From the moment the game begins, the overall quality of graphics, sound and character design show that Rockstar’s latest masterpiece – ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’, is the beginning of a new era in video gaming.  You arrive in Liberty City as a nobody in search of the American dream, only to find that certain dreams come true at a high price. 

Over the years gamers from around the world have become accustomed to the name ‘Grand Theft Auto’ and to what type of game play it stands for: running around stealing cars, motor bikes and gunning down who ever stands in your way.  Rest assured that ‘GTAIV’ is a gaming experience like no other to date.  Unlike its predecessors ‘GTAIV’ is based on a brilliant and non-linear story of one man’s struggle to achieve prime status in a city where the rich, powerful and corrupt are the puppeteers and the quality level of graphics throughout the game is superb to the point where the characters and the city itself look literally alive.     

You play as Niko Bellic, a Russian immigrant, trying to escape from a dark past and begin a new life of prime status and great fortune in the land of opportunity – Liberty City.  Upon arriving you soon learn that the promises of sports cars, luxury apartments and beautiful women, thanks to your cousin Roman, were slightly over exaggerated.  Instead you are faced with living in an old, run-down apartment and driving taxi cars leaving you with one choice – taking on a life of crime completing missions for various mafia bosses, drug dealers and corrupt police officers in order to earn the prestigious life that you seek.  Although the majority of the missions may seem very similar to what we have experienced in the past Grand Theft Auto games; such as stealing various luxury sports cars to killing certain targets, there are some extra missions that have been added to further add to the gaming experience of Grand Theft Auto IV, including participating in bank heists, kidnapping and escorting certain VIPS to their destinations. 

What really separates Grand Theft Auto IV from the past apart from the missions and the storyline behind the main character?  The amazing graphics!  Thanks to the assistance of Rockstar’s new graphics engine RAGE (short for Rockstar Advanced Game Engine), which also consists of a customised version of Natural Motion’s "Euphoria" physics engine, the latest addition to the Grand Theft Auto series has never looked more realistic and more exciting to watch and play than ever before. The animations / cutscenes that are related to the story mode missions themselves show how well the characters have been designed, right through from the character design to voice quality and facial expressions.  With the new “Euphoria” physics engine some of Niko’s new actions, such as scaling fences, walls or anywhere he can land his feet on, climbing along ledges, and, most importantly, taking cover behind objects look are far more realistic looking that in the previous games.  The fact that you can hide alongside walls, behind cars and other objects for cover when in a gunfight is a huge improvement when compared to past GTA games.  Aiming and shooting certainly feels more fluid and comfortable, given the main character’s nature as a former soldier therefore it is fair to say, “It comes with the job”. 

Control movement is pretty much the same as in the previous versions of GTA, with some extra improvements and additions.  Controlling how you move when walking on foot & running has certainly been improved, as your movement appears more fluid and realistic looking, also seen when driving a car, boat or flying a helicopter.  One of the new additions made to the controls in ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ includes SIXAXIS movement, which means that when this type of control is activated you can control how you drive your vehicle, boat or fly your helicopter by moving the actual control itself from one side to the other according to how you want to control your character and where you want your character to go. 

Other interesting features include new social activities that your character can participate in such as ten pin bowling, snooker, darts and visiting web cafes to surf the web, with the purpose of boosting interactivity between the player and the main character in the game.  Another great feature of ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ is its multiplayer mode, allowing up to 16 players in which you can either team together with other players and take on other teams via the web or you can choose to unleash hell upon anyone that you see in a gigantic environment. 

SAVVY Score

10 OUT OF 10 is what ‘Grand Theft Auto IV’ gets from me.  Even though the story mode can be completed in 30 hours I would have to say I wouldn’t mind playing this fantastic masterpiece of home entertainment for that period of time.  This game, in my opinion, is considered to be the new benchmark of what is to come in terms of graphics and game play for new home entertainment consoles.