Rolling Review Part I

As I'm assuming you've heard, GTAIV came out yesterday. I picked it up and toyed with it a bit, but given that there's upwards of 50+ hours of gameplay (with some estimates in the hundreds) I'm not going to wait to finish the game before reviewing it, else you'd be waiting months. Instead I'll give impressions as I get them, beginning with...

This is the first GTA game I've played. I've been well aware of it for a while, but never played before because I never felt a burning desire to virtually beat up a digital hooker. Plus, the earlier iterations had legendarily iffy graphics, due to the amount of processing power devoted to making a "sandbox" city that characters have complete freedom to roam thru. Previous comments tended to say that the main story was less effective than just driving around, listening to funny faux radio and killing people without remorse. All of that is supposed to change with the latest installment – promising a truly interactive "living, breathing" environment, a compelling plot with a sympathetic lead character and a dramatic graphic upgrade. Based on about an hour of gameplay, does it deliver?

Maybe.

Liberty City (GTA's spin on Manhattan) is, indeed, breathtaking. Playing the game doesn't seem like a series of levels, it feels like... existing. No load times, no artificial boundaries, no rules – instead there's an actual environment with legitimate geography, different neighborhoods and populated by people who appear to be living their own life as opposed to being arranged for a main character to interact with. On a pure technical and artistic level, it's a staggering achievement.

As Niko Bellic, I haven't hit the main plot yet, having just arrived in the city to meet up with my loser cousin Roman, who's been filling my head with American dreams and has, instead, been eking out a criminal existence in a roach-filled apartment, drowning in debt. I've driven him around a bit, saved him from loan sharks, met some of his, uh, "friends," etc. Tough to say at this point how much we'll identify with Niko, altho I'll give him some points for not showing up on our shores with a "kill 'em all' mentality.

One thing that feels missing is the purported sense of reality that's part of the hype. Because for all the detail applied to the environment, it's clearly glossed over when it comes to how you interact with it. Within fifteen seconds of the first time I got behind the wheel, I'd crashed into several cars, knocked down a few streetlights and accidentally mowed down a couple pedestrians. Several of these things happened while the girl I was driving around commented on my clothes. Illicit thrills are designed to be a part of the game, and I guess I'm supposed to pump my fist and shout with glee every time I slaughter an innocent Liberty City-ian, but it's a little weird to have no one comment on the fact that instead of dropping them at their house, I overshot it by a block and smashed into a dumpster, pinning a hobo to the wall in the process. Add the fact that whatever car I drive apparently goes several times as fast as anything else on the road and the game's got a few questions to answer.

Which won't happen until I boot it back up and dive back in. More later...