Page Deuce

Now GTA IV has upped the ante even farther when it comes to justifying your crimes. Sure, the game sets new standards when it comes to establishing a place, with a Liberty City that feels like a real town. It offers an incredible range of things to do outside of the formal mission structure, right down to anti-hero Niko Bellic's adventures in internet dating. But where the previous games were sociopathic sandboxes at their cores, the new game is a story-driven crime drama draped with a lot of tinsel. Some great-looking tinsel, mind you, but still glitter that isn't all that necessary or attached to gameplay that is far more story-driven than in any previous GTA.

While this is a tremendous achievement in design, and certainly the best game released in the past few years, all of the self-consciously artistic and moralistic trappings of the script make the game feel, well, somewhat like a poseur at times. It's like Rockstar is trying to provide built-in excuses for the violence, all ready-made for the inevitable moment where company reps fend off howls of protest from the usual suspects like Jack Thompson on network news shows in the US.

In short, I didn't have nearly as much fun with GTA IV as I did with its predecessors. Vice City and even San Andreas to a large extent were so outrageous that anybody sane couldn't take them as anything but R-rated cartoons. Everything was just so over-the-top that even the biggest atrocities played out like a bloodier take on Foghorn Leghorn dropping an anvil on that hound dog. GTA IV, on the other hand, was awfully hard to laugh at. Niko is such a realistic hard-ass that I almost wanted to cover my eyes during some of his up-close-and-personal kills.

So where I could laugh my ass off at Tommy Vercetti running down an innocent woman racing around squealing for help in Vice City, in GTA IV I had a hell of a time pulling the trigger even when executing a scummy Russian mobster. There were funny moments in the game, but they came almost entirely through blatant comic relief like the "wild and crazy guys" stuff with the Bellic brothers. Missions themselves, were most often deadly serious, and really let you get into the head of Niko Bellic, a place that was a lot scarier than Vercetti's cartoon Scarface.

With all that said, I can't say that I'm totally disappointed in GTA IV. Adding morality and a more lifelike story is a natural progression that was probably necessary to keep the series vibrant for the increasingly sophisticated gaming audience. Also, I'm not sure I would have been all that happy with a next-gen take on Vice City, or even San Andreas. Rockstar pretty much did that formula to death through a whopping five games that recycled a lot of the same gameplay concepts.

Still, I'm kind of sad that the GTA I used to know has faded away. I'll always have Vice City for a replay whenever I have the urge to kill without conscience. But I'll still forever miss the cartoon violence without consequences that was so freeing when I first donned the rolled-up suit jackets of Tommy Vercetti back in 2002.