Review of Grand Theft Auto 4 for Xbox 360

Grand Theft Auto is finally here for all platforms. This is Rockstar’s first game in three years and their first GTA game for next-gen consoles. Though saturated with controversy, GTA has embraced the plague to generate over $500 million in revenue in its first week of release. Grand Theft Auto is quickly becoming one of the best releases in gaming history. For people new to the game, GTA is one big sandbox world where you can do anything or go anywhere. Most of the game is focused on meeting characters and doing quests, but in a sandbox world, the gameplay doesn’t stop there. Rockstar walks out the door with guns blazing by offering solid gameplay, deep characters, and multiplayer (a first for the series).

How do you know you’re playing a Rockstar game? The easy answer to that question can be found in gameplay and storytelling. Rockstar always makes storytelling their number one priority to suck the player into their playing field. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wasted hours and hours wandering around the world of GTA. In this installment you play Niko Bellic, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, recently arrived at the port of Liberty City. He comes to America in search of fame and fortune promised to him by his cousin Roman. Niko is a very nice boy. He comes across as a man who knows what he wants and knows how to get it. Although he is not used to life in the United States, he soon finds people who help him assimilate into American culture. Niko meets many characters who travel through Liberty City. These characters bring new quests, new points of interest, and new items. The new characters are also well written with excellent dialogue that portrays a sincerity of urgency and power. The story helps set the scene, but without top-tier gameplay, the game will flop.

The gameplay in this installment of the Grand Theft Auto series has been greatly updated and improved. The first thing Rockstar updated is the targeting system. This was the worst feature in all GTA games until this game. Rockstar learned from their previous mistakes and gave the fans what they wanted. The targeting system is almost perfect. It plays almost like a third person shooter with free view mode. Additionally, you can block with the left trigger and shoot with the right trigger. This gives you absolute precision and makes dispatching enemies easy and fun. They also added the duck and deck system. It’s a lot like playing Gears of War, which focused a lot on the duck and cover system. Rockstar also worked on car driving physics. Each car in Liberty City has its own driving style and braking system. Not all cars drive as well as you think they should. Does Liberty City have a good brake shop? The short answer is no. Many times I think I had enough room to stop, just to pull into oncoming traffic. The motorcycle is the worst when it comes to stopping distance. I think in the next rock star expansion I should add a brake shop. With that said, the game is still excellent and a huge improvement over the last game. Multiplayer is by far the most exciting update this year.

Rockstar finally joins the land of multiplayer games. By adding multiplayer, the replay value has increased by hundreds of hours. Featuring 16 different game types ranging from simple deathmatch, cops and robbers style gameplay, and co-op. Cops and Crooks is a refreshing new kind of game. You take the role of a policeman or a thief. This is determined at the start of the match. If you are the robber, you and your team must reach the destination before the police catch or kill you. In all these modes you have a large part of the city at your disposal. You take the necessary measures to ensure victory by stealing cars, collecting new weapons and armor. If you have friends, you can set up a room called party mode. In party mode, you can invite friends to join your game room. These friends will continue to party in every type of team game you play. You can also just run around the city of freedom and cause chaos. These only scratch the surface of what Grand Theft Auto has to offer.

Grand theft auto is an excellent game. The replay value of this gem will keep us entertained well into summer. For Xbox 360 users, Rockstar has promised bonus content for this platform later in the year. We could be playing this game well into next year. If you like open-ended gameplay with a deep story embedded, this is your game. Run. don’t walk Go to your nearest video game store and get this game.