Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Rockstar Games
• Released on: 2008-04-29
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Adults Only
• Platform: Xbox 360

Amazon.co.uk
What does the American Dream mean today?

For Niko Bellic, fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.

Beginning with the 1997 release of the original Grand Theft Auto, the GTA series has been one of the most prolific, controversial and down right entertaining franchises in video games history. This pedigree of success guarantees that the highly anticipated eleventh game in the series, Grand Theft Auto IV, will garner at least as much attention if not more.

Return to Liberty City.

The dream as Niko expected it. View larger.

There's always a catch. View larger.

But some skills are international. View larger.

The Plot
Grand Theft Auto IV is a brand new adventure in the GTA universe following the experiences of Nikolai "Niko" Bellic, a new immigrant from an undisclosed eastern European country whose troubled pa st and the persuasion of his cousin Roman have brought him to the fictional Liberty City. Unfortunately, Niko's search for the American Dream and a much needed fresh start, hits an immediate snag when the rags to riches story Roman spun to pique Niko's interest is exposed as not only a complete fabrication, but a ploy to enlist Niko's well-known skills as a tough guy against the ample list of enemies clamouring for Roman's debt-ridden blood.

Because Roman is the only person Niko knows in Liberty City he begrudgingly accepts his role as Roman's protector despite the deception. But as time goes on Niko comes into his own, and his experience on the wrong side of the tracks proves more valuable than he could have ever imagined as he fights for survival and later supremacy on the crime ridden streets of Liberty City.

Game Environments
Based on several of the boroughs of New York City and parts of New Jersey, Liberty City, familiar to players of previous games in the series, has been entirely redesigned for GTA IV. Players can expect visible detail down to the weeds growing in the cracks in the sidewalk, cars and buildings of visibly different ages and a much greater level if verticality in the buildings and bridges that they are able to explore as Niko moves through the city streets. In addition, pedestrians in GTA IV are much more realistic. No longer simply moving cardboard cut-outs, these NPCs are intelligent, modern, human representations that laugh, cry, eat, drink, use cell phones and ATMs, and talking amongst themselves regardless of Niko's interaction with them.

Gameplay
Historically GTA games have focused heavily on mission-based play, requiring successful completion of fixed tasks in order for players to progress through the game, but this has changed to a great extent in GTA IV. Players will experience an entirely new and exciting emphasis centred on the blending of on-mission and off-mission play, resulting not only in an increased sense of realism, but more interesting and unrestricted gameplay.

Features
Aside from the car jacking and a detailed city environment here are the new features for GTA IV:

• Improved combat system - Now you can use cover and also a target lock system, which allows you to take out targets with greater ease and accuracy. Plus, you can engage in some hand-to-hand combat if you can't get your hands on a piece quick enough.
• Cell phone - Not just for basic phone calls anymore. Use your in-game cell phone to receive missions via SMS, snap photos, and ZiT (tag) songs that can be downloaded exclusively on Amazon.com/mp3.
• Free time - In between missions you can take advantage of "me" time. There are gentleman's clubs, comedy clubs, bowling alleys, and bars, which all house unique activities.
• Take a break from the storyline - A variety of side missions allow you to help run a car service, "borrow" cop cars, assassinate targets, help solve problems for those on the street, or take to the air with stunt jumps that are scattered all over the city.
• Control your own fate - Throughout the game choice moments will arrive causing you to make a decision that will affect relationships and money.

Multiplayer
Give Niko a rest and create your own multiplayer "hero." GTA has added multiplayer modes allowing you to take your creation out to play online in competitive, co-op, and free form modes. Competitive mode has you fighting against the cops, jacking cars, or racing to finish odd jobs. Co-op challenges you and your friends with various tasks including Hangman's NOOSE where you are responsible for escorting a wanted kingpin to a safe extraction point. Freeform lets you and 15 others lose on Liberty City. Use this mode to hit up the bar and play virtual darts versus each other or head out to the streets and set up your own drag races. If you can dream it, you can do it in Freeform mode.

Customer Reviews

Been there, done that... but there was no T-shirt to buy
Ah, Grand Theft Auto... If you enjoyed riding your bike through GTA:San Andreas, swinging your katana or your chainsaw, going on a rampage with your tank, wasting oodles of money on clothes and stuff, flying a plane, investing or bodybuilding... then stick to GTA:San Andreas. Because all of this has been removed from GTA IV. While graphically it is quite a feast (initially at least, it does rather wear off after some time), and the physics engine has been improved (car damage is now much more diverse; but prepare to spend a lot of time watching your car spin out of control, even when driving at a walking pace), interactivity has taken a huge step backwards. After approximately 40% of the game, I realized I had more money than I could ever spend, even though I had maxed out all my ammunitions reserves (there aren't that many weapons, anyway, and only a bat or knife as melee choices). There are only four clothes shops, two of which are identical. And that's a problem. Sure, there are additional side-missions, like taxi-driving or similar. But since all they get you is more money, but no additional places to spend it, they are rather pointless. Watching TV, strip or comedy shows is no replacement, since they repeat themselves quickly. The included minigames (Darts, Pool, Bowling, and a Tetris-clone) are not good enough (Darts is laughably easy, there's no real way to control the strength of your strike in Pool).
In addition to that, a big flaw of earlier games was not adressed: the targeting system. It still happens that, when surrounded by gun wielding enemies trying to cut me down, I found the auto-targeting system locking onto an innocent bystander running away (even though I wasn't even looking at him). It's also annoying that the auto-target stays and locks on enemies even after they've died, so instead of quickly taking out a room of enemies I frequently found myself battling with the lock-on system more than with my opponents themselves.
But there's online multiplayer! That makes up for everything else, doesn't it?
Not really, since it's quite buggy and laggy. During one match of cops'n'crooks, both teams started as cops (making it unplayable), during a deathmatch with bazookas (should be a blast, right?) I found that the projectiles didn't explode on contact with the ground, but rather progressed into the street and exploded about a second later. And it often happens that enemy players and car skip frames, jumping from one place to another like a bad stop-go-animation, a fatal flaw in a game requiring precision shots and driving. And there are (apparently) no safeguards to prevent unbalanced teams, so if you play turf war, you might suddenly find yourself in a minority, which prevents any real sense of fun.
It's a pity things turned out this way. The characters in this installment are a lot better than the previous games, three-dimensional and more likeable, but the story is too episodic and disjointed. And without any means to personalize the experience (through favourite clothes and weapons), and no way to interact with this huge city (apart from driving over and shooting bystanders. Oh yes, and occasionally buying a hot dog!), the long term motivation is a lot less than the initial size of the game would suggest.

rubbish game
crap game well overraated and did u say all te losers with no lives who r all virgins that qued up just waiting for it to come out and i bet as soon as they went to play online they were automatically calling people noobs. bunch of losers.
played it at my mates house for an hour playing basically everything thats interesting and it was all the same as previous gta games but with slightly better graphics and more realism. big woop

A great game
What a great game. After playing Call of Duty (COD)to death, i went out and bought GTA IV, and I have to say, I'm not disappointed. This game is similar to previous versions, but the graphics, as you would expect are so much better.

The game allows you to pick what you want to do in the city - whether that's picking up women, going to a show, or randomly beating people up. The introduction of an in-game mobile phone allows you to pick who you want to run missions for, or even decline a mission to do your own thing.

My only critisism is that the online modes don't match up to Call of Duty, but then perhaps that's because the 1 player game is so much bigger on GTA that COD. The races are great fun online against other players, but 'shoot em up' type games seem a little slow. It's also a little annoying that you can't mute the annoying people that want to hear the sound of their own voice through their headsets!!

In summary a very, very good one player game, but in my opinion, a little lacking in the online multi player.