O.K., let’s get one important thing out of the way: Everything you’ve heard is true, both the bad and the good. Grand Theft Auto IV is an absolutely amazing game. Beyond the detail in which Liberty City has been mapped to cop the actual Big Apple, beyond the ways in which the game’s tortured Slavic protagonist, Niko Bellic, transcends the cookie-cutter cartoon killer mold. This is a man with a past and a conscience who ends up having to deal with the consequences of harrowing decisions made along the way to his very own, blood-soaked American Dream.
Developer Rockstar always led the vanguard when it came to giving us this kind of thing, a virtual playground where gamers were finally free to do what we wanted. This time, the menu of options has undergone massive multiplication—from pursuing every last in-game mission to crashing on the couch and watching hilarious parodies of right-wing satellite TV stations, or trolling the game’s version of Craigslist and online dating. As always, it’s the violence and sex that’ll continue to make headlines, but just like all the other GTA games, there are consequences—and this time, they’re a lot more complex than adding another star to your badass rating and bringing a few more battalions of law enforcement down on your head.
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Case in point is the game’s take on drunken driving. Sure, you can do it—much to the loud and infuriated chagrin of MADD—but, aside from the whole “Oh, so that’s how it feels” thing, lurching around the streets like your controller’s been dipped in rubber cement only to be nabbed by the fuzz just isn’t that enthralling.
For everything Rockstar did right, it’s only fair (and balanced, for that matter) to flag them for the things that still feel desperately wrong. In a universe in which big-time game development projects didn’t depend on little things like, you know, returns on investment, I could wish that the driving physics didn’t feel like a cross between bumper cars and skiing on the moon. Or, given the number of rounds you’ll pump off in the course of completing the single-player campaign, that the new targeting and autotargeting features approached the ease of just about any console first-person shooter you could name over the last few years.
Ultimately, GTA IV is to gaming what Broadcast News was to TV journalism or Bob Roberts was to presidential campaigns—a pitch-black, scathing funhouse mirror. In this case, the lasting image is of a violence- and media-obsessed culture that’s eating itself while the cameras roll. I’m convinced that’s the real reason why the parenting groups and politicos are so enraged and militant. This is us, guys, and while it’s fun to play and walk away, at the end of the day, it ain’t a pretty reflection.