Grand Theft Auto IV: Kikizo Preview 2
Kikizo's second massive first-hand preview of GTA IV is so detailed that we're a bit worried about our own mental health. Get your FULL update on the game of the year fresh from our extensive meeting with Rockstar.
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Goldberg starts talking, it's not a cut-scene, and we can move about and take the shot at any time during his speech: "Hello, Niko! I'm looking for a man who can get jobs done right. Nikolai, I like your resume. You seem to be the sort of man who would go the extra distance, a man who's struggled. I just need to take another look and get myself reacquainted with your experience.... So you're the sort of man who doesn't wait to get told what to do, a guy who looks at the world, sees problems, and..." - then Niko pulls his gun out. "Woah, woah, hold on second there friend! We're lawyers, we don't need guns! Strong move though, I gotta say, I like that style... I'm all about the Second Amendment... guns don't kill people, videogames do!"
"One can't help but wonder if Rockstar was thinking of its own special someone when a smug anti-videogame lawyer is disposed of in the game."
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And with that, Niko demands to know where the McReary files are, then puts a bullet in Goldberg before he smashes and falls through the window of his office down to the street below - that's him taken care of. One can't help but wonder if Rockstar was thinking of its own special someone when designing a scene in which a smug anti-videogame lawyer is disposed of. Of course, we get a little bit of bother afterwards because ten seconds after Goldberg 'leaves the building', the police sirens start again and we need to make an escape.
Since Niko has a dark criminal past, he's familiar with just about every weapon you can throw at him - there's no need to train him like a nancy. "We're about making a game that's accessible by everyone," Rockstar promises. The targeting system works accordingly; you've got your auto targeting as well as manual aim, for people who are happier to do that. Rockstar also has a brand new cover system for the game - Niko can basically take cover behind anything (in this office environment, a cleaner's maintenance trolley does the job), and you will see the cops taking cover as well. The gunfight and chaotic rhythm of hiding, taking cover, shooting and reloading is classic gameplay that is great fun to see action, particularly with the ragdoll deaths of everybody in sight - against walls, down stairwells. We rush downstairs to the central area of lobby, and we're still up at three wanted stars (six is the current total), so the cops keep coming into the building to try and bust us. We make an exit using various emergency stairs - it's a tactical exit in which, once again, the player has a choice and things could go either way depending on your actions.
On the PS2, the overriding theme in GTA was to exploit the technology through freedom, but what Rockstar says it's adding now is "immediacy and intimacy" with that freedom; it's not simply about making things bigger and broader, it's adding a significant level of depth, diversity, and detail. "The game is now about the experience as a whole, it's not just a features list anymore, and everything in GTA IV is done to a very thoughtful design, for a specific purpose." The experience when you play, Rockstar told us, is all about choice and consequence, and the fact that everything you do has weight to it - "so whatever choice you make will have a consequence to that particular action - that is something we're trying to highlight with the game."
"Bullet shells line the sidewalk and even the Walk / Don't Walk sign box is unceremoniously deposited on the floor."
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We actually went through the demo twice at Rockstar this time. On the second play through, after we take out Goldberg, instead of pursuing the missions from the first play, we instead opt to get our hands dirty in a massive outside shootout, in an area full of opportunities for cover. Cops, pedestrians, traffic and choppers all get in on the action, and we even blow up a gas station for the hell of it with some carefully aimed shots at the refill terminal when we switch our weapon to the Micro SMG. Awesome, as it explodes out in different directions out of the pump and the screen shakes with a bassy boom. This place is full of highly destructible environments - this particular shootout looks like a bombsite once we're done with it, with street lights fallen all over the place and trash spilling everywhere. Paper dispensers nudge around as bullets ricochet off them, and bullet shells line the sidewalk. Even the Walk / Don't Walk sign box is unceremoniously deposited on the floor.
(Continued...)
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