Second Impressions: GTA IV Multiplayer

After doing a bunch of missions last night in GTA, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer to check out the bulk of Liberty City. I booted up multiplayer, which is accessed right from your cell phone, and was driving across the bridge from New Jersey (Alderny) to Manhattan (Algonquin) in no time. I played "free mode" which means that I could just mess around in the city with other players (and pedestrians, cops, and traffic) without any rules or structure. The entire city was open.

The first thing I did, naturally, was shoot down everyone I saw. The combat in GTA works very well and I got used to the controls after the first day pretty fast. I was shooting people, people were shooting me, it was a blast. After I died a bunch of times I decided to drive around the city and find some landmarks. I drove past Radio City Music Hall, Central Park, Times Square, the Empire State building, and tried to find my old office which wasn't there. I then proceeded to jack a Ferrari from the Upper West side and drive it straight into a barrier guarding central park, forcing me to fly straight through the windshield careening into the park. That was just what I had intended.

After that I found a group of other players surrounded by some cops, I hopped on the back of another players motorcycle and he drove me around while I shot down the Cops, it was total awesomeness. After we had finished with the cops, I jumped off the Bike, shot the other player in the head, and stole his motorcycle. Just being able to do anything you could think of is unbelievable. You can pretty much setup any game type you want. One of the reviews I read for the game mentioned that they got a group of helicopters, dropped players off on the Empire State Building (after the players had obtained rocket launchers of course) then they sent another swarm of helicopters towards the players to see if they can shoot them off the buildings before the other players shot down their helicopters with the rocket launchers. They called this game type "King Kong." Another scenario involved piling people on top of a fire truck and speeding around corners, seeing how many players you can get to fly off. Anything is possible in the world of GTA. There are other game types built into the game like deathmatch, cops and robbers, and rescue missions. I didn't get a chance to try those, but after playing in the full open city with other real players, I'm sure I'll get to them very soon.

Labels: Commentary, Sony