Will IV Sacrifice Enemy Numbers For Intense Fights

[Don Garcia aka NjNakedSnake]

Well I made the title pretty self-explanatory. I was just thinking about a topic that hasn't been talked to death yet and this came to mind. In past GTAs, almost every level that involved shooting or fighting had you facing off alone against large numbers. It never failed, it was always you against 5, 6 enemies, a lot of times more. This made for the cheesy trademark GTA toggle kills where you'd very easily off 8 dudes in under 20 seconds by just auto-aiming and firing. That made for some pretty uneventful and unexciting shootouts. It never made much sense to me. There'd be levels when I'd be up against a dozen guys armed with AKs and I'd wipe 'em out like I was the Terminator for God's sake. I hated that for one, and the crazy mobs they'd throw at you were just ridiculous. One man taking on basically a small army equipped with heavy firepower, and I'm not Rambo? Just doesn't work...sorry. I mean, it could, it should, I hope it does in IV, but the whole combat system would have to be overhauled and the graphics shown in the trailers are a good indication that it has.

 

So, I wanted to know what you guys felt about this. Do you think Rstar will have you facing off against less enemies, but have much more intense gunfights/fist fights? Will they be substituting quantity for quality? Less baddies, more visceral action? I for one hope so. I'm looking foward to very hardcore gunfights with only like 2 other guys that has me scrambling for cover, maybe some shaky camera like in Gears of War, Niko panting and making audible noises of pain, and a new audio system that'll blow our minds. I'm talking realistic sounds of bullets busting windshields, hitting cars, debris exploding and hitting the floor, glass shattering, etc.

 

As for fist fights I'm hoping for a nice system. The trailers were unimpressive with showing new stuff. The same old punch and high kick were seen, but I was expecting maybe a leg sweep or headbutt. New fight moves that would really put a hurt on a thug or an innocent grandma. Perhaps there are tons more new moves, but we just haven't see 'em yet. Maybe that's one of the many things Rstar is keeping quiet.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[chillwinston8717]

Seems like a great idea. But hopefully they don't make it just like a Big Smoke fight; putting 40 bullets in his head and him still kicking doesn't make sense.

Hopefully if they learn to take cover effectively and work together as a team, it should provide for some interesting gun battles.

[Enterprise07]

I can really see Rockstar doing this, they said in the Kiziko preview that Security Guards take cover, can blind fire aswell and scramble around to avoid incoming shots.

 

The emphasis was on an 'intense experience' and from this I can see that we are far beyond good ol' auto-aim killing sprees! - I reckon that AI enhanced 2 cops in decent cover could easily prove a good challenge rather than a 'awww, shame you have to die now' 3 second gunfight with the M4....

[ivar]

Of course they're keeping quiet on the new fighting styles. They wouldn't make us play a fairly huge amount of the game's beginning without weapons if the fighting was the same as in the previous titles. I believe they made a huge overhaul in that department.

 

About the tougher, but lesser in quantity enemies - I'm totally with you on that. But I hope they still sometimes throw in the hordes of "less intelligent" enemies...Slaughters are always fun ^-^

Maybe gradually change the ratio of the number of enemies and their AI in combat. In the start - lots of dumb thugs, in the end - a few professional hitmen/guards/whatever.

[NoSkillz187]

Yea i think it will be alot more intense. No more standing out in the open taking a million bullets. I just cant wait to get into an intense shootout, in the middle of the street, with everyone taking cover behind cars and whatever elese is on the street. And i think the fighting will be way better. We have only seen 2 seconds of it. With him throwing a single kick or punch.

 

Ofcourse they arent showing everything. I mean, we have already seen a picture with Niko stepping on a guys hands, to make him fall off a building. I think there will be alot of context sensitive moves. Like smashinh someones head into a car window, or throwing someone into a wall, etc.

[Don Garcia aka NjNakedSnake]

 

Maybe gradually change the ratio of the number of enemies and their AI in combat. In the start - lots of dumb thugs, in the end - a few professional hitmen/guards/whatever.

Interesting, could work in the story, but not so much just causing trouble on the streets. By the end of the game you'd be facing off against serious, cold-blooded killers and assassins.

[ivar]

Maybe gradually change the ratio of the number of enemies and their AI in combat. In the start - lots of dumb thugs, in the end - a few professional hitmen/guards/whatever.

Interesting, could work in the story, but not so much just causing trouble on the streets. By the end of the game you'd be facing off against serious, cold-blooded killers and assassins.

Well I thought of it as a part of the story. But maybe there are so much differences in the regular pedestrians that there's a variety in their way of acting. Maybe some regular street strollers have weapons (why shouldn't they? There are weapon carriers on the streets every day, for self protection) and some don't, thusly some people give out a nice fight, but some of them will try to escape and you can take 'em down, laughing manically at the same time. You'll never know who's gonna pull a gun on you if you aim them.

[crux989]

The fighting moves were pretty standard. Except for the man clubbing Niko in the face with the butt of his rifle. That would lay down some pretty massive damage if Niko could use this feature.

 

 

I always felt like the game was shallow when it came to enemies. Like taking over territories wasnt very tough; it was just time consuming and boring. Wave after wave of guys beating down on you. And for what? An alley? A sh*tty little block in a sh*tty part of town? You were wasting your time murdering hundreds of mindless drones for nothing more than a spec of land. OooOoo you can gather an 8 armed crew now. Yay

 

It just didnt feel as if the rewards were worth the mindless violence. This can be fixed by making the rewards more worth fighting for, but if they can make the fights themselves more interesting itd be even better.

[Simseth]

Thank you so much for making an interesting topic.

[Greatest Thing Alive]

All I can say is that they should make the fighting sequence fun but hard. I don't want GTA IV to be a game where everytime I will lose the same mission about 10 times I will throw the remote at the tv.

[TubbyJ]

I'm pretty sure R* hinted at these types of combat encounters in the Kiziko preview or something like that. I really hope this changes, I hated that aspect of GTA, really the only flaw in the entire series.

[ceedot]

They do that so you feel good about yourself, and it seems more like a movie. I kinda like killing heaps of people, that way I take out my anger on them.

[Don Garcia aka NjNakedSnake]

I'd prefer less enemies, but if they can manage to add great shootouts and AI to a large number of bad guys, that'd be cool too. I just hated the mindless waves of moving targets.

[ceedot]

I'd prefer less enemies, but if they can manage to add great shootouts and AI to a large number of bad guys, that'd be cool too. I just hated the mindless waves of moving targets.

I think the blind cover and stuff, that even AI will use, would be good. It should contribute to your idea of 'less enemies, but smarter'.

[Don Garcia aka NjNakedSnake]

^ One would hope so, this was one of the worst problems of the past GTAs.

[YourNeighborhoodKiller]

I was playing GRAW2, earlier today, and when your in combat, you usually have 2-3 guys battling you, 4 at top. Also, if say they shot you in the head, you would die instantly. Leg/Arm you would still continue to fight.

 

My point here is, I hope GTA IV, will be sort of like this.

 

A reason why, is it would become more challenging. And you wouldn't be so bored of always winning, and killing everyone.