What does the American dream mean today? For Niko Bellic fresh off the boat from Europe, it is the hope he can escape from his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and get dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them and a living nightmare for those who don't.
I like the more realistic tone of the game to be honest, it brought me back to GTA since the early days (the first GTA I remember, the ones that came after it lost me and haven't gotten me back since). I guess I was a sucker for the 8-bit/16-bit games. There wasn't enough about those games to consider investing all the time that would require running around the world.
Niko as a character I can't really relate to, eventhough I understand his motivations, his character is referred to every once and a while. That he survived a war where he had to kill many people.
But it's clear the game is trying to make him the good guy, his morals are clear, he fights whenever there is a something worthwhile fighting. Either for money or saving innocent people. But when he has to mow down cops or get shot while committing crimes it creates a disconnect. So players would have to play in such a way as to not kill cops in order to justify the characterisation were are given..
It's odd to say the least but I suppose its better than giving us a character without any clear defined traits...
I think that GTA was better when it made us play as psychopaths because atleast then not only would the characters be more interesting but there wouldn't be a disconnect between the player & character..
..or they could make the penalties for firing at cops much higher in order to discourage it from happening.
+Niko is defined character that I suppose some people may sympathise with
+Probably the first GTA game where the graphics are fantastic.
+Cars, cars, cars.
+Modding community. they had to create their own mod tools but still, they have kept the game alive way past its date
+Fire fights. Plenty of bad guys to gun down.
-Theres no justification for committing the crimes the game pits us to given the character we are playing as.. killing someone because your boss told you. Killing cops in order to get away.
-Theres not much to do in such a big city, the same problem the previous games had