It’s a story about pursuing the American dream from the perspective of an immigrant from eastern Europe who is fleeing a dubious past and facing an even more dubious future as he finds himself being dragged into a world of corruption and crime in Liberty City, USA.
Niko Bellic is the immigrant and he is a likeable man. Clearly damaged from the experiences of his past, he absorbs the shock of his new home with cynical resignation and good humour. And it is quite a shock, because he is here at the invitation of his cousin Roman who has told him about the money, the high living, the fast cars and faster girls. Sadly, Roman has none of these things, and Niko finds himself sharing a shabby apartment with Roman who earns a precarious living from running a taxi business whilst spending much of his time fixating on large breasts. Roman has money problems and is involved with a number of shady characters. To protect Roman, Niko has to deal with these people, and his descent into the underbelly of Liberty City begins.
The characters he meets range from the deeply unpleasant to the decidedly weird. Russian gangsters certainly fall into the former category, and if you want weird you can do no better than Brucie Kibbutz. Brucie is a steroid consuming, iron pumping lunatic who is concerned that his unusual diet is making his genitals shrink. His excitable state and general paranoia means he sends Niko on missions to wipe out a number of people whose ill-will towards Brucie is probably a figment of his muddled mind, as is his conviction that he is genetically different. Then there is Little Jacob who spends his life in a cloud of ganja and speaks with such a thick Jamaican accent that it is very hard to understand what he is saying; but it usually relates to drug deals, and they invariably go wrong.
As Niko’s life unfolds he becomes increasingly tortured by the things he is obliged to do to protect his cousin and to survive. It’s a fascinating story with a marvellous cast of characters, and it will take about sixty hours to experience. Yes, not the usual two hours of a movie, because this is not a story told through the medium of film, it is packaged as a game and it’s Grand Theft Auto IV. A game? So why should we be considering this as a milestone in entertainment art and not just another trivial computer game. Let’s look at some statistics.
A development cost of approximately $100 million to support hundreds of people over several years. Nineteen thousand separate sound effects, seven hundred different voices, twenty nine hours of dialogue. A living city, based on New York, constructed to a high level of detail with 24 hour lighting effects and weather systems. There is more, much more, and I will go into some of the details later; but this is not the entertainment experience you might traditionally think of when you think about computer games.
And how has it been received? Well, the highest grossing first week for a movie was $406 million for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Impressive figures, but GTA4 took $500 million in the first week, selling six million copies, more than three million of which were sold in the first twenty four hours. Reviews have been universally positive. Metacritic, which aggregates the scores from multiple reviews, gives it a score of 99%. The New York Times said “a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun.” I agree.
So, let’s have a look at the GTA4 experience. You are Niko Bellic and the game follows his story through a series of missions. Each mission involves one or more cut-scenes where the storyline is fleshed out and the mission explained. These scenes are made to Hollywood standards, except the script is generally better than the usual Hollywood fare and the characters more entertaining. Then it is off to carry out your mission. There are more than ninety missions to complete the story and you will probably have to attempt many of the missions more than once. The early missions set the scene and introduce to aspects of the game; but as the story progresses the missions become increasingly difficult and longer. It will take you around fifty hours to complete all the missions.
Well, that sounds like pretty standard, if extended, gameplay for a normal computer game; but what raises the GTA4 experience above other games is the environment in which the missions take place. Liberty City is based upon New York. The name of the city and the names of the districts within the city are different, but Rockstar (the company that develops the GTA series) set out to capture the essence of the city; and according to those who know New York, they have succeeded. Wherever you go the streets and buildings are rendered in detail. I like to walk around an area and browse the shop windows, look at passers-by and listen to their conversations to each other on the street and via mobile phones. I watch the traffic. Occasionally there will be an accident and the car occupants jump out of their cars and start arguing. Then a police car turns up, siren wailing, and some guy on the pavement is arrested. Oh dear, here comes the rain, and pedestrians can be seen putting up umbrellas or holding up their coat collars and running for shelter. None of this is anything to do with me; this is a living city and it is operating all the time over a vast area, independent of my actions. I like to “borrow” a helicopter and fly across the downtown area at night. The Times Square equivalent is a mass of neon light and I can see the traffic jams in the streets below while the lights of the city spread out in all directions. It is genuinely beautiful, and made even more so if a storm rolls in to light up the sky. Whether you are on a mission, or just living the life in Liberty City, there is always the feeling that you are existing within something organic. But wait, there’s more.
See that pedestrian at the top of the steps. Push them over and watch how they tumble. Narrowly avoid someone with a car and notice how they throw up their hands to protect themselves. Shoot a drug dealer in the leg and see how he falls. Drive your car into something solid and look at the way your body reacts as it exits through the windscreen and hits the road. In all these cases the bodies react in the same way you imagine a real person would (I have never actually exited a vehicle through a windscreen). This reaction is not scripted in the game in any way, it is the result of building Euphoria into GTA4. Euphoria is software which accurately simulates the reactions of the human body to a stimulus (such as falling down some stairs or being shot in the leg). This is so revolutionary compared to the standard “ragdoll” physics of other games that you initially spend time generating “Euphoria moments.” After a while you forget it is there and the accurate responses of “people” in the game is just part of the overall feeling of authenticity. Building Euphoria into GTA4 was a significant technical challenge. They needed someone with a brain like a planet and a fine set of genes. No wonder then that my son was involved. Having your son’s name in the credits of a product like this generates several hours worth of proud father moments. Thank God he ignored my advice about becoming an accountant. But wait, there’s more.
Modern life has many facets, and GTA4 incorporates some of the more pervasive. Your apartments has a TV and, at any time, you can sit down and flick through the various channels on offer. These are generally satires on American life, my favourite show being “Republican Space Rangers” where brave stereotypical soldiers with jutting jaws go to strange planets, don’t understand the inhabitants, and shoot them.
When you are in a vehicle you can listen to the radio. There are nineteen radio stations offering a variety of music and talk shows, all interspersed with hilarious adverts. See if you can guess the names of some of the DJs before looking them up in the game manual; who would expect Karl Lagerfeld to appear in a computer game as a DJ?
Of course Liberty City has internet. You can go to one of the TW@ internet cafes and browse the in-game web. The news often reflects the missions you have undertaken. There is a dating site where you can meet interesting people and ask them out for a date, and pages and pages of other fun stuff to browse. And of course there is e-mail, complete with spam.
Liberty City has many entertainment offerings for the discerning and not so discerning inhabitant. You can go alone or take one of your in-game friends, perhaps that nice lady you met on the internet? There are bars where you can drink and play darts or pool. You can go bowling or watch some tacky cabaret show. Perhaps a lap dancing club is more your style, or for some extra laughs take in a Ricky Gervais stand-up show at the comedy club.
The TV, the music, the internet, the shows are generally irrelevant to the story (although they do play their part at times). But they are relevant to reinforcing the “living in Liberty City” experience.
Another aspect of modern life is available and used often, the mobile phone. With your phone you receive calls and messages relevant to missions and you will also be called frequently by your friends asking if you want to hang out. A call from (one of) your girlfriends asking if you are going to take her for dinner can be a little annoying when you are in the middle of a firefight with fifteen drug dealers; but it does happen; reminding you that life in Liberty City goes on whatever you might be up to.
The title is Grand Theft Auto and I haven’t mentioned autos yet. There are the usual collection of cars, buses, bikes and lorries which can be stolen for your pleasure. Boats and helicopters are also available. There is also a comprehensive subway system if you want a break from driving. Or Roman can provide you with a taxi and you can sit in the back, tune in your favourite radio station, and watch Liberty City slip by. And of course you can always just take your favourite means of transport and go out on the streets, create mayhem, and then try and escape from the police.
Enjoying all the extras contained within Liberty City will probably push your single-player experience to around one hundred hours, not a bad reward for the 1,800 baht purchase price (don’t buy a pirated version unless you want your genitals to shrink just like Brucie Kibbutz). But wait, there’s more.
Check that mobile phone and there is an option called “multiplayer.” Select it and Liberty City becomes a playground for you and others around the world. There are many types of gameplay on offer. I have been on a race across the city in firetrucks. I have been part of team of police trying to stop the bad guys from escorting a gang boss out of the city. I have been in free for all firefight with bazookas as weapons (messy). And while the mayhem unfolded, life in Liberty City continued around us.
GTA4 is an intelligent, beautifully crafted and continuously amusing offering of integrated art. It’s the integration of all the components which impressed me most. The key aspects of modern life brought together in a seamless satire which entertains, surprises and elicits admiration for hours on end.
Buy it.
Comments 🔗
2008-05-09| Billy saysI will.