Grand Theft Auto IV: Second Look
I’m at the meeting place. My target should be around here somewhere. But who is he? Where is he? There are so many people, so much activity in this crazy city — I have no idea what to look for.
Ah! I’ve got his number. I’ll call him with my cellphone. There — that shifty-looking guy picked up. But is that him? I’ll hang up and see what happens. He hung up, too — that must be him. Now to do what I came to do. Should I be stealthy or rush him? Too late — he’s walking away. I need to move…
Blam! A squeeze of the trigger and it’s done. Niko’s a murderer. I’m a murderer. In the world of Grand Theft Auto IV, we’re one and the same. And even in the amoral playground of Liberty City, every action has consequences…
AMERICAN PIE
By now, we’ve all heard the backstory of Niko Bellic, the Eastern European protagonist in the upcoming GTA IV. Having conducted all manner of illicit activities in his unspecified home country, he’s come to the U.S. to start anew. His cousin Roman lured him with tales of women and riches — all lies, meant to cover up Roman’s ailing taxicab business and troubles with local gangs.
So, where does that leave recent émigré Niko? In a world he didn’t expect, what’s a GTA character to do? What goals will we have? What life will he lead — what life will you lead? During a recent demo at Rockstar’s New York headquarters — the city that’s the basis of GTA IV’s Liberty City setting — studio representatives gave us a partial answer, via the first-ever look at several of the game’s single-player missions.
AMERICAN JUSTICE
Before starting the demo — which is set in an undisclosed part of the game (but at least a few hours in, it seems) — Rockstar offers some background detail. A corrupt cop, Officer Francis McCreary, knows about a felony Niko committed, and he wants a favor in return for keeping quiet. That service is no small task: McCreary wants you to kill Mr. Goldberg, a partner at the GTA-ishly named Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster. As with any good GTA mission, getting to the lawyer means completing not just one, but a series of goals.
To gear up for the job, Niko dials up Little Jacob, a fi rearms dealer he’s befriended. This cellphone call is GTA IV’s more realistic method of getting weapons — it’s more plausible to contact an arms dealer than to hunt for weapon icons scattered in the streets, or to hope that a gunshop will have exactly what you need. In the demo, Jacob’s wares include a 9mm, shotgun, SMG, and micro SMG, but that’s surely just a sampling of the armaments you’ll buy throughout the game. (Rumor has it a flamethrower and rocket launcher are two of many more.)
Of course, the cellphone itself introduces a fundamental new game mechanic — in GTA IV, you’ll dial contacts for missions, rather than just passively waiting around for somebody to call you with one. Like your real cellphone, your in-game handset has an address book, an organizer, a calendar, and a camera — “and it’s also how you’ll access multiplayer within the game,” Rockstar reveals. (And that’s all they’ll say about multiplayer for now — despite our bribes, prods, and sad-bastard groveling.) It’s basically an invisible interface, what Rockstar describes as “Niko’s gateway to the world.” If someone calls you, you can even ignore them, and just call them back when you’re done wandering the streets, beating up random pedestrians, or whatever else you feel like doing in Liberty City. Even just taking a cab.
AMERICAN BEAUTY
Our demo continues with Niko jumping into a taxi for a ride to the local internet café, Tw@, so he can fax his résumé to Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster and land a job interview — giving him perfect access to his target. Though jacking a car is the hands-on way to go, cabs are a quick alternative. Hail one with a whistle, get in, choose your destination on a map (you can literally pick any spot in Liberty City), and hit a button to pretty much warp there — or if you like, sit back and experience the thrill of a taxi ride in real time, from a first-person view in the back seat.
As you roll through any of the game’s five boroughs — Broker (Brooklyn), Dukes (Queens), Algonquin (Manhattan), Bohan (the Bronx), and Alderney (New Jersey) — you can really appreciate the amazing detail of GTA on 360. In various parts of the city, you’ll see and hear pedestrians working on their cars; discussing business connections; and even chewing you out for ogling them (“I’m not just eye candy, you loser!”). Sidewalks feel like they’re filled with hundreds of diverse people, not clones doing a mindless shuffle, and the streets feel more authentic, too, with cabs accidentally grazing other cars and varied traffic patterns that feel scarily true to New York.
Once we reach Tw@ (go ahead, say it aloud — we’ll wait while someone scolds you for vulgarity), Niko walks in, sits down at a machine, and gets online. Like your cellphone, in-game web use is another of GTA IV’s “reallife” ways of interacting with the game world. Using a pretty convincing looking web browser, Niko visits the Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster website and sends the firm his résumé — but not before we get a quick glimpse at his work history and qualifications. Though placeholder text, according to Rockstar, it notes that he was on the “Balkan Peace Force,” and that he’s proficient in swimming, shooting, and boxing — good skills for tackling the mean streets of Liberty City.
While waiting to hear back from Goldberg and company, Niko meets with McCreary in Castle Gardens, Algonquin. In cutscenes filled with dramatic close-ups, the mustachioed lawman patronizes our hero, calling him a “F****** maggot” and reminding him that “You look out for me, and I don’t look out for you.” (Ironically, during this not-so-friendly banter, you can see the Statue of Happiness in the distance. Rockstar notes that you’ll be able to visit this Lady Liberty replica either via boat or by swimming out to it.) Coercing you into another errand, McCreary says that he’s being blackmailed by an anonymous figure, and the officer wants you to find him, dispose of him, and reclaim a memory stick with incriminating info. Time to get ruthless.
AMERICAN WASTELAND
After stealing a black Comet and driving to the Humboldt River Viewpoint, you’re in the tricky situation alluded to at the beginning of this story: You’re at the meeting place, but you have no idea what your target looks like. It’s at this point that McCreary text-messages you the blackmailer’s phone number, and you dial it on your cellphone. Someone answers, and you stall for time, keeping him on the line while you look to see which nearby folks are talking on a phone. You see someone who is, but you have to be sure he’s your mark, so you hang up abruptly. When the person you’re eyeing responds by hanging up his own cellphone, you know you’ve I.D.’d him.
Now, here’s where GTA IV really feels like the GTAs we know — full of choices. Your target’s out in the open and he doesn’t know you’re coming. Do you follow him until he’s in a more secluded spot, or just waste him in full public view, consequences be damned? With Rockstar doing the demo, the decision is out of our hands — they go for the bum-rush, shooting him in the head at close-range and quickly swiping the incriminating memory stick from his dead body. And the crowd goes nuts.
As you sprint from the scene, two things happen: your wanted level immediately hits two stars, and some bystanders flee frantically. You need to get the hell out of there, quick! With the new wanted system, a radius (visible on your mini-map) forms around you — the more stars you have, the bigger the circle — and you have to escape that “wanted zone” to eliminate your stars. This new system is also based on line-of-sight, so if you’re almost out of the radius but a police officer spots you, a new radius forms around your current position, and you have to flee that much farther to reduce your wanted level. No more wondering how far to scram: now you know exactly how hot it is when the heat is on.
Just after we lose our wanted stars and return the memory stick to McCreary, Niko receives a call from Karen, the receptionist at Goldberg, Ligner & Shyster. They want him to come in for an interview. Excellent. To look proper, you head over to Perseus, a men’s clothing store, and buy the suit of your choice. Rockstar chooses a nice chocolate brown (we’d have picked midnight blue ourselves, but hey…), and $2,000 later, looking like an eager applicant, you head to the law firm.
Once you’re buzzed into the building — there’s no discernible load time as you walk in — Karen escorts you to the room with Mr. Goldberg. He babbles about the job, and you have a choice: listen to him, or take your shot now. The Rockstar rep splits the difference, and after about 30 seconds, Niko stands up and plants a bullet in Mr. Headberg. One panicked receptionist and sounding alarm later, you’re hightailing it down several floors, through a wave of security guards. We challenge you not to feel guilty during the shootout, as, say, a wounded guard rolls on the ground, clutching his knee in agony. Niko’s shooting skill comes into play here: you can take cover and even use blind fire to blast away at your attackers.
Emerging from the building, having earned three stars for your assault on the law, you face a swarm of police officers…including a police chopper. Uh oh. Niko puts up a valiant fight, but he’s soon overwhelmed — and when the helicopter drops down and lands on us (!), it’s all over. Off to respawn in an unspecified location.
“So, if it hadn’t crushed us, could we have jacked that chopper?” I ask.
“I’m not sure,” says the Rockstar rep cryptically, in a tone suggesting it’s entirely possible. And with that, our demo is over. We’re left to ponder everything we’ve just seen.
THE AMERICAN DREAM
Niko’s situation in GTA IV is one many people can relate to, whether they’ve moved to a new country, a new city, or in a broader sense, a new job: fresh place, fresh start. “Maybe here, things will be different,” he said in the game’s first trailer, downloaded by many a gamer in late March. So the obvious question is, Will they?
With a world as broad and deep as Liberty City, it’s almost impossible to gauge from watching a 45-minute demo. To our eyes, the changes definitely seem more incremental — more evolutionary — than revolutionary. But to really know, you have to play the game. You have to be Niko. That’s not a cop-out — it’s simply the truth.
We’ll say this: Our expectations are huge. The last three GTAs were stellar. And Microsoft recently paid Rockstar $50 million to create two exclusive episodic add-ons for the 360 version of GTA IV. Mix those facts with what we saw — a new GTA that seems every bit as compelling as the last three — and come release day, we’ll be running for this game like Rockstar rushing the poor blackmailer who hung up his cellphone.
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WANNA----PETEY
July 11, 2008 at 4:16pm
Xbox live is on my list of things to buy so i'll deffenetly hit you guys up online to dominate the streets of GTA 4!!!!!
vam95
April 24, 2008 at 6:51am
ive already preoderd it, oh god i cant wait as soon as it cums out im there LIKE THE WIND. THE way oxm made it sound im litrely pissin my pants, but there is somthin on my mind is online gunna be gud,hope so
optimus
April 16, 2008 at 3:55pm
Don't know if anyone has posted this or if they'll delete this but leaked pages of the next OXM were leaked containing the grand theft auto 4 review...the biggest review of the year so far...it has 9 pages and to quote one of the headlines on the pages..."It's got a world you believe in, a cast you care about and a script stuffed with brilliant moments."
ben dancer
March 26, 2008 at 12:20pm
there,s always one idiot using up space.you know who u are geek 24 or whatever u call yourself
geek24
March 08, 2008 at 6:05pm
i can not what to kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill 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kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill 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kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kikill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kil kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill 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Airforce007
March 07, 2008 at 1:45pm
I love bringing the human aspect to the game, making you feel guilty for your decisions and such, a la Mass Effect
cenahk
February 20, 2008 at 6:12pm
Are u going to be able to play after the game like in san Andreas?
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OXM and GamesRadar interview players at Capcom's latest Fight Club
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Max Payne 3!
Reviews
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, SoulCalibur V, NeverDead
Previews
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Major League Baseball 2K12, Risen 2
OXM Twitter Feed
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