GTA 4 is still the best Grand Theft Auto and it needs a remake

A reader goes back to play GTA 4 and argues that it does a lot of things better than GTA 5, especially in terms of its story.

With all the hype and excitement about GTA 6, I thought I’d go back in time to 2008 and look at the first Grand Theft Auto of the Xbox 360 era and play GTA 4. You don’t expect to go back to a 16-year old game and not come across a few issues and I was initially wary of giving it a go because I didn’t like the GTA Trilogy remasters at all.

However, the remasters were just bad and it didn’t necessarily mean the games below were, they just weren’t being presented in the best possible way. So I went into GTA 4 with some optimism, although I remember having problems with it even back then.

I spent most of last weekend playing it and I have to say that in some ways it’s actually better than I remembered. I think it has something to do with my preparation for the car physics being weird and combative, but for me combat has never been an important part of GTA. Instead, it’s the exploration and the characters, and I think in GTA 4 they’re the best they’ve ever been.

The first thing you notice, aside from the graphics holding up very well, is that Niko is a much better protagonist than anyone in GTA 5. I didn’t like any of that trio at all, but while Niko is a very flawed person, he feels like a real human being, not the cartoonish exaggerations that are in GTA 5. He wants to do the right thing most of the time, or at least feels bad about some of the things he’s involved in, and that’s important.

Most importantly though, and I think this was GTA 5’s biggest flaw, GTA 4 has a proper plot, with a beginning, middle and end. In GTA 5 things happen randomly until the game suddenly ends the story out of nowhere and in a very rushed and unsatisfying way.

But in GTA 4 there is a real build up to the finale as everything comes to an inevitable conclusion and there are real consequences to your actions, not just the lame final decision at the end of GTA 5. People get what they deserve and things aren’t I wasn’t just playing for fun.

Gameplay wise there are issues, I don’t think anyone would say there aren’t, but while it feels a bit out of place, it’s now clear that the weird handling of the vehicle is because Rockstar was trying to make the physics more realistic. This isn’t always as much fun, but it’s at least more ambitious than the bland races in GTA 5.

I’m still not sure why Rockstar made the combat so complicated in the early games, and it’s kind of indefensible. But like I say, it’s not really the focus of the game and you get used to it.

The mission design is also very good and while this is definitely one thing that GTA 5 did well, I would say that GTA 4 is just as good, with a more realistic view of the GTA world that includes some common tasks, but I think this adds to the immersion and sense of reality. However, the lack of mid-mission courses is a real pain.

So yes, I would definitely recommend GTA 4 and I honestly think it might be the best of the series. I would absolutely love to see Rockstar do a remake or remaster with modern graphics and controls. Just maybe don’t use the same people to make it like GTA 3.

From reader Goldin

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