A 
Review by alienmastermind
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Okay. So, that was a conversation I had with a buddy of mine. We're not ninjas. But I did draw the comic.
So let's talk about something in Grand Theft Auto IV that most reviews don't dwell on too much. You've no doubt read the reviews elsewhere, and even here at PlayIt ReviewIt, and realize that the hype train has some wheels on it. The graphics aren't what you'd call a mind-blowing texture and polygon festival, but I would say they represent the pseudo-realism of the Rockstar style. Much like the painted look of the box art, the game conveys a semi-realistic pop art style that's really impressive.
This review is about Grand Theft Auto IV and its psychological effects via its immersion.
I like being Niko Bellic. I like being him a LOT. Being CJ was fun for a while, until I realized that he wasn't particularly troubled by his lot in life after leaving his 'hood for Sin City. He was fun, but not exactly friendly to anyone but his brother. Connections with his friends were either short-lived or paper thin.
Niko is a guy I wish I knew in real life. I'd like to be one of his buddies that wasn't trying to kill other people or get him killed, or use him for their own nefarious purposes. I've never felt like this about a character in a game.
In movies or television shows, it's easy to relate to a character or like a character because you realize it's a realistic person. (Even if that person is a character on Smallville or Lost) Even the most fantastical films have characters you root for. In GTA IV, for me, it's Niko and Roman.
Why does it work in GTA?
Immersion to the nth degree. People remember what you do, what you wear, they interact with you, and your interactions build into friendships. Hell, you even start thinking like Niko sometimes if the game's working its magic. My thoughts on Niko actually drove me to make one of the choices in the middle of the game a certain way. There comes a time when you must choose to end the life of one of your flamboyant friends or end the life of another low-key friend.
Practicality would suggest one target, and friendship would suggest the other. I chose friendship. For the first time in my gaming life, I had a true dillemma in the classic sense of the word, and I really enjoyed it. Both choices offered ups and downs, but it was easy for me and my view of Niko. You might have breezed through it, but I actually took time to think it over.
Why? Because Niko's world is another little world that runs without you being there. It's the characters walking around, the websites updating with the crazy things you do, and emails from family and friends forwarding all the little stories that occur. And just like real life there seems to be no end to the little stories and distractions as we go about this long arc of our life's plotline. I'm not at the end of the game yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the game has to say for itself.
When you play this game, it does something to you that other games don't get a chance to; it changes the way you look at the 'reality' the characters live in. Rockstar has created a game with an actual 'reality' that its characters encompass. Which brings me to the last point of this 'review' of Grand Theft Auto IV. I've read a LOT about this game in anticipation of its release, and one of the interviews with the guys who designed the Euphoria engine was somewhat troubling.
The models in the game react realistically to pain. Meaning, that they've programmed these little people in the game to feel pain, and actively try to survive when pain is being presented to them. They've inadvertently created a survival instinct, because, when someone gets hit in the game, they'll either fight or flee. Every character in the game is programmed to know that it's been hurt, that it's in pain, that it can die. So, when you pull a gun, some may run, and some may fight.
But its that immersion that's led me not to kill so rampantly, run people down when I don't have to, or even behave as I would if I were CJ, or Tommy Vercetti, or Claude Speed, even. This world is much the same as the other three...Open, a big sandbox that's filled with possibility, but now, the violence has a realism that curbs the irony a bit. It dulls that bloodthirsty behavior when you're off missions...so you don't just go on a rampage, if you don't have to.
Sometimes, you get frustrated and go on a spree, and yeah, it's cathartic. But while you play, remember that the guys and girls at Rockstar designed those little fake people to 'know pain'. And Niko's your responsibility. The game blurs that line well enough to be a perfect masterpiece.
Love it.
Go out and buy it already.
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