When GTA3 was unleashed upon the world in the fall of 2001, it was a pure, unadulterated exercise in nihilism. Players had the choice to main and murder their fellow man, guilty and innocent alike, or to play the Samaritan and go around town taking injured people to the hospital or extinguishing lethal car-fires. But the key word was always choice. It was the main draw for me atleast. It was the first time a casual gamer like me saw a game where you could actually go here OR go there, and anywhere in between. Another thing that drew me in was the story. The lead character in GTA3 is basically an errand boy for various criminal organizations around the city, oftentimes at war with each other. He was also a mute; perhaps created that way to help the player identify more with the misanthropic lead Claude Speed, a character who remained completely nameless until San Andreas came out in 2004.
But while I played on and wordlessly shot, beat and ran down all of my rivals and all of the sad sacks that happened to be in my path, it became apparent to me that Grand Theft Auto 3 was, at it's heart, a metaphor about the underworld. It was too smart to just be about violence. It was about getting where you needed to be, no matter what it took to get there. Both in terms of the surface area of the map and in terms of the criminal hierarchy. This has always been the core of the GTA series, but how they have chosen to flesh this idea out has taken some very interesting turns, especially where it pertains to each installments lead character.
The next installment was the inimitable Vice City, which after playing through all of the 3D Grand Theft Autos, takes the crown. Now that is just my opinion, but allow me to break it down. The asthetics, the atmosphere of Rockstar Games' version of 1980's Miami was perfectly capturered. This is thanks in no small way to the flawless soundtrack, which captured most if not all of the different corners of 80's music. The cars the beaches, the clothes, pedestrian dialog, the night clubs the commercials etc. It all just rang true.
It was also a first for the GTA series: our lead character had a name. On top of that Tommy Vercetti actually talked. And had a personality. Well, somewhat. I mean he was basically a heartless sociopath like his predecessor, but he had friends. He trusted people, and people trusted him. He did what he had to do that in order to get to the top of the Vice City dog pile. Shooting, gunning down and chainsawing everyone he had to, and even some he didn't.
He also had a cellphone. This was a first for the GTA series. Being able to accept jobs through the phone added a layer of convenience to the criminal lifestyle, even if the player wasn't yet able to make outgoing calls. It would be a while before the series matured to that level; however the next installment San Andreas still made great strides in adding dimensions to Grand Theft Auto, as well as further humanizing its lead character.
New elements reminiscent of a role-playing game began to emerge in GTA. Players had to take care of themselves. Being too fat or too malnourished could impact your performance as a criminal. Carl also had the ability to "date." Taking girls on dates had numerous benefits. Getting someone to like you could mean new outfits, perks like keeping weapons after dying, keys to the girl's whip, and of course hot coffee.
Creating in game characters that the player was discouraged from killing, much less characters we had to like, was not what people expected or wanted from Grand Theft Auto. But the game was an enourmous sucess and is still considered by many a classic today.Carl Johnson also had a cell phone. An addition to accepting missions with it, he could also accept dates with his girl friends, and later in the game would even receive hilariously desperate prank calls from crazy ex-girlfriends. You were a human, a member of society now. And you were tasked with managing the life of a gangster. A lot of people balked at the "RPG" elements that were introduced, but I thought that even if it wasn't really implemented in the best way, that this was a compellingly brilliant direction for the series.
So we go from a ruthless sociopathic mute, to a slightly more charming sociopath, to a child of the streets with a family who seeming happens to lead a criminal lifestyle. With each installment, the Grand Theft Auto series has taken steps to grow up, and it to give humanistic touches to its protagonists, while remaining a part of the open-world "sandbox" genre. Never has this been more true than with Grand Theft Auto IV.
Players were to no longer have control of their appearance, and were given its most human-ish protagonist in its history as a videogame; perhaps in the history of any game, ever. I have not played nearly enough non-GTA games to know for sure, but I have heard it said. It's not like anyone reads this blog anyway. Penis. Penis.
Niko Bellic is a fresh off the boat immigrant, and through his eyes we experience Liberty City again 7 years later from our first visit there in GTA 3. This time, the main character is given a cell phone early on in the game, and with it, he can accept missions just like Tommy V and Carl. This time though, the player is able to call anyone in his phone book at any time, as well as various other phone numbers about the city. There are also a range of activities available to the player in GTA IV. But these are not the activities players were used to. Trotting people around the city in a cab, rescuing the sick and the weak in an ambulance, putting out deadly car fires; the option to do these things is for the most part gone.
Instead, your options in this newest iteration are watching tv, going to comedy clubs, taking tours of the immaculate skyline, and shooting pool, playing darts, and bowling. Its as if the developers just sat around thinking of ways that the player could just spend time as a citizen.
Gone are your misanthropic and nihilistic urges. Now your success depends on how human you can be, how much you can get people to actually like you, by spending time with them. Sure, its all for the cause of being a more effective gangster; making friends with certain people will give you easier access to weapons and bombs, but still. No more mayhem, no more killing just to kill. The option is there, but from the way that Niko Bellic was illustrated, murderous rampages just feel...weird. And out of character.
While reading the comical blogs and spam emails within the game is a fun, not to mention the tv shows, its not why we play GTA. I'm sorry to say it, but its true. People do not search out GTA for the story, although the way Rockstar has weaved their story throughout their vast underworld from the ground up is very impressive. People play it for the blood lust and the insane spontaneous moments that happen in between cutscenes. Grand Theft Auto has always been great because it let the player have the chance to feel inhuman for once.A lot of us, we pick the game up to feed the our darkside. Grand Theft Auto IV made a lot of light shine through onto that darkside, even at the expense of some of the game play.
All of my GTA heads: Does this sit well with you? While evolution is always a good thing, is maturity something you ever thought you would ever see or wanted to see in GTA? Or is GTA IV hands-down the greatest game evar? Speak on it. Personally I thought it was all in all about a 4.5 out of 5, the same score I would give San Andreas. The reason it got scored so high is because its the first official GTA to have multiplayer, which I thought they did a great job with. Next time though I think maybe they should not try so hard to be taken seriously, and bring back the FUN side missions, even if they are exactly the same as the old games. Then maybe, just maybe, we could be playing a 10/10 game this time next year.
