The difficulty of making decisions isn’t a dilemma faced just by living, breathing humans. It’s something that several lines of code can reflect through a video game character.
For a moment, let us forget about the era of games harnessing the power of dialogue choices. Instead, let’s go 15 years back in a timeline of single-player games with characters who marveled under the light of difficult, lifelike decisions in a city that thrives on dreams, opportunities, and all that can be. Welcome to Liberty City 15 years ago.
Nico Bellic, the grittiest protagonist in the GTA franchise
Unlike many Rockstar protagonists, Niko Bellic doesn’t shower in charm and quick wit. Instead, he’s riddled by his past and worried about his future. His psyche battles against answers he seeks that have no beneficial role in his present. Indeed, he is like a lot of us.
However, unlike most of us, his soul has been through enough pain to no longer hold much empathy for people. Especially when several characters in the game call him cold, and he’s okay with it. Imagine being referred to as heartless by a fellow sociopath and feeling nothing about it.
After wanting to leave his past for good, Niko ventures into the heart of the concrete jungle, thanks to an invitation from his cousin Roman. The cousin doesn’t show insane tendencies like Niko. Instead, he’s fallen into worse depths – greed, lust, and several other sins of Liberty City that engulf him happily. And he’d be content if Niko played into this as well. He doesn’t, but that’s how we shape Niko’s journey as a faithful Rockstar psychopath.
Making new friends and enemies comes with the entire chasing-greener-pastures package for Grand Theft Auto 4, as does heavy questioning around morality.
The battle between good and evil isn’t a new theme for Rockstar, but GTA 4 helplessly juggles this idea with many of its characters. People of the ‘law’ want to wash away their sins. Gangsters wish to do good for their community as long as people die and their businesses shine. You’ll notice a lot of discrepancies in Niko’s painfully endearing social circle as long as you’re ready to kill, backstab, or say no to Roman’s request for impromptu bowling sessions.
Even with its promise of a bright future and endless opportunities, Liberty City tests Niko’s resolve with each passing option of making money. Nobody escapes reality, not even Niko’s dead-set goal of eliminating anyone who crosses him or his family.
One of the many tales of Liberty City
An introduction to Niko Bellic is told subtly through the game’s first few minutes. A high-definition and exquisitely portrayed sweeping vista of a metropolis that looks just like New York is displayed when Niko, an ex-Yugoslavian soldier, enters Liberty City on a cargo ship. A big, bold defining moment here portrays a question – “This is your new home. Are you ready?”
Niko’s tale is about reshaping his notion of defining a life he wants. It’s more than that to understand if he’ll ever be ready to enjoy it. On the contrary, two stories take a different narrative direction.
Grand Theft Auto 4 shares a spectacle of a small universe within Liberty City. While Niko’s adventure follows a heavy sense of seeking belongingness in a new country, two major stories focus on the opposite: making the most of one’s ‘home.’ The Lost and Damned focuses on the sagas of biker gangs and everything that can go wrong between people with different visions. We take on the role of Johnny, a hardened, loyal gang member trying his best to keep his biker family at peace.
Then there’s the story of The Ballad of Gay Tony. Liberty City’s nightlife significantly shifts in perspective when things go awry between nightclub owners, other criminals, and deals between them. You play as Lois, the somewhat ‘rational’ sociopath who tries to keep his home and legacy alive.
These two DLCs became standalone journeys in the GTA 4 universe, selling thousands of copies despite coming out later than the actual game. This makes us wonder – will Rockstar’s future projects hold enough strength to support individual DLCs? Or will we face another era of ‘online updates’ with little to do with the single-player campaign? Only time will tell.
Grand Theft Auto 4’s era-defining gameplay
Let’s paint an awful picture – you’re driving at around 95 miles per hour and hit the curve of a flyover. As an unspoken rule of any GTA game, you’re not wearing a seatbelt. Thus, you’re gracefully flying across the road with a massive crack in your windshield, ready to meet your maker. In that process, you also successfully ruin the day of other drivers and NPCs.
The physics engine that supported all of this is a testament to some clever design decisions. For the first time in the history of GTA, the game’s engine feels realistic. Ragdoll physics will roll off believably. Taking cover behind smaller objects would mean life or death during shootouts. Climbing stairs, vaulting, sliding – all of it feels ‘heavy’ and movement more significant. This is especially true with driving cars. Driving at high speeds limits the car’s movement, and there would be consequences for your rashness.
Although the game’s grey aesthetic has drawn criticism, the developers’ stylistic decision makes perfect sense, given the game’s grim tale and environment.
The Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) in GTA 4 was only too pleased to impress with these features. The smooth-looking, dynamic GTA 4 urges players to explore every nook and corner of the game world, in contrast to the polygon-riddled mess that earlier games had. 3D GTA Series editions like III, Vice City, and San Andreas become riddled with ‘older’ graphics due to technology restrictions. In Liberty City, you will occasionally discover amusing tiny visual easter eggs and trinkets concealed throughout a game map that they have memorized even 15 years later.
Rockstar’s decision to ignore their masterpiece
There’s no doubt that Rockstar understood fans’ expectations after each consecutive Grand Theft Auto. Each game in the series did something better than the previous one, and that explains why it took so long even to give us a generic development update about GTA 6. However, that begs the question – why couldn’t we have a remaster of GTA 4? There are two parts to that answer.
Firstly, the reception of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was not too great. There was a lot of criticism over how badly the remaster’s aesthetic removed essential elements that made the original games so special. There were problems with the lighting, weather effects, and overall visual design decisions. A significant reviewer admitted the remaster was “defective, disappointing, and surprisingly disrespectful.” Naturally, this affected Rockstar’s sales and possibly their idea of giving us yet another ‘remaster.’
Secondly, based on sources, Rockstar Games has scrapped all plans for Grand Theft Auto 4 and Red Dead Redemption remakes. This is to devote all of its attention to the creation of GTA 6.
Some of us looked at the leaks that showed us parts of early development footage. Clearly, the team has been working hard on making the next entry to the series a legendary one. And, for that to happen, they put all their talented eggs in one basket.
Will Rockstar successfully re-tell the age-old tale of a rising kingpin?
As GTA 4’s campaign progresses, you’re treated to an immersive and lively city with unique scenery and side quests specific to each of Liberty City’s four boroughs. However, not all things are as positive as the city promises. The duo of Niko and Roman try their best to save their bare-bones cab business through back-alley gambling, only to wind up on the wrong side of the crime syndicates in Liberty City.
GTA 4 is unique as a satire of American society in the late 2000s. It’s difficult to help but believe that, at least in the Grand Theft Auto universe, the bad guys prevailed, and the American dream truly is dead. Niko and Roman go through Liberty City’s criminal underground to find their place among the rich and morally bankrupt. It’s a narrative we’re all too familiar with in the GTA series, and it makes us wonder if the next entry will tell a tale (or two) of individuals who want more.
Although GTA 5 is one of the most popular video games ever, none of the key characters have the depth that Niko Bellic shows in Grand Theft Auto 4.
Michael is a man torn between the different personas he holds. Franklin is an ambitious young man wanting to rise through the ranks. And Trevor is a cynical sociopath with no regard for human life. These individuals made for GTA 5’s vicarious reimagination of Los Santos. However, Niko Bellic showed us an idea of America in the truest sense.
It also gives a character sketch of a flawed human being trying to believe in second chances. Niko’s impoverished upbringing and exposure to war made him the man he is at the beginning of GTA 4. And, as the game progresses, you realize that his unresolved trauma stays strong regardless of him being a good friend, family guy, and lovable sociopath.
