Grand Theft Auto IV Story Impressions
GTA IV
Grand Theft Auto IV most likely hones Rockstar Games deepest attempt at creating a compelling and well written storyline in the whole series to date, arguably that is. The predecessors in the royal line of GTA games have had well written storylines, but none on a scale such as this one. With such a robust storyline to this video game, here are some impressions on it, such as where it can be improved and where it surprised me.
First off, you play as an immigrant named Niko Bellic. He comes over to America in search of that special someone who wronged him back in his home land, and he is out for cold revenge. Along the way, you have to make a living so you take up dangerous tasks such as killing or protecting someone. You often stay with your cousin at the start of the game, he helps you get on your feet since he runs a Taxi company. Already, this makes the story have a great start and a fairly interesting cast of characters. It seems that Rockstar Games is looking to diversify the main characters throughout the GTA series, which is certainly a good thing, since it gives every race a chance to shine. This story is riddled with cases of betrayal, trust, anger, sorrow and even happiness at times. This complex mix of emotions is essential to this game, and is well presented, because it would be a bit boring to play a video game that is too serious or too comedic. Grand Theft Auto IV has a balanced set of all the emotions within it.
Along the main story of the game, you will run into several side quests. These side quests may be presented to you by one of your many friends requesting a favor of you perhaps, or by even requesting to hang out with you. Not only that, but you will occasionally meet familiar faces, or old friends rather, in random places across the city. When you encounter them, they will tell you of a problem their having and you may be able to aid them. In one occasion, I had to beat a guy up who owed the old friend money. Sure it is a bit of a menial task, but offering a variety of quests to do is a good thing when you wanna cool down from the main mission, and it fits well into the storyline.
There are parts of the game where you get to make a decision that judges whether a character lives or dies. In one occasion, there is a feud between a rapper and a drug dealer I believe, in which you have to choose whether to take one or the other out. This choice in particular haunted me, because I feel as if I took the wrong person out, because then the guy whom I helped in doing that decided to cut all ties with me for “killing his mentor”. So while the moral choices in the game have no major impact on the course of the storyline, it may emotionally strike you personally. Though, at the end of the game, there is one choice in particular that does change the course of the storyline. Based on what you choose, either your bride will die as collateral damage, or your cousin. Both characters are very close to you, one is related to you and one is the love of your life, so losing either of them is a pretty tough thing. You are not made aware of the consequences of your decision at the time though, which makes it more striking. I actually have not beaten the game in an attempt to preserve both of their lives, albeit a digital life.
The end of the game is an action packed sequence that ties up the storyline in a fairly pleasing way. I will not get too specific into the details, but the ending will most likely leave you entertained to say the least, if not satisfied with Niko’s decision. After you successfully complete the Grand Theft Auto IV main story quest, you will have a variety of things left to do actually. You have the option to partake in vigilante missions, look for your old friends to acquire missions from them, build up and perfect your relationship with your friends, kill flying rats around the city and much more. But I believe that most of us play a Grand Theft Auto game for the simple fact that we are granted the ability to cause mayhem. GTA IV is nothing short of those capabilities, and does it in a way better than before. The new animation system incorporated in this game makes the mayhem causing and get aways that much more entertaining than before.
One of the things that Rockstar Games does exquisitely right is their ability to create characters that become emotionally tied to the player. In this game, you will meet a variety of characters in which you take a liking to as well as some that you will have a natural hate for. This is an essential quality in a robust storyline that Rockstar Games has nailed on the head. When Niko gets betrayed for the first time, I know my brother and I were pretty enraged by the betrayers actions. We felt Niko’s pain and actually was excited for the retaliation to come by him. This quality has been seen in games of the past, such as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (arguably).
Grand Theft Auto IV has to have had one of the best storylines in a video game of this generation, if not of the entire video game industry history. It is a storyline worthy of a movie or even book remake. It is that well, and if told to a friend or colleague who is unfamiliar with video games, they most likely would have expected it to be a book or video game. It is fairly reasonable to say that this game has one of the best story lines and character development in a video game because it has received perfect scores by almost every reviewer. The story of Grand Theft Auto IV manages to leave good impressions by the many people who play it.
