Grand Theft Auto IV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grand Theft Auto IV (commonly shortened
GTA IV) is a 2008
open world action-adventure video game, developed by
Rockstar North and published by
Rockstar Games. It was released for the
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 on 29 April 2008, and for the
Microsoft Windows on 2 December 2008. It is set in the fictional
Liberty City, based heavily on modern day
New York City.
[a] The game follows
Niko Bellic, a veteran of an unnamed war in
Eastern Europe,
who comes to the United States in search of someone important, but
quickly becomes entangled in a world of gangs, crime, and corruption.
Like other games in the series,
GTA IV is composed of elements from
driving games and
third-person shooters, and features open world gameplay, in which players can interact with the game world at their leisure.
Grand Theft Auto IV also features several online
multiplayer modes.
Two
expansion packs have been developed for the game, originally released as
downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version throughout 2009. Both
The Lost and Damned and
The Ballad of Gay Tony feature new plots that are interconnected with the main
GTA IV storyline, and follow new protagonists. The two
episodes have been released together for all platforms as a stand-alone game called
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. A
bundle that contained both the original
GTA IV game and the
Episodes was also released, titled
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition. The 2009
handheld game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars revisited the Liberty City of
GTA IV.
As the first game of the critically acclaimed series to appear on
seventh generation consoles,
Grand Theft Auto IV
was widely anticipated. A major commercial and critical success, it
broke industry records with sales of around 3.6 million units on its
first day of release and grossing more than $500 million in revenue in
the first week, selling an estimated 6 million units worldwide.
[3] Grand Theft Auto IV won numerous awards from both gaming and mainstream press, including several recognitions as
Game of the Year. As of 2012 the game has sold over 25 million copies.
Grand Theft Auto IV is widely regarded by critics as the best game of this generation as well as one of the best games of all time.
Game Informer editor Andrew Reiner placed
Grand Theft Auto IV on rank 1 on their list of Best Games of this Generation.
[4] Empire placed
Grand Theft Auto IV 16th on their list of 100 Greatest Games of All Time.
[5]
Gameplay
Quite like its predecessors, the core gameplay of
GTA IV consists of giving the player a large,
open world
environment in which to move around freely. On foot, the player
character can walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as
use weapons and perform basic hand-to-hand combat. Players can steal
and drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats,
helicopters, and motorcycles.
Grand Theft Auto IV takes advantage of Natural Motion's
Euphoria
engine, which combines artificial intelligence, bio-mechanics and
physics to make open, non-linear environments that allow players to
explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Although completing
most of the storyline missions are necessary to progress through the
game and unlock certain content and parts of the city, they are not
required, as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not
attempting a storyline mission, players can free-roam, giving them the
ability to do activities. Side missions such as locating and destroying
criminals in the police car database or participating in street races
can keep the player occupied for hours. The player can also swim just
like in the previous entry of the game, this feature was missing from
older games.
It is possible to have active missions running at one time, as some
missions run over the course of several days and require the player to
wait for further instructions or events. The player can also attempt a
variety of optional side missions.
Grand Theft Auto IV also contains
morality
choices at points throughout the game, which alter the storyline
appropriately depending on the player's choice. Which of the game's two
different endings occurs is determined by one of these choices.
Combat and police response
Combat in
Grand Theft Auto IV has been reworked to include a
cover system.
Gunfights in
GTA IV are conducted using a
third-person system.
[6] The game's cover system allows the player to deftly move between cover, to
fire blindly, aim freely, and target a specific enemy. Individual body parts can also be targeted.
[7]
Additionally, Niko can perform "cinematic executions" at certain points
in the story. Niko's health is shown by a green semicircle on the left
side of the mini-map, while a blue semicircle on the right represents
armour. When locked on a target, their health and (if applicable) armour
level appears in the target circle. There are more hand-to-hand combat
moves than in past games in the series, namely punching, kicking,
"alternative" punching, dodging and blocking, disarming an opponent, and
counter-attacking.
If Niko is injured he can recover health by eating, drinking,
sleeping, using medical kits, call for paramedics or call a girlfriend
for medical advice, amongst others. Body armour can absorb gunshots and
explosive damage but is gradually used up in the process.
[8]
If Niko's health level reaches zero, the action stops, and he
re-appears at the nearest hospital having lost some money (but retaining
his weapons).
The Wanted Level system has changed from previous
Grand Theft Auto
games. Although their star levels are retained (which increase with the
number or severity of criminal acts by the player, with corresponding
increases in law enforcement interference), the law enforcement agencies
which may pursue the player have changed, with the focus on making them
more realistic. In previous
Grand Theft Auto titles, as wanted
level rose the player was pursued by increasingly well-armed and violent
agencies, culminating with the Army at the highest wanted level. In
Grand Theft Auto IV, the police are assisted by NOOSE (National Office of Security Enforcement — a parody of
SWAT and
DHS[9]) officers at a three-star wanted level, who are joined by either NOOSE's Tactical Response Unit (a parody of the NYPD
ESU) or FIB (Federal Investigation Bureau — a parody of the
FBI) at even higher wanted levels. In this case the army is not available in the game. Like previous
GTA games, a police
helicopter pursues the player at a three-star wanted level, but this is replaced by a
helicopter gunship at the five-star level, though it utilises
sharp-shooters rather than its mounted
gatling guns.
When the police are in pursuit of Niko, a circular search area
appears on the map in which the police will be lookin
Grand Theft Auto IV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grand Theft Auto IV (commonly shortened
GTA IV) is a 2008
open world action-adventure video game, developed by
Rockstar North and published by
Rockstar Games. It was released for the
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 on 29 April 2008, and for the
Microsoft Windows on 2 December 2008. It is set in the fictional
Liberty City, based heavily on modern day
New York City.
[a] The game follows
Niko Bellic, a veteran of an unnamed war in
Eastern Europe,
who comes to the United States in search of someone important, but
quickly becomes entangled in a world of gangs, crime, and corruption.
Like other games in the series,
GTA IV is composed of elements from
driving games and
third-person shooters, and features open world gameplay, in which players can interact with the game world at their leisure.
Grand Theft Auto IV also features several online
multiplayer modes.
Two
expansion packs have been developed for the game, originally released as
downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version throughout 2009. Both
The Lost and Damned and
The Ballad of Gay Tony feature new plots that are interconnected with the main
GTA IV storyline, and follow new protagonists. The two
episodes have been released together for all platforms as a stand-alone game called
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. A
bundle that contained both the original
GTA IV game and the
Episodes was also released, titled
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition. The 2009
handheld game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars revisited the Liberty City of
GTA IV.
As the first game of the critically acclaimed series to appear on
seventh generation consoles,
Grand Theft Auto IV
was widely anticipated. A major commercial and critical success, it
broke industry records with sales of around 3.6 million units on its
first day of release and grossing more than $500 million in revenue in
the first week, selling an estimated 6 million units worldwide.
[3] Grand Theft Auto IV won numerous awards from both gaming and mainstream press, including several recognitions as
Game of the Year. As of 2012 the game has sold over 25 million copies.
Grand Theft Auto IV is widely regarded by critics as the best game of this generation as well as one of the best games of all time.
Game Informer editor Andrew Reiner placed
Grand Theft Auto IV on rank 1 on their list of Best Games of this Generation.
[4] Empire placed
Grand Theft Auto IV 16th on their list of 100 Greatest Games of All Time.
[5]
Gameplay
Quite like its predecessors, the core gameplay of
GTA IV consists of giving the player a large,
open world
environment in which to move around freely. On foot, the player
character can walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as
use weapons and perform basic hand-to-hand combat. Players can steal
and drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats,
helicopters, and motorcycles.
Grand Theft Auto IV takes advantage of Natural Motion's
Euphoria
engine, which combines artificial intelligence, bio-mechanics and
physics to make open, non-linear environments that allow players to
explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Although completing
most of the storyline missions are necessary to progress through the
game and unlock certain content and parts of the city, they are not
required, as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not
attempting a storyline mission, players can free-roam, giving them the
ability to do activities. Side missions such as locating and destroying
criminals in the police car database or participating in street races
can keep the player occupied for hours. The player can also swim just
like in the previous entry of the game, this feature was missing from
older games.
It is possible to have active missions running at one time, as some
missions run over the course of several days and require the player to
wait for further instructions or events. The player can also attempt a
variety of optional side missions.
Grand Theft Auto IV also contains
morality
choices at points throughout the game, which alter the storyline
appropriately depending on the player's choice. Which of the game's two
different endings occurs is determined by one of these choices.
Combat and police response
Combat in
Grand Theft Auto IV has been reworked to include a
cover system.
Gunfights in
GTA IV are conducted using a
third-person system.
[6] The game's cover system allows the player to deftly move between cover, to
fire blindly, aim freely, and target a specific enemy. Individual body parts can also be targeted.
[7]
Additionally, Niko can perform "cinematic executions" at certain points
in the story. Niko's health is shown by a green semicircle on the left
side of the mini-map, while a blue semicircle on the right represents
armour. When locked on a target, their health and (if applicable) armour
level appears in the target circle. There are more hand-to-hand combat
moves than in past games in the series, namely punching, kicking,
"alternative" punching, dodging and blocking, disarming an opponent, and
counter-attacking.
If Niko is injured he can recover health by eating, drinking,
sleeping, using medical kits, call for paramedics or call a girlfriend
for medical advice, amongst others. Body armour can absorb gunshots and
explosive damage but is gradually used up in the process.
[8]
If Niko's health level reaches zero, the action stops, and he
re-appears at the nearest hospital having lost some money (but retaining
his weapons).
The Wanted Level system has changed from previous
Grand Theft Auto
games. Although their star levels are retained (which increase with the
number or severity of criminal acts by the player, with corresponding
increases in law enforcement interference), the law enforcement agencies
which may pursue the player have changed, with the focus on making them
more realistic. In previous
Grand Theft Auto titles, as wanted
level rose the player was pursued by increasingly well-armed and violent
agencies, culminating with the Army at the highest wanted level. In
Grand Theft Auto IV, the police are assisted by NOOSE (National Office of Security Enforcement — a parody of
SWAT and
DHS[9]) officers at a three-star wanted level, who are joined by either NOOSE's Tactical Response Unit (a parody of the NYPD
ESU) or FIB (Federal Investigation Bureau — a parody of the
FBI) at even higher wanted levels. In this case the army is not available in the game. Like previous
GTA games, a police
helicopter pursues the player at a three-star wanted level, but this is replaced by a
helicopter gunship at the five-star level, though it utilises
sharp-shooters rather than its mounted
gatling guns.
When the police are in pursuit of Niko, a circular search area
appears on the map in which the police will be looking for him. The area
grows with increased wanted level, and re-centres itself on Niko's
location if he is spotted by the police. If the player escapes from the
search area without being seen by law enforcement units, and can stay
out of sight of police for a short time without committing any more
crimes, the search is soon aborted. This is different from the previous
methods of evading authorities such as changing clothes and collecting
bribes. Wanted levels can also be lost either by changing the colour of
the current vehicle, or entering a safehouse and going to sleep. The
player has the option of attempting to escape arrest before being
handcuffed,
at the cost of increasing the wanted level by one star (the traditional
bold letters that note "Busted" for arrest are absent), although the
police will immediately open fire. However, this move is only possible
with a one star wanted level, as the police will focus more on killing
the player at higher wanted levels, rather than arresting him, and is
only possible when the player is on foot, as like previous games, the
player is immediately arrested when pulled out of a vehicle.
[7][10][11]
Vehicles
Common to the rest of the series, vehicles are the predominant means of travel in
GTA IV, with cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and even city buses available for use. Every vehicle in the game uses the in-game
minimap as a
GPS device.
"Way points" can be placed on the map, plotting the shortest legal
route between Niko and the destination on the minimap. The player can
also hail a
taxi or cab,
which allows travel between destinations without having to drive. The
journey can also be skipped, so the player arrives at their destination
instantly. However, if the player decides to skip the journey, it will
cost them more money. During car chases, the player can focus the camera
on the target vehicle by holding the cinematic camera button, and also
free-aim and fire out of the vehicle using one-handed firearms. The
player may also drop
grenades.
[12] The player cannot pilot
fixed-wing aircraft,
which was possible in previous games of the series, but can still pilot
helicopters. The main game also lacks parachutes, though they were
later reintroduced in
The Ballad of Gay Tony.
Liberty City also has an extensive, multiple-line subway system
available for use. This allows the player to travel quickly between
stations across the city. The service is very cheap, as the cost is only
$1 per station. There are 26 stations in total across the map with a
27th station, called Dukes Blvd, closed for maintenance. The subway
tunnels can be optionally explored on foot or in some vehicles, too.
Communication
Whereas previous games in the series frequently used public telephones to relay missions to the player, in
Grand Theft Auto IV a 'Whiz Wireless'
mobile phone is used.
[13] It has several uses, including viewing
text messages and appointments, arranging to meet friends for activities, and also for choosing to retry failed missions.
[14] The player can also take photos for certain missions, and call
911 to summon the emergency services.
[15] The police will arrest felons, and paramedics are able to restore Niko's health.
[16] The phone also allows access to the game's multiplayer mode.
[17]
The player can also call other characters to talk to them, or ask for a
service that they can provide, such as transportation or a reduction in
wanted level.
[18] The player can also enter
cheat codes that may be entered by dialling certain numbers on the mobile phone.
[19]
The game also features several different in-game databases that Niko
can make use of. An in-game version of the Internet can be used by
accessing the
Internet café
chain, "TW@", located throughout the city or by accessing a computer in
a safehouse. There are over 100 fictitious websites that can be
accessed within the game, and Niko can also send and receive email
(including junk mail) and set up prospective dates.
[20] Although the Internet café was seen in
Grand Theft Auto III, internet browsing was not possible.
[21]
In a police vehicle, Niko can use an in-car computer to access Liberty
City's criminal database, discover information about various criminals
in Liberty City and even track them down for a reward.
[22]
The game also features in-game television programming, with several
viewable channels featuring programmes and advertisements. The
television shows cover a wide variety of genres, including a history
channel, reality shows, card games, and
cartoons.
[23]
Multiplayer
Grand Theft Auto IV includes online multiplayer, with 15 modes of play available.
[24] It supports up to 16 players (32 players in the PC version
[25]) and allows players to explore the entire city.
[26]
Hosts of the games can control many variables, such as police presence,
traffic, and weapons. The console editions of the game do not feature
any
split screen or
LAN multiplayer modes,
[27] but the PC version does have LAN support. All versions of the game include voice chat.
The online games are split into ranked and unranked matches. The
reward for the ranked gameplay is cash, which determines players' ranks.
[28]
Several different game modes are available. Team based gameplay modes include
[29] Team Deathmatch, where 2–8 teams compete to accumulate the most kills in a traditional
deathmatch;
Team Mafiya Work, in which 2–8 teams compete to complete contract work
for the "mafiya", such as escorting/killing targets or stealing cars;
Team Car Jack City where 2–8 teams compete to steal cars and earn money
for keeping them undamaged; Cops n' Crooks, featuring a team of cops who
must compete against a team of crooks (which features the "All for One"
variation – requiring the cops to kill the crooks' "Boss" before he is
escorted to the extraction point – and the "One for All" variation –
requiring the cops to kill all of the crooks before they reach the
extraction point); and Turf War, involving two teams who compete to take
control of designated areas of the map and control them for as long as
possible.
The game also includes a variety of racing and
cooperative modes, which include Race, in which players race through checkpoints in a traditional automobile race; a
GTA
race variation, where players race through checkpoints in an automobile
race, with the ability to combat their opponents; Hangman's N.O.O.S.E.,
a co-op mode that requires players to collect a person from the airport
and safely escort him to the extraction point before the cops kill him;
Deal Breaker, a co-op mission that requires players to assault a
construction site captured by enemies, then chase a group of enemies
before they escape; and Bomb da Base II, a co-op mission that requires
players to clear out a ship, then destroy it with explosives,
referencing the mission
Bomb Da Base from
Grand Theft Auto III
which featured a similar objective of destroying a ship with
explosives. The game also features a Free Mode, in which players have
the entire map open to explore, with no end goal or mission to complete.
Certain features from the single player mode are disabled in the
multiplayer modes, such as the bowling, darts, and pool mini-games. The
cheats, clubs and Internet café and some forms of transport (i.e. subway
trains and taxi ride) are also disabled.
[30]
Synopsis
Plot
Grand Theft Auto IV follows the story of
Niko Bellic,
a veteran of an unnamed war in Eastern Europe, who is haunted by the
betrayal of his 15 man army unit. Ten years later, after a smuggling run
goes bad due to a betrayal from a partner, Niko leaves
Eastern Europe[31] to escape the anger of his employer,
Ray Bulgarin. After six months in the merchant navy (serving aboard the cargo ship the
Platypus), and believing the stories of his cousin
Roman, Niko comes to Liberty City to pursue the
American Dream
as well as searching for the traitor of his unit. After his arrival,
however, Niko quickly learns that Roman's tales of riches and luxury
were lies concealing struggles with gambling debts and loansharks, and
that Roman lives in a dirty apartment rather than a mansion.
Niko defends Roman from his loansharks several times, eventually killing
Vlad Glebov, Roman's Russian loanshark. Niko also begins dating a friend of Mallorie's named
Michelle and befriends
Jamaican drug and arms dealer
"Little" Jacob Hughes. Niko also befriends steroid junkie and
chop shop owner
Bruce "Brucie" Kibbutz.
After Vlad's murder, Niko and Roman are kidnapped by members of the Liberty City
Bratva, on order of
Mikhail Faustin and his associate,
Dimitri Rascalov.
Faustin, not bothered by the murder of Vlad, hires Niko, who quickly
learns that he's a psychopath when he orders Niko to kill the son of
Kenny Petrović, the most powerful man in the Liberty City Bratva.
Dimitri then orders Niko to assassinate Faustin, and when Niko meets
with Dimitri to collect on the assassination, Dimitri betrays Niko to
his angry former employer Ray Bulgarin.
Immediately afterwards, Niko and Roman are forced to escape to Bohan
when their apartment and taxi company are destroyed in arson attacks by
Dimitri's men. To make ends meet Niko takes jobs for former gangbanger
Manny Escuela, Bohan drug dealer
Elizabeta Torres, Irish mobster
Patrick "Packie" McReary, and Algonquin drug dealer
Playboy X. Niko also becomes an errand boy for both Mafia Capo
Ray Boccino and crooked Deputy Police Commissioner
Francis McReary.
However, things go poorly in Bohan: one of the drug deals that Niko is working for Elizabeta turns out to be a
sting
and another is busted. After the latter incident, Niko's current
girlfriend Michelle then reveals that she works for a government agency
and
entraps Niko into working for Michelle's agency, known only by its cover:
United Liberty Paper.
Niko kills several known or suspected terrorists for the agency in
exchange for the promise of assistance in finding the man who betrayed
Niko's unit. The Liberty City Police Department begins to close in on
Elizabeta, who kills Manny when he attempts a
citizens arrest. Soon afterwards Elizabeta is arrested, and sentenced to 300 years imprisonment.
Niko assists Boccino in a conflict diamond deal with diamond dealer
Isaac Roth, which goes badly and leads to the diamonds and the money being stolen by
Luis Lopez and
Johnny Klebitz, respectively. In exchange for Niko's help, Boccino locates
Florian Cravic,
the man that Niko has been searching for. However, when Niko confronts
Cravic he discovers that he's changed his name to Bernie Crane and has
become an effeminate homosexual, and he determines that Bernie is not
responsible for his unit's betrayal, leaving one remaining suspect:
Darko Brevic. Niko also works for both Playboy X and Playboy's mentor
Dwayne Forge.
After Niko kills Playboy's business partners as a favour for Forge, the
relationship between Playboy and Forge becomes so poisonous that each
asks Niko to kill the other, leaving Niko a choice between the two.
While in Algonquin, Niko develops a strong connection with the McReary family, including Packie's older brothers
Gerald and
Derrick, and their sister
Kate, with whom he begins a non-sexual relationship. Together Niko, Packie, Derrick, and
"Saint" Michael Keane,
heist the Bank of Liberty in Algonquin. However, the robbery does not
go smoothly; Michael is killed and the others are forced to shoot their
way out past the police to escape. After the robbery, Niko works with
Gerry McReary to destroy the relationship between the Ancelotti Crime
Family and their Albanian muscle-men.
Meanwhile, Derrick spends most of his share on drugs and alcohol, and
sends Niko to eliminate former partners he believes are informing on
him. Francis soon becomes concerned that Derrick's drug behaviour could
ruin his plans to become police commissioner, and tells Niko to kill
Derrick. Soon after, Derrick asks Niko to kill Francis, which gives Niko
a choice between the two. In either case Niko, is invited to the
funeral and informed that Gerry has been arrested.
After his incarceration, Gerry contacts Niko and asks him to help in the kidnapping of
Gracie,
the daughter of the Don of the Ancelloti Family, in exchange for a
ransom of the stolen diamonds. However after exchanging Gracie to
"Gay" Tony Prince
for the diamonds, Niko and Packie are surprised by Ray Bulgarin, who
claims the diamonds are his. In the ensuing gunfight the diamonds are
thrown into a passing dumptruck and lost.
Niko also does work for the Pegorino family in Alderney, mainly with Associate
Phil Bell, stealing heroin, and later for Don
Jimmy Pegorino.
This leads to a war between the Pegorinos, Pavanos, and Ancellottis.
Eventually, Niko is sent to kill Ray Boccino because Pegorino is
convinced that he is an informant.
United Liberty Paper eventually locates Darko Brevic and brings him
to Liberty City as a final reward. Niko confronts Darko, who is now a
drug-addicted wreck, and learns that Darko betrayed the group for
$1,000. Niko then has to choose to either execute or spare Darko. Having
dealt with his past, Niko is summoned by Pegorino, who demands one
final favour: to help with an extremely lucrative deal on the heroin in
collusion with Dimitri Rascalov.
[29]
The story then features two possible endings depending on the choice made by the player at this point in the game: to strike a
Deal with Dimitri or exact
Revenge on him.
- Deal
If the player chooses to go through with the
Deal, Niko meets
Phil to retrieve the money once Dimitri delivers the heroin to another
location. However Dimitri takes the heroin for himself instead, and Niko
and Phil are forced to fight to escape, but retrieve the drug money
regardless. Kate, who was against making the deal, is disappointed with
Niko and refuses to attend Roman and Mallorie's wedding with Niko. At
the wedding, an assassin sent by Dimitri kills Roman with a stray bullet
as Niko disarms and kills him. A devastated and vengeful Niko - with
Little Jacob's help - follows some henchmen to where Dimitri and
Pegorino are hiding. There he witnesses Dimitri kill Pegorino out of
greed before escaping in a helicopter. Niko chases Dimitri to Happiness
Island, where he kills him in the shadow of the Statue of Happiness. The
story ends with Niko concerned for the well-being of his soul. After
the end credits, Mallorie reveals to Niko in a phone call that she is
pregnant with Roman's son, and later Kate calls Niko, saying that she
will be there for him.
- Revenge
If the player chooses to exact
Revenge, Niko ambushes Dimitri on the cargo ship
Platypus
- the same cargo ship that brought Niko into Liberty City - and
executes him. In the aftermath, Roman and Mallorie's wedding takes
place, but Pegorino, furious after Niko's betrayal, commits a
drive-by shooting
outside the church, targets Niko, but ends up killing Kate. However,
now that Pegorino has lost his ally Dimitri and angered both Niko (and
thereby his many friends) and the five mafia families, the entire
underworld of Liberty City wants him dead and he goes into hiding. With
Little Jacob's help and Roman's support, Niko follows some henchmen to
Pegorino's location where Niko attempts to kill him, but Pegorino
escapes. Niko chases and executes Pegorino in the shadow of the Statue
of Happiness. After the end credits, Roman reveals to Niko in a phone
call that Mallorie is pregnant, and if it is a girl, they will call her
Kate, in memory of Niko's girlfriend. Packie later calls him and mourns
over the loss of his sister, telling Niko that she never did anything
wrong, but it was her brothers that did.
Setting
GTA IV's rendition of Liberty City closely resembles modern New York City.
[32]
Grand Theft Auto IV takes place in 2008, in a redesigned
version of Liberty City consisting of four boroughs, based on four of
the boroughs of New York City.
[32] Broker is the equivalent of
Brooklyn;
Queens is
Dukes;
Bronx is
Bohan and
Manhattan is
Algonquin. Adjacent to the city is the independent state of
Alderney, based on Northern
New Jersey and named after the
Channel Island of
the same name. The developers omitted a
Staten Island-esque area, believing that gameplay based in such an area would not be fun.
[33] There are three minor islands present: Charge Island (based loosely on
Randall's Island), Colony Island (based on
Roosevelt Island), and Happiness Island (based on
Liberty Island and complete with a parody of the
Statue of Liberty
called the Statue of Happiness). Initially, the city's bridges are
locked down due to a terrorist threat, and the player is constantly
pursued by police if they are crossed, but eventually the blockades are
lifted and the player is able to cross the
Broker,
Algonquin and
Northwood Heights
bridges and explore the rest of the city. The "Francis International
Airport" is based on several New York City-area airports, most notably
LaGuardia and
JFK, however in a departure from past
GTA
games, exploring the tarmac area of the airport outside of missions
usually carries a penalty of a high wanted level being triggered.
Main characters
The characters that appear in
Grand Theft Auto IV are diverse
and relative to the respective boroughs of Liberty City they are based
in; belonging to various gangs and ethnic groups. The player controls
Niko Bellic, an eastern European veteran of an unknown war. According to Dan Houser, virtually none of the
characters from the previous games would return, as "most of the characters we liked were dead,"
[33] further evidenced by in-game graffiti bidding farewell to these characters.
[29]
Unlike previous games in the series, the voice actors of
Grand Theft Auto IV do not include notable and high-profile celebrities, instead opting for lesser known actors, such as
Michael Hollick,
Jason Zumwalt,
Timothy Adams and
Coolie Ranx.
Katt Williams and
Ricky Gervais have their likenesses and comedy depicted in an in-game comedy club.
[29] Actress/singer
Juliette Lewis and actor/comedian
Jason Sudeikis, meanwhile, both provide radio DJ voiceovers that the player can listen to.
The storyline and the timeline of the game is not consistent with the
rest of the series' canon, and its plot is not related to that of the
other games, but the storyline will be inter-connected with that of
Grand Theft Auto V, and several minor characters will have small appearances in the next game.
Soundtrack
Like previous games in the
GTA series,
Grand Theft Auto IV
features a soundtrack that can be heard through radio stations while
the player is in a vehicle. Liberty City is serviced by 19 radio
stations, three of which are
talk radio
stations. The other stations feature music from a large range of
genres. There are notable inclusions to the game's soundtrack, such as
tracks from
Jean Michel Jarre,
Genesis,
David Bowie,
Smashing Pumpkins,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Seryoga,
Bob Marley,
Don Omar,
The Who,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Queen,
Black Sabbath,
Philip Glass,
Simian Mobile Disco,
Nas,
Ne-Yo,
Kanye West,
R. Kelly,
Lloyd,
Miles Davis,
Loose Ends,
Elton John,
ZZ Top,
R.E.M.,
MC Lyte and
Barry White.
The theme song of
Grand Theft Auto IV is "Soviet Connection" composed by
Michael Hunter, who also composed the theme for
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
[34] People who provide voices for the radio DJs include fashion designer
Karl Lagerfeld, musicians
Iggy Pop,
[35] Femi Kuti,
[36] Jimmy Gestapo[37] and
Ruslana,
[38] and real-life radio talk show host
Lazlow Jones.
[39] Saturday Night Live actors
Bill Hader and
Jason Sudeikis appear on the liberal and conservative radio talk shows respectively, with
Fred Armisen playing several guests on Lazlow's "Integrity 2.0". Numerous other comedians, including
Jim Norton,
Patrice O'Neal,
Rick Shapiro, and
Robert Kelly, as well as radio hosts
Opie & Anthony appeared on the radio and/or as characters in-game.
The game uses a similar music system to that of
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
In other games in the series, each radio station was essentially a
single looped sound file, playing the same songs, announcements and
advertisements in the same order each time. With the radio stations in
Grand Theft Auto IV,
each sound file is held separately, and sequenced randomly, allowing
songs to be played in different orders, announcements to songs to be
different each time, and plot events to be mentioned on the stations.
Certain songs are also edited to incorporate references to the fictional
Liberty City.
[34]
Following a partnership between Rockstar Games and
Amazon.com, players are able to purchase real world
MP3s through
GTA IV's in-game mobile phone.
[40]
Players are able to mark radio songs that they like by dialling
ZIT-555-0100 on Niko's phone. They will then receive a text message
providing the name of the song and the artist. If registered on
Rockstar's 'Social Club' website, a player will also receive a real
world e-mail with a link to an Amazon.com playlist where all of the
player's marked songs will be listed and available to purchase.
[41]
Development
Mural ad for the game on a wall in New York City, July 2007.
Work on
Grand Theft Auto IV began in November 2004, almost immediately after the release of
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
[33] Around 150 game developers worked on
Grand Theft Auto IV,
[42] led by core members of the
Grand Theft Auto III team.
[43] The game uses Rockstar's own
RAGE game engine, which was previously used in
Rockstar Table Tennis, in combination with the
Euphoria game animation engine.
[44] Instead of pre-written animations, Euphoria uses
procedural animation to control the way the player moves, enabling character movements to be more realistic.
[45] The Euphoria engine also enables
NPCs
to react in a realistic way to the player's actions. In one preview, a
player knocked an NPC out of a window and the character grabbed onto a
ledge to stop himself from falling.
[46] The game also uses middleware from
Image Metrics to facilitate intricate facial expressions and ease the process of incorporating lip-synching.
[47] Foliage in the game is produced through
SpeedTree.
[48]
Grand Theft Auto IV sees a shift in the series to a more realistic and detailed style and tone,
[33] partly a result of the transition to consoles which offered
high-definition graphics and the new and improved capabilities of such consoles.
[43] Rockstar co-founder
Dan Houser said "what we're taking as our watchword on [
GTA IV]
is the idea of what high definition actually means. Not just in terms
of graphics, which obviously we are achieving, but in terms of all
aspects of the design. [...] You know, trying to make something more
realistic, more held together, but still retaining the overall coherence
that the other games had."
[33]
Art director Aaron Garbut said one of the reasons they decided to set
the game in New York because "we all knew what an amazing, diverse,
vibrant, cinematic city it is. [...] And since we were hoping to push
the detail, variety and life, for lack of a better word, to such a
degree it seemed that basing the game in a city so synonymous with these
things was a great fit."
[49]
Dan Houser added "because we were working in high definition and we
knew we'd need a shitload of research, we wanted to be somewhere where
we had a foothold."
[43]
The developers consciously avoided creating a block for block
recreation of New York City, Dan Houser said "what we've always tried to
do is make a thing that looks real and has the qualities of a real
environment, but is also fun from a game design perspective."
[33] The
Grand Theft Auto IV rendition of Liberty City is far more detailed and is the largest individual city in the
Grand Theft Auto series.
[50]
Although smaller than San Andreas, Liberty City is comparable to it in
terms of scope when "the level of verticality of the city, the number of
buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings"
are taken into account.
[50] The goal for Liberty City was to have no dead spots or irrelevant spaces, such as the wide open deserts in San Andreas.
[33] To achieve a realistic environment, the Rockstar North team, based in
Edinburgh, Scotland, made two trips to New York for research, one at the start of the project (which is done with every
GTA game) and another smaller one further into development.
[49]
A full-time research team, based in New York, handled further requests
for information ranging from the ethnic minority of a neighbourhood to
videos of traffic patterns.
[43]
The story of
Grand Theft Auto IV was written by
Dan Houser and Rupert Humphries.
[29] Unlike previous
Grand Theft Auto games which have a strong cultural or cinematic influence, "[
GTA IV doesn't] really have any cinematic influences",
[33]
said Dan Houser, "we were consciously trying to go, well, if videogames
are going to develop into the next stage, then the thing isn't to try
and do a loving tribute or reference other stuff. It's to reference the
actual place itself".
[43]
Houser also said, "In terms of the character, we wanted something that
felt fresh and new and not something that was obviously derived from [a]
movie. [...] Maybe [we] could do something ourselves that would live
alongside that stuff".
[43]
Music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich said "[we had] to pick the songs that
make New York today what it is, but make sure they won't feel dated by
the time the game comes out."
[51] The developers contacted over 2,000 people in order to obtain recording and publishing rights.
[34] They even hired a private investigator to locate the relatives of late Skatt Bros. member
Sean Delaney to license the band's song, "Walk the Night".
[52] Citing sources close to the deals,
Billboard reported that Rockstar paid as much as $5,000 per composition and another $5,000 per master recording per track.
[53] Developers originally considered letting players purchase music by going to an in-game
record shop and for Niko to have an
MP3 player, but both ideas were cut.
[34] DJ Green Lantern produced tracks exclusively for the game's hip-hop radio station The Beat 102.7.
[53]
Record label owner and record producer Bobby Konders, who hosts the
in-game radio station Massive B Soundsystem 96.9, went through the extra
effort of flying to
Jamaica to get
dancehall artists to re-record tracks to make references to the boroughs of Liberty City.
[53]
The Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division,
Peter Moore, announced at E3 2006 that the game would appear on
Xbox 360, by rolling up his sleeve to reveal a
GTA IV temporary tattoo.
[54]
Rockstar Games initially appeared to be committed to the original 16
October 2007 release date; however, Wedbush Morgan analyst
Michael Pachter
suggested that Take-Two may choose to delay the release of the game in
order to boost its financial results for 2008 and to avoid competing
with the release of other highly anticipated titles, such as
Halo 3.
[55] Rockstar responded by saying that
Grand Theft Auto IV was still on track for release in "late October".
[56] On 2 August 2007, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV
would miss its original release date of 16 October 2007 contrary to
their previous statements, and would be delayed to their second fiscal
quarter (February–April) of 2008.
[57]
In a later conference call with investors, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick
attributed the delay to "almost strictly technological problems ... not
problems, but challenges."
[58] It was revealed that technical difficulties with the
PlayStation 3 version of the game contributed to the delay, along with storage problems on the
Xbox 360.
[59] On 24 January 2008, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV would be released on 29 April 2008.
[60] As the release date approached, Rockstar Games and Take-Two
marketed the game
heavily through various forms, including television ads, Internet
video, billboards, viral marketing, and a redesigned website. A special
edition of the game was also released for both the PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360.
[61] At a Take-Two shareholder meeting on 18 April 2008, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder announced that
GTA IV had already "
gone gold" and was "in production and in trucks en route to retailers".
[62] The game was eventually released for the
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 video game consoles in Europe, North America, and Oceania on 29 April 2008,
[60] and in Japan on 30 October 2008.
[63] A
Microsoft Windows version of the game was released in North America on 2 December 2008 and in Europe on 3 December 2008.
[2][64][65] It was made available on
Steam on 4 January 2009.
[66] Overall,
Grand Theft Auto IV
took over 1000 people and more than three and a half years to complete,
with a total cost estimated at approximately $100 million, making it
one of the most expensive games ever developed
[67] (as of 2012 only
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been reported to have a higher development cost than that of
Grand Theft Auto IV).
[68][69]
Episodic content
The cover art for
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
Two
episodic packs for
Grand Theft Auto IV have been released. These two episodes were first released separately on
Xbox Live
as downloadable content (DLC), requiring the original game to play.
Following that in October 2009 they were released together as part of a
standalone game called
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City for the
Xbox 360 that does not require the original
Grand Theft Auto IV media to be playable.
[70] The first expansion is entitled
The Lost and Damned, originally released on 17 February 2009.
[71] The second is entitled
The Ballad of Gay Tony, released on 29 October 2009.
[72][73][74] Both episodes were released for
PlayStation 3 and
Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010
[75] in North America and on 16 April 2010
[75] in Europe.
[76]
The Lost and Damned features a new central character,
Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City's biker gang The Lost, which was featured in several
GTA IV missions. Dan Houser stated the episode shows "a different side of Liberty City".
[74] The Ballad of Gay Tony also features a new central character,
Luis Fernando Lopez,
an assistant to nightclub owner Tony "Gay Tony" Prince, and follows him
as he resolves the conflicts of his friends, family, and boss.
[70]
Jeronimo Barrera, Vice President of Product Development for Rockstar
Games, has said that the episodes are experiments because they are not
sure that there are enough users with access to online content on the
Xbox 360.
[77] Take-Two Interactive's
Chief Financial Officer, Lainie Goldstein revealed that Microsoft was paying a total of $50 million for the first two episodes.
[78]
In January 2010 Rockstar announced that the DLC as well as
Episodes From Liberty City would be made available for the
PlayStation 3 and
Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010 in North America
[75][79] and 16 April 2010 in Europe.
[75]
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition, including the original
Grand Theft Auto IV and its two episodic expansions, was listed on online stores
[80]
before being confirmed by Rockstar. The compilation was released on
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows on 26 October 2010 in North
America, and 29 October in Europe.
[81]
The
Rockstar Games Social Club
is a web site that displays the gameplay statistics of registered users
and feature competitions and awards based on player activity within the
game.
[82]
The website was announced on 27 March 2008 and launched on 17 April
2008. The main features of Social Club launched on the same date of the
game itself 29 April 2008. Social Club provides online features for
Rockstar's latest
Midnight Club game,
Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
Social Club consists of multiple parts. It initially included the LCPD
Police Blotter, The Story Gang, The 100% Club, The Hall Of Fame, The
Liberty City Marathon and The Zit.
In an interview with
PlayStation World magazine, Rockstar mentioned that they will "heavily support"
Sony's
PlayStation Home, a community-based service for the
PlayStation Network. Rockstar also mentioned that visitors to their PlayStation Home apartment would receive 'goodies' such as clothing for their
avatar and items and decorations for their own PlayStation Home apartment.
[83] Rockstar also announced that
Xbox Live users will gain exclusives in the form of downloadable content and a multiplayer modding tool.
[84]
Windows version
The Windows version of
GTA IV includes a replay editor. This screenshot shows the Clips interface which is used to capture game footage.
On 6 August 2008, Rockstar announced that a
Microsoft Windows version was in development by
Rockstar North and
Rockstar Toronto.
[1][64]
The game was originally announced for release in North America on 18
November 2008 and in Europe on 21 November 2008 but was later pushed
back to 2 and 3 December 2008, respectively.
[2][64][65]
It contains expanded features,
[64] including traffic density control,
draw distance configurations and a replay editor.
[85][86][87][88] The replay editor allows players to record and edit game clips, videos can then be uploaded to Rockstar's Social Club website.
[88] It utilises
Games for Windows - Live for online play and supports 32 players for multiplayer.
[25][89] SecuROM protection is utilised and a one time online activation is required in order to play the game.
[90]
g for him. The area
grows with increased wanted level, and re-centres itself on Niko's
location if he is spotted by the police. If the player escapes from the
search area without being seen by law enforcement units, and can stay
out of sight of police for a short time without committing any more
crimes, the search is soon aborted. This is different from the previous
methods of evading authorities such as changing clothes and collecting
bribes. Wanted levels can also be lost either by changing the colour of
the current vehicle, or entering a safehouse and going to sleep. The
player has the option of attempting to escape arrest before being
handcuffed,
at the cost of increasing the wanted level by one star (the traditional
bold letters that note "Busted" for arrest are absent), although the
police will immediately open fire. However, this move is only possible
with a one star wanted level, as the police will focus more on killing
the player at higher wanted levels, rather than arresting him, and is
only possible when the player is on foot, as like previous games, the
player is immediately arrested when pulled out of a vehicle.
[7][10][11]
Vehicles
Common to the rest of the series, vehicles are the predominant means of travel in
GTA IV, with cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats and even city buses available for use. Every vehicle in the game uses the in-game
minimap as a
GPS device.
"Way points" can be placed on the map, plotting the shortest legal
route between Niko and the destination on the minimap. The player can
also hail a
taxi or cab,
which allows travel between destinations without having to drive. The
journey can also be skipped, so the player arrives at their destination
instantly. However, if the player decides to skip the journey, it will
cost them more money. During car chases, the player can focus the camera
on the target vehicle by holding the cinematic camera button, and also
free-aim and fire out of the vehicle using one-handed firearms. The
player may also drop
grenades.
[12] The player cannot pilot
fixed-wing aircraft,
which was possible in previous games of the series, but can still pilot
helicopters. The main game also lacks parachutes, though they were
later reintroduced in
The Ballad of Gay Tony.
Liberty City also has an extensive, multiple-line subway system
available for use. This allows the player to travel quickly between
stations across the city. The service is very cheap, as the cost is only
$1 per station. There are 26 stations in total across the map with a
27th station, called Dukes Blvd, closed for maintenance. The subway
tunnels can be optionally explored on foot or in some vehicles, too.
Communication
Whereas previous games in the series frequently used public telephones to relay missions to the player, in
Grand Theft Auto IV a 'Whiz Wireless'
mobile phone is used.
[13] It has several uses, including viewing
text messages and appointments, arranging to meet friends for activities, and also for choosing to retry failed missions.
[14] The player can also take photos for certain missions, and call
911 to summon the emergency services.
[15] The police will arrest felons, and paramedics are able to restore Niko's health.
[16] The phone also allows access to the game's multiplayer mode.
[17]
The player can also call other characters to talk to them, or ask for a
service that they can provide, such as transportation or a reduction in
wanted level.
[18] The player can also enter
cheat codes that may be entered by dialling certain numbers on the mobile phone.
[19]
The game also features several different in-game databases that Niko
can make use of. An in-game version of the Internet can be used by
accessing the
Internet café
chain, "TW@", located throughout the city or by accessing a computer in
a safehouse. There are over 100 fictitious websites that can be
accessed within the game, and Niko can also send and receive email
(including junk mail) and set up prospective dates.
[20] Although the Internet café was seen in
Grand Theft Auto III, internet browsing was not possible.
[21]
In a police vehicle, Niko can use an in-car computer to access Liberty
City's criminal database, discover information about various criminals
in Liberty City and even track them down for a reward.
[22]
The game also features in-game television programming, with several
viewable channels featuring programmes and advertisements. The
television shows cover a wide variety of genres, including a history
channel, reality shows, card games, and
cartoons.
[23]
Multiplayer
Grand Theft Auto IV includes online multiplayer, with 15 modes of play available.
[24] It supports up to 16 players (32 players in the PC version
[25]) and allows players to explore the entire city.
[26]
Hosts of the games can control many variables, such as police presence,
traffic, and weapons. The console editions of the game do not feature
any
split screen or
LAN multiplayer modes,
[27] but the PC version does have LAN support. All versions of the game include voice chat.
The online games are split into ranked and unranked matches. The
reward for the ranked gameplay is cash, which determines players' ranks.
[28]
Several different game modes are available. Team based gameplay modes include
[29] Team Deathmatch, where 2–8 teams compete to accumulate the most kills in a traditional
deathmatch;
Team Mafiya Work, in which 2–8 teams compete to complete contract work
for the "mafiya", such as escorting/killing targets or stealing cars;
Team Car Jack City where 2–8 teams compete to steal cars and earn money
for keeping them undamaged; Cops n' Crooks, featuring a team of cops who
must compete against a team of crooks (which features the "All for One"
variation – requiring the cops to kill the crooks' "Boss" before he is
escorted to the extraction point – and the "One for All" variation –
requiring the cops to kill all of the crooks before they reach the
extraction point); and Turf War, involving two teams who compete to take
control of designated areas of the map and control them for as long as
possible.
The game also includes a variety of racing and
cooperative modes, which include Race, in which players race through checkpoints in a traditional automobile race; a
GTA
race variation, where players race through checkpoints in an automobile
race, with the ability to combat their opponents; Hangman's N.O.O.S.E.,
a co-op mode that requires players to collect a person from the airport
and safely escort him to the extraction point before the cops kill him;
Deal Breaker, a co-op mission that requires players to assault a
construction site captured by enemies, then chase a group of enemies
before they escape; and Bomb da Base II, a co-op mission that requires
players to clear out a ship, then destroy it with explosives,
referencing the mission
Bomb Da Base from
Grand Theft Auto III
which featured a similar objective of destroying a ship with
explosives. The game also features a Free Mode, in which players have
the entire map open to explore, with no end goal or mission to complete.
Certain features from the single player mode are disabled in the
multiplayer modes, such as the bowling, darts, and pool mini-games. The
cheats, clubs and Internet café and some forms of transport (i.e. subway
trains and taxi ride) are also disabled.
[30]
Synopsis
Plot
Grand Theft Auto IV follows the story of
Niko Bellic,
a veteran of an unnamed war in Eastern Europe, who is haunted by the
betrayal of his 15 man army unit. Ten years later, after a smuggling run
goes bad due to a betrayal from a partner, Niko leaves
Eastern Europe[31] to escape the anger of his employer,
Ray Bulgarin. After six months in the merchant navy (serving aboard the cargo ship the
Platypus), and believing the stories of his cousin
Roman, Niko comes to Liberty City to pursue the
American Dream
as well as searching for the traitor of his unit. After his arrival,
however, Niko quickly learns that Roman's tales of riches and luxury
were lies concealing struggles with gambling debts and loansharks, and
that Roman lives in a dirty apartment rather than a mansion.
Niko defends Roman from his loansharks several times, eventually killing
Vlad Glebov, Roman's Russian loanshark. Niko also begins dating a friend of Mallorie's named
Michelle and befriends
Jamaican drug and arms dealer
"Little" Jacob Hughes. Niko also befriends steroid junkie and
chop shop owner
Bruce "Brucie" Kibbutz.
After Vlad's murder, Niko and Roman are kidnapped by members of the Liberty City
Bratva, on order of
Mikhail Faustin and his associate,
Dimitri Rascalov.
Faustin, not bothered by the murder of Vlad, hires Niko, who quickly
learns that he's a psychopath when he orders Niko to kill the son of
Kenny Petrović, the most powerful man in the Liberty City Bratva.
Dimitri then orders Niko to assassinate Faustin, and when Niko meets
with Dimitri to collect on the assassination, Dimitri betrays Niko to
his angry former employer Ray Bulgarin.
Immediately afterwards, Niko and Roman are forced to escape to Bohan
when their apartment and taxi company are destroyed in arson attacks by
Dimitri's men. To make ends meet Niko takes jobs for former gangbanger
Manny Escuela, Bohan drug dealer
Elizabeta Torres, Irish mobster
Patrick "Packie" McReary, and Algonquin drug dealer
Playboy X. Niko also becomes an errand boy for both Mafia Capo
Ray Boccino and crooked Deputy Police Commissioner
Francis McReary.
However, things go poorly in Bohan: one of the drug deals that Niko is working for Elizabeta turns out to be a
sting
and another is busted. After the latter incident, Niko's current
girlfriend Michelle then reveals that she works for a government agency
and
entraps Niko into working for Michelle's agency, known only by its cover:
United Liberty Paper.
Niko kills several known or suspected terrorists for the agency in
exchange for the promise of assistance in finding the man who betrayed
Niko's unit. The Liberty City Police Department begins to close in on
Elizabeta, who kills Manny when he attempts a
citizens arrest. Soon afterwards Elizabeta is arrested, and sentenced to 300 years imprisonment.
Niko assists Boccino in a conflict diamond deal with diamond dealer
Isaac Roth, which goes badly and leads to the diamonds and the money being stolen by
Luis Lopez and
Johnny Klebitz, respectively. In exchange for Niko's help, Boccino locates
Florian Cravic,
the man that Niko has been searching for. However, when Niko confronts
Cravic he discovers that he's changed his name to Bernie Crane and has
become an effeminate homosexual, and he determines that Bernie is not
responsible for his unit's betrayal, leaving one remaining suspect:
Darko Brevic. Niko also works for both Playboy X and Playboy's mentor
Dwayne Forge.
After Niko kills Playboy's business partners as a favour for Forge, the
relationship between Playboy and Forge becomes so poisonous that each
asks Niko to kill the other, leaving Niko a choice between the two.
While in Algonquin, Niko develops a strong connection with the McReary family, including Packie's older brothers
Gerald and
Derrick, and their sister
Kate, with whom he begins a non-sexual relationship. Together Niko, Packie, Derrick, and
"Saint" Michael Keane,
heist the Bank of Liberty in Algonquin. However, the robbery does not
go smoothly; Michael is killed and the others are forced to shoot their
way out past the police to escape. After the robbery, Niko works with
Gerry McReary to destroy the relationship between the Ancelotti Crime
Family and their Albanian muscle-men.
Meanwhile, Derrick spends most of his share on drugs and alcohol, and
sends Niko to eliminate former partners he believes are informing on
him. Francis soon becomes concerned that Derrick's drug behaviour could
ruin his plans to become police commissioner, and tells Niko to kill
Derrick. Soon after, Derrick asks Niko to kill Francis, which gives Niko
a choice between the two. In either case Niko, is invited to the
funeral and informed that Gerry has been arrested.
After his incarceration, Gerry contacts Niko and asks him to help in the kidnapping of
Gracie,
the daughter of the Don of the Ancelloti Family, in exchange for a
ransom of the stolen diamonds. However after exchanging Gracie to
"Gay" Tony Prince
for the diamonds, Niko and Packie are surprised by Ray Bulgarin, who
claims the diamonds are his. In the ensuing gunfight the diamonds are
thrown into a passing dumptruck and lost.
Niko also does work for the Pegorino family in Alderney, mainly with Associate
Phil Bell, stealing heroin, and later for Don
Jimmy Pegorino.
This leads to a war between the Pegorinos, Pavanos, and Ancellottis.
Eventually, Niko is sent to kill Ray Boccino because Pegorino is
convinced that he is an informant.
United Liberty Paper eventually locates Darko Brevic and brings him
to Liberty City as a final reward. Niko confronts Darko, who is now a
drug-addicted wreck, and learns that Darko betrayed the group for
$1,000. Niko then has to choose to either execute or spare Darko. Having
dealt with his past, Niko is summoned by Pegorino, who demands one
final favour: to help with an extremely lucrative deal on the heroin in
collusion with Dimitri Rascalov.
[29]
The story then features two possible endings depending on the choice made by the player at this point in the game: to strike a
Deal with Dimitri or exact
Revenge on him.
- Deal
If the player chooses to go through with the
Deal, Niko meets
Phil to retrieve the money once Dimitri delivers the heroin to another
location. However Dimitri takes the heroin for himself instead, and Niko
and Phil are forced to fight to escape, but retrieve the drug money
regardless. Kate, who was against making the deal, is disappointed with
Niko and refuses to attend Roman and Mallorie's wedding with Niko. At
the wedding, an assassin sent by Dimitri kills Roman with a stray bullet
as Niko disarms and kills him. A devastated and vengeful Niko - with
Little Jacob's help - follows some henchmen to where Dimitri and
Pegorino are hiding. There he witnesses Dimitri kill Pegorino out of
greed before escaping in a helicopter. Niko chases Dimitri to Happiness
Island, where he kills him in the shadow of the Statue of Happiness. The
story ends with Niko concerned for the well-being of his soul. After
the end credits, Mallorie reveals to Niko in a phone call that she is
pregnant with Roman's son, and later Kate calls Niko, saying that she
will be there for him.
- Revenge
If the player chooses to exact
Revenge, Niko ambushes Dimitri on the cargo ship
Platypus
- the same cargo ship that brought Niko into Liberty City - and
executes him. In the aftermath, Roman and Mallorie's wedding takes
place, but Pegorino, furious after Niko's betrayal, commits a
drive-by shooting
outside the church, targets Niko, but ends up killing Kate. However,
now that Pegorino has lost his ally Dimitri and angered both Niko (and
thereby his many friends) and the five mafia families, the entire
underworld of Liberty City wants him dead and he goes into hiding. With
Little Jacob's help and Roman's support, Niko follows some henchmen to
Pegorino's location where Niko attempts to kill him, but Pegorino
escapes. Niko chases and executes Pegorino in the shadow of the Statue
of Happiness. After the end credits, Roman reveals to Niko in a phone
call that Mallorie is pregnant, and if it is a girl, they will call her
Kate, in memory of Niko's girlfriend. Packie later calls him and mourns
over the loss of his sister, telling Niko that she never did anything
wrong, but it was her brothers that did.
Setting
GTA IV's rendition of Liberty City closely resembles modern New York City.
[32]
Grand Theft Auto IV takes place in 2008, in a redesigned
version of Liberty City consisting of four boroughs, based on four of
the boroughs of New York City.
[32] Broker is the equivalent of
Brooklyn;
Queens is
Dukes;
Bronx is
Bohan and
Manhattan is
Algonquin. Adjacent to the city is the independent state of
Alderney, based on Northern
New Jersey and named after the
Channel Island of
the same name. The developers omitted a
Staten Island-esque area, believing that gameplay based in such an area would not be fun.
[33] There are three minor islands present: Charge Island (based loosely on
Randall's Island), Colony Island (based on
Roosevelt Island), and Happiness Island (based on
Liberty Island and complete with a parody of the
Statue of Liberty
called the Statue of Happiness). Initially, the city's bridges are
locked down due to a terrorist threat, and the player is constantly
pursued by police if they are crossed, but eventually the blockades are
lifted and the player is able to cross the
Broker,
Algonquin and
Northwood Heights
bridges and explore the rest of the city. The "Francis International
Airport" is based on several New York City-area airports, most notably
LaGuardia and
JFK, however in a departure from past
GTA
games, exploring the tarmac area of the airport outside of missions
usually carries a penalty of a high wanted level being triggered.
Main characters
The characters that appear in
Grand Theft Auto IV are diverse
and relative to the respective boroughs of Liberty City they are based
in; belonging to various gangs and ethnic groups. The player controls
Niko Bellic, an eastern European veteran of an unknown war. According to Dan Houser, virtually none of the
characters from the previous games would return, as "most of the characters we liked were dead,"
[33] further evidenced by in-game graffiti bidding farewell to these characters.
[29]
Unlike previous games in the series, the voice actors of
Grand Theft Auto IV do not include notable and high-profile celebrities, instead opting for lesser known actors, such as
Michael Hollick,
Jason Zumwalt,
Timothy Adams and
Coolie Ranx.
Katt Williams and
Ricky Gervais have their likenesses and comedy depicted in an in-game comedy club.
[29] Actress/singer
Juliette Lewis and actor/comedian
Jason Sudeikis, meanwhile, both provide radio DJ voiceovers that the player can listen to.
The storyline and the timeline of the game is not consistent with the
rest of the series' canon, and its plot is not related to that of the
other games, but the storyline will be inter-connected with that of
Grand Theft Auto V, and several minor characters will have small appearances in the next game.
Soundtrack
Like previous games in the
GTA series,
Grand Theft Auto IV
features a soundtrack that can be heard through radio stations while
the player is in a vehicle. Liberty City is serviced by 19 radio
stations, three of which are
talk radio
stations. The other stations feature music from a large range of
genres. There are notable inclusions to the game's soundtrack, such as
tracks from
Jean Michel Jarre,
Genesis,
David Bowie,
Smashing Pumpkins,
The Sisters of Mercy,
Seryoga,
Bob Marley,
Don Omar,
The Who,
Electric Light Orchestra,
Queen,
Black Sabbath,
Philip Glass,
Simian Mobile Disco,
Nas,
Ne-Yo,
Kanye West,
R. Kelly,
Lloyd,
Miles Davis,
Loose Ends,
Elton John,
ZZ Top,
R.E.M.,
MC Lyte and
Barry White.
The theme song of
Grand Theft Auto IV is "Soviet Connection" composed by
Michael Hunter, who also composed the theme for
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
[34] People who provide voices for the radio DJs include fashion designer
Karl Lagerfeld, musicians
Iggy Pop,
[35] Femi Kuti,
[36] Jimmy Gestapo[37] and
Ruslana,
[38] and real-life radio talk show host
Lazlow Jones.
[39] Saturday Night Live actors
Bill Hader and
Jason Sudeikis appear on the liberal and conservative radio talk shows respectively, with
Fred Armisen playing several guests on Lazlow's "Integrity 2.0". Numerous other comedians, including
Jim Norton,
Patrice O'Neal,
Rick Shapiro, and
Robert Kelly, as well as radio hosts
Opie & Anthony appeared on the radio and/or as characters in-game.
The game uses a similar music system to that of
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
In other games in the series, each radio station was essentially a
single looped sound file, playing the same songs, announcements and
advertisements in the same order each time. With the radio stations in
Grand Theft Auto IV,
each sound file is held separately, and sequenced randomly, allowing
songs to be played in different orders, announcements to songs to be
different each time, and plot events to be mentioned on the stations.
Certain songs are also edited to incorporate references to the fictional
Liberty City.
[34]
Following a partnership between Rockstar Games and
Amazon.com, players are able to purchase real world
MP3s through
GTA IV's in-game mobile phone.
[40]
Players are able to mark radio songs that they like by dialling
ZIT-555-0100 on Niko's phone. They will then receive a text message
providing the name of the song and the artist. If registered on
Rockstar's 'Social Club' website, a player will also receive a real
world e-mail with a link to an Amazon.com playlist where all of the
player's marked songs will be listed and available to purchase.
[41]
Development
Mural ad for the game on a wall in New York City, July 2007.
Work on
Grand Theft Auto IV began in November 2004, almost immediately after the release of
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
[33] Around 150 game developers worked on
Grand Theft Auto IV,
[42] led by core members of the
Grand Theft Auto III team.
[43] The game uses Rockstar's own
RAGE game engine, which was previously used in
Rockstar Table Tennis, in combination with the
Euphoria game animation engine.
[44] Instead of pre-written animations, Euphoria uses
procedural animation to control the way the player moves, enabling character movements to be more realistic.
[45] The Euphoria engine also enables
NPCs
to react in a realistic way to the player's actions. In one preview, a
player knocked an NPC out of a window and the character grabbed onto a
ledge to stop himself from falling.
[46] The game also uses middleware from
Image Metrics to facilitate intricate facial expressions and ease the process of incorporating lip-synching.
[47] Foliage in the game is produced through
SpeedTree.
[48]
Grand Theft Auto IV sees a shift in the series to a more realistic and detailed style and tone,
[33] partly a result of the transition to consoles which offered
high-definition graphics and the new and improved capabilities of such consoles.
[43] Rockstar co-founder
Dan Houser said "what we're taking as our watchword on [
GTA IV]
is the idea of what high definition actually means. Not just in terms
of graphics, which obviously we are achieving, but in terms of all
aspects of the design. [...] You know, trying to make something more
realistic, more held together, but still retaining the overall coherence
that the other games had."
[33]
Art director Aaron Garbut said one of the reasons they decided to set
the game in New York because "we all knew what an amazing, diverse,
vibrant, cinematic city it is. [...] And since we were hoping to push
the detail, variety and life, for lack of a better word, to such a
degree it seemed that basing the game in a city so synonymous with these
things was a great fit."
[49]
Dan Houser added "because we were working in high definition and we
knew we'd need a shitload of research, we wanted to be somewhere where
we had a foothold."
[43]
The developers consciously avoided creating a block for block
recreation of New York City, Dan Houser said "what we've always tried to
do is make a thing that looks real and has the qualities of a real
environment, but is also fun from a game design perspective."
[33] The
Grand Theft Auto IV rendition of Liberty City is far more detailed and is the largest individual city in the
Grand Theft Auto series.
[50]
Although smaller than San Andreas, Liberty City is comparable to it in
terms of scope when "the level of verticality of the city, the number of
buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings"
are taken into account.
[50] The goal for Liberty City was to have no dead spots or irrelevant spaces, such as the wide open deserts in San Andreas.
[33] To achieve a realistic environment, the Rockstar North team, based in
Edinburgh, Scotland, made two trips to New York for research, one at the start of the project (which is done with every
GTA game) and another smaller one further into development.
[49]
A full-time research team, based in New York, handled further requests
for information ranging from the ethnic minority of a neighbourhood to
videos of traffic patterns.
[43]
The story of
Grand Theft Auto IV was written by
Dan Houser and Rupert Humphries.
[29] Unlike previous
Grand Theft Auto games which have a strong cultural or cinematic influence, "[
GTA IV doesn't] really have any cinematic influences",
[33]
said Dan Houser, "we were consciously trying to go, well, if videogames
are going to develop into the next stage, then the thing isn't to try
and do a loving tribute or reference other stuff. It's to reference the
actual place itself".
[43]
Houser also said, "In terms of the character, we wanted something that
felt fresh and new and not something that was obviously derived from [a]
movie. [...] Maybe [we] could do something ourselves that would live
alongside that stuff".
[43]
Music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich said "[we had] to pick the songs that
make New York today what it is, but make sure they won't feel dated by
the time the game comes out."
[51] The developers contacted over 2,000 people in order to obtain recording and publishing rights.
[34] They even hired a private investigator to locate the relatives of late Skatt Bros. member
Sean Delaney to license the band's song, "Walk the Night".
[52] Citing sources close to the deals,
Billboard reported that Rockstar paid as much as $5,000 per composition and another $5,000 per master recording per track.
[53] Developers originally considered letting players purchase music by going to an in-game
record shop and for Niko to have an
MP3 player, but both ideas were cut.
[34] DJ Green Lantern produced tracks exclusively for the game's hip-hop radio station The Beat 102.7.
[53]
Record label owner and record producer Bobby Konders, who hosts the
in-game radio station Massive B Soundsystem 96.9, went through the extra
effort of flying to
Jamaica to get
dancehall artists to re-record tracks to make references to the boroughs of Liberty City.
[53]
The Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division,
Peter Moore, announced at E3 2006 that the game would appear on
Xbox 360, by rolling up his sleeve to reveal a
GTA IV temporary tattoo.
[54]
Rockstar Games initially appeared to be committed to the original 16
October 2007 release date; however, Wedbush Morgan analyst
Michael Pachter
suggested that Take-Two may choose to delay the release of the game in
order to boost its financial results for 2008 and to avoid competing
with the release of other highly anticipated titles, such as
Halo 3.
[55] Rockstar responded by saying that
Grand Theft Auto IV was still on track for release in "late October".
[56] On 2 August 2007, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV
would miss its original release date of 16 October 2007 contrary to
their previous statements, and would be delayed to their second fiscal
quarter (February–April) of 2008.
[57]
In a later conference call with investors, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick
attributed the delay to "almost strictly technological problems ... not
problems, but challenges."
[58] It was revealed that technical difficulties with the
PlayStation 3 version of the game contributed to the delay, along with storage problems on the
Xbox 360.
[59] On 24 January 2008, Take-Two announced that
Grand Theft Auto IV would be released on 29 April 2008.
[60] As the release date approached, Rockstar Games and Take-Two
marketed the game
heavily through various forms, including television ads, Internet
video, billboards, viral marketing, and a redesigned website. A special
edition of the game was also released for both the PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360.
[61] At a Take-Two shareholder meeting on 18 April 2008, Take-Two CEO Ben Feder announced that
GTA IV had already "
gone gold" and was "in production and in trucks en route to retailers".
[62] The game was eventually released for the
PlayStation 3 and
Xbox 360 video game consoles in Europe, North America, and Oceania on 29 April 2008,
[60] and in Japan on 30 October 2008.
[63] A
Microsoft Windows version of the game was released in North America on 2 December 2008 and in Europe on 3 December 2008.
[2][64][65] It was made available on
Steam on 4 January 2009.
[66] Overall,
Grand Theft Auto IV
took over 1000 people and more than three and a half years to complete,
with a total cost estimated at approximately $100 million, making it
one of the most expensive games ever developed
[67] (as of 2012 only
Star Wars: The Old Republic has been reported to have a higher development cost than that of
Grand Theft Auto IV).
[68][69]
Episodic content
The cover art for
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
Two
episodic packs for
Grand Theft Auto IV have been released. These two episodes were first released separately on
Xbox Live
as downloadable content (DLC), requiring the original game to play.
Following that in October 2009 they were released together as part of a
standalone game called
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City for the
Xbox 360 that does not require the original
Grand Theft Auto IV media to be playable.
[70] The first expansion is entitled
The Lost and Damned, originally released on 17 February 2009.
[71] The second is entitled
The Ballad of Gay Tony, released on 29 October 2009.
[72][73][74] Both episodes were released for
PlayStation 3 and
Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010
[75] in North America and on 16 April 2010
[75] in Europe.
[76]
The Lost and Damned features a new central character,
Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City's biker gang The Lost, which was featured in several
GTA IV missions. Dan Houser stated the episode shows "a different side of Liberty City".
[74] The Ballad of Gay Tony also features a new central character,
Luis Fernando Lopez,
an assistant to nightclub owner Tony "Gay Tony" Prince, and follows him
as he resolves the conflicts of his friends, family, and boss.
[70]
Jeronimo Barrera, Vice President of Product Development for Rockstar
Games, has said that the episodes are experiments because they are not
sure that there are enough users with access to online content on the
Xbox 360.
[77] Take-Two Interactive's
Chief Financial Officer, Lainie Goldstein revealed that Microsoft was paying a total of $50 million for the first two episodes.
[78]
In January 2010 Rockstar announced that the DLC as well as
Episodes From Liberty City would be made available for the
PlayStation 3 and
Microsoft Windows on 13 April 2010 in North America
[75][79] and 16 April 2010 in Europe.
[75]
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition, including the original
Grand Theft Auto IV and its two episodic expansions, was listed on online stores
[80]
before being confirmed by Rockstar. The compilation was released on
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows on 26 October 2010 in North
America, and 29 October in Europe.
[81]
The
Rockstar Games Social Club
is a web site that displays the gameplay statistics of registered users
and feature competitions and awards based on player activity within the
game.
[82]
The website was announced on 27 March 2008 and launched on 17 April
2008. The main features of Social Club launched on the same date of the
game itself 29 April 2008. Social Club provides online features for
Rockstar's latest
Midnight Club game,
Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
Social Club consists of multiple parts. It initially included the LCPD
Police Blotter, The Story Gang, The 100% Club, The Hall Of Fame, The
Liberty City Marathon and The Zit.
In an interview with
PlayStation World magazine, Rockstar mentioned that they will "heavily support"
Sony's
PlayStation Home, a community-based service for the
PlayStation Network. Rockstar also mentioned that visitors to their PlayStation Home apartment would receive 'goodies' such as clothing for their
avatar and items and decorations for their own PlayStation Home apartment.
[83] Rockstar also announced that
Xbox Live users will gain exclusives in the form of downloadable content and a multiplayer modding tool.
[84]
Windows version
The Windows version of
GTA IV includes a replay editor. This screenshot shows the Clips interface which is used to capture game footage.
On 6 August 2008, Rockstar announced that a
Microsoft Windows version was in development by
Rockstar North and
Rockstar Toronto.
[1][64]
The game was originally announced for release in North America on 18
November 2008 and in Europe on 21 November 2008 but was later pushed
back to 2 and 3 December 2008, respectively.
[2][64][65]
It contains expanded features,
[64] including traffic density control,
draw distance configurations and a replay editor.
[85][86][87][88] The replay editor allows players to record and edit game clips, videos can then be uploaded to Rockstar's Social Club website.
[88] It utilises
Games for Windows - Live for online play and supports 32 players for multiplayer.
[25][89] SecuROM protection is utilised and a one time online activation is required in order to play the game.
[90]
+Nekara;+c%29+Kapak+Perunggu;.png "a) Nekara; c) Kapak Perunggu; b) Moko; d) Candrasa. (Sumber: Sejarah Nasional Indonesia dan Umum)")
