26. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
Having been at the right age when GTA3 came out, I remember my friends and I being obsessed with that game back in 2001 and 2002. My friend Austin and I specifically would literally stay up all night playing it and marveling at the amount of chaos and destruction you could cause in that game. It was also nice that the story and missions were also fun and interesting too. Of course, this love of GTA3 carried over into the releases or GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas as well. However, it was GTA's leap into the next console generation that had me the most hyped and excited back in 2008 when GTA4 was released.
I've played and beat GTA4 numerous times, however what dawned on me last year was that I hadn't beat it since the PS3/360 were part of the current console generation. So yeah, it had been at least 15 years since I'd last beat GTA4. I somewhat blame GTA5 and the Read Dead Redemption games for distracting me from replaying GTA4, but regardless I decided this was the year I was going to return to this game. While it was never one of my favorite games, I always remembered mostly liking GTA4 and having a pretty good time with it. So when I replayed GTA4 again just now, I was definitely not expecting to find a game that felt far more outdated and annoying with than I had anticipated returning to.
For the most part, I do still enjoy playing GTA4. Most of my enjoyment of GTA4 happens within the first third of the game where I felt the story, characters, and overall plot of the game are at its best. I feel like the missions are also the best designed and thought out in the earlier portion of the game. I think a big reason for this is because the more GTA4 asks of you, the more this game's flaws become not just apparent, but downright frustrating. While GTA4 is definitely a bridge between old school 3D GTA and what we'd get in GTA5, for better or worse, it shares far more DNA with those older games. Because of this, controlling anything, whether it's the main character Niko or the vehicles you can drive feel stiff and unresponsive, but at the same time feeling almost twitchy to. You definitely have to adjust to this as you play, however in many of the latter missions where you are fighting many enemies is more complex or confined areas, or need to chase down a character on a motorcycle, the game's flaws are impossible to ignore. Essentially, you just have to get through these missions and hope you're not so pissed off that you'll just want to put the controller down and walk away. The same goes for the aiming, shooting, and cover system in GTA4. While it isn't terrible, it's so easy for you to take excessive damage or enemies to swarm you, making the cover mechanic almost useless. It's also too easy to take cover in places you don't want to, leading to you getting wasted pretty quickly on some of the harder missions.
I know that was a lot of negativity thrown at GTA4's gameplay, however, despite al that, I'd still say it's more fun to play than not. The sandbox of crime and mayhem is still present in this game as it was in the previous entries. Sometimes, it's almost more fun just to go on a massive crime spree than it is to complete the next mission in the story. I guess in a way, GTA4 excels at being a sledge hammer rather than a surgical knife in the sense that way more fun to just go all out and crazy than it is to have to pull off some super technical mission or drive in cramped alleyways or areas ripe with hazards. And fortunately, I'd say 80% of the game allows you to play GTA4 as a big, dumb open world crime sandbox. However, it's that 20% where the game wants you to do more than what it's been designed to do that kinda drag this game down from a gameplay perspective.
As far as the story of GTA4 goes, it's definitely not one of the best in the GTA series, but it's still decent for the most part. Niko Bellic, however might possibly be the best GTA protagonist in the entire series, not just from a character writing perspective, but also with how likable he is. He's not an over the top cartoonishly crazy character like Trevor from GTA5 or a stereotype like Carl Johnson from San Andreas. He feels like a believable, real person and this is only complimented by the excellent voice work and writing given to his character. Unfortunately, the rest of GTA4's story is more of a mixed bag. Once again, I feel like the beginning the of the story is the most interesting and well written, particularly when you're working with the Russians and a certain plot twist happens about a third into the game. After that however, the game's story does take a fairly sharp nose dive in terms of quality, picks back up again towards the end, and then the ending of this game is one I always found to be a bit annoying and even slightly anticlimactic. Still, there are some pretty interesting side characters thrown in throughout the game, even if some of their missions aren't the greatest.
I mentioned Niko Bellic's voice acting being phenomenal, and fortunately the rest of GTA4's voice cast does a great job too. Where GTA4's audio does falter for me a little is in its spread of licensed music, which is probably the weakest in the entire franchise. You're going to hear this music a lot when you're driving around Liberty City, and well, most of it isn't that great. By 2008, we had Vice City and San Andreas' amazing soundtracks, so the fact that GTA4 mostly consists of unremarkable music from both well known and not so well known artists is kind of inexcusable. Luckily, the rest of GTA4's sound design is fairly top notch, which certainly makes up somewhat for the game's lackluster OST.
Finally, from a visual standpoint, GTA4 was a pretty impressive looking game for the time, despite showing its age somewhat now. The level of low detail to characters, cut scenes and environments is definitely a huge leap forward compared to previous games in the franchise. However, the main issue I have with GTA4's visuals are how inconsistent they can look, with some environments and even character models looking somewhat flat, while others look amazing. Also, the game has this almost dark filter on it, which definitely makes the colors and details feel a bit washed out at times. I find of remember many games using various visuals filters to give games a certain mood or vibe, and while it does seem to work sometimes, I feel like in GTA4 it's mostly hit or miss, leaning more on the side of miss.
Once again, I want to reiterate that I mostly enjoyed my time with GTA4, however my disappointment over how much this game has aged and how haphazard certain aspects of it can be cannot be understated. Still, I'd say this is a worthwhile game to play, even in 2026, and one any fan of the GTA series should go back and play. Just be prepared for some extremely annoying missions towards the later parts of the game and controls that feel more akin to an early 2000s game than the ones we'd get in GTA5. (3/19/26) [36/50]
