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Video Game Vintage Title: Grand Theft Auto IV

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Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 29 April 2008 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, and on 2 December 2008 on Microsoft Windows. It is the eleventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the first main entry since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004. As the first title in the series to be released for the seventh generation of video game consoles, Grand Theft Auto IV was highly anticipated preceding its release.

Grand Theft Auto IV is played from a third-person perspective in an open world environment, allowing the player to interact with the game world at their leisure. The game is set within the fictional state of Liberty City, which is heavily based on New York City. The single-player story follows Niko Bellic, a veteran of an unnamed war in Eastern Europe who comes to the United States in search of someone important, but quickly becomes entangled in a world of gangs, crime, and corruption. An online multiplayer mode is included with the game, allowing up to 16 players to engage in both co-operative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting. Two expansion packs were later released as downloadable content for the game, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, which both feature new plots that are interconnected with the main Grand Theft Auto IV storyline, and follow new protagonists.

Development began shortly following the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Upon its release, the game was acclaimed by many reviewers who praised its story missions, setting, and updates from previous games in the series. A commercial success, Grand Theft Auto IV broke industry sales records by earning US $500 million in the first week of its release.

Its successor, Grand Theft Auto V, was released on 17 September 2013, and has also received universal critical acclaim.

Grand Theft Auto IV Plot

In Liberty City, Niko Bellic, an Eastern European, arrives to meet his cousin Roman. Niko comes to Liberty City to pursue the American Dream, and to search for the man who betrayed his unit in a war fifteen years prior. After his arrival, however, Niko quickly learns that Roman's tales of riches and luxury were lies concealing struggles with gambling debts and loansharks, and that Roman lives in a dirty apartment rather than a mansion.

Niko defends Roman from his loansharks several times, eventually killing Vlad Glebov, Roman's Russian loanshark. Niko was forced to work for Vlad due to Roman's debts but Niko killed Vlad because he found out that Vlad slept with Roman's girlfriend, Mallory. After Vlad's murder, Niko and Roman are kidnapped by members of the Liberty City Bratva on order of Mikhail Faustin and his associate, Dimitri Rascalov. Faustin, not bothered by the murder of Vlad, hires Niko. Niko quickly learns that Faustin is a psychopath when he orders him to kill the son of Kenny Petrović, the most powerful man in the Liberty City Bratva. Dimitri then orders Niko to assassinate Faustin, and when Niko meets with Dimitri to collect on the assassination, Dimitri betrays him. When Niko meets Dimitri, Dimitri brings his friend Bulgarin who claims that Niko stole from him. Niko denies the allegation saying that a cargo ship that he was transporting for Bulgarin sank and that he nearly drowned while swimming to shore.

Immediately afterwards, Niko and Roman are forced to escape to Bohan when their apartment and taxi company are destroyed in arson attacks by Dimitri's men. However, things go poorly in Bohan: one of the drug deals that Niko works on turns out to be a sting and another is busted. After the latter incident, Niko's current girlfriend Michelle then reveals that she works for a government agency and entraps Niko into working for her agency, known only by its cover: United Liberty Paper. Niko kills several known or suspected terrorists for the agency in exchange for the file of the numerous crimes the police have on him and the promise of assistance in finding the traitor of his unit.

With the assistance of United Liberty Paper, Niko eventually tracks down the man responsible for his unit's betrayal: Darko Brevic; the player chooses Darko's fate. Having dealt with his past, Niko is summoned by Jimmy Pegorino, who demands one final favour after many favours: to help with an extremely lucrative deal on heroin in collusion with Dimitri Rascalov.

The story then features two possible endings depending on the choice made by the player at this point in the game: to strike a Deal with Dimitri or exact Revenge on him. If the player chooses to go through with the Deal, Niko soon finds out that Dimitri took the heroin for himself, which endangers and angers Niko. Later, Roman is set to marry Mallory. At the wedding, an assassin sent by Dimitri kills Roman with a stray bullet as Niko disarms and kills him. A devastated and vengeful Niko later tracks down Dimitri and Pegorino, witnesses the former kill the latter, before chasing and killing Dimitri.

If the player chooses to extract Revenge, Niko ambushes Dimitri and executes him. In the aftermath, Roman's wedding takes place, but Pegorino, furious after Niko's betrayal, commits a drive-by shooting outside the church. He targets Niko, but ends up killing Niko's girlfriend Kate. Niko soon tracks down, chases, and kills Pegorino, who had become hated and targeted by the entire underworld of Liberty City.

Grand Theft Auto IV Gameplay

Quite like its predecessors, Grand Theft Auto IV allows the player to intervene on a large open world environment. On foot, the player character can walk, run, jump, climb over obstacles and swim, as well as use weapons and perform basic hand-to-hand combat. Players can steal and drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats, helicopters, and motorcycles. Grand Theft Auto IV takes advantage of Natural Motion's Euphoria engine, which combines artificial intelligence, bio-mechanics and physics to make open, non-linear environments that allow players to explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Although completing most of the storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain content and parts of the city, they are not required, as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not attempting a storyline mission, players can free-roam, giving them the ability to do activities. Some side missions include locating and destroying criminals in the police car database, or participating in street races. The player can also swim, a feature that was introduced in San Andreas, but missing from prior titles.

It is possible to have several active missions running at one time, as some missions run over the course of several days and require the player to wait for further instructions or events. The player can also attempt a variety of optional side missions. Grand Theft Auto IV also contains morality choices at points throughout the game, which alter the storyline appropriately depending on the player's choice. Which of the game's two different endings occurs is determined by one of these choices.

SettingGrand Theft Auto IV takes place in 2008, in a redesigned version of Liberty City consisting of four boroughs, based on four of the boroughs of New York City. Broker is the equivalent of Brooklyn; Queens is Dukes; the Bronx is Bohan and Manhattan is Algonquin. Adjacent to the city is the independent state of Alderney, based on Northern New Jersey and named after the Channel Island of the same name. The developers omitted a Staten Island-esque area, believing that gameplay based in such an area would not be fun. There are three minor islands present: Charge Island (based loosely on Randall's Island), Colony Island (based on Roosevelt Island), and Happiness Island (based on Liberty Island and complete with a parody of the Statue of Liberty called the Statue of Happiness). Initially, the city's bridges are locked down due to a terrorist threat, and the player is constantly pursued by police if they are crossed, but eventually the blockades are lifted and the player is able to cross the Broker, Algonquin and Northwood Heights bridges and explore the rest of the city. The "Francis International Airport" is based on several New York City-area airports, most notably LaGuardia and JFK, however in a departure from past games in the series, exploring the tarmac area of the airport outside of missions usually carries a penalty of a high wanted level being triggered.

The storyline and the timeline of the game is not consistent with the previous games, as the game takes place in a different canon. However, several characters from Grand Theft Auto IV have minor appearances in its successor, Grand Theft Auto V, as the two games are inter-connected and take place in the same canon.


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