...I've finally decided to write some more coherent thoughts on "Game of the Year" Grand Theft Auto IV. Please, don't spoil anything I don't already know.
"Why am I driving this idiot around again?"The first two hours of this game felt like Crazy Taxi: Little Russia. I realize the point of this, like most early missions, is to teach you a new mechanic (in this case, driving in a way that doesn't cause thousands of dollars in property damage, amusing as that is) and to familiarize you with the city, but it wasn't terribly interesting.
Little Jacob. Oh, Little Jacob. He immediately comes along and spices up your life by giving you a gun and telling you to whack some fools who are encroaching on his little op. Fun stuff. I really do need to spend more time with him, doing shit. He's awesome.
On the other hand, I could've stood to have had a tutorial in fistfights a little sooner than the Albanian loan shark mission. At one point, I tried to jack someone, got counterjacked (?), and challenged to a fight. Not really knowing what to do (and the manual being useless), I actually got hospitalized. Dammit.
The relationship with Michelle has filtered the game through the lens of the least shady person in the mix, at least so far as I've seen. You know Niko's gotta lie through his teeth about being mixed up with Jamaican dope dealers and low-level Russian mobsters, and you know it can't last forever, because he's going to dig his ass deeper and deeper. I loved his denial of knowing anything about Vlad after whacking him hours earlier (more on that in a sec), but it was going to get unbelievable if Michelle didn't start to smell bullshit soon, and sure enough, she did. Now that I'm in with Elisabeta and Playboy X and Dwayne and them, she's not even hiding her concern. This isn't going to last much longer, I can feel it. Probably just as well; she made fun of all the nice shit I bought downtown. If she knew how much that plaid shirt and stonewashed jeans cost...
So, Vlad. God, what a dick. When I met him, I had no idea that I was going to be able to off him so damned soon, so I just gritted my teeth and played along with his bullshit. But when he set up poor Ivan, I decided enough was enough, Vlad has to go. I let Ivan live, because both Vlad and Ivan said that he'd been set up, which is generally a sign that someone's getting screwed. Now, I was ready to off Vlad for that, but apparently it took Vlad sleeping with Mallorie for Niko to reach that point, which struck me as really weird. I dunno if that's tied to something specific in his character, or what, but either way, Vlad was dead, I got 5 G, and everyone went home happy. Well, except maybe Vlad. I don't think he was too pleased with the outcome of that, but fuck it.
Faustin and Dmitri. I got the impression as their story went on that one of them would have to go, just seeing how their dynamic fell apart. I can see why Faustin was the obvious choice, both for the writers and Niko, but I can see where he comes from, in a way. He became a hard man because he had to in order to survive, and Dmitri would probably have died without him long ago. By the same token, though, he was a prick to his wife and daughter, and getting more and more unstable, to the point of making you drive a friggin' bomb all the way to South Bohan just to make a point. What happened next, though, I had no idea about, and I'd definitely like to see where this particular story thread goes. Is Mr. Bulgarin "that special someone" who stabbed Niko in the back? Stay tuned, I guess.
The Lost. For a gang that's going to wind up being part of an expansion pack, so far they don't seem too relevant. I'm sure there'll be at least something more from them than one random (annoying) bike chase and shootout, but after reading the "news" report on the "Internet," I suspect it may be more of a late-game, Alderny thing.
I want to like Brucie, I really do. But his first mission, where I have to chase this Lyle Rivas dickhead halfway to Vice City really got on my nerves, to the point where I quit playing for about a week. I think I'm a better driver now, so we'll give it another go at some point (and see if I can steal him some more cars), just as soon as I'm done making nice with all the butthurt whiners in my address book.
That reminds me, I had a lot of patience with the relationship system initially, but as more people start bitching that I'm spending more time on story quests than rep grinding, it's starting to bug the piss out of me. It doesn't help that the minigames are all kind of assy.
Other stuff I don't like: missions with no checkpoints. Not even a checkpoint mid-chase or anything like that; just a checkpoint at each cutscene. I'd really rather not avoid the cops after jacking their ride for the umpteenth time just so I can "find" this Rivas motherfucker yet again.
I already know about the Dwayne vs. Playboy X choice, and that kind of sucks, but I'm very interested in seeing where their stories lead. I may surprise myself, I dunno. Playboy X pays well, and shooting a whole ton of dudes in the face is an attractive prospect.
