The Ultimate GTA Game

[Darkel2001]

Even in 2021, this is Rockstar at their creative/talent peak and proved that they went above and beyond to bring a next gen GTA to fans and gamers everywhere.

 

They literally worked with an outside company to create the remarkable Euphoria animation middleware, which is still impressive in 2021 because no games outside of R*'s modern repertoire utilize it.

 

This game has everything though, way beyond graphics/technology. A dark story line with characters who have depth and develop over time, amazing replay value with its missions/general gameplay, and an evolved GTA formula that focused on social/zeitgeist aspects with the whole internet/phone/friends thing. It was and still is next gen GTA bliss.

 

This game makes its predecessors and contemporary imitations look like technological dinosaurs in comparison.

 

The king of open world games has yet to be bested imo.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

@Wolfman_ won't be happy  

 

But I agree with you. After playing all the other GTA games and finally discovering IV that's how I felt about it and still do. The physics are awesome, and I love the attention to detail and the amount of freedom given to the player in missions. And I love the tone/story/characters/writing, it's just my cup of tea. I think it's unlikely another one will overtake it for me because of that last thing, even if the physics/missions design/other technical aspects are even better the writing in IV happens to be so perfectly to my taste that I can't imagine the chances of another one beating it are high (even though I'm open to it).

 

[Americana]

Yes, looks like somebody at Rockstar really wanted this series to be something awesome when they created Grand Theft Auto IV. 

 

3D Grand Theft Auto games were good games back in the day, but with Grand Theft Auto IV they showed us that they can create a real crime simulator.

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Americana

[Algonquin Assassin]

Couldn’t agree more OP. While Vice City is my sentimental favourite, GTA IV will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

Very few games reach the peak of being special and GTA IV earns its place in the elite few.

[AkshayKumar]

I guess this speaks more of my own tastes than GTA IV but while GTA IV does so many things well as has been mentioned, perhaps better than the other GTAs, I just like the grander nature of the stories of Vice City, San Andreas and V over the more grounded IV. 

 

It felt like you were aiming for a lofty goal in these games; VC had you build your own criminal empire, San Andreas had you on a state wide adventure, V had you perform bombastic heists after bombastic heists (I know V in particular gets flack for the story being mostly the FIBs 'lapdog', but the heists were still fun and felt like some 'aim for the stars' sh*t and the Big Score payout felt like a real achievement imo). 

 

With IV they intentionally went for a more grounded, more personal story and in a sense IV's story could be more ambitious than the others I mentioned in that it felt like there was more of an effort to portray the characters as complex flawed people than caricatures and the story felt like there were real consequences to it rather than the protagonist finally overcoming everything and becoming a criminal mastermind. 

 

But then I just like the protagonist overcoming everything and becoming a criminal mastermind trope, you see. IVs story may have been more gripping but I prefer the more bombastic, ambitious nature of the other 3 GTAs I mentioned (ambitious as in what the protagonists aim for in the story, otherwise like I said IV story could be the most ambitious but comparing Nikos aim to get revenge and start a new life to say Tommy wanting to take over VCs underworld, the latter style is what I prefer). 

 

IV does a lot of other things really well like the game physics and the excellent city but my tastes are just different it seems lol, I prefer San Andreas' game physics (particularly the driving and how the protagonist moves) the most even though obviously Euphoria is a lot more in depth. I also prefer Los Santos to Liberty City simply because I prefer sunnier, more colourful locations and I'd probably prefer a HD Vice City to Liberty for this reason. 

 

None of what I said really refutes the 'IV is the ultimate GTA' claim lol cause I kept going on about how me preferring other GTAs is down more to my tastes than any objective criteria. Just that I kinda felt like saying my piece cause well IV is fourth best for me and a lot of its strengths like the grounded story, the gritty city, to even the driving just aren't my thing as much as the power fantasy stories and more vivid cities of other GTAs. So to me it doesn't feel like a slam dunk winner over the other GTAs to be called the ultimate (even though idk how good my reasoning is but hey I still wanted to share). 

[Ryo256]

@Wayne Kerr

I kinda agree. GTA VC and GTA SA offer experiences that can't be satisfied by GTA IV. There is a void that GTA V was supposed to fill (and I will explain why it attempts to do that and fails).

 

However, consider the relationship of GTA III with GTA IV. If you analyze them you will realize that Rockstar saw a lot of aspects of GTA III and thought about how they can evolve them. So instead of a mute protagonist, you got a protagonist like Niko which is the opposite of a mute protagonist and Liberty City simply became more elaborated upon. Now anyone who thinks GTA III is the iconic GTA game may likely accept that GTA IV is just an evolved and better version hence touching the title of Ultimate GTA game (which is very cringey to say just saying).

But of course as I said, GTA SA is awesome and we wanted an HD incarnation of that game as well or at least Vice City and GTA V was supposed to do that but it didn't.
It also attempts at complex characters like Michael. It also highlights consequences which shown by how Michael is stuck with FIB with the deal he made, how he needs to handle the friend he betrayed and so on. Sure you can pick Ending C and give everyone the finger but Ending A and B do exist. So I am afraid, GTA V is not continuing the legacy of "shooting for the stars" of GTA SA and VC. GTA V really attempts to show you just how ugly and selfish the player is through Trevor and Michael which is something GTA SA and VC just don't do. Not only that the game would sometime deny you the reward (like the Merryweather heist) which is something VC and SA would never do. It goes you show that being FIB lapdog isn't the only problem with GTA V.

The problem is that GTA V has too much of GTA IV in it (in a shallow way) and also has a lot of GTA SA in it (again, in a shallow way) that ultimately it gives a very, well.....shallow experience in my opinion.
I would say that games like GTA III, VC and SA can compete with GTA IV for being the ultimate GTA game but I disagree with GTA V being up there. GTA V has "issues" that needs it get over, its identity crisis and what not, then maybe it can compete for the Ultimate GTA game title in my opinion.

[Algonquin Assassin]

On 9/20/2021 at 7:11 PM, Ryo256 said:

GTA V has "issues" that needs it get over, its identity crisis and what not, then maybe it can compete for the Ultimate GTA game title in my opinion.

 

This is the difference. GTA IV feels like a celebration of the best aspects of GTA III and improves on them in every way. GTA V doesn't even improve on the best aspects of San Andreas and nerfs the progress GTA IV made. It doesn't know whether wants to be a sequel to the 3D era or GTA IV.

 

GTA IV started with a clean slate so R* could afford to revisit ideas they couldn't implement in GTA III, but at the same time revitalised the GTA III formula in a much more sophisticated approach with the new hardware, engine, physics etc. 

[Ryo256]

11 hours ago, MiamiViceCity1986 said:

This is the difference. GTA IV feels like a celebration of the best aspects of GTA III and improves on them in every way. GTA V doesn't even improve on the best aspects of San Andreas and nerfs the progress GTA IV made. It doesn't know whether wants to be a sequel to the 3D era or GTA IV.

 

GTA IV started with a clean slate so R* could afford to revisit ideas they couldn't implement in GTA III, but at the same time revitalised the GTA III formula in a much more sophisticated approach with the new hardware, engine, physics etc. 

It's not just that GTA IV celebrates the best aspects of GTA III. It also celebrates quite a few aspects of GTA SA.

GTA SA introduced three things that we should consider:
1. A more focus on story, CJ is shown to face struggle and how he grows, characters relationship are emphasized and so on. Sure GTA SA did not have a super amazing story but it was the one that started this trend of focusing on the story in GTA series.
2. Then the focus on physics, GTA SA had more improvement in physics compared to Vice City. Again the trend was becoming visible.
3. The rewarding system, GTA SA rewarded you for everything from side missions to every girl you dated. GTA IV is rewarding in the same way.

GTA IV simply took all these aspects and improved. To me, it's not that surprising after analyzing the direction of GTA SA, that GTA IV did follow up on many things. In its DLCs, TLaD focused on the gang aspect of GTA SA and TBoGT focused on the wackiness and luxury life aspect that GTA SA also focused on in Las Venturas.

The only aspect that GTA IV did not fulfill for GTA SA was quantity. That's why GTA V was needed and it didn't do that. But GTA IV, not only did it succeed in it doing its own thing, it celebrated GTA III's legacy and on top of that still manage to honor GTA SA as much as it did as I explained above. That's why it can be considered the ultimate GTA game.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Ryo256