GTA IV – saving or skipping through to mission start?

The Game Room
21

Holy shit. That’s it; I’m done. I timed it – with no police chases or major accidents, it takes a bit shy of *seven *minutes to go from picking up Phil to the truck then the docks. And that doesn’t count load times (another poorly programmed bit; this is a new build, i7, 2x ATI5700s with 6GB RAM loading off an SSD. No way it should take that long to load).

I went a bit wild with Steam’s holiday sale (I was also going through the build, so I wanted a bunch of toys) so I have a few other things in the cue before Saints Row 2 — but I’ll likely get to that long before I return to GTA.

22

Rhythmdvl, I, too, bought GTA IV via Steam’s holiday sale (as well as a criminally underrated game called Ghost Master - as a fellow FPS fan I was surprised by how much fun my girlfriend and I had with this game) and was totally put off by - as you so eloquently put it - THE FUCKING TEDIUM.

So, be prepared: the end mission(s) are going to drive you up the wall.

But you know what? After all that, and considering the price we paid ($7 or so?), it was all totally worth it. I hold a writing degree, so maybe I’m wired a little differently, but all the limitations, all the frustration, all the fucking tedium really drives home the overall (gulp) theme of crime in ‘Liberty City’ and, more specifically, Niko’s story.

I’m aware I could be making an enormous stretch here, and I know it has nothing to do with a whole slew of totally valid complaints (bowling? come on…), but what made CJ’s rise to the top of San Andreas so fun was that in all likelihood, living out that exaggerated fantasy would have been pretty damn fun. CJ’s an American getting paid, busting out onto the decade of capitalist manifest destiny. It’s no mistake that San Andreas took place when and where it did.

Without giving out any spoilers, just consider where Niko’s at - mentally, financially, his entire identity, or rather lack thereof - when he steps off the boat and into Roman’s car. Consider how frustrating and weird that might be for a guy in his situation, even without guns. Where the game makes several leaps is its most glaring narrative faults - Niko gets off the boat having mastered the language and with a relatively solid grasp of the city he’s arrived in. Just getting around and being understood would likely be a months long struggle, but it’s a video game, not a documentary.

(Indirectly related admission: When I first watched my friends play L4D, I wondered what a more ‘realistic’ game might be like, one in which your character suffers from panic attacks and goes through spells of coming totally and completely existentially unhinged, so maybe just maybe I’m reading a *little *too much into GTA IV.)

Anyway, you sit on a pile of money and have to deal with bridge & tunnel traffic. Imagine how Niko must feel.

23

Some criticism:

  • The game-play has its shining moments, including the aforementioned ‘body in the trunk’ driving mission. The driving force of the game - driving - wasn’t utilized as much as it could have been, especially considering how brilliant the city design truly is. You generally get re-treads of GTA:SA missions and expect ‘more’ with each mission, but it doesn’t really deliver until the end (by which time you’ve called a drywall guy out to your home).

  • For as brilliant a city design Liberty City is, some of the venues are criminally underutilized. Rather than give away any spoilers, I’ll just say that certain venues in the city serve a severely limited purpose where there was potential for a lot more (and no, I’m not talking about the strip clubs in particular).

  • The advances in gun play are pretty great, but it does get repetitive. Wish they’d have mixed it up a bit more, and the side missions were a great opportunity squandered.

  • My only regrets after finishing the game are 1. that I left auto-aim turned on (multiplayer matches generally don’t allow it, and for that alone they are far more exciting / rewarding than gunning down the AI) 2. that I didn’t pursue all the ‘side’ missions prior to completing the story missions.

24

Allow me to third a shout-out for Saints’ Row 2. Not only can you replay a mission right away from the beginning (including all the weapons and “homies” you had going into it), but for most missions, there are one or two checkpoints as well, and if you like, you can re-start from there as well (or the beginning of the mission - your choice!). There’s even a feature at your clubhouse (which I haven’t tried out yet as I’ve two missions left in the main storyline) where you can replay any completed mission anytime you like!

I’m a big fan of the GTA series (GTA: San Andreas is my favorite non-strategy PC game of all-time), and I have to say I was also disappointed in GTA4. So much effort expended on making an intricate, “realistic” gaming experience, and yet the game just leaves me cold. I kept playing on, thinking that eventually it will get better, but even after finishing the main storyline, I never got hooked like I had with earlier GTA titles. I found Liberty City, while exquisitely detailed, dead and sterile, and I didn’t like any of the main characters. The gameplay, while brilliant in some aspects (driving and gunfights), was extremely tedious in other respects.

Perhaps the best way I can illustrate my feelings is to note that while I’ve already had 3 playthroughs of San Andreas, and will shortly finish my 2nd playthroughs of both SR2 and Vice City (!), I have no real desire to go back through GTA4 again. Maybe after I get through Oblivion and Fallout 3. Probably not…

25

I’m a big fan of GTA IV, but I do agree with the criticisms of not being able to skip to the meat of the missions. Even re-starting from your cell phone is a step up from GTA:SA and the previous games (before that you had to drive all the way BACK to the mission marker).

That said, there are a few mitigating things - most missions have multiple audio tracks so that if you have to drive again at the start of a mission you’ll get an entirely different conversation from the first time. Also, this doesn’t happen on all that many missions.

Lastly - try multiplayer before giving up on the game. It is an absolute zany action filled blast.