FIRST TAKE: Grand Theft Auto IV (360, PS3)

I’m about 12% on the completion level and I’ve been playing Grand Theft Auto IV for about 6 hours and I thought I’d share some of my first impressions before you get the full blown review.

The first thing to say is “Wow, this game looks beautiful!” Rockstar has done a phenomenal job in making Liberty City real and alive. A couple of times I’ve just sat back from the controller and let the action unfold around me, and the amazing thing is it does! People walk by, knock into, and interact with each other. Crazies stand on the corner and rave about lizard people taking over the world. Watch people wait in line in front of clubs, chatting over how great this or that thing is. This is the most impressive thing about GTAIV so far, it is what keeps me playing, I just have to see all of Liberty City.

Which brings me to my first gripe with the game. Just as they have in the previous three games, most of everything is locked away. In order to see the entirety of the game you have to play the story missions. I’m really beginning to hate this about games - if I spend $60 to explore a giant fake New York City, I want to be able to explore all of it out of the box, not waste 20 odd hours on boring fetch missions in order to see the far shore.

Speaking of the missions, nothing so far has stuck out as new. These seem to be the same missions I played in Vice City and San Andreas, except this time everything is shinier or conversely grimier.

My biggest complaint, though, is with the controls. Is anyone else having trouble moving Niko around? Moving the character through tight hallways and across rooftops seems like steering a super-tanker through molasses; this has been a problem with the GTA series since Grand Theft Auto III, and each iteration I have hopes that the controls will be responsive and light and that I can move my guy around like the athlete he is supposed to be. Especially frustrating are the fighting/shooting controls. A great deal of the time I am swinging or shooting at nothing, despite being locked onto a target! The driving controls are somewhat better, though I question some of button placements.

So, what do I have to say so far? My complaints are largely the complaints most of us have had with the series since it came out on the PS2, and they’ll be largely forgotten once I get back into the swing of things, and once I’ve unlocked the entire city, I don’t know if I’ll feel compelled enough to go through with the story-line. With the amazing city I’ve been given, I might just lose myself in exploring it!

Come back in a couple of days for my outlook on the multiplayer.