Grand Theft Auto IV: A Play Journal: Getting to Know Liberty City
Liberty City is based upon New York City, complete with the Statue of Happiness, based upon her real life sister Liberty. It is fitting, really, for an immigrant’s story, as New York is forever immortalized as the epitome of the cultural melting pot ideology and reality. Liberty City is where GTA IV’s playground is realized, and realized may be understating things just a smidge.
A sandbox to play in and do as you’d like is no different from any other previous entry in the series. That said, this sandbox is something to behold, another leap forward for the genre. There’s a tremendous amount of stuff going on, even within the first several hours of play.
People populate the streets and go about their business, their own routine. So numerous are they and the behaviours they exhibit, that the game feels less like a game, and more of some sort of surreal approximation of actual city life. It struck me that the crowds blend with their environments so well that I hardly noticed them at all, as there are few indications of your typical videogame signifiers like repeated character models or characters walking straight into walls.
Once I figured out how to put the story on hold, I went about tooling about. I went for a stroll, I went for a ride, I took in the sights. Within just the small parameters you’re initially given to explore, there’s enough to keep you fascinated at least for a short while. People will hang out in groups, engage in an activity, drive and stroll around the city. As you pass them by, you’ll happen upon their conversations, each as unique as the next.
Every once in a while something completely unexpected will happen. In my experience, this typically had to do with police pursuits. In one case, a came across a couple of perps being pursued by a beat cop. As they suspects bolted in one direction, shots rang out and the straggler of the group was gunned down in front of me by a police officer. As the officer ran by he squawked into his radio stating he was in pursuit of the remaining suspects. I walked over to the wounded individual who moaned and muttered, writhing in pain.
In another instance, I was on foot and about to round the corner of a building when a guy ran furiously out from around the building and past me. I was almost certain of what would happen next: I heard the now familiar squawk of a portable police radio. The cop in pursuit bolted around the corner just as furiously. However, he clipped my shoulder, Niko gave a slight push, and the cop tripped and stumbled past my view. Sure enough, I turned to see the cop flat on his ass, looking up at me and getting ready to bust my balls.
It’s small touches like these, completely random events, that go a long way towards capturing a believable portrait of life in the exaggerated underbelly of Liberty City.
What’s more, the media you run across brings to life a whole other dimension to Liberty City. Your radio stations are back in fine fashion. While driving around talk radio hosts will pipe in with events within the City. Apparently there’s been a terrorist attack and the city is in a state of total lockdown, thus your restriction to just a small area initially. Talk radio station Public Liberty Radio hosts DJ blowhards from either end of political spectrum, spewing ridiculously over the top positions on any particular issue.
Indeed, the media in Liberty City is incredibly fleshed out and very clever. Actually, much of it is laugh out loud funny. Watching TV in Roman’s bachelor apartment, I happened upon the cartoon Republican Space Rangers. There ship was a not so subtle phallus, and their mission was to invade other worlds and blow the shit out of everything. Absolutely hilarious. Here too in Liberty city, it would appear the current state of American politics is alive and well, and GTA IV a subversively scathing commentary on American life.
peachey @ May 1, 2008