I actually don’t know where to start because the last time I spoke about it was at length and it took me a good hour to clear my lungs.

You say that they were trying to do something interesting but I couldn’t disagree more. The game was essentially the same missions recycled for every intermission of non-interactive story. Many missions had a very linear and strict way of completing them leaving little room for player authorship or creativity. Not very interesting. Considering that most of the game revolved around shooting- as opposed to gang politics or power struggles (far more interesting!)- targeting and taking cover was a mess at best. Changing weapons was a pain in the arse and so was throwing grenades. The controls were clunky to say the least. Playing Uncharted only exasperated my feelings on this.

Due to the sparse gameplay or low quality of what was there (aside from the driving which was fun and really solid) the story didn’t grab me save for a few moments. The larger scale missions were much more involving and gave weight to the story arcs while the smaller cookie cutter missions just served to pad out what could have been a very sharp game. The writing and performances were excellent but the game was decidedly mediocre. Shooting and driving your way to watch a story section only to shoot and drive to the next? Wow. Gaming really is making leaps and bounds. Come on, Rockstar had a hit on their hands whether they’d have taken risks or not and in the end they defaulted to merely visceral thrills and few cerebral ones. The review scores led me to believe we had the second coming of games so forgive my Heresy!

My apologies if some of this doesn’t hang together so well. I’m supposed to be working :-O

SPOILERS

When Niko finally manages to track down the man who sold him and out, he instead finds a lowly drugged up, guilt-ridden man. The mere fact that previous characters in the series who sell someone out are depicted as charming, psychotic and guilt-free made this man stand out. But what really clinched it for me was when Niko demands how the man could sell out his friends for a small amount of money. The man sadly proclaims that Niko has down far more horrific things for far less. At that crucial point, I didn’t see a fictonal character saying what was written and acting as was programmed. I saw a mirror of all the horrible things that I’d joyously done in my playtime of GTAIV. All the people I stabbed, shot and run over for a thrill. All the times I’d shot and killed defenseless people. All the enounters with people I could have spared but killed anyway. The tradgedy of Niko Bellic was that he could never escape his past because he was driven by a fire that demanded he could never stop killing. And that fire was me.

Gordon: I suppose my theory on the matter is that the game puts everything in there for you to ‘buy into’ the characters, but some players maybe aren’t accustomed to seeking out or paying attention to these elements.

Everyone: Thanks for the feedback!

I sort of realise that what I’m writing about is, perhaps, only going to really have an effect on people who take game narrative fairly seriously. In Part 2 I get into why I still think the actual gameplay is still incredibly fun, though.

Guess what I’m trying to say is that I feel how much each person enjoys this game probably largely depends on if they buy into the characters.

Yes, heaven forbid we try a think too deeply about anything, let alone try and deconstruct it. It may come as a surprise to you, but some of us actually LIKE being intellectually stimulated while we play.

@ James

Great read. For me it is clearly the most complex, character driven and rounded iteration in the series, and whilst not always successful (still too reliant on caricature at times, a problem rampant in both film and video games unfortunately), the character of Niko is one of the most layered in video game history.

The constant phone calls did shit me though.

On a side note … I liked the fact that even though Niko would become richer and more powerful as the game went on, he never forgot his quest for revenge.