Customer Reviews
Simply Brilliant - By: Scotty Apps, 14 May 2008 
I think my header says it alll. This game is a must have, with so many recent games fallling short of the mark this game excels in alll area's. I didn't buy the last GTA game so went into this new one with an open mind & can honestly say I don't have a bad word to say about it. The graphics are truly brilliant, the voice acting is excellent & the plot is meaty & intelligent.
The City itself has everything you would expect from a GTA game, it is vast, beautiful, ugly, & full of things to do...you can literallly walk around the city for hours without getting bored, on previous titles I always roamed by car, but not with this one, I actuallly prefer to walk so I can take everything in.
The cars are amazing & look out if you are speeding down the motorway, you might want to avoid hitting anything head on, as your character will literallly fly out the front windscreen onto the road - awesome!
I reallly like the mobile phone development where by you can ring your cousin or local gangsters for jobs & I love the auto save which means you don't have to drive halfway across the city to save your game...
All in alll wonderful - game of the year so far!
A violent work of art - By: Pd Hr Knight, 14 May 2008 I haven't been this impressed with a work of fiction since the first time I saw the Godfather.
It is a superb, genuis game. Truly cinematic production values with a story & backdrop to make most multi-million dollar pictures envious.
But where it scores is in the gameplay & fun factor. Immersive & intuitive the game is just hard enough to be challlenging but not too hard so as to discourage.
I've had it for about 48 hours & am only just getting to grips with things. On top of the superlative nature of the single player game, the multiplayer which I'm just trying out is also excellent with the options & gameplay as good if not better than anything else I've ever played on line.
Buy it & enjoy !!!
Good graphics, but at what cost? - By: jakethemuss, 13 May 2008 
This review comes from a hardcore GTA gamer. I have spent copious hours on GTA 3, Vice City, Liberty City Stories, & literallly hundreds of hours on the amazing San Andreas. So it is with disappointment that I tell you that GTA IV, a massively anticipated game brings very little new to the table that hasn't been seen before.
It seems that the series has taken a step back from San Andreas. Many side missions, vehicles, stores & things that made previous GTA games what they were have just disappeared. Replaced by fancy menu screens, flashy graphics, snappy camera angles & an irritaing wanted level system, has GTA lost its soul? You can't fly, go underwater, ride bikes, take over hoods, buy safehouses, drive tanks or better yourself physicallly like CJ could do. Someone dared to describe this a game that would outdo even the wildest expectations from GTA fans. WRONG, this isn't far off GTA III just with better graphics & a more powerful engine. Play the vastly superior San Andreas instead if you want to see what GTA is alll about.
In the immortal words of Chuck D....don't believe the hype.
Great Expectations - Great Game! - By: John Kimble, 13 May 2008 Not wishing to prejudice my review I've played GTA IV (Work + Girlfriend permitting) for over a week & having got around 40% through I thought I'd be in a better place to pass judgement than if I'd posted earlier.
Well, I'm impressed! What a game! The first GTA I ever played was the original on my PC, from then on the evolution has been awesome. Gone are the cartoony graphics & repetitive feeling of the backdrop. GTA IV is simply a great game that gets better the further you get into it.
The introduction of a mobile phone, side games such as pool & bowling, internet cafes & taxi rides have helped revolutionise the game play with the story & graphics adding to this by increasing the pull & enhancing the overalll feel.
Most of the features that made this a best selling game before remain & it is quite conceivable to go for long periods without playing a single mission.
Some have made complaints about the handling of the cars & the way the game looks. The cars are fine, some handle better than others & no matter what you will get the hang of it. For me, a guy whose first computer was a ZX Spectrum, I think the game looks & plays fantasticallly well.
I've read many positive reviews about this game & seen it given many 10/10 scores or 5 star rating & to be honest after I'd played the first hour or two I was thinking, what has changed? However, it is not just a regurgitation of what has come before. I know now that that initial feeling of disappointment has been blown away by a thrilling, addictive game that will hopefully do the same to you.
An absolutely cracking game! For once the build up & expectation have been matched by the end product.
Good but little more attention to detail needed - By: Mr. Jakob Woolley, 12 May 2008 
The game is good, but i think there are little things which Rockstar left out, such as being able to hook lorry cabs to trailers & being able to use the fork lifts for mroe than jsut driving slowly & most of alll flying. although i think they dont hav flying because the map is much smalller than San Andreas.
Being picky but around Liberty City you see numbers to calll like in the back of a taxi, but if you calll it, nothing happens. you cant to paramedic mission or fire department missions or taxi. which were a good way of leraning the city & making a little bit of cash.
you cant modify your cars which i thought was a disapointment because it was a ncie feature on San Andreas.
the soundtrack is quite smalll, there are alot of radio stations but only about 30 minutes of recording before it repeats itself, maybe Rockstar should have added a progresive soundtrack so the more you did the radios would change.
it is easy, in my opinion possibly too easy, the last mission was simple & didnt reallly require anything espeaciallly different from the first mission.
on a HD TV the graphics are pretty good but on a normal 50 or 60 hertz TV it looks awfully like PS2 quality.
Although the stroy line has its typical GTA twists & turns its predictable, & now that i have finished the story mode there seems little point in continuing to complete it for 100%, the little side missions dont take long or you need a phone calll to alllow you to be able to start such as the Bruice races. Which leaves me slightly disapointed that you arent reallly lured into playing the game further unless you are looking for achievemnts.
the stroy mode is pretty long, it took me 40+ hours to complete the game if you take it slowly (do side missions etc)so longer than other xbox 360 games where most emphasis seems to be on multiplayer.
the multiplayer is not too bad conisdering, the game play is good & the choice of different game types is a nice feature.
Rockstar could bring out some updates for the game like being able to hook up your lorry cab & hold up shops, & places to modify your cars.
