By With Grand Theft Auto 6 on the horizon, IGN’s Luke Reilly is replaying every core GTA game to re-examine what made each one remarkable. This week: Grand Theft Auto IV — the smaller, stranger, and somehow highest-rated GTA of them all.
(Credits: IGN)
These are not traditional re-reviews and carry no new IGN score. Instead, using GTA’s classic six-star wanted level, the series will rank where each game lands in Reilly’s long-term love for the franchise. And GTA IV’s case is fascinating — because on paper, it should not work.
The Smaller Game That Scored Bigger
Liberty City is tiny compared to what came before. Excluding water, GTA IV’s land area is reportedly around one-quarter the size of San Andreas. Vehicle variety was slashed, car customization vanished entirely, and gone were asset management, the RPG-inspired skill system, and most cheats. The only thing you could change about Niko Bellic was his outfit.
So how did this apparently lesser game become not just the highest-rated GTA in series history, but one of the highest-rated games of all time? As Reilly puts it: the devil is in the details. Countless, unprecedented, incredible details.
Niko Bellic, the Unlikely Icon
For all his faults — an Eastern European war veteran with a shady past and a short temper — Niko carved out a place as one of the franchise’s most likeable and accessible characters. Lured to Liberty City by cousin Roman’s lies of wealth and opportunity, Niko’s disappointment at the American Dream he actually finds is something players could genuinely feel.
As GTA 6 approaches, revisiting GTA IV is a reminder that Rockstar’s greatness was never about map size. It was about making a world — and a man — you believed in.
Also Read: GTA 6 Was Supposed to Be Even Bigger and Release Years Sooner, GTA 6 Leaker Drops New Gameplay Video, Then Declares ‘The End of the Road’
Source: IGN — read the full story there.
