What are your thoughts on GTA 4?

Hitzel · 01:13 PM

It's about time there's a GTA thread full of opinions / borderline flames. I'll start with my thoughts. Criticize someone's post, post your own thoughts, etc.

I want to start off by saying that I really like this game. The single player is just awesome, there are interesting/difficult gameplay mechanics, and the game itself is just fun. It's such an improvement over the other titles in the series so far, which is a hard thing to accomplish.

But of course, I'm going to focus on MP:

The multiplayer is a love/hate thing for me ATM. The gameplay itself is really interesting. With autoaim turned off, the game's all about teamwork, but you have to be good to be a team player. 1v1 fights are very skillful, but the potential to take out more than one player at a time is iffy. There are movement and dodging techniques like snaking and glitching up stairs, and these techniques make it possible to hit and run to go positive, but the game is shaping out to be a tactical shooter where individual skill is all about aim (and a little bit of memorizing/timing movement tricks) and I like that.

I also love how stacking Armor and Health spawns work. As a UT / Quake fan, I love to see games where map rotation and powerup control allow a player to stack their health big time.

But on the flip side, I think that Rockets are way overpowered without autoaim, come with too much ammo, and spawn too fast.

With autoaim turned on, the aim skill and the movement skill is all thrown out the window. While I think that the game's still fun that way, I feel that it's less deep and I'm betting it'll cause a rift in the online community soon enough. Autoaim, and all the other distracting gimmicks like pedestrians, cops, traffic, weather, etc can be turned off, so that's a good thing.

The one huge flaw I see with GTA 4 is that there are no boundaries to the maps. Even on the "indoor" map, there's nothing stopping players from going anywhere in Liberty City. This can range from annoying to game breaking. For example, a team can hide the objective, or the winning team can run away to stop the loosing team from getting kills in TDM. Unless the new DLC is confined maps, the longevity of GTA is looking grim. That's really depressing because I love everything else about this game.

Overall, I think GTA multiplayer is going to take teamwork, and take skill to be a team player. It has potential, but it needs confined maps in order to be fun in the long run.

Okay guys, post your thoughts.

Mofogo · 05-01-2008

damn, I was going to create a bitch and praise thread this afternoon.

I have not had a lot of time to really play all the options in multiplayer. But for now a few things that are bothering me at the moment. I'll forego praise right now, simply because there are so many good things going on with this game that it would be difficult to hit them all in a short post. Anyways, the bad:

ladders, retardedly slow. I shouldn't have to press a button to initiate a climbing animation, especially with the ability to break the animation if I move.

lobby system, free mode is good, but so far I have not seen an option to always start my own game and sometimes I get to start one when other times it just jumps into someone elses. at this point I think it would have been good to put away the cell phone.

driving. the mechanics are a little too loose compared with past games. I'm a fan of driving and I don't need it to be a sim. When I want to drive safe I'll go get in my actual car. Otherwise, don't spin me out everytime I want to take a turn without braking first.

cover system. I haven't had a good chance to get used to it, so it may get better for me over time but so far it has felt kind of awkward.

hmmm....I guess thats all for now, still plenty of time to add more later.

Final · 05-01-2008

tl;dr

It's awesome

iHAYWIREi · 05-01-2008

its extremely fun but i dont like playing singleplayer because im alone. Multiplayer free roam is the sh.t but this game isnt going to last too long for me. it will always be fun but i like to play competitive shooters more (not saying it isnt competitive) but there are no small maps, like you already said hitzel.

EnJoi · 05-01-2008

Single Player:

So far, its been pretty easy. I'm not that far, but the storyline is kind of interesting. It definitely has me hooked though.

MP;

I like the pregame lobbies, where you can free roam the whole city. Nothing really beats having 2 people in the front of a swat truck and two in the back shooting at cops with a 5 star wanted level.

But, the only real gametypes that I've played are TDM and cops and robbers. Auto aim is very easy to use, but at least you can turn it on and off in the settings. I like the flow of gametypes, and stacking health, but I don't like having everyone on my radar. It ruins the ability to flank, etc. The ability to go anywhere in the map is very aggravating, on certain gametypes. They need to find a way to restrict players from leaving a certain area.

All in all, I like both single player and multiplayer, although a few changes need to be done to multiplayer to increase the competitiveness and longevity of the game.

Whitewater · 05-01-2008

So far I have only tried the SP. I really like it. The stories awesome. Although I am not even close to putting a dent into it, I like it.

I will have to try the MP today sometime, but no one is ever online. (Sorry for not coming in when you were inviting me Hitzel).

PoLLisH Hammer · 05-01-2008

I don't have the time to post a full write up at the moment but the main thing that is making me mad is:

How long it takes to get in cars and bikes. I remember in the last one the animation for jump kicking a dude off the bike and landing on it at the same time, what happened? I can't tell you how many times I have been killed while trying to get in a car or bike. Or I have 5 stars and a buddy pulls up next to me so I can get in but it takes forever to get in and I end up getting my ass handed to me by either a chopper or a shotty man.

Kholdstare · 05-01-2008

Online is fun, but I don't see it being a big competitive game. The shooting without auto aim I find still takes little skill, with anything more then a pistol you can spray the body and get a kill. If you get caught from behind you're done... also rolling does absolutely nothing in a fight unless you're right near a wall.

F3AR ChaRLie · 05-01-2008

Personally i have no complaints for the SP or MP. I love them both!!!! Auto aim would have been a issue but since you can turn it off no worries!

Ix Echoes xI · 05-01-2008

My only complaint is lag issues. Like I can't play with people in gametypes other than the Party Mode thing. Otherwise I love this game.