Is the story of GTA4 worth the time commitment?

bcoakiot

bcoakiot

CAGiversary!
Feedback
1 (100%)
So I just finished Undead Nightmare for RDR, and it really got me in a Rockstar kind of mood. I never finished The Lost and Damned, so I decided to start it up again. I'm almost done now, I only have a few more missions to go. I already beat The Ballad of Gay Tony last year. When it came out, I played about half of the GTA4 story missions.

So my question now- Is the story of GTA4 worth experiencing? I really don't care about the side stuff, I would just play through the story. But it's kind of a long game (as opposed to the small time commitment of the DLC), and I would need to start over because otherwise I would have no idea what's going on. I'm all for doing this if the story is good, has a satisfying ending, etc.

Anyone have an opinion? I'm really looking for a good story game, and still have Dragon Age Origins on the shelf. So GTA4 first, or skip it for DA:O?
 
When playing GTAIV you can forget the story a bit if you don't do mission after mission that keeps you in the loop. If you do side stuff for a longer periods of time, you tend to forget what the story was and what earlier missions told you. :lol:
 
[quote name='metaphysicalstyles']IMHO, GTAIV is NOT worth the time. I was bored to death through the entire game.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. And I gave it a long chance to grab me (like 20 hours) and just never got into it. Story is nothing great, and the gameplay gets super repetitive. Lack of in mission check points really sucked balls for longer missions.
 
Not to be devil's advocate, but I just wanted to say the story is actually really good. Niko is a great character and the last hour or so of the story has a lot of emotional moments. (And no, not just because there aren't any checkpoints in that last mission. :))
 
I really did not care too much about the story, the characters on the other hand are very entertaining.
 
[quote name='bcoakiot']So I just finished Undead Nightmare for RDR, and it really got me in a Rockstar kind of mood. I never finished The Lost and Damned, so I decided to start it up again. I'm almost done now, I only have a few more missions to go. I already beat The Ballad of Gay Tony last year. When it came out, I played about half of the GTA4 story missions.

So my question now- Is the story of GTA4 worth experiencing? I really don't care about the side stuff, I would just play through the story. But it's kind of a long game (as opposed to the small time commitment of the DLC), and I would need to start over because otherwise I would have no idea what's going on. I'm all for doing this if the story is good, has a satisfying ending, etc.

Anyone have an opinion? I'm really looking for a good story game, and still have Dragon Age Origins on the shelf. So GTA4 first, or skip it for DA:O?[/QUOTE]

Dragon Age has great side stories, but the main plot line is very shallow. Think of it has buying a bunch of really interesting DLCs. I think you'd enjoy it regardless though.

Haven't played GTA4, personally.
 
I really enjoyed the story of GTA4 myself. It took me a long time to complete the game though since I would put it down for a month or two at times and then pick it up again. The problem it faces, is that the missions really begin to start blurring together and you feel like you're doing essentially the same mission over and over again with just a different person giving you the objectives. I felt this hurt the game, because it really made it hard to play for a long time when it felt like the mission repetitiveness got in the way of the story. It reminds me of how so many TV shows that do the longer ~20 episode seasons end up filling out the season with episodes that essentially have very little to do with the main plot.

Overall, if you have A LOT of patience and time, I'd say it's worth it. GTA4 was the first GTA game I ever completed, so that's gotta at least say something in it's favor since I tended to get bored with the other games about halfway through.
 
It's worth it and its not THAT long, especially if you want to rush through it. If you really want just take a taxi everywhere and play missions quickly and you can blow through the game. Personally I liked driving to missions and listening to the conversations in the car. Playing the main game first would have helped the DLC make more sense as well.
 
Hmm.. looks like we're pretty split here. The thing that may push me over the edge though, which I forgot about until metaly and dmaul1114 mentioned it, is that there's no mission checkpoints. They added that for the DLC, if I'm not mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong). I died a lot in the later missions of both of the DLCs, so this might get annoying. Thanks for the input!
 
not really. gta4 had a pretty shit story with an ever shitier ending. if you need to get the complete collection on one bluray for 40 the other episodes ( balad of gay tony & lost and the damned) are very fun especially gay tony lots of side shit to get into.
 
GTA IV had too much of an identity crisis to really do much with the story. Yeah, great, Niko is full of remorse and self-loathing over what he's seen and done in the war, but... didn't I just blow up, like, twenty cars just for the hell of it?

Factor in no mission checkpoints, and you get a pissed off The Crotch. At least they did multiple versions of the drive-across-the-city-from-where-the-mission-starts-to-where-you-actually-have-to-do-something banter.
 
[quote name='bcoakiot']So I just finished Undead Nightmare for RDR, and it really got me in a Rockstar kind of mood. I never finished The Lost and Damned, so I decided to start it up again. I'm almost done now, I only have a few more missions to go. I already beat The Ballad of Gay Tony last year. When it came out, I played about half of the GTA4 story missions.

So my question now- Is the story of GTA4 worth experiencing? I really don't care about the side stuff, I would just play through the story. But it's kind of a long game (as opposed to the small time commitment of the DLC), and I would need to start over because otherwise I would have no idea what's going on. I'm all for doing this if the story is good, has a satisfying ending, etc.

Anyone have an opinion? I'm really looking for a good story game, and still have Dragon Age Origins on the shelf. So GTA4 first, or skip it for DA:O?[/QUOTE]
Nah. Technically it's an amazing game, but not enough to keep you going. I think I put about 30-40 hours on it before I had enough. Same with Dragon Age. It's a well made game too, but I got about 30 hours into that one and just found it a bit too dry and soulless for my taste.
 
No, despite some entertaining characters the ending is laughably lame and you're forced into a storyline romance with a weak character you probably won't even want to pursue in the actual gameplay.
 
[quote name='bcoakiot']Hmm.. looks like we're pretty split here. The thing that may push me over the edge though, which I forgot about until metaly and dmaul1114 mentioned it, is that there's no mission checkpoints. They added that for the DLC, if I'm not mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong). I died a lot in the later missions of both of the DLCs, so this might get annoying. Thanks for the input![/QUOTE]

A lot of the missions aren't extremely long though, and I don't really have a big problem with no checkpoints IMO.

[quote name='sherry shaw']GTA 4 is worse than Mafia 2 on Storyline and game engine I think.[/QUOTE]

Is your name supposed to be a play on Gary Shaw?
 
[quote name='Jesus_S_Preston']No, despite some entertaining characters the ending is laughably lame and you're forced into a storyline romance with a weak character you probably won't even want to pursue in the actual gameplay.[/QUOTE]
:applause: The fact that they did TWO endings for the game and BOTH sucked really stunk. If not for the online mp I would've probably traded the game the day I finished it(and I'm usually a pretty big GTA fan).:D

Now the GTA Episodes on the other hand, that was kinda fun because you had a bunch of different types of missions and two moderately entertaining storylines to play through. The online for those is INSANE btw. I especially love the SWAT tank with the .50 cal gun on it that blows up cars in 3-4 shots and the Buzzard and Annihilator for just causing mass havoc.
 
[quote name='Thekrakrabbit']A lot of the missions aren't extremely long though, and I don't really have a big problem with no checkpoints IMO.[/QUOTE]
Sometimes, there's 5-10 minutes of driving from where you get the mission to where you actually start doing things.

Sometimes, every single asshole on the bridge decides to randomly switch lanes, creating a mile-long traffic jam and exploding the shit out of your motorcycle.

Sometimes, those two things combine to make me just go replay Half-Life or something.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Sometimes, there's 5-10 minutes of driving from where you get the mission to where you actually start doing things.

Sometimes, every single asshole on the bridge decides to randomly switch lanes, creating a mile-long traffic jam and exploding the shit out of your motorcycle.

Sometimes, those two things combine to make me just go replay Half-Life or something.[/QUOTE]
That's when I used to go steal an Annihilator from the airport tarmac, outrun the 6 star wanted level and just go postal on NPC's in general for 40 minutes.;)
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That's when I used to go steal an Annihilator from the airport tarmac, outrun the 6 star wanted level and just go postal on NPC's in general for 40 minutes.;)[/QUOTE]
And then in the next cutscene, Niko spends five minutes blubbering about whether or not he should kill one guy.
 
The first ten hours are the best of the story. After that, it declines VERY fast. It is one of the few single player games I saw through the end, and I was kinda like "uh... mmkay."
 
I bought this game cuz I played it at a friends house and loved it. Started to play by myself and it wasn't fun anymore. Not sure what happened in between that time frame but it's one of the only games I owned that I sold. I then got saints row 2 and realized that GTA4 was too realistic and serious for this type of game.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Sometimes, there's 5-10 minutes of driving from where you get the mission to where you actually start doing things.[/QUOTE]

That's what taxis are for, you can teleport anywhere on the map.

While the story wasn't that great and was extremely predictable, the characters are great. I'm currently on my fourth playthrough.
TLAD was also pretty good, but had less variety than GTA4, I've beat it twice.
I just finished TBOGT yesterday, it wasn't nearly as good. There were a lot of annoying characters (including the player character, Luis), a lot of the missions are gimmicky crap, and towards the end they like to throw hoards of enemies at you (that's just lazy level design).
 
[quote name='mr_burnzz']I bought this game cuz I played it at a friends house and loved it. Started to play by myself and it wasn't fun anymore. Not sure what happened in between that time frame but it's one of the only games I owned that I sold. I then got saints row 2 and realized that GTA4 was too realistic and serious for this type of game.[/QUOTE]
I enjoyed Saint's Row 2 more than GTA IV as well. Although the side missions in SR2 were a bit annoying at times, especially the one with the 'honey wagon'(shit truck) where you had to spray people and buildings while the woman giving you the mission kept repeating some rather disgusting statements throughout.:whistle2:#
 
[quote name='PenguinMaster']That's what taxis are for, you can teleport anywhere on the map.
[/QUOTE]

Yep. Once I figured that out that kept me from giving up on the game for a while.

But there are still way to many multi stage missions with no check points where you have to go talk to someone, go get through a big shootout in a warehouse or something, then have a shootout and escape with the police to get to a point where you can save.

Just absurd. One of my biggest pet peeves with games is having to replay long sections due to lack of checkpoints. In that example, there's no reason they couldn't have checkpoints after you talk to the person, after you arrive at the warehouse, after you kill the last enemy in the warehouse, and once you escape from police perimeter.

No reason to do it all over if you die during the police escape or get caught etc.
 
[quote name='PenguinMaster']That's what taxis are for, you can teleport anywhere on the map.[/QUOTE]
Can I take a taxi with three or four NPCs on the way to a bank robbery?

I... I never even thought to try that.

EDIT: Besides that, "We've created a system that lets you get around the fucking bullshit that infects the enormous open world we've created" is some right fucking bullshit in itself.
 
The only real fun I had in this game was going on mini rampages between missions. Just go down the road driving on the sidewalk and listening to the sickening thuds of NPC's hitting your bumper, hood and windshield instead of the radio. Then follow that up with a standoff with the cops for as long as you have ammo for.

Rinse, repeat, do some missions in between these rampages and so on.
 
[quote name='The Crotch']Can I take a taxi with three or four NPCs on the way to a bank robbery?

I... I never even thought to try that.

EDIT: Besides that, "We've created a system that lets you get around the fucking bullshit that infects the enormous open world we've created" is some right fucking bullshit in itself.[/QUOTE]


that was , for me, the most impressive thing in the game. driving around in games like that becomes a chore over time and the cab system in gta4 was awesome. i think i spent more money on cabs than i did weapons.
 
I liked GTA4. It's not even that long really. I got the achievement for finishing the game quickly on my first time through. My only real problem is the lack of checkpoints during missions. It really is ridiculous not to have those in 2010.
 
Not without checkpoints. Played up until the Heat-esque bank robbery mission and dying as I got out of the sewers about 20 minutes into that mission caused me to drop the game for good. If you're going to making your missions so damn long, at least offer checkpoints so that it's not a chore to play through. I'd also imagine that the controls, which were an improvement over the clunky controls of the GTA3 trilogy, have aged really poorly for a game that's only two years old now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top