It’s been about a week since us here at Blend Games got our grubby little hands on Grand Theft Auto IV. While we’re currently making our way along Niko’s epic story we wanted to share our own first impressions of the game. After all there are plenty of outlets around the world proclaiming Rockstar’s latest as the second coming of video games. So here’s what the few and proud around Blend Games think about their early hours of playtime on GTA IV.

Pete’s Take

What really struck me while playing GTA4 was the shift in design philosophy compared to previous installments. In the past, the GTA sequels were just about addition. In Vice City, players could now steal motorcycles, boats, and helicopters. In San Andreas players could now steal bicycles and airplanes. Sure, they’d throw a few new features at us here and there (dating, property buying, etc.) but sequels rarely revised the old gameplay.

Take the “vigilante mode,” for example, first introduced in GTA3. While driving a cop car, you could press a button to start a “vigilante” minigame where you’d chase down “criminals” (random cars), one after the other, until you ran out of time. This game mode stayed pretty much the same in Vice City and San Andreas. Here’s what it’s like in GTA4, though: After stealing a cop car, I logged onto the vehicle’s computer and brought up a list of the city’s most wanted criminals. After selecting the file of drug trafficker, the computer displayed his last known whereabouts.

After I arrived at the location, a car carrying the suspect and a few of his associates raced away. I gave chase and we exchanged gunfire until I managed to gain up enough speed to ram them on a bridge. Their car slammed into the side of the road and they hopped out. As I exited my own car and took cover from the gunfire, I suddenly noticed that I wasn’t the only one the criminals were shooting at. Other cops had driven up behind and in front of us and set up their cars in a makeshift barricade before joining in to assist me in taking them down. It’s appropriate that they set the fourth installment in the same city as GTA3 - the game’s not about adding new things so much as it’s about reinventing the old.

Rich’s Take

Having just blown a whole two hours just farting about the new and improved Liberty City and checking out what it has to offer, all I have to say is that GTA IV, the latest in a string of masterpieces, is the greatest one yet, bar none. And that’s because there’s just so much to love about it that you can’t help but fall in love with the whole sandbox genre all over again after having to endure countless rip-offs and replicas.

So far, here’s what I’ve done with our new protagonist, Niko Bellic. I’ve gone on a date (an uncomfortable one, at that), rescued my louse of a cousin, Roman, on a basketball court, bumped into a taxi cab, setting it on fire and starting a fifteen car pile-up that caused a block wide inferno, and got into a brush with the law that started with me pushing a guy in front of the police precinct, and ended with me stealing a police car, getting out at the beach, running into the ocean, stealing a boat, getting chased by helicopters, and finally, with me running on a plane tarmac, searching for a way to escape a five star rating.

Needless to say, the cops made me pay for that little stunt.

What I like most so far about the game though is Niko himself, whose, I-don’t-really-know-this-country, attitude is both charming and alarming with how many laws he’s willing to break just to get by, at the same time. I like him far more than C.J. from San Andreas (Thug life just didn’t click with me), and prefer him over Tommy Vercetti, too. He’s a modern man, who, on the streets, gets called racial slurs and is looked at leeringly, which adds another element of alienation in an already alienated world. So far, GTA IV is definitely the best game to come out for the year, by far.

Steve’s Take

I’m just getting started with Rockstar’s latest opus, but I am already clear on a few things. Foremost in my mind is that this is not the best game since Ocarina of Time. No doubt it’s the best since COD4. Hell, I’m even open to this being the best game of the current generation. In fact, if Dan Houser’s story continues on at its current brilliant pace and wit I’m damn sure it will attain that goal.

My problems with GTA IV are quite simply the same as I had feared. This is no revolution in gaming like numero tres was. Niko’s story is a series of adjustments to an already established gameplay structure. I am extremely pleased to find the gun control configuration updated to something resembling usability. But for a game that has you wielding a gun so often I continue to find the new system clunky. With everything that Rockstar gets right this time around why does this remain beyond their grasp?

But here’s the important thing about GTA IV: it is a balls to the wall blast to experience. Every single time you power up your system to partake in a day of Niko Bellic you are guaranteed to do something crazy as a spider monkey. And as much as fans of the series like to talk about how much you can do within each game, it’s really GTA IV that opens the floodgates to endless possibility.

I ran down a thug, who took refuge in a warehouse. Now me being in control of a GTA vehicle I obviously had trouble driving as I would in Burnout Paradise or Gran Turismo Prologue. I end up jumping my car off a dock into the river, but I leap out midair. So I swim around and get back to shore, only to find a Molotov cocktail sitting on the ground. Flaming bottle in hand I go upstairs and find the thug cowering in a corner with only a tiny switchblade to defend himself. A quick toss and I turn to leave. After all, I have no desire to hear the screams of a burning man. I just want to grab a new ride and see if my girlfriend would like to go bowling tonight.