Grand Theft Auto IV Image
Metascore
98

Universal acclaim - based on 86 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 3659 Ratings

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  • Summary: [Metacritic's 2008 Xbox 360 Game of the Year; Also known as "GTA IV"] What does the American Dream mean today? For Niko Belic, fresh off the boat from Europe. It's the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City,[Metacritic's 2008 Xbox 360 Game of the Year; Also known as "GTA IV"] What does the American Dream mean today? For Niko Belic, fresh off the boat from Europe. It's the hope he can escape his past. For his cousin, Roman, it is the vision that together they can find fortune in Liberty City, gateway to the land of opportunity. As they slip into debt and are dragged into a criminal underworld by a series of shysters, thieves and sociopaths, they discover that the reality is very different from the dream in a city that worships money and status, and is heaven for those who have them an a living nightmare for those who don't. [Rockstar Games] Expand
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Grand Theft Auto IV Official Trailer 1
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 86 out of 86
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 86
  3. Negative: 0 out of 86
  1. It's got a world you believe in, a cast you care about and a script stuffed with brilliant moments... Utterly stunning in every resepct. [May 2008, p.79]
  2. Grand Theft Auto IV is undoubtedly one of the strongest games of this generation. The amount of content is simply mind-blowing.
  3. 100
    I could go on for another couple thousand words about the amazing experience that is GTA IV, but what's most important for you to know is that this game is an absolute masterpiece.
  4. We all knew GTA 4 would be a great game and sell millions of copies, but I didn't expect it to shame pretty much every other game I've played this generation.
  5. With one of the most compelling stories ever told by a video game, an extremely likeable main character, an insane amount of online modes, and virtually no flaws to be detected, GTA IV is even more than it was expected to be by fans.
  6. The cut scenes are where the game really shines for me. There is this...this intensity in the character’s expression. Characters are actually emoting and expressing. They bring out emotions in us.
  7. netjak
    80
    The on-foot controls are an improvement but still have a long way to go before I would consider them even remotely good, and I can’t help but miss the huge world of San Andreas. That all being said, GTA IV offers up probably the most cohesive and mature story in the series to date.

See all 86 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. MarkB.
    May 9, 2008
    10
    This is what I dreamt of when I played the original 2D GTA - incredible!
  2. Jul 4, 2015
    10
    now i have not beat grand theft auto 4 in a long time but my memories are clear of how great it was!!! i spent 49 hours in this game dude fornow i have not beat grand theft auto 4 in a long time but my memories are clear of how great it was!!! i spent 49 hours in this game dude for some perspective it took me about 23 hours to beat gta 5 thats why this game has a higher score then gta 5. the story is incredible and you feel emotion for whats happening! nikko bellic is a man who just left a world of crime and warfare. he heres the word that his cousin roman is living what this games definition of what the american dream is. but once he gets there he finds the opposite roman is i lying drunk man who is balls deep in debt with loan sharks and other criminal scum of the city. after saving him you are kidnapped and have 2 missions do what ever it takes to keep roman alive and finding that american dream! that story is so awesome and its really fun to see how bad it gets for our 2 characters. you will make tuff choices in the game as well that screw with your emotions this is the first gta were instead of it just being an action game it has enough fun and a focus on story telling to be diffrant and include all that other fun. now the reason gta 5 seems a bit more fun is because its more free and has so much to do in its world in this game if your tired of a crappy mission you hang with roman and get drunk or play darts or go bowling thats about it main story or booze because its the only fun side thing to do. i would talk of the online modes but i really shouldn't everyone is playing gta 5 online so if your planning on buying this game witch you really should make sure your in it for some missions. but again grand theft auto is pure gold here and its a ton of fun and the story is good so go and check it out. im so done with people saying that gta 5 is better because it has something like tennis or the online mode but what rockstar games did was cover your ungrateful ass and make the game worth 60 dollars just with the story mode! gta v has 69 missions and 20 side ones that areint that great they put so much of the game in the online mode that has 70 more missions and so on gta 5 is worth every penny if you pay for online bullcrap its about the shadiest scam i have seen thats why gta v gets a 9 out of ten and this gets a 10 end of story! Expand
  3. Dec 21, 2010
    10
    Wow. I really loved this game. It in every way blew me away. A captivating, epic, and deep storyline keeps you into it the entire way through.Wow. I really loved this game. It in every way blew me away. A captivating, epic, and deep storyline keeps you into it the entire way through. Me trying to find at least one thing to complain about. Nothing. This game really deserves GOTY. And I really have to say Niko Bellic is the only character in the GTA series that you can truly connect with. Understanding his difficult life and mis-adventures you can really feel his emotions. And for a free-roaming game they really knocked me out. The free roaming really is amazing. Its awesome how they can have such a nice, luminous city and still have amazing and almost flawless graphics. As for the multi-player, I didn't really play it that much but i love the fact that you can roam around Liberty City causing as much mayhem as you want. The ranked matches are good too, with death-match (etc...) it was pretty cool to see that in a GTA game. Surely I can truly say that you have not experienced free-roam/sandbox games until you have played GTA IV. Expand
  4. Nov 27, 2015
    9
    Grand theft auto IV was the 2nd best Gta game in the whole pack type deal, the first on vice city because I loved and I mean loved theGrand theft auto IV was the 2nd best Gta game in the whole pack type deal, the first on vice city because I loved and I mean loved the campaign a lot. So Gta 4 had a bloody, action, sexy, and brutal campaign which was amazing. And I was a great game, 9-10 right there. Expand
  5. Nov 25, 2010
    8
    This game has a great story and is very fun to play through once or twice or just mess around with codes on and blow things up. That said,This game has a great story and is very fun to play through once or twice or just mess around with codes on and blow things up. That said, after you beat it you'll probably only play through it once more and even then you may never touch it again. The multiplayer is there, but it feels really disconnected, and literally, you're often disconnected. It's a good game, worthy of the franchise, but it's not the best game ever. Expand
  6. ArtW
    Sep 21, 2008
    7
    First off, I played the 360 version so your experience may differ from what I noticed. The over all story flowed fairly well, but First off, I played the 360 version so your experience may differ from what I noticed. The over all story flowed fairly well, but unfortunately the story line seemed to be all there was in this game. GTA 4 seems to almost totally devoid of all the little subgames and such that made the previous games so much fun. There were no " pickup this hidden weapon and kill X numbers of people", "get into this car and drive around a RC car to blow other cars up", "no missions that would give you bonuses that you could use from then on". The cellphone "keep your friends happy thing" was interesting but got to be super annoying before you finish the main story line. If you had enough friends all you would be doing is going out on date after date and not doing anything else. The graphics were very well done, but i'm not sure if I quite agreed with the choice to move away from the previous cell shaded titles. The wardrobe interface was inadequate. None of the clothing had a name once it was in your wardrobe and many of the shoes looked exactly alike. Flipping one at a time through your selection of clothes was laborious at best. It was very obvious that rockstar was trying to appease the ratings board. The realistic modeling of being drunk (the cops instantly knowing when you were drunk, even after you had stopped randomly serving was not realistic). Even though you got "warm coffee" within the very first date with michelle and they appeared to be thumbing their nose at the review board, in reality it was too much an easy gimmee and there seemed little else remarkable about it. The cellophone idea was pretty cool, esp the option to dialup ZIT to get the name of the song and artist currently playing on the radio. There was a decent variety of radio stations, but still needed the ability to play custom MP3 playlists. I'm not sure why all the big review sites gave this game such high scores, the game was fun yes, but not awe inspiring. I think if you look at the playing publics score you will see a more realict score and not one that makes the game reviewers look like corporate shills. A good review means nothing when everything they review gets the same scores. Throwing in a lame duck game review of something like Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis, does not balance out all the 90+ scores given out these days. In conclusion, the game had it's good moments but I felt like there was always something missing from the experience. Expand
  7. JimM.
    Apr 29, 2008
    0
    It's an alright game but putting it over OoT is an outrage.

See all 981 User Reviews

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