Late to the party

By dj November 21, 2008 3 Comments

I've never been a big fan of the GTA series. I tried to play GTA 3 and Vice City back on my PS2 but never got into it. The game play felt slow and clunky, the graphics were mediocre and the missions were repetative. GTA IV has alot of these same issues yet for some reason I find this game really compelling. The game play was improved alot however the shooting does not have a very visceral feel. All the people just feel like hollow rag dolls ready to drop at a hat. The cover is extremly messy and seems like they just tacked that on, most of the time I just have to resort to taking out a shot gun and blasting away as opposed to methodically picking everyone off. The movement in GTA IV also gets on my nerves, it also feel slow. I think that speeding up the movement speed would have helped out alot. The driving threw me for a loop to being with but after getting acustomed to it, I found it to be somewhat enjoyable.

The only thing that has been making me want to play this game is writing. While the story is just a run of the mill gangster action film type thing the writing makes it really fun to watch. It also introduces a really compelling cast of characters that I actually want to see what happens to them. The humour is uncanny considering that the people that make this game are in Ireland (I think thats right). Without the writing I don't think anyone would even tolerate this game. The game mechanics are mediocre at best and the story is cliche but that unique Rock star style makes all of that not seem like much of a big deal.

I guess you could call that a review.

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