So I decided to replay Grand Theft Auto IV.
And as I did I started to wonder; 'Why am I playing this?'
It's not necessarily a fun and it's very tedious.
Yet there's something about it that just keeps bringing me back. I tried to conceive of what that motion might be.
After all I've enjoyed most of the Grand Theft Auto games that have come out over the years and generally anytime I think back to Vice City I remember one of the most fun games I've ever played.
I still go back play to this day. It's a really well put together solid game.
But then I look at Grand Theft Auto IV.
It's slow, its colours are muted. The gameplay is incredibly similar, as you spend most of your missions just running around and shooting the same people again and again.
And God help you if you die during a mission. You'll have to go back and do the entire thing. But Despite all this I find myself wanting to turn it back on to play again.
I realised that although the older Grand Theft Autos are fun the newer ones have a really good sense of Engagement.
There's something about the shooting mechanics and the driver and controls that's just so interesting to come back to.
I love the way the vehicles handle. The weight, speed, and suspension.
You turn a tight corner in an older model sedan and you see the entire way to the car shift to one side and alter the performance of your vehicle.
It really doesn't make for good gameplay when you're trying to say: Chase down an enemy combatant on the road or escaping the police. But generally driving around and getting a proper feel for the vehicles can be quite satisfying.
Once you learn how to properly drive these monstrosity you find it can be an oddly fun experience to explore the world.
It also may help that you can customise one of the radio stations and put in whatever music you want.
And I have to admit that I found myself intrigued by the dialogue and story of all the different characters.
More so in the first Grand Theft Auto 4 game then say Gay Tony where half the characters aren't well fleshed out and I find myself resenting our protagonist after a point, but it was still kind of interesting to do listen to these people's weird little lives they try to survive in this hyper violent city.
I do have one glaring problem with this game and that's its lack of commitment to the gay club and generally just gay aesthetic.
It wants to submerge you in the world of Club life and all these other flamboyanes things, but it never lets you take apart of any of it.
Your character is for all intensive purposes an incredibly straight-laced Arrow of a man who ultimately comes off as feeling really insecure.
Half the people you work with around you are just bigoted jerks.
I get that all of them are criminals and they couldn't give a damn about some of these issues but your character does very little to sway any of this and ultimately become he's just as bad as the rest at some points.
It's one of the reasons I ultimately don't like our character towards the end. that and his constant whining about not wanting to be a psychopath killer but then going about and just killing everyone regardless.
For some reason it bothers me here more than it did with Niko Bellic's character. Who also had this problem.
But I saw Niko as an insane killer who would like to be better but ultimately can't be.
Where as Luis comes off like a man who believes he's a good-hearted guy when in reality he's just as much a psychopath as everyone else in this world.
It's that whole dissidence problem that Grand Theft Auto has always had. It Doesn't affect the gameplay in any way shape or form but it can affect some of your characters especially if they're trying to play the nice guy angle.
This is why I like Tommy Vercetti or Carl Johnson.
They had their own problems but they never for a moment thought they were ever a good people.
This may also explain why I like the Saints Row games more, especially the earlier ones. As your character has no Illusions about what they are.
Who are completely willing to dive into the insanity that is there crazy killer world.
I mean in this game you have a chance to work with this Bulgarian guy who's one of the main antagonist of the first game.
Your character really doesn't want anything to do with him. Meanwhile I'm sitting there going; ''Yeah killing people for you why not.''
That's all we do in this game anyways. Let me destroy things in the most ridiculous fashion and we'll go on creating this Madhouse crazy Russian mafia that can completely destroy every other rifle gang in the city.
Overall it's fine for what it is. An expansion on an already established game with pretty good shooting mechanics kind of samey missions and a protagonist why ultimately find lack luster in the end. Not bad per-se but nothing great.
Also I find it really sad that the over-the-top radio political commentaries and television shows just feel like normal shows.
It's like watching Network all over again. It's supposed to be satirical but it just comes off as average in this increasingly confusing and over-the-top media landscape.
Also all that '''PC culture''' / '''sjw''' crap that everybody keeps complaining about came about in the last 5 years.
Has been regularly talked about in this game from 11 years ago. So can we stop saying that they're trying to alter the news cycle when they're just talking about the same crap we were already blathering on about 10 20 or even 30 years ago.
Whenever 'new' fangled thing you think people are complaining about today. I can guarantee it was legitimate problem 20 if not a hundred years ago as well.
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