Grand Theft Awesome

I finally beat GTA IV over the weekend, which makes it the first game I've beaten for the current generation of systems. That really should sum up how great the game is right there, because I never beat any games. It's not because games are too hard, or because there aren't any other good games to play, it's just that eventually and inevitably, I just stop playing for whatever reason and by the time I feel like picking it up again, I forget what the story is, so I lose interest completely. Not with this game.

After spending a good three weeks stealing cars and shooting people in the face, I can say that it shouldn't have gotten the perfect score it got from so many game reviewers. Despite how huge and deep the game is, even in the final few missions, I feel like there should be more. They completely dropped all the cool RPG elements that made San Andreas a lot of fun. There's no training to make your shooting or fighting skills better, there's not as much character customization like haircuts or tattoos, no working out to make Niko into a steroid freak. And more disappointingly, there's no way to buy property or own businesses, so I have no idea what to do with all that money I've earned just playing through the game. The "friend" system is one thing they improved upon, but it can get annoying when they call you while you're on your way to get to a mission, and then you have to double back to meet your friend or else they'll get mad at you.

Still, the story is epic, easily the best of the series, with a couple of great plot twists. I really enjoyed the "moral" system, the parts of the game where you decide who lives and who dies, even though only the last one alters the storyline completely. There's no villain on the level of San Andreas' Officer Tenpenny, but Niko is the most developed main character of the series. There's downloadable episodes of GTA IV coming in the Fall, and I'm hoping that these will be substantial story-based missions instead of just a bunch of random things to do. The story arc ends conclusively, but it ends like the way a TV series or the first movie in a trilogy would end.

And because there's so much to do along with the story, taking out or doing side missions for friends, I haven't done the staple of every GTA game: stocking up on weapons and just causing random acts of mayhem on the city (And I can't say enough about how awesome Liberty City is. It's not as big as San Andreas, but it's my favorite city by far). I've only watched like two minutes of TV (and I still can't get over that they actually created TV shows for this game, that you can actually sit in your safehouse and watch). I've only tried out one session of online multiplayer. Even though I've beaten the game, and although there feels like there should be more, I've only scratched the surface of what's in GTA IV. I have never gotten 100% in any of the GTA games and I've never made the effort. Once I beat a GTA game, that's usually it for me. However, because this one was so good I feel like I should at least try to experience as much as possible.

I've beaten the game, but I still want to go home and play it. That's how good it is.