• 24Apr 08

  Grand Theft Auto IV: Multiplayer

  Grand Theft Auto IV: April 29th

  GTA IV doesn't have a traditional menu. When you pop the disc into your console, you are launched into your most recent single-player campaign save. To get to multiplayer, just whip out Niko's phone and select it from the list of available applications. Once you've chosen a ranked or unranked match, you're off to the lovely land to murder, death, kill online.
  
  Microsoft doesn't offer native clan support (thanks a lot, Uncle Gates!), but the in-game party system has become a popular alternative. Invite some friends to your party and you'll be able to teleport around to various game modes, sticking together between each session. But you won't be sitting around long staring at boring screens. That's because Party Mode drops you into a secluded part of Liberty City with a host of guns and vehicles available to smack your buddies around. This is your lobby and it can become a pleasant distraction while the host tries to get his act together and launch you into one of the many multiplayer modes available.
  
  Though you do spawn a bit out of the public eye, you can still hop in a car or helicopter and take off from more populated areas. As with all of GTA's multiplayer modes, Liberty City is wide open to you. If you want, you can abandon your friends and go exploring. While this may sound enticing, there is a mode designated for causing mayhem in the streets. Party Mode is a distraction while the host sets up the real fun -- Free Mode.

  Free Mode
  As much as we've loved Cops 'n' Crooks, Free Mode is going to be the bread and butter of GTA IV multiplayer. Here's the deal: Up to 16 players can run around Liberty City doing whatever they want. Create your own game modes, hunt for Easter eggs, work together to survive a six-star wanted level -- if you can dream it, there's probably a way to do it. And this mode begins in the most unusual, jarring way.
  
  You begin in a standoff with the other players. Everyone spawns in a circle and there is, at least the first time you play Free Mode, a brief moment of surprise when no one does a damn thing. This lasts a few seconds before someone takes out a gun and shoots their neighbor in the face. But this standoff isn't just to start the killing (and jump people around the city with their first respawn); it also allows players to talk about what they want to do in Free Mode. This way you don't have to hunt for anyone in order to discuss plans to take a bus caravan down to Star Junction or to agree that there will be a knife fight atop the Algonquin Bridge. Or you can just blow each other up. It's Free Mode -- do whatever the hell you want.
  
  As with the other MP modes, the host has plenty of options to customize the experience, from setting the level of traffic, to turning cops on or off, to the time of day, to weapons available and so much more. This also includes setting a time limit if you don't want Free Mode to last forever.

  Team Mafiya Work
  Your cell phone plays a major role in the single-player campaign, but is a fairly minor thing in multiplayer. That is, until you play Team Mafiya Work. Throughout the match, you and the competing teams receive text messages assigning you missions from the mafiya. This might mean jacking a specific car, assassinating an informant, or any number of other errands. The team that completes the objective first scores the cash. Just don't get cocky. As soon as one errand is completed, another one pops up on your phone.
  
  While most team-based games play best with just two groups, Mafiya Work is better with more teams. The errands given are usually fairly easy to pull off and something that a small group of three or four people can handle. You get greater chaos and a more competitive match with more teams vying for the same objective.

  Team Car Jack City
  Taking the name Grand Theft Auto to heart, Car Jack City has teams stealing selected cars from around Liberty City. The marked cars show up on your radar as do dropoff points. Of course, you're in competition with the other teams, which makes things interesting. Unless the car is secretly stuffed full of drugs, it loses value as it takes damage. So when you get in a car, the other teams will target you -- either to jack the car from you or destroy it outright.
  
  One strategy is to have people waiting near the dropoff points. Armed with a rocket launcher, they can turn a jacked car into a smoldering mess moments before the other team scores.
  
  Team Car Jack City is a test of both your driving and navigation skills. Crashing into cars and lampposts may be fun, but it also devalues your ride and costs you valuable dollars. But at the same time, if you don't know shortcuts and can't figure out the quickest way to intercept somebody, then you're going to have a tough time stopping the other teams from winning.
  
  Like Team Mafiya Work, Car Jack City is best played with several teams when possible. The smaller groups make things far more frantic as there are only a handful of marked cars at any given time. What's more fun than having two people shoot it out over stealing a high-powered Infernus? Having three people shoot it out, of course.

  • Posted Apr 24, 2008 10:47 am GMT
  • Category: Games
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