Memo To Rockstar: Open World Gaming Peaked In 2008
Consider this my love letter to GTA IV.
As the release date for the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI draws nearer (sort of), excitement continues to build among the fanbase.
I won't lie, as a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series I must say I'm pretty stoked as well.
Throw in the fact that the game will be taking place in a fictionalized version of my home state of Florida, and you would probably think I have a dedicated countdown calendar leading up to the release date in November.
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But, strangely, I'm not nearly as excited as I thought I would be.
Don't get me wrong, I think the game will be really fun, and I'm going to play the hell out of it the moment it comes out, but there is a certain element that is missing from this whole development cycle, and I think I've finally figured out what it is.
In my personal opinion, the GTA series peaked in 2008, with a little release called Grand Theft Auto IV.
Oh, sure, I played GTA V until I practically burned a hole in my copy of it, but nothing will ever surpass the magic and charm of GTA IV or the memories it provided me with over a decade and a half ago.
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A Tale As Old As Time
No Grand Theft Auto has ever been able to beat IV's story.
The grounded realism of Serbian immigrant Niko Bellic's tale of rags-to-riches-to-revenge was seen as a controversial take at the time, considering the fact the previous games of Vice City and San Andreas were a little more vibrant and fun.
With the benefit of hindsight, however, IV's gritty take on the American dream gave us one of the best video game stories of all time.
GTA V's heist-based story set in Los Santos (RockStar's surrogate for Los Angeles) felt like a bit of an overcorrection from IV, and the years have not been too kind to the former.
Despite the fact that IV precedes V by a good five years, Bellic's story feels infinitely more timeless.
Niko Belic is perhaps the most sympathetic of all the GTA characters, as he comes to Liberty City (surrogate New York) to escape his war-torn past in Eastern Europe and to find the man responsible for double-crossing his fellow soldiers while leaving Bellic for dead.
Bellic isn't the only great character, as the entire game is chock-full of some of the most memorable faces Rockstar has to offer.
From the hopeless optimists like cousin Roman and his roided-out buddy Brucie, to the more morose Little Jacob and Dwayne whom Niko relates more to, the characters have good range and balance the game out perfectly.
I never get tired of replaying IV and the story is a big reason for that.
Back In The New York Groove
GTA IV also has one of my favorite maps – and worlds, by extension – in all gaming.
Liberty City is a perfectly exaggerated representation of The Big Apple, and it's so fun to be able to hop in a car and drive through Time Square, or take a chopper and fly through the towering skyscrapers.
You can even take cabs and subways to add to the realism of the game.
GTA IV's map wasn't always my favorite. It's not nearly as big as GTA V's and doesn't even match the size of its predecessor, San Andreas.
But what it lacks in size it makes up for in character and depth.
Sure, V's land area of Los Santos dwarfs Liberty City, but there are large portions of GTA V's behemoth map that are virtually uninhabited.
From the bright lights and big buildings of Algonquin (Manhattan) to the gritty streets of Alderny (Jersey), Liberty City feels fully lived in and makes it a joy to explore every time you revisit the game.
A World Beyond Parody
Before Rockstar co-founder, Sam Houser, left the company, he made vague allusions to the fact that GTA VI probably won't have the same biting social commentary as its predecessors, mainly because the real world was already so wacky to him that it seemed beyond parody.
Maybe that's just sour grapes or mental exhaustion talking, but if that's indeed the case, then the series may never again have the same sidesplitting humor that it's been known for in the past.
GTA IV was released in 2008, at the tail end of the Bush administration, and the tone of the game is absolutely drenched in post-9/11 commentary.
The opening mission involves your cousin picking you up from the boat you just rolled in on (literally) and complaining about the bridges being shut down because of "f***ing terrorists."
It wasn't just a throwaway line, either. It served as an in-game reason for why you were stuck in Broker (surrogate Brooklyn) for the first five hours of gameplay until the other burrows opened up.
The radio stations all spoof the political climate of the late 2000s, and even the NPCs and their innate cynicism represent the culture of the time with their dialogue.
The best part about it was that Rockstar attacked both sides equally and with the same style of humor.
Conservatives were all gun-toting xenophobes who hated poor and homeless people, and liberals were all whiny, bleeding-hearts who wanted everything handed to them.
And it worked.
I have a bad feeling VI will be heavily skewed towards one side of the political aisle (we all know which one) and the game will be worse for it.
Mechanics Ahead Of Their Time
While GTA IV had a smaller map than V and had less "stuff" to do than San Andreas, the reason for this was based on quality over quantity.
It's true that you couldn't get haircuts or change your physique by going to the gym consistently, but a lot of that felt superfluous in hindsight.
The developers of IV put an emphasis on doing a handful of things really well.
Driving was hyperrealistic, and while many players lamented the awkward and hard-to-master physics, once you nailed the driving mechanics you felt like a pro gamer.
The same could be said for the shooting physics, which felt night-and-day different from the "cartoony" shooting in San Andreas and even V, to a lesser extent.
Don't get me wrong, I love being able to pop GTA V in and bomb around corners in a Ferrari while feeling like I'm on rails, but it's much more rewarding to put the work in and master the driving in IV.
And it doesn't stop there, either.
The fighting mechanics in IV made for actual hand-to-hand combat and there was even a way to disarm pedestrians if they were wielding melee weapons.
You could also go bowling, which has become something of a meme at this point but is still incredibly fun and re-playable to this day.
There are so many different things to do in this game and so many mechanics that were unique to IV, you just needed to know where to find them and practice your skills a little bit to nail them.
An Atmosphere Like No Other
This one is a little bit of a catchall for anything I may have missed, but the overarching theme of everything I'm about to mention is that it all adds to the atmosphere of the game, which is unique to IV and IV alone.
No other GTA game came close to the atmosphere of IV and that's by design, thanks to the radio stations, television shows, and world design.
I mentioned it in a previous article, but GTA IV has my favorite soundtrack and the radio stations deliver almost every genre and bring the heat while they're at it.
Rap, rock, jazz, satirical political commentary, and even Russian electronic music, GTA IV's radio stations have it all.
And if you want to feel even more immersed, flip on the tube in-game and watch some of the most biting commentary on American television from the mid-to-late 2000s.
All of it taking place in a hyperrealistic version of New York City, America's supposed cultural and financial hub, makes it even more immersive.
I will never know a feeling quite like taking a blacked out sports car for a spin through Liberty City at night while I listen to DJ Iggy Pop (yes, that Iggy Pop) spin some tunes on Liberty Rock Radio, and I suppose that's my point.
Grand Theft Auto VI may end up being good. Hell, it may end up being phenomenal.
But I doubt it – or any future game, for that matter – will ever capture the magic of GTA IV again.
Maybe that's just me getting old and realizing the wonder and innocence of my youth has passed me by, but I stand by what I said at the beginning of this article.
Rockstar peaked in 2008, and open-world gaming will never be the same again.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go fly my attack helicopter through Central Park while listening to "Jailbreak" by Thin Lizzy.