10/10, the best Grand Theft Auto game by far. If you're an adult and your IQ is over 100 you'll see why.
I'll divide my review in different blocks.
- The Story:
Niko Bellic is a 30 year old that comes to Liberty City with his own problems, the entire game he's fighting demons of his past, and throughout the game you see him grow as a person and change from who he was when he first arrived. His cousin Roman feels like a real life person, with his personality and his imperfections, his dialogues are funny and well written. Every character feels like someone you could meet in real life, the voice acting is INCREDIBLE, as it makes you become fully immersed in the game and you don't think even once of them as "actors playing a character". Each one of them: the good ones, the funny ones, the evil ones, they're extremely well made, they're not repetitive, and each of them has their goals and motivations. There are no "bland" characters that have no personality.
The theme of the story revolves a lot around modern world problems, the struggle of being an adult trying to make ends meet, the struggle of having to move to another country for a better chance at life, making yourself be respected in a world where respect matters the most, making friendships and gathering strength from them in order to survive in a cruel world, etc. When you're a kid and you play this game you see it as a game of gangsters and killers, but when you're an adult yourself you see much more into the depth of the game and the motivations of the "evil" characters.
The game deals a LOT with themes of forgiveness, but it doesn't just focus and become centered on it, the characters are not black and white and so isn't the main character, he is a normal person with his "immoral" moral compass, like all of us, he is not some perfect fictional man made to be an example and show us a perfectly moral superhero of social justice.
The characters are incredibly well written: the gangsters have ego problems and are constantly trying to impose their will on others, because that's how you have to be when you're a ganster. The junkies are very clearly insecure people who rely on others for help. When the characters are under stress they behave erratically and don't follow a singular script of "this character is this way, this is his personality, so he acts this way the entire time".
- Gameplay
You'll drive and shoot the most in a Grand Theft Auto game, so they're the most important things. Driving in this game feels incredible, it's not easy as the game is very realistic in the way how the suspension and brakes of the car work. It feels almost like a simulator, you can use real life driving techniques like a Scandinavian Flick. The physics of the bikes are not that good.
Shooting feels incredible, the ragdoll physics are very realistic and make every shootout feel incredibly satisfying and rewarding. The game is not a handholding experience like in modern games. It teaches you in the beginning to use cover and shoot from behind it, if you stand up and try to face enemies like a terminator you'll get shot down and die quick.
- Graphics
(I played this game using the FusionFix mod, so some things are slightly changed but stick to the original)
For a 2008 game they're incredibly well made. The lightning of the city, during day and during night feel incredibly immersive, they don't rely on beautiful graphics to make it feel real, the colors of the city give a "grim" tone that helps immerse you in the cruelty and harsh reality of the story. The night is dark and makes missions much more difficult.
- Sound
Music in radios is excellent and has a lot of variety. There are tons of ambient details in the game that shows that it was made with love and dedication, an example is: When you're in a tunnel and driving a car without a roof with music on, the music sounds worse and reverbs on the tunnel. The gunshots sound very realistic and the voice acting of the NPCs is great.
- Comparison to other Grand Theft Autos
This is the best Grand Theft Auto because of the amount of detail that was poured into it, the story is by far superior to all of the other ones as it doesn't rely on a stereotypical theme of "criminals" and the story is deeper than just crime and violence to justify achieving a goal. It is the most realistic Grand Theft Auto by far, but also at the cost of removing "arcade" elements of the game like increasing your maximum hp, armor, etc.
Niko Bellic is a character of strong personality, with his grey moral compass, who works for others but doesn't let them step over him. Compared to Tommy Vercetti he is a character with greater depth, compared to CJ he is not a pushover who lets people boss him around. Compared to Michael, Trevor and Franklin, he is a character who will refuse money even though he may need it in order to stick to his own ideals and what he believes in.
