Does anyone else think this game was totally overrated? I suppose i can see it getting a five on a five point scale because it was a pretty decent game, but what's up with GS and IGN giving 10/10, a 10 is supposed to be reserved for the best of the best, and I really don't see how this game can be compared to the likes of Ocarina of Time and other world class video games.

I haven't played enough of GTAIV to say that is is over rated, but I can say that the previous games in the series were overrated in my eyes at least.

Perhaps it boils down to personal taste. I for one enjoyed it immensely and find that a score near perfect is suitable. That doesn't mean the game is flawless (no game is flawless), but I feel it does enough things right that it merits such high praise. 

A lot of the 10/10 reviews were fueled by sheer excitement and just a little bit of bias. I did like GTA4 but the fact I never played it again after beating it says something.

I personally don't like it, it's just not my type of game. I can see why people like it though.

I loved the previous GTA installments and was not overly surprised when it scored 10's across the board.  But... I have to admit that the game is overrated.  The dense, interactive city that was promised just isn't there.  I would rather have the great landscapes of San Andreas than the ability to buy hotdogs from vendors or enter identical apartment buildings.  Also, the multiplayer that was expected to keep people playing after the campaign is simply boring.

"A lot of the 10/10 reviews were fueled by sheer excitement and just a little bit of bias. I did like GTA4 but the fact I never played it again after beating it says something.
"

Yes. It was boring and the controls made me gag. Those 10/10 reviews are BS.

Didn't deserve a 10, but it was an amazing game.

I loved it my first time through, but I know I'll never feel that way again. I'd say it was a solid 9 out of 10 the first time; now, closer to 8.5 or so.

No.

Something that received pretty much universal acclaim cannot be called overrated sorry.

It was an amazing game, but does it deserve the perfect 10's and 100% most gaming sites were giving it, no it did not. I think that most reviewers got caught up in the hyped, and did not see the flaws in the game. Problem is once you beat it you don't feel like playing it again since it is so long, and the multiplayer is fun but is not something that keeps you occupied for a long time. It deserves a high score, but not a perfect score if the scoring system is out of 100 or 10.

I do think it is overated. For one thing, the shooting still isn't very fun; my least favorite of the games with cover system I've played (Uncharted and Gears of War). Also, a lot of the missions are very repetitive. How many cars chases were there? One of the weirdest missions in the game is an early one where you throw a brick through a window to get a guy to pay his protection money, only to never use it again. Now I know this is nitpicking but, one of the early cutscene in the game, for one reason or another, is not up to the quality of the others. I won't go into detail but I will say the graphics did not look as nice and the voices didn't really match with the scene or just did not match seamless with the animations.

Not only all that, but the optional things to do outside the story missions are also not very good. To be fair, I had fun with most of the police car missions. The single player driving races are pretty boring and much more fun online (even though I could never win). Stealing cars regularly is easy, but stealing cars by a picture is just tedious. I never even tried collecting the pigeons. I'd go so far to say Bully is a better sandbox game (I like Bully more overall, but I won't get into that).

While the story started off strong, it became pretty one-dimensional after all. Niko would kill anyone if asked and he didn't seem to really care. Brucie saying "Ice cold man" sums it up best. It also made me mad that they gave you a few choices of who to kill and with most of them it made no real difference in the story while with at least one of them, they PUNISHED you if you made the "wrong" choice. It was like they were just testing your ethics, not really giving you a choice since there was only one right answer.

 With the online multiplayer, my biggest problem is that a lot of the maps are too big for most of the game types. I remember playing a game of cops and robbers and not being able to find anyone else in the game. Moreover, with the cover system and shooting mechanics being as bad as they are, playing online doesn't make it anymore enjoyable. Some guy locking onto you and killing you before you can even see him is not much of a multiplayer.

While Brucie is hilarious, the city is beautiful, all the little touches are nice (like the radio stations) and I enjoyed the driving, the overall game does not live up to its potential. The biggest problem being they made a realistic looking city that is empty and uninteresting.

I wouldn't say drastically, but I agree that it's a bit overrated. The story wasn't as deep as a lot of reviewers made it out to be, but it managed to do something incredibly rare; It demonstrated how you can make an audience feel for characters in a way that only video games can achieve. One of the two endings is pretty weak, though.

Gameplay-wise, I haven't felt the urge to drive around and cause bedlam like I have in previous games, and they really should be putting in mid-mission checkpoints by now.

i wouldn't say its overrated, but it just isn't a 10 to be, in the beginning i thought this was the best game ever. Then after a few weeks it came a 9.5

it was good but not perfect 10 quality

"No.

Something that received pretty much universal acclaim cannot be called overrated sorry.

Yes! This game was barely any fun at all.

I did really like the game, but ya, it's definitely not perfect. My biggest complaint being the lack of checkpoints. What the hell is the point of repeating travel sections at the beginning of mission? I can't tell you how annoyed I got driving to the bank for the 9th time in the heist mission. Also, the fact that you lose 10% of all your money whenever you die is ridiculous, and makes me less willing to cut loose and do crazy stuff because I'm worried about dying. Anyone else agree?

definitely not worth a 10 imo

Underrated actually.

"I do think it is overated. For one thing, the shooting still isn't very fun; my least favorite of the games with cover system I've played (Uncharted and Gears of War). Also, a lot of the missions are very repetitive. How many cars chases were there? One of the weirdest missions in the game is an early one where you throw a brick through a window to get a guy to pay his protection money, only to never use it again. Now I know this is nitpicking but, one of the early cutscene in the game, for one reason or another, is not up to the quality of the others. I won't go into detail but I will say the graphics did not look as nice and the voices didn't really match with the scene or just did not match seamless with the animations.

Not only all that, but the optional things to do outside the story missions are also not very good. To be fair, I had fun with most of the police car missions. The single player driving races are pretty boring and much more fun online (even though I could never win). Stealing cars regularly is easy, but stealing cars by a picture is just tedious. I never even tried collecting the pigeons. I'd go so far to say Bully is a better sandbox game (I like Bully more overall, but I won't get into that).

While the story started off strong, it became pretty one-dimensional after all. Niko would kill anyone if asked and he didn't seem to really care. Brucie saying "Ice cold man" sums it up best. It also made me mad that they gave you a few choices of who to kill and with most of them it made no real difference in the story while with at least one of them, they PUNISHED you if you made the "wrong" choice. It was like they were just testing your ethics, not really giving you a choice since there was only one right answer.

With the online multiplayer, my biggest problem is that a lot of the maps are too big for most of the game types. I remember playing a game of cops and robbers and not being able to find anyone else in the game. Moreover, with the cover system and shooting mechanics being as bad as they are, playing online doesn't make it anymore enjoyable. Some guy locking onto you and killing you before you can even see him is not much of a multiplayer.

While Brucie is hilarious, the city is beautiful, all the little touches are nice (like the radio stations) and I enjoyed the driving, the overall game does not live up to its potential. The biggest problem being they made a realistic looking city that is empty and uninteresting."

Worth a 10?  Maybe, maybe not.  However now that Rockstar has been taken over by EA, GTA IV will go down as the last great one in the series.

 Am I the only one that didn't find the story to be so amazing? Other than that I was impressed.

Personally I fucking loved this game and can see why reviewers gave it 10/10, but because of the lackluster multi player my personal score would be a 9/10.

I'd have to agree, the controls were pretty horrible and it got very, very repetitive after a while (in a world with a fully working monorail why am I doing ANOTHER mission in a bloody warehouse).

when you first play it, I think the utter shock of playing something that looks and feels so alive is so intense, that people get it in their heads that the game is better than it actually is. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic game, but there's lots of flaws in it, and it is most certainly not a perfect game.

the hours i played through single player where good. those where 28 hours which is worth the money i paid for it but the multiplayer had no longevity and was disapointing.

id give it 8.5/9 out of 10 i think. a great game but no where near near-perfection.

b xx

"      Does anyone else think this game was totally overrated? I suppose i can see it getting a five on a five point scale because it was a pretty decent game, but what's up with GS and IGN giving 10/10, a 10 is supposed to be reserved for the best of the best, and I really don't see how this game can be compared to the likes of Ocarina of Time and other world class video games.
"

Yes, it is overrated. There is a better story, but less to do at the end of the game than previous installments and the online just isn't good enough to come back to.

"Foil_Charizard said:

"      Does anyone else think this game was totally overrated? I suppose i can see it getting a five on a five point scale because it was a pretty decent game, but what's up with GS and IGN giving 10/10, a 10 is supposed to be reserved for the best of the best, and I really don't see how this game can be compared to the likes of Ocarina of Time and other world class video games.
"

You do realize a rating of 5 on a 5 point scale is the equivalent of 10/10, right?"

Overrated, definitely, but not drastically so; it was a load of fun for the time I played it.  GTA IV also marked the first time I felt the story was interesting enough and the characters sympathetic enough to actually finish playing through it.  There were certainly several things about the game that could have been improved, though, some of which - the addition of checkpoints, for example - were incredibly obvious.

If you go to the IMDB forum for any critically acclaimed film, you'll find the same complaint - 'this is over-rated'. I just don't think it means anything really - of course opinions will differ about any game, but it is inevitable that some titles will appear at the top of the critical pile. If not GTA4, then some other game. I can see why the game got those high scores, and I think it deserves a lot of acclaim.

Yes! GTA 4 was hideously overrated by almost every publication. They downright ignored problems and played up the positive sides of it.

Basically, my most prominent memories from the 40+ hour adventure of playing through the game were:

• Clunky, unresponsive on-foot controls, as always
• Endless nagging from NPC's wanting to go out with me
• RIDICULOUS, backwards, unacceptable lack of a mission checkpoint system

"Yes! GTA 4 was hideously overrated by almost every publication. They downright ignored problems and played up the positive sides of it.

Basically, my most prominent memories from the 40+ hour adventure of playing through the game were:

• Clunky, unresponsive on-foot controls, as always
• Endless nagging from NPC's wanting to go out with me
• RIDICULOUS, backwards, unacceptable lack of a mission checkpoint system

That said, the story was well told and the Heat mission was amazing. But all the 10/10 reviews it got definitely ruined the experience, overhyped.
"

A little bit overrated.

I would say in hindsight yes GTA IV was a very overrated game. I still do not understand where all the perfect scores came from and why. 

I've put inabout 50 hours and now im feeling a tad bored

San Andreas was more epic

Surprisingly, this is the only GTA that I haven't finished. It was fun, oh yeah, I did like the story, the characters were engaging enough, and the added cover system was functional (and if they didn't put it in there, I doubt the game would have gotten such high scores). However, it didn't bring anything new, really. Yeah, new characters, new plot, but same city, same people walking around, same strange car physics, just more of the same. And I feel, as most of you might agree, that it lost a lot of things that San Andreas had going for it.  I liked the physical changes your could give to your character, and all of the little extra missions, just felt, whats the word, robust. GTA 4 felt, watered-down.

"Foil_Charizard said:

"      Does anyone else think this game was totally overrated? I suppose i can see it getting a five on a five point scale because it was a pretty decent game, but what's up with GS and IGN giving 10/10, a 10 is supposed to be reserved for the best of the best, and I really don't see how this game can be compared to the likes of Ocarina of Time and other world class video games.
"

You do realize a rating of 5 on a 5 point scale is the equivalent of 10/10, right?"

Maybe, but not by much.

Not 10 worthy, but a 9.0 seems good.

It doesn't deserve a 10/10.  It's a good game, but the controls and cover system need some work.  More like an 8.

GTA IV deserves the praise it gets, what it didn't need was all the hype like it was the second coming. The game is great and I think it's perfect. Many do not because it was hyped to them as jesus's return

"GTA IV deserves the praise it gets, what it didn't need was all the hype like it was the second coming. The game is great and I think it's perfect. Many do not because it was hyped to them as jesus's return
"

"

• Endless nagging from NPC's wanting to go out with me

"