Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
42 of 48 people found the following review helpful.
Rockstar's Rashomon
By korova
Long time fans of Grand Theft Auto know that each of the games in the post-PS1 era is thematically linked to a particular genre of movie. GTA III is heavily indebted to Mafia movies such as Goodfellas and The Godfather, as well as to the cable television series The Sopranos. Vice City is clearly influenced by Miami Vice and Scarface, while San Andreas draws a great deal of inspiration from Colors and Boyz N the Hood.GTA IV-The Complete Edition carries on this tradition by transforming Grand Theft Auto IV into an homage to Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. As in Kurosawa's film, a set of events is seen from multiple points of view, leaving the player to decide which perspective he or she believes is the most credible. Niko Bellic, Johnny Klebitz, and Luis Lopez, the main characters, each bring a different experience and interpretation to GTA IV's story line. Niko is an immigrant, forced to assimilate and adapt rapidly to a world completely new to him. Johnny is caught in a classic master versus apprentice situation. Luis, who is the only character with any kind of insider status, must choose between building his future and honoring his past.These are all familiar character situations in videogames, of course, but Rockstar creates deeper and richer stories and characters than most other game developers. The majority of games stick to the bare rudiments of character motivation and development. Rockstar has given us THREE strong stories in the GTA IV series, each with a complex and compelling main character. It was ambitious of Rockstar to release Niko's view of the story first, in isolation, without any indication of what was to come later. Many of the events in the Niko version of the story, in fact, aren't fully explained until the Luis and Johnny episodes. Compare that to the usual rote or clichéd story arcs found in too many games, even multi-episode games. There are a few studios that consistently produce well-written games in addition to Rockstar--Bungie, Valve, and Kojima Productions are three standouts--but the vast majority treat story and plot as afterthoughts.Story and influences aside, the bigger question is whether or not GTA IV and the two Episodes are fun to play. The answer is YES, even though it is clear that Rockstar devoted a lot more development time to Luis' episode than it did to Johnny's episode. TLAD feels somewhat stripped down and is similar to GTA III in many ways. You'll spend most of your time following the main story, driving or riding to combat missions. If you fully explored Liberty City in Niko's episode, there isn't a whole lot to discover or do that you haven't already experienced. On the other hand, TBOGT contains a much broader variety of missions, side activities, and minigames. Most players will spend more time with TBOGT than with TLAD--but now that they're both part of this value priced set, it's no big deal. The important thing is to play the series in the order in which it was released (GTA IV then TLAD then TBOGT). If you don't, you'll miss out on properly experiencing how the full story unfolds.Well worth picking up.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Perfect Release
By F. Rodriguez
This game is amazing. If you didn't get GTA IV yet, you need to get it. I recommend this version instead of the original standard version so you can, of course, get the 2 episodes that were only available as downloadable content before. It's best to buy the whole package instead of buying the original and then downloading the 2 episodes through Live Marketplace. The few extras are also something that make it worth picking up this spectacular game.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
It's a fantastic purchase....if you don't already have the game
By Squid
Let's face it, Grand Theft Auto IV has been on the market for almost 2 years now along with both of it's episodic content. Altogether you're getting about $60 worth of content for $30, but it's really a matter of "do you have it already?". What you get basically is a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV with everything on it that was on it before, nothing new to add. And a copy of Episodes of Liberty City which allows you to play Lost or Gay Tony without the original copy of the disc. If you haven't been able to check out Grand Theft Auto IV over the last several year (like me) then this is the overall best deal.For those of you unaware of GTAIV, pretty much what you're getting is a the most realistic game on the market from in-game television (which holds the amazing "Republican Space Rangers"), stand up acts from actual comedians, taking out a girl on a date,hanging out with friends, and the most active setting of Liberty City to date. Niko Belic is probably the most likable character since Travis Touchdown with his blunt sarcasm making every situation in that much more enjoyable. However there are still no checkpoints thus making some missions far more frustrating then required.The Lost and Damned show a much more "metal" and "biker" influenced view on Liberty City while improving the motorcycle physics in the game has the most confusing protagonist I've seen in a long while, and Gay Tony manages to make things a bit more over the top and ridiculous (more in the fashion of San Andreas) while living up to the standard that IV set for me (and keeping the improved mechanics of Lost) in addition both Lost and Gay Tony have a checkpoint feature though Gay Tony happens to make the best use of it.Overall if you haven't picked up GTAIV you have no more excuses this is easily the best deal available with both Lost and Damned, and The Balled of Gay Tony still available on the game marketplace for $20 each. You're pretty much getting 3 games for the price of 1.
See all 84 customer reviews...
