Grand Theft Auto IV is the first in a new generation of consoles and as such, it had the expectations that it would be as big a leap as Grand Theft Auto III was over the PS1 games. Naturally, the game has better graphics with more details, more pedestrians and more effects. However, since it was a game that was released in the early days of the PS3, it doesn't compare well with games released later in the PS3's life, so it can look a bit bland and lacking in detail. The controls have been tweaked a bit and it is for the better. The game still uses an auto-targeting system however they are now mapped to the trigger buttons. You can swap between different weapons on the fly using the D-pad and can see the health of your enemies. Melee combat remains familiar with Niko being able to dodge, punch and kick as well as countering.
Niko, the character you control, defaults to walking slowly which is frustrating, you need to hold X to jog and tap X to spring. This gets annoying because when Niko sprints, the camera swings wildly to whichever direction he is facing. Niko is able to car jack any vehicles and any time you do, there is a chance that the drivers can become aggressive and try to get the car back. The vehicle handling has been revamped and the vehicles feel a lot heavier than previous iterations. It is not necessarily a good or bad thing but it is better than the poor traction of the PS2 games. However, you cannot go at high speed and hope to make turns without going wide and flipping over. In that aspect, there are still a lot of improvements that could be made to GTA's vehicle handling (which was always bad). Vehicles can take a lot of hammering before exploding.
While the player is free to cause as much destruction as they like, they will get the attention of the police who will try and capture Niko. Like previous games, there are six levels of Wanted, with six being the maximum and the army coming out to get you. Once you are Wanted, there is a police radar on the map, you have to get out of the circle and then not be sighted for a few seconds before you lose the cops permanently. Being chased by police is great in theory but gets old and repetitive soon when you just wanted to get to your next destination as fast as possible but the police just keeps tailing you. The story follows Niko Bellic, who arrives on a boat to America, opting to go to Liberty City where his cousin is. His cousin, Roman, has highly exaggerated his success at living the American Dream and thus Niko has to work from the bottom and gain respect.
It is a typical Grand Theft Auto story which has Niko bouncing from employer to employer. There's no real motivation for him except apparently to make money and revenge. Despite the bland story, there is frequently funny dialogue between the characters and Niko himself isn't unlikable. It feels hypocritical though that Niko speaks of loyalty and honor but he easily kills a lot of the people he works for. Throughout his work in Liberty City, the past catches up to Niko but again, the characters fall kind of flat and one dimensional. It takes around 20-30 hours to finish all of the story missions (90+ of them) but you can finish in as low as 10-15 hours if you skip all cutscenes. There are a few points in the story where it branches paths depending on your choices.
While the game takes place at Liberty City, it is different to the one from GTA 3, however there are some common themes such as the train on an overhead track. You are locked onto the first island but the rest of the map opens up as you proceed with the story. With the story missions, for a game so heavily reliant on driving and shooting as all of its gameplay, the developers sure made it really boring and annoying to do either. Since you are pointlessly driving for a lot of the time and pointlessly shooting, with such bland mechanics, it makes the game extremely boring. Thankfully, with later missions having a little bit more action and slightly varied objectives, it doesn't make the game a complete bore. That sad, you will most likely end up skipping any non-compulsory driving sections via taking a taxi.
Niko is given a mobile phone and this is a key feature of the game. You get missions via phone calls, increase friendships, input cheats, access multiplayer and more things. You pull it up using the D-pad. There's a friendship system where your friends will periodically call Niko to hand out. Raising them enough will unlock special abilities. Tying into this are minigames and they are a bit more fleshed out than expected, including bowling, darts and pool. Grand Theft Auto IV still has the same flaws as previous games, the major one being that there are no checkpoints within missions. It means if you fail or die at one, you have to restart again. Thankfully, there is now the addition of immediately retrying any missions, saving you travel time. Furthermore, while the map is huge, you gain the abilities to fast travel via taking a taxi within the first hour of the game, which is a welcomed change.
There are some missions which isn't hard but it is made hard because of the stupid retarded AI partner that you have to keep alive. Then you have to restart the whole mission again from the very beginning because of no checkpoints, so you spend minutes forced to drive there, waiting for the signal to start attacking and then another chase etc. It is annoying and it is terrible mission design, which is pathetic of a game released at that time. Despite the lack of checkpoints and a few tougher missions, the game is easier than previous Grand Theft Auto games. This makes it a lot less frustrating but the downside is that there are less creative ways to complete missions.
There are a number of sidequests such as races, killing specific targets whether it be as an assassin or police, minigames, side characters, collectibles and finding certain cars. Overall, Grand Theft Auto IV, despite all its flaws and changes, is still a fun and interesting game. The lack of a massive generation leap compared to previous games is its biggest downside since its core gameplay hasn't changed much.
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