Well its finally here, the next part of the Grand Theft Auto series has finally made it to the next gen, but does this new Liberty City have any interesting sights, or should we pack our bags back to San Andreas?

In this incarnation of GTA you play as Nico Bellic, who has just arrived in Liberty City to meet up with his Cousin Roman who has been telling him about the money and women he has had since arriving himself. Upon your arrival it appears that Roman was not totally honest and in fact runs a small cab firm and is constantly bullied by the local mobsters. When you arrive, Roman’s life is taking a turn for the worse mainly thanks to his gambling debts and you just seem to make things worse. That is as far as I am willing to go with the story line as it will spoil the game for you but I am happy to say that the story is gripping and well told, it will also keep you second guessing and is enjoyable all the way through. The cut scenes are superb and the supporting cast really make this game even better with great acting and a solid script.

Nico himself is quite a lovable character, he has some deep secrets hidden away but basically he wants to get on with life, however nothing ever seems to go as smoothly as he would like it to. So to the game itself, the controls of Nico are the standard GTA fare, left stick to control movement, right for the camera, Y to enter vehicles and A to run. The LB is used for interaction with computers and people. The targeting system has been changed and although it works a lot better than before there are some new problems. Holding LB full-on will lock onto a target, with the RT you can fine tune the aim and change the targets, if your half press the LB you can also free aim, allowing for precision aiming, however holding this at half aim takes some getting used to and is not the ideal position to hold you fingers in for a long time. The melee combat has also been improved with the addition of block, duck, disarm, kick and a few punches, making up some neat combos along the way, once you have got used to the slight delay of each punch you are able to kick some serious tail. The gun fights and melee combat segments are particularly brutal with blood spurting all over the place and realistic movements depending on where you shoot people, it all adds up to quite a gruesome experience. The main frustration with Nico himself is how slow he moves, unless you press the sprint button you will go everywhere at a snails pace.

Of course it would not be GTA without the cars. There are a few classics like the Ballista that show up and plenty of new motors, like the mean looking Zombie bike. Each has their own handling and it will take you a while to get used to the cornering of each one. The radio stations are still present and you can select them with the d-pad, as usual there are plenty of stations to choose from, meaning that there should be a good enough selection of music to please everyone’s taste, and if it’s not music you are after then there is the usual choice of chat shows, often with hilarious DJ’s. A cool little touch is that once you have left a car, you can still hear the radio in the distance, a bit nerdy to pick up on that but this game is full of little touches like that. Most cars also have a GPS that links to your map and tell you the way to your next waypoint, either by voice or by plotting a line on your map to help find your way. Vehicles still take damage and will buckle with bits falling off the more you bash them, hit another car head on and chances are the other driver will be dead on the wheel when you pull them out, gruesome but cool. It also seems a lot harder to blow up your car than in previous incarnations.

The newest and probably the best addition to this game is the mobile phone, this little gizmo will help organize your game with ease. With the press of up on the d-pad you will bring up your phone, from here you can call friends you have met for missions or favours and also arrange dates with girlfriends or drinking buddies. It can also receive text messages with mission updates or reminders. Not only can you use the preset numbers but also free dial some of the numbers dotted around the city for a few cool extras, hell, you can even call 911 and nab the cop car when it arrives at your “emergency”.

As well as the supporting cast, the city itself plays a massive part of the game. Liberty City is not really the place you would go to queue up for a copy of a much wanted game at midnight. From the dark slum like areas to the well lit city, the environments are truly stunning. One thing I am really happy with is the size of the map, San Andreas was just too big, impressive but too thinly spread. With 4 islands to explore it will not take long to get from one side to the other but the amount of stuff that is in between is amazing. I am talking a well represented living city, there are loads of vehicles all of the time, people walking the streets who react to you, shops that you can visit from clothes stores, underground weapons shops, food outlets, bars, clubs and a few entertainment areas for games of bowling, pool and darts.

On top of the main story you also have the side missions, and these are just as good as the main game, girlfriends make a welcome return, where you have to dress right and take them to the right places to progress. You even meet up with other contacts who you need to do small favours or just socialise with, which often ends in you getting drunk (a very cool visual effect is used here), and once they like you they will offer you a service, like free pickups or a bombing service. There are also vigilante missions. In previous games I rarely touched this part of the game but the new changes are excellent. Once you steal a cop car you can go into their computer and either select someone from the most wanted list or go to a current crime in progress, each one will be marked off on you map and you have to get there as quick as possible and take them down for a nice bonus. The method of picking who you want to go for is great and is a system that rivals the mobile phone.

WIth so much going on in this game it will take ages to see it all, and for a change I really want to, however there are a few little problems, the targeting I mentioned earlier, but also the graphics, they look amazing but there are areas that are just too dark, you can use the options screen to tidy this up but it does affect the day/night time feel of the game. Also worth a mention is the loading of areas, sometimes items will just appear from nowhere, this has only happened a few times but it is noticeable, sometimes it can just be a texture for a wall but other times it has been a whole staircase.

There is just so much to do in this title, reach 20 hours of gameplay and you still won’t have scratched the surface. I haven’t even mentioned the other items that can be found during the game as I don’t want to go into too much detail about include the fully working mock Liberty City Internet Cafe where you can check out emails and get new ringtones for your phone, as well as the fully working TV’s which stream content. This game has been a long time coming and now that it is here, I can’t even think about playing anything else, it’s that engrossing and easily the best game of the series and the year.

As previously mentioned the mobile phone is your way of connecting characters and storylines together and this keeps it all in a very unobtrusive and familiar menu system rather than having to press the start button all of the time. However what I did not mention is that this is also the main portal to get to your online gaming fix. Yes that’s right, GTA has finally gone online.

Rather than just a few of the usual deathmatches (yes they also are there), Rockstar have really pulled out all of the stops to make the online experience the best possible, and for a first time out, this just can’t get any better.

There are loads of different modes to choose from and each one can be played ranked, unranked or on party mode where you can gather your friends together to play against another group. Ranked allows you to earn cash for all of your kills and mission achievements, and at certain amounts you will rank up, this will open up a few extras along the way. Most of the games offer up to 16 players, with a few capped at 4. In the main lobby, if you are the host you are able to choose which area to play the game in and there are also a few other options to make the game more interesting, depending on what mode you play. All of the modes have vehicles available to hijack and use as you see fit, as a getaway or as a weapon. I have found that turning up the traffic , especially on the Cops N Crooks game makes for a more interesting game as you are not running around so much trying to escape, and also there is nothing more satisfying than unloading a full clip into an oncoming car, watching it get riddled with bullets and crash with an online friend slumped at the wheel.

When you begin multiplayer you have a tutorial which takes you through the basic controls and a few of the modes available, this is very helpful for newcomers. Whilst the controls are similar to the single player mode, there are a few extras, like holding down on the d-pad to bring up the current game rankings. You are also able to alter your character, at first you can only choose from a select few faces and clothing, but there is enough variety as to not have the same characters running around shooting at each other, also as you rank up more will become available so you can pimp your avatar as much as you like.

Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch are your classic online modes, up to 16 players run around the city shooting at each other, the highest amount of kills win. The map in the bottom right will have coloured dots that indicate a player, this makes the game more fast paced and does not allow for any sneaky hiding, whilst many people will not like this, I find it refreshing as the size of the city can easily allow for players to snipe a few kills and hide away to win the game. The map also shows the location of nearby weapons. All of the weapons from the single player are there, the sub machine gun and rocket launcher are very satisfying to use in a crowded area.

Mafia Work and Team Mafia Work involves calls being made from Kenny Petrovic to all of the players, here he will give orders like complete a hit, steal a car or collect and deliver some goods. The area will be marked on your map and it’s up to you to get there by any means possible. This makes for some very aggressive fights as you are all playing for the same goal.

Car Jack City and Team Car Jack City has Kenny Petrovic wanting some new cars, they are marked on your map, your job is to steal them and deliver them, however, at any point another person or team can hijack you, making for some great moments (ever been hijacked by a maniac with a sub machine gun on a moped?)

There are a few racing modes to play through as well, Race Chase allows you to choose your car from the group selected by the host and race through checkpoints, there are plenty of car groups and boats to choose from, race cars and the police vans being my favourite at the moment. GTA Race is similar to Race Chase but this time weapons are involved, grab a weapon and cause severe damage to the car in front, take out the wheels for a real advantage. Whilst these modes are OK, there are problems with the size of the city, if you are on a larger course and get knocked off the road, it is very hard at times for you to get back into the race, also miss a checkpoint and there is a lot of hassle of reversing or turning around, essentially taking you out of the race.

Cops N Crooks is by far my most favourite mode of any game, here you have two teams, one playing the Cops, the other playing the Crooks. It is split over two rounds so you will each get a go. There are two game modes to select from here, All for One and One for All. In All for One the cops have to take down a mob boss and the crooks have to protect one of their randomly selected mob bosses who is highlighted with a cross. In One for All the cops have to take down all of the crooks, thankfully you start off in groups in a police car so you can each perform drivebys and get to the targets quickly. The crooks all have to get to the escape point, usually a helicopter, by any means possible. Here you can steal a car, swim across a river, run over rooftops, just as long as you are not shot down. The cool part of this game is that as long as there is a crook alive and still on the run the game will not end, so if crooks left someone behind, it is up to them to save their escapee before the cops get to them. This mode will really benefit from the party play option and I hope to see plenty of clans pop up over the next few months. I really have not had this much fun online since Counter Strike on the PC all those years ago.

There is also a free mode which allows a group of players to just hang out in the city and do whatever they feel like.

Overall the online experience is amazing, there are a few niggles, like when the action gets really heated there are points that the game will freeze up and jump, I think this is more to do the with servers and the other players ping rather than the game though as I have had a few local games and it ran perfectly. The other problem is the players themselves, even though this is a new game, there are loads of know-it-alls that get upset if you take a wrong turn or make a mistake, making themselves heard all of the time, hopefully after a while these players will go back to Halo or whatever and leave this top game for the rest of us to enjoy.

Overall Rating: 10/10

Words by Dan Pearson