GTAIV in Retrospect

October 1st, 2008 by Fullforce | Posted in Gaming, Random, Thoughts |

I was musing today on GTAIV and it’s ending, as well as other things about it. Lots of people seemed to have a complaint about the game overall and it’s new ‘realism’ angle (which I love), but also with the ending.

Spoilers ahead, obviously.

GTAIV was groundbreaking, in my eyes. Not just in it’s technology or gameplay, but in it’s storyline. It was unpredictable at times. Many times during the storyline you’re given choices between life or death, or between two people. Sometimes the choice is clear - Person X deserves to die, or deserves to live. But at other points the choice is not so clear, even in very obvious circumstances. The choice to kill Darko or not had me deliberating for too long.

It throws these unexpected choices at you, and once choices are made the game throws unexpected consequences. This is a vital part to it’s feel of realism - in the real world, we can’t predict the result of our actions, and this is one of the first few games not in the RPG genre that throws unexpected results at the player.

The ending is one of those most unexpected things. No matter what your choice (Revenge or Money), the death of an important and deep character comes as a shock to the player. It’s either Kate or Roman, and the death(s) are not expected by the player at all.

And is this why people don’t like it? Because the game takes the power away from the player? Perhaps this is something a game shouldn’t do, the player should be in control of the world. But it’s something different, and something that should be congratulated. Although the ending felt flat or anti-climactic towards the final chase, the actual consequences of your actions are not. It’s a risky move, and although it didn’t quite pay off with the end game, it certainly was groundbreaking in it’s risk-taking.

I can’t wait for the next GTA. Or the DLC.