home expecting I was missing out on some sweet multiplayer action. I inserted the disc and watched the opening title sequence, I was afraid to skip it because I was afraid I would not get another chance to watch it. After the opening scenes I found myself in Liberty City. Now to go through my friends list and see if I can get invited into a multiplayer game. Much to my suprise I was about the third person on my list to come online with GTA IV. It was at about this point I got a “Disconnected from Messenger” notification, followed shortly by “Disconnected from Xbox Live”. Are the servers down already? I attempted to reconnect, but failed and then I noticed a little red light on my modem. What luck! After resetting the modem I still had the little red LED which I was quickly beginning to despise. I tried the Internet on my computer and got nothing. I used the test connection tool on the Xbox Dashboard to find that I was falling into the abyss during the DNS step.
I went back into single player hoping that the problem would clear up. I played the single player for a little bit, until I received Roman’s old cell phone. I remembered reading that the phone was how you got into multiplayer. I checked the modem, all green! I decided to create a multiplayer match and invite the other night owls on my list. No one came. Come on guys, we said we would check out the multiplayer before we all passed out. I returned to the single player and after changing Niko’s threads I decided I would try multiplayer again. This time they came and we wound up with a six man game.
We started out with deathmatch in the Prison area just to get acquainted with things. We quickly began to have a common complaint, that damned camera. We had problems getting the camera to quickly recenter itself behind us. I also found that other players could literally run circles around me and I could not keep up with them, however I am not sure they could keep the camera on me either. One of the larger components of a third-person game is an easy to maneuver camera, I feel especially in the multiplayer that the GTA IV camera is a bit of a burden. The second thing that irritated me during this round was the fact that with guns, right trigger fires and B reloads. However, when you have the knife out B swings and right trigger, well, does nothing. Apparently B is the melee button, but come on, if the weapon you are toting is a melee weapon make the fire button swing the stinking weapon. Once you realize that you have to use B to swing, it’s not that big of a deal but it just does not make sense to me. The final issue that emerged from this round which exists in most of the other rounds is that when I picked the prison as our map, I thought we would be restricted to that area. It seems that really the only thing it did is make it so we (re)spawn in that area. You can jack a car and hit the town if you want, and with six people Liberty City is too large of a hunting ground. Hell, with 16 people Liberty City is still too large. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea that you have access to the entire city in multiplayer, but when you are playing advesarial games and an area is selected all of the action should be restricted to that area. A few of the area choices are islands and upon first examinations you can not leave the island.
The next mode we played was Cops ‘n Crooks, which basically wound up being a deathmatch game with no respawns since none of us really knew what we were supposed to do. In this round each team started out in a car. I gather that the crooks are supposed to get to a certain point, but like I said, this round just turned into a rolling shoot out between the cars. Once a team is wiped out players swap teams and play another round. I have no new complaints here, and think that this game mode would be fun if we knew what we were doing. Not that it was not fun anyway, but we really did not play according to the objective of the game.
On to Turf War. In this mode, respawns were back and the objective was to go stand on the marked areas controlled by the other team. We actually somewhat followed the objectives of the game in this one and I had fun. No new complaints here.
At this time I decided to try the GTA Race mode. I went into match settings and changed it to GTA Race. Instead of reloading the lobby, I suddenly found myself in a helicopter, which I did not expect. After getting over the suprise of getting put immediately into the game and realizing that the people talking were not my friends I backed out of the game, baffled by what happened and I was returned to the single player game. I recreated our multiplayer game and rounded up the crew once more.
We played a few more rounds of team deathmatch and I decided it would be wise for me to go to bed. I began thinking about my first impressions and hasty review.
Hasty Review
After playing the single player and multiplayer for about an hour each I have mixed feelings. The single player started out slow, but I expect that it will pick up speed. I just hope that it does not become redundant and grow tiresome. I did not really get to experience the new things such as forming relationships, going out to bars and playing darts or pool, and banging hookers. So I will reserve judgement on those. My first impressions of the single player and the game in general is that it looks good. The new engines used really give the game a nice look and the physics when you run someone over are cool. I feel like a badass when I am cruising in my Pinto with someone’s blood splattered on my windshield. With no loading screens when entering or exiting a building the game flow does not get broken up every five minutes, which is nice. The single player is Grand Theft Auto through and through and I hope that the new additions continue to impress me.
Now for the multiplayer, which shockingly (or not) reminds me of Saints Row’s multiplayer. I will not press the subject any further however, since Saints Row ripped off GTA first. The idea of adding multiplayer to GTA is great, but for me so far it does not blow me away. I am not big on third-person shooters to begin with and GTA IV does not help that case much. The gameplay is fun and the things you are able to do are neat, but the mechanics of the game make the multiplayer aggravating. (Keep in mind we did not play with auto aim, which may have made a difference but would have made it less challenging.) When you are playing against a human and they are zigging and zagging and running in circles it is hard to keep up with them with the camera or the aiming reticule. Maybe I’m just too much of a n00b at GTA IV, and with time it is possible I will not have these complaints.
This is a GTA title and I probably would have got it anyway, but with the addition of multiplayer the decision became a no-brainer. So far I have been somewhat disappointed in the multiplayer because it’s slower paced than I would like and the mechanics aggravate me. The game modes are fun, but if I want a serious multiplayer fix I will stick to Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. In other words, I would not buy this game strictly for multiplayer. Surprised? I’m not.
Disclaimer: This was written the morning following a late night and around only 2 hours of time spent the game. If, as I play the game, my feeling change I will update you with my new thoughts.
