Grand Theft Auto IV Preview
Jul 24, 2007
Grand Theft Auto IV: Hands on Preview
Other than tidbits gleaned from two enigmatic trailers and a batch of screenshots, very little is known about the enormously-anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV. That shouldn't come as a surprise -- true to its too-cool-for-school name, Rockstar Games operates on its own terms. The company behind popular, controversial titles like GTA, the recently AO'ed Manhunt 2, and schoolyard adventure Bully, manages to consistently release massive games while remaining curiously elusive. At the recent E3 convention in Santa Monica, for example, a packed house of V.I.P. journalists was treated to a measly five minutes of GTA IV gameplay. Think it's tough to score seats to the Super Bowl? Try to score new info about a Rockstar game sometime.
Imagine our surprise when, a mere two days after E3, we found ourselves front and center for a whopping two hour gameplay demo of their upcoming action extravaganza. And we're not talking about another rehash of the two trailers -- we're talking about actual, live gameplay running on a very real Xbox 360, featuring protagonist Niko Bellic roaming about the streets of Liberty City, chatting on his phone, jacking cars, gunning down marks, and revealing a slew of impressive new features along the way.
The demo begins shortly after dawn in Star Junction, Liberty City's version of Times Square. Two things give that away: the developers casually admit it, and the location literally looks just like the famous heart of Manhattan. Skyscrapers loom overhead, street workers go about their business and late-night revelers stagger home from an evening of debauchery. In other GTA games, you were essentially the king of the city. In GTA IV, Rockstar claims that you're very much "a small fish in a big pond," and it certainly feels that way from the get go.
Ignoring the warnings of nutritionists, Niko's first act is to order a breakfast hot dog from a local vendor. No sooner has he gulped down the last bite of mystery meat than his cell phone rings. It's Officer McCrery, a dirty cop who needs Niko to rub out a particularly annoying lawyer. The phone is more than just a way to receive a mission, however -- it's a core element of GTA IV's gameplay. That's made clear when Niko calls his buddy Little Jacob, a resident arms dealer. No more receiving pages and simply reacting to them -- in GTA IV, you can initiate the gameplay by making calls on your own volition. If Niko didn't make the call, for instance, his upcoming munitions transaction with Little Jacob would never happen.
By the time Niko and Jacob meet up, we've been given a taste of GTA IV's insane attention to detail. Every single street in the game has a name, every single location exists at a real in-game address. In another nod to the real world, the convenient Ammu-Nation gun stores are gone. If you want an uzi, you'll have to get it through shady underground dealers and back alley transactions. This is 2007, after all.
The present-tense setting also means Liberty City is online. If Niko finds a computer, he can access the Internet to check his e-mail, research NPCs or surf around. It doesn't connect to the real-world web, but like everything else in GTA, the virtual Internet is huge and packed with useful (and not so useful) information. In this case, Niko sends his resume to a law firm in an effort to score an interview and get a face to face with that pesky lawyer.
For demo purposes, the secretary at the law firm calls us back almost immediately to set up that interview (normally, it would have taken several in-game days.) The meeting is automatically added to the phone's organizer -- complete with a reminder ring -- allowing Niko to go about his daily business instead of constantly bouncing from mission to mission. The phone also acts as Niko's camera, contact list and calendar, as well as being his means of accessing GTA IV's multiplayer. We don't know the specifics of that bombshell yet -- other than admitting its existence, Rockstar is keeping the lid on multiplayer details for now.
Niko heads off to meet the crooked cop for a short powwow, but since the spot is across town, he waves down a cab and hops in. That's right -- for the first time in a GTA game, someone else can do the driving for you. If you want to take in the sights of the city, you can sit in the backseat, peer out the windows and get a lay of the land while the cabbie drives you to your destination in real-time. To appease impatient gamers, they've included the ridiculously handy option to "trip skip" and fast-forward the process by warping to your drop-off spot. This works for any location in the game that you've already opened up.
Our chat with Officer McCrery shows off the smooth in-engine cut-scenes. Great animations and highly-detailed faces are a vast improvement over the blockier models from the previous-gen games. It turns out that McCrery is being blackmailed, and we're charged with the task of taking care of the situation. So off we go, this time forgoing the cab in favor of doing what we do best -- borrowing cars without asking.
As mentioned in earlier previews, cars aren't just sitting there with the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked anymore. To steal a speedy Comet, Niko busts the window with his elbow, reaches in to unlock the door, and tinkers under the steering column to hotwire it. The process takes longer than it used to, much closer to how long it would take an expert thief in the real world. Not that we know for sure, Officer.
Driving itself looks different, as the standard camera has been moved a bit closer and to the left of the car, placing the median smack in the middle of the screen. This increases the horizontal visual range, presumably giving players a better view of the road and what lies ahead, although GTA vets might find it initially awkward. During our ride, more details emerge -- we spot the Statue of Happiness (Liberty, wink wink) in the background thanks to the incredible draw distance; the wheels react to a wide variety of road textures, including tiny, inconsequential bumps and potholes. We even notice a queue of cabs waiting for passengers outside of a big hotel.
Soon enough Niko reaches his destination, a crowded park viewpoint overlooking a river. Since he doesn't know what the blackmailer looks like, he makes a quick call to McCrery and gets a text message with the mark's phone number. Again, the phone becomes a key element as Niko calls the blackmailer while eyeing the scene. We notice several people talking on cell phones, but only one hangs up when we do. A bullet behind the ear later, and all hell breaks loose. Pedestrians scatter as the lifeless body slumps to the ground. The "Wanted" level makes a return, immediately hopping up to two stars and prompting what we all came here for -- some insane GTA action.
Except it's notably different. A red and blue search radius flashes on the mini-map, indicating the area in which the police will attempt to hunt us down. Line of sight plays a major role now; if the cops can see you, they know what you're up to, even sharing info by broadcasting your activities over the radio. Pull over and switch cars in sight of a cop and you'll hear the disheartening "suspect last seen on Maple Street driving a white Comet." While it's been confirmed that the handy Pay 'N Spray shops from the other games will appear in GTA IV, they won't be nearly as easy to find, so to lose the cops, you'll have to get out of sight and make it outside the search radius intact. Niko manages that by driving off the side of a bridge and hauling tailpipe down a remote hillside road.
Shortly thereafter, his phone reminds him of his interview with that law firm, so he heads down to Perseus, a local upscale clothing store, to get some appropriate threads. Unlike San Andreas, you won't be customizing your character with a giant rainbow afro or bulking up at the gym. Clothing is still essential to the gameplay, however, so Niko buys a nice brown suit and matching shoes for his showdown with the problematic attorney.
Eventually Niko reaches the swanky law firm and is led by the receptionist to his fake interview, all handled seamlessly with no load times. After a short sit down with the mark, Niko gets to the point by whipping out his nine, prompting the lawyer to reveal Rockstar's playful sense of humor by uttering the line "Guns don't kill people, video games do." A doff of the cap to Jack Thompson? Who knows, but it's impossible to ignore the smirk on the developers' faces as Niko resolves the issue with a nice shot to the chest -- right in the middle of a law firm, no less, leading to another firefight.
This time, Niko has to fight his way out of the building, a prime opportunity to show off Rockstar's upgraded RAGE engine. Incorporating Natural Motion's "Euphoria" technology, GTA IV's physics are as good as any we've seen in a console game, particularly when it comes to character weight. A guard gets shot in the leg and starts to limp; a bullet in the belly pushes him backwards for a tumble down a staircase. The overused rag-doll effect seen in most action games in which characters flop around like weightless blow-up dolls has been jettisoned in favor of eerily realistic reactions.
One of the few big knocks on the GTA franchise is its problematic targeting system. GTA IV features an auto-aim function that looks more intuitive and intelligent than before. A blind fire system lets Niko trade bullets while tucked safely behind any object in the game. Taking a page from first-person shooter, he can also lean around corners. Both of these abilities come in handy as he makes his way through the building and out into the waiting arms of a gaggle of cop cars. This three-star Wanted level proves too much to overcome; after a lengthy shootout our star lies motionless in the middle of the road, snuffed out by a hail of bullets.
That ends the demo, but plenty of questions remain. How is death handled? How does the melee system work? And what's all this about multiplayer through a cell phone? Our inquiries are met with the classic Rockstar roadblock -- no comment at this time -- but expect to hear more as we inch closer to the October 16 release date.