Casually Hardcore devlog

GTA IV (X360): Anti-review

May 13th, 2008

GTA IV has been universally acclaimed so I’m not about to stroke it’s ego by mentioning all the good things in it. This review is about the all POORLY IMPLEMENTED ASPECTS of GTA IV – my complaint list.

For a $100 million dollar project, it should be held to the highest standards of commercial art. So compared to an award winning commercial film, GTA IV’s story is about as deep as water in my toilet. The game is full of stock characters, on the nose dialogue, etc. It’s okay, just like the film “Dungeons & Dragons” was okay.

For the record, I loved the first GTA III… it deserved all the accolades it won that year even with all its warts because it worked so well gameplay-wise.

Now for the GTA IV complaint list:

Camera system

• Disorienting due to its “smart behaviors” during fast actions sequences.
• Gets stuck in small areas and tends to zoom in and out unexpectedly.
• Has automatic behaviors when driving that frustrate me so I try to keep it behind the vehicle at all times.
• When driving is too low to the ground for me to see ahead (especially with the ambulence)
• Generally bad, but you “learn” to make it behave.

Some videos on the camera problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRuaAlFN4y4

Walking

• Press A to run? Analog stick please!
• Constant glitches with automated actions like getting into a car and going to trigger point.
• I’m always bumping/nicking into people on the street who just insult me. Walking is the least enjoyable part of GTA IV.

Combat/Shooting

• Hand to hand is stupid. Why three buttons? I mash a single buttons anyways.
• Gun targeting picks things behind a wall or dying or something I have no interest in.
• Camera zooms in and out when targeting causing some disorientation.
• Honestly, I hate FPSes and GTA IVs targeting system feels like a bad FPS. Most gun battles are set up that way (shooting gallery) and are not very free form.

Driving

• Soft + squirrely (problem with controls and physics)
• All cars drift WAY TOO MUCH causing the driving missions to be frustrating!!!
• Have to drive slow to avoid the vehicles from drifting.
• Player must always map read to navigate city.
• Map zooms in and out causing “map-reading distance estimation” to be wrong
• Cars feel too similar. Yeah the trucks are slower and less responsive than the SueprGT, but not
• Cars are weightless paper maiche toys when hit.
• Cars get stuck in the highway dividers (that just fit) too easily.
• I don’t like be ejected from the window when I nick the smallest collision object.
• Too many small (pointless) corners and interferring props (lamp posts, mailboxes, etc.)
• The motorcycles are HORRIBLE. Instead of 600-1000cc bikes they feel like 125cc GP… For the record, I’ve ridden both kinds in real life.
• If you hit “Y” while in the helicopter you will be “ejected”… this is stupid because you can unintentially hit the button looking for the shoot button (which probably should be LB and not X or was it A?).

Police

Too aggressive overall.

They arrive immediately with helicopters and guns which is a bit unfair/unrealistic.

There are half a dozen cops (in cars/helis) sometimes yet you can out run them ALL if you just leave the tiny police search radius. I’d have then arrive slower, but force you to out run them for longer and farther.

Too sensitive. Sometimes a gun shot will trigger cops. Sometimes it won’t. Sometimes hitting a cop car will trigger a wanted level. Sometimes it won’t.

Inconsistent is how best to describe the police in GTA IV.

The police are too good at shooting. I had full health and armour and still died (I was switching weapons while standing next to my car).

City

• Full of people and buildings, but NOTHING to do.
• Darts + bowling + pool are fun ONCE.
• Drinking + driving is fun ONCE.
• Comedy clubs are fun ONCE.
• Sex with hookers is fun ONCE. In GTA III it was always fun… nobody spoke or had some stupid comment to make.

Visuals

• It’s too dark! Hard to see in alleyways and at night.
• For a next-gen game, it almost looks PS2/Xbox like. Lots of popping artifacts and shadow aliasing.
• Shadow aliasing is awful.
• Texture aliasing is awful.
• Reflections on the building windows are PS2 awful.
• Draw distance is tiny.

Mobile phone

• I can never remember the cell phone trigger – up or down? (habit)
• I always use the analog stick first before the d-pad when the phone appears (habit)
• It took a while before triggering the phone was almost natural – which means it was never a good design in the first place

Missions

• I spent more time map reading/following than actual work like shooting.
• GTA IV is about 70% driving (which sucks) and 15% action and 10% cut-scenes.

Story

• While Niko and Roman are great, over half the secondary characters are merely over-the-top stereotypes.
• Over half the dialogue is too “on the nose” and too often they merely reveal information (no subtext).
• When driving + map reading, it’s kinda heard also to listen to conversation. It’s a great idea to use conversations to reveal the story of the game, but it’s hard to process the information while playing the game.

Relationships

• Dating Michelle is fun for the first 3-4 times (same with screwing her).
• Hanging with Little Jacob + Roman is nice change and fun for the first bit
• Strip club is funny/sexy for the first time. Cops arrived immediately after I unintentionally stepped onto the stage.
• Roman died swimming for no particular reason or I accidently hit him as I tried climbing out of the water. Made ZERO sense.

Certain things aren’t explained too well or at all in the game when you begin:

• i.e why going to the airport immediately gives you a 5-star rating
• i.e why going to the closed bridge immediately gives you a 5-star rating
• i.e why swimming out too far immediately gives you a 5-star rating

Entry Filed under: Game Development