Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All it's cracked up to be"

GTA IV has it all! A great story, great control mechanics and enough entertainment to keep you going back for more!

There is a lack of multiplayer but the replay value is huge because I have found myself going back to re-complete the campaign more times than I can count. The characters are great, Nico is a sympathetic but hard edged dude who has an interesting background and an ulterior motive for arriving in the US.

There is tons of stuff to do. You can have your way with prostitutes (three ways, actually), surf the "internet" to find comical websites that tells it's audience that the developers were just having fun when making this game. You can even watch television in your apartment and ride helicopters all over Liberty city! One fun thing to do is ride up high as you can and jump out. There are many ways to kill yourself, most of which are spectacular. There is one glitch in the game where a "killer swing" throws your car into mid air, resulting in the possibility that you could land on the other side of town. You will have to see it to believe it. Personally, I think the developers included this "glitch" on purpose.

The length of the campaign will probably take you around four or five days to complete if you play it for a few hours a day. The soundtrack is great and there are many popular songs to choose from on the radio in your cars.

There are many side missions as well which will keep you busy. Along the way you may bump into strangers who will want favours from you. One in particular, a serial killer, may give you goose bumps or make you laugh depending on your humour.

You will learn the controls pretty quickly. They are really no different to any other game ie pressing the back trigger to accelerate, the left to break etc.

I eagerly await GTA V next year and I can only hope that it's just as good as IV.

I cannot find any faults with the game at all. Well, maybe the optional game of shooting pigeons to get the 100% completion is quite pointless and unnecessary, but that's about all.

Recommended!