GTA IV in perspective

It's difficult to know what to say about this game. It does so many things right, and with such ambition, that it is possible to forgive the minor flaws. The driving model feels just right and it really shines during the chase scenes which manage to recreate the feel of a classic action movies like Bullitt or the French Connection. The detail on the streets is so complete that you stop noticing it and just accept it as a living city, full of people going about their business. Some of the best missions in the game are the minor ones where you interact with passers by, meeting them on several occasions and following the arc of their life in Liberty. The rich kid who becomes a junkie, the immigrant making a new life, the neurotic girl, the jealous husband, the gangster's widow.

As for the main story, there is a lot to it. The clash of different gangster traditions, with families caught in the middle, and inevitably torn apart. The choices that you make do not feel forced, but follow from the narrative and are genuinely thought provoking. Who do you side with? Who do you kill and who do you walk away from? The most memorable one has you looking through the sights of a sniper rifle making a choice of which brother to kill, and there are no easy answers.

I've written about the ending elsewhere, and it is by far the most downbeat of all of the GTA games. There is none of the sense of triumph of Tommy Vercetti defending his mansion in Vice City, or CJ bringing the family back together in San Andreas. You do find yourself questioning the violence and the bloodshed, and I wish the grandstanding politicians who try to score points by calling it a 'murder simulator' would actually sit down, play the game and try and appreciate the story that the designers are trying to tell.

Roll on the downloadable content, and I'll be returning to the multiplayer very soon.