Grand Theft Auto IV UK Roundtable

Feb 28, 2008

IGN UK team cruised the streets of Liberty City and experienced GTA IV first-hand. Here's what we thought.

Alex: When you saw GTA IV for the first time you were pretty much blown away. What did you think second time round?

Martin: The initial demonstration was the first time I'd laid eyes on the game and it was hard not to be impressed by how polished it looked, especially in light of some of the concerns raised by earlier builds. In all honesty, some of that awe factor had dulled by the time we got to go hands-on this time around, but that's certainly not to say it wasn't looking impressive.

Alex: I know what you mean, but I think a lot of that is down to how gob-smacked we were the first time we saw the near-final build. I did think it felt a lot more like a proper GTA game this time and by that I mean more prominent humour and familiar gameplay.

Martin: Definitely. A lot of the wonder of the first demonstration came from Rockstar's showmanship when highlighting some of the features - that moment when they tuned the debug to clear the fog and reveal the night-time cityscape was magical. And it was great to see the Rockstar humour intact. The enhanced engine brings this to the fore. Some of the character animations in the cutscenes really helped compliment the wit and, if anything, this game is shaping up to be the funniest GTA yet.

Alex: What do you think the public's impression will be when they play it for the first time?

Martin: It must be difficult for Rockstar to manage expectations. Stray too far from the GTA path and they'll be fighting off the pitchfork-wielding masses, but on the flipside some may be disappointed that this is a refinement rather than a leap for the series. From what we saw, I reckon they've pulled off a pretty decent balancing act.

Alex: Totally. I actually think they've done a brilliant job of distilling everything that's great about GTA - the freedom, the sharp dialogue and the superbly fleshed-out characters – while stripping away all the other superfluous stuff. In that sense it's a much purer GTA experience than, say, San Andreas, and I think that's definitely for the best. I also think Niko Bellic has a lot more character than CJ from San Andreas ever had, even though you could customise him a lot more.

Martin: I'm still in two minds - San Andreas was a little flabby but I think the RPG elements actually worked really well. It's certainly the most immersed I've been in a GTA game.

Alex: I think they got in the way in the end. Having to stop off mid-mission for a bite to eat because CJ was hungry was a pain in the backside.

Martin: There's a strange conflict going on with GTA - a large part of the series' success is down to the freedom it offers and the ability to approach problems in different ways. The focus on this one is definitely more on Niko's story - which is all well and good, but when it's so heavily prescribed it restricts some of the freedom that makes the games so great.

Alex: I think it's difficult to tell at this stage. We've only seen a handful of missions and there hasn't really been much of a structure linking them together. Each one has been taken out of context. I think it'll be interesting to see how everything ties together and how the mission structure works. It certainly seems as open as any previous GTA game, with a handful of different branches appearing on the map at any given time.

Martin: That's fair enough, but taking away some of the customisation means players lose a little ownership over the character.

Alex: I don't mind that, if it means the story is a bit tighter. I also think the loss of ownership is minimal, because you can still change Niko's outfits, as well as tackling missions in your own order.

Martin: One thing I did like was how the dialogue seemed constantly fresh. During one mission I kept on failing, the chatter in the car on the way to the destination was different with each play-through.

Alex: Yeah, that was a nice touch.

Martin: That's definitely a big question for me at the moment - how many different ways can you go about playing through the missions?

Alex: That's one of my favourite things about GTA - tackling a mission the way I want. Finding the gunship early on in Vice City was awesome, because I could then do chase missions in the Hunter which was a lot more fun than doing it in a clapped out Cadillac.

Martin: That's why I kept lobbing those burger patties. I want to be able to complete missions using just a burger. How great would it be to be able to do drive-by burger lobbings?

Alex: You'd need a lot of patties to take someone out...

Martin: I'm a pretty good shot. Get a patty in the eye and you could blind someone, leaving you to follow up with the burger sauce.

Alex: Actually, we did see a couple of different ways to complete missions, like during the harbour heist. We were supposed to climb down to the ground and fight up close but, because we'd got the AK, it was possible to take them out enemies from afar, which is classic GTA. In fact you could do whatever you wanted to, providing the van and your buddy weren't destroyed.

Martin: I did always love driving a whole load of cars to the point where you knew lots of bad chaps would appear, so you could kick off the mother of all explosions and take them all out.

Alex: Ah man, the explosions. They are sweet.

Martin: You love your smoke trails, don't you?

Alex: Being able to take out a police chopper with a bazooza - hell, even a sniper rifle if you're good - is my idea of heaven. In fact I thought the effects on the whole were awesome. The explosions, the mist, sunrise and sunset... It's leaps and bounds ahead of everything else.

Martin: What is your unhealthy fixation with helicopters? It's all you'd talk about with Rockstar and in our hands-on you must have taken out at least four of them.

Alex: I like helicopters. In an ideal world I'd skip the driving bits and go straight for a helicopter. Having said that though, I thought the car handling was very good.

Martin: It was certainly a step on.

Alex: The cars had a real sense of weight about them, more so than before. They really moved around on the suspension when you slung them around a corner. It seemed a bit more difficult to throw them around tight corners at high speed too.

Martin: It's a lot more pendulous. At first I struggled to keep them on the road, but once I got my head round it I think I preferred the more subtle approach you have to take to driving.

Alex: Speed has a much greater impact over the way a car handles...

Martin: I like the way the handbrake puts you in a 180 straight away, which could come in pretty handy.

Alex: It was the same with Niko – there was a much greater physical presence about him. In fact it was actually a bit weird, controlling him for the first time.

Martin: He certainly had more weight than any previous GTA character.

Alex: It think that's all down to Euphoria, the engine that powers the physics. It's the thing that powers the drunk scene we saw last time in real-time. And although we didn't get to play it this time, it's still one of the most impressive things I've seen.

Martin: It's a shame we didn't go hands-on with that - I'd have loved to play around and see how Niko reacts when tanked up.

Alex: Man, imagine getting drunk then climbing into a helicopter... Carnage!

Martin: I feel queasy thinking about it. I wonder if his verbal interactions change when he's drunk, like professing love to passers-by, getting gobby with police officers and the like.

Alex: That'd be cool. What did you think of the city itself?

Martin: It's definitely benefited from being streamlined. There was so much detail that you just couldn't get when trying to recreate a whole state like in San Andreas.

Alex: I loved the countryside bits in SA, but again they got in the way after a while. The mission where you had to drive from one city to another was such a ball-ache, especially if you screwed it up right at the end.

Martin: But with the country and western station on, the windows open and not a care in the world? I loved those bits. Still, I prefer the concentration of GTA IV.

Alex: I think we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. Personally I cannot wait to sit down and play it on my own, to go wherever I want. To climb over fences and check out back yards, that kind of thing - to really explore every inch of the city and see what cool stuff has been hidden away.

Martin: Such an important part of GTA is familiarity with the city - knowing the shortcuts, where the jumps are. That was impossible in San Andreas but I reckon Liberty City will soon become really familiar, and you'll know what areas to utilise with the police on your trail.

Alex: Even though we only played it for a few hours, I was already starting to get a feel for where everything was. And the Wanted meter – it's so much better now.

Martin: There was a really nice moment when I climbed into someone's garden, to see a couple of elderly folk sitting on a bench who were a little alarmed at seeing a thug in a tracksuit on their property.

Alex: Yeah, that was great, although they acted a little oddly when they moon-walked up onto the chairs...

Martin: That's GTA though - there were still guns floating in mid-air, a few animation glitches, but you can't have such a vast and believable city without sacrifices - and the code still isn't complete, obviously.

Alex: Considering everything has been done on such a grand scale I'm surprised there weren't more problems. It was all minor stuff really, which is pretty amazing considering how much stuff is being shifted around.

Martin: The city did seem so more alive than in other GTAs. In the Destruction for Beginners mission, when we got the lift up the side of the building, looking down at the streets from a height, it was amazing how alive the whole thing seemed.

Alex: I really liked the way people went about their business. The street cleaner sweeping up rubbish, the other chap trying to fix his broken-down car, and the fact that when you tried to nick the car it wouldn't start!

Martin: I followed a girl who was having a conversation on her mobile about the affair she's having and her worries about contracting herpes.

Alex: It's little touches like that that really bring the game alive. I'd quite happily waste an afternoon watching what other people get up to.

Martin: Being a snoop is great - I love following people on their routines. There was even a chap cutting grass by the side of the road. Rockstar also said that some areas would be more populated than others. Who knows, there could even be a proper nightlife - if Niko can get drunk then maybe the NPCs can as well.

Alex: I also like the way that they the public will call the cops if they see you mow someone down and, even though it might take a minute or so for them to arrive on the scene, they'll still come after you. It's also nice that you've got a realistic chance of escaping, thanks to the new Wanted meter. I hated the way the cops always knew where you were in old GTAs, even if you sneaked down a backstreet or something.

Martin: That helped make the game come alive. It'd be really satisfying to lamp someone in the guts while they're trying to make a call to the cops about you.

Alex: Now you can switch cars, duck in buildings... Stuff that you'd probably do in real life if the fuzz was on your tail.

Martin: It will make your interaction with the environment so much more involving…

Alex Simmons: Exactly. Like when I legged it across to that little island in the middle of the park and the cops didn't really know what to do but stay back and fire, before calling in the choppers. It would've been funny to see them jump in the water and give chase though.

Martin: There will be so many more different ways that the AI will react. I'm sure that the game will constantly surprise with different routines. And did you notice the damage system on the cars?

Alex: Yep. I liked the way they didn't automatically explode when they flipped over.

Martin: I think they just take a little longer to set on fire this time around...

Alex: But some of them didn't catch fire at all. The motorbikes were cool too. Giving that Jamaican dude a backie on a scooter on the way to a hit was class, and the way Niko puts on a helmet while riding - or not, if there isn't one around - is a nice touch. It's the same with Little Jacob's patois – it's some of the funniest dialogue I've heard in a game, even though I couldn't understand half of what he was saying!

Martin: I loved the doobie smoke that filled the car when driving around. I wonder if Niko will feel the ill effects of being hot-boxed in a car like that, sparking off a variation of the drunken engine?

Alex: Good point.

Martin: But I guess that would just be asking for trouble. Rockstar in drug-sim shock!

Alex: Certainly didn't seem to have any effect, but maybe that was because he was stuck on the back of a bike. What about the missions, then?

Martin: They certainly seemed to have a little more variety than GTAs past.

Alex: D'you think? Like what?

Martin: Indoor shooting was definitely better implemented, and what we saw was slightly more nuanced than the old 'drive from point A to point B, shoot and drive back to A'.

Alex: I would've liked to have played the mission where Niko is rolling around on top of the van. That to me looked like something new and exciting. Don't get me wrong, the missions were exciting, but I'm looking forward to seeing more and digging deeper.

Martin: I'm sure there's so much more Rockstar are keeping under wraps. It seems to want certain elements to be a genuine surprise upon release, and for chattering journos like us not to ruin the experience and some of the surprises.

Alex: The new combat system really did help to bring the missions to life, especially the Deconstruction for Beginners mission. Running from cover to cover, ducking out to fire, was more Gears that GTA, and it's so much better for it. Gunning down enemies was a lot more considered, tactical even, whereas before it was largely down to luck and the size of the gun you were carrying.

Martin: Definitely. So much of old GTA was spent struggling with an archaic combat system. While this wasn't quite Gears - I still think there was a clunkiness to finding cover, though I'm sure extended play will put paid to that - it was such an improvement.

Alex: Now, it feels like if you're only packing a pistol you could still take out a group of goons, providing you use cover properly.

Martin: There was certainly more accuracy, and I agree about old GTAs being more about how big your gun was than what you did with it. Now I reckon you could get into a firefight with virtually nothing and not feel the odds were too stacked against you.

Alex: Unless, of course, you accidentally fire a bazooka at the cover you're hiding behind. That was hilarious when that happened. But the death scene was worth carking it for!

Martin: The death scenes - they were beautiful. The rag-doll physics make such a difference, like when Niko rolls out of a car, or is fired into the air from his own bazooka blast.

Alex: Ah man, when he bailed from a car at full pelt - that really looked like it hurt.

Martin: And they also make some of the enemy deaths so much more grisly. We'd seen it last time, but the goon falling on the roof of the SUV still made me wince.

Alex: And when he smashes through the windscreen if he shunts another car at speed. Ouch.

Martin: What about the health system? It was a lot more subtle than in past GTAs.

Alex: I think it worked well. Obviously it's not such a radical overhaul as the Wanted system, but it makes sense in the context of the game. I wish we'd have had the time to stop off at a Burger Shot to see how eating food boosts health, rather than just the medikits.

Martin: I didn't know if they were going to use regenerative health for this one. It actually feels kind of odd playing a game in this day and age that still uses medi-packs and a health bar.

Alex: I like that, though. The fact you have to tool up before embarking on a mission, rather than knowing everything is at max automatically.

Martin: That's one of the problems with GTA - spending an age in preparation for a particularly tough mission, only to accidentally fire a bazooka in your face, but I guess the new save point system goes some way to fixing that.

Alex: That's your own stupid fault. It never happened to me.

Martin: But you just chased helicopters all the time!

Alex: Four helicopters. That's all it was. Besides, taking out four police helicopters, including the snipers perched on the sides, took serious skill.

Martin: As does throwing a burger in the face of passers-by. I reckon I could've taken five helicopters out with just one patty given half a chance.

Alex: I'd like to see you master the hot dog next time. Anyway, I guess the big question is, did playing it for the first time live up to your expectations?

Martin: It definitely left me with an appetite for more.

Alex: Absolutely. It's progressed so much since I first saw it. From what I've seen of other sandbox games, GTA is doing stuff most other games don't even come close to. No other game nails its characters so well, or the way they fit into the environment.

Martin: GTA is one of those games that won't reveal itself after only a couple of hours of play - what we saw was instantly familiar, but there were so many touches that keep coming back to me that suggest this game is going to be huge. And you're right, GTA is still the best sandbox.

Alex: And now the environment is probably the most important character in the game. Liberty City looks like a cool place to hang out, to explore.

Martin: We didn't see or talk about multiplayer, but I can't wait to find out what it'll be like. Will it be a drop-in co-op affair? I really love the idea of hooking up with a friend and hitting the town. Just going for a leisurely drive and having a booze together, or teaming up for a mission.

Alex: I never played the PSP multiplayer missions, but I think it'll be something that's kept separate from the single-player game. Having said that, it'll be nice if it includes familiar characters and that Liberty City almost becomes your playground. I'd bet money that you'll be able to play the mini-games with pals.

Martin: I'm hoping the online is a bit more imaginative than that, but I guess that's a given. Would GTA work with deathmatch, or would that be a mismatch?

Alex: I can't see how that would work. You'd have to restrict it to certain areas of the map, which seems a bit anti-GTA. Then again, it could be some kind of turf war, battling for control over districts. That would be hugely ambitious though...

Martin: Turf war! Now that's an amazing idea. That would be absolutely amazing. From the way Rockstar is talking about it I'm guessing it'll be pretty special. I'd love a 16-player online turf war! My heart is racing just thinking about it.

Alex: That would be fully awesome. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.