Grand Theft Auto IV – The Legacy Review

GTA IV, with its obsessive detail and striking timelessness, is the modern prototype of Grand Theft Auto.

I take a look at each of the original Grand Theft Auto games and replay them before Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives. What we're putting together won't be traditional recaps, and they won't come with any new IGN scores, but they'll revisit what made each GTA notable at the time of release. By the end of the project, using the desired level of GTA's previous six stars, you should be able to imagine where each of these games ranks roughly in my long-standing love for the series.

Today it's time to revisit Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Grand Theft Auto IV is smaller than GTA: San Andreas. Significantly, if you exclude the water, as its land area is reportedly only a quarter of the size of San Andreas' physical properties. GTA IV has also significantly reduced the variety of vehicles, with far fewer of them overall and zero vehicle customization. No asset management, less mission variety, no RPG-inspired skill system, a very small list of cheats, and the only thing you can change about the main character Niko Bellic is his outfit. In fact, if you weren't there for GTA IV's entry, I think it's fair enough that you might be a little confused about its place in the pantheon. I mean, how can this seemingly smaller game with obviously less features than its predecessor be able to immediately become not only the highest rated GTA in the history of the series, but also one of the highest rated games of all time. Stop? Well, the devil is in the details. Countless, unprecedented and incredible details.

For all his faults as an Eastern European veteran with a murky past and short temper, who may or may not have spent 106 minutes killing Owen Wilson in 2001, Nico Blake has actually earned a spot as one of the series' most likeable and accessible characters. Lured by his cousin Roman's lies of wealth and opportunity, it's easy to sympathize with Nico's frustration at his first encounter with the American Dream, and to share his hatred of the various Liberty City bastards who seek to exploit him.

Released in 2008, GTA IV was the first game in the series to continue after GTA III. In 2026, it's an interesting snapshot of the world just before smartphones took over — when the Internet was still a destination you spent time visiting with a computer, social media was still a novelty instead of the worst thing to happen to humanity since disco, and the radio always let you know you were about to receive a cell phone call. However, despite the 18-year gap between its setting and today, GTA IV doesn't look as much like 2002's GTA: Vice City - even though it was only 16 years from its release. The aesthetic differences between the 80s and 2000s are, of course, profound. What are the visual differences between 2000 and now, other than the fact that the rock used to have hair? This is not a long list. The monoculture is dead, the fad is in full swing, and - with the incredible detail that GTA IV has - I don't think Rockstar can do anything to escape the phenomenon, Dwayne Johnson's shaved skull notwithstanding.

Are you taking a break to release GTA 6?

Yes, I am requesting/have already requested PTO

Yes, but I call in sick day.

However, while the feeling I get from GTA IV as a snapshot of a specific moment in time may not be as strong as that of GTA: Vice City or GTA: San Andreas, there's no denying what a triumph it is in terms of its capacity to convey a true sense of place. GTA IV's Liberty City was not only one of the most convincing virtual cities of its generation. I honestly don't think it's an exaggeration to say that its commitment to the smallest details is still being explored today.

Revisiting GTA IV's Liberty City in 2026 – a game that my Xbox 360 game data shows I haven't touched in about 14 years – I'm immediately reminded of how meticulously crafted every corner of this world is. Yes, it's a smaller environment than San Andreas, but it's much busier, denser, and deeper. It's more immediate, authentic, and intimate than anything that's come before it—and it's still more authentic and compelling than most of the open-world action games I've played since.

Still a more authentic and convincing metropolis than most of the open world action games I've played since.

Walking through Star Junction—Liberty City's glittering proxy in Times Square—I find myself in tourist mode. I'm too preoccupied with the fact that there's something to see, read or admire wherever I point the camera to be distracted by the temptation to create anti-social chaos. Passing Hove Beach - inspired by Brooklyn's Brighton Beach - and I was once again impressed by how much Rockstar got mileage out of the seemingly mundane. Garbage scattered on the sidewalks. Personalized storefronts that are true to the demographics of the area and will never be duplicated in other parts of the city. Places with stories you will never get to the bottom of. For example, who is Mikey Paceroll and how much better is he at pool than Anal Allen?

architecture, lighting, living dirt; Liberty City feels more real here. It feels old. Rockstar didn't just build streets. He built them and then attacked the asphalt with decades of simulated wear. As a result, those streets are a collection of potholes, road plates and scattered strips of recently resurfaced sections. Custom signs, custom graffiti - the fact that no part of the city is like any other. A multitude of elements combine to create an unprecedented sense of immersion in that time, and it absolutely holds up today. Of course, playing GTA IV in the original is an inevitable blur on hardware like the Xbox 360, where you're clearly bound by the age-old resolution limitations. This results in a bland and rather muted image, and is certainly exacerbated by the very cold and slightly washed out color palette that Rockstar has chosen. However, it's still a stunning place to explore, whether you're walking, driving, or using public transport - a convenient and realistic way to get around this compact urban metropolis.

While committed to recreating his famous New York City riff as faithfully as possible at the time, Rockstar placed a heavy emphasis on physical realism. At the heart of this approach was NaturalMotion's procedural character-animation technology, Euphoria - an animation and physics solution that completely changed the way people move, react to hits and interact with their surroundings. This was not just a trivial technical advance. It basically changed the feel of the game, whether you were blasting enemies with bullets or brutally throwing them off the hood of a car. Reinvented GTA.

[Euphoria] wasn't just a mundane technical flourish. Basically changed the feel of the game...reinvented GTA.

Traditional animation relies heavily on pre-scripted movements, with developers creating specific sequences that characters perform in specific situations. That is, fill them with lead and every time they sink into the ground in the same way. Hit them with a car and they fly up and down equally regardless of the forces at work. Euphoria does away with all that, and in 2008, it looked like a stunning vision of the future. Ditching those preset animations, GTA IV's characters react realistically – both to the forces acting on them and to the world available to them. A shot may knock an enemy into a railing behind him, which he can fall over dramatically. A good shot can cause someone to lose their balance and fall off a ledge. Scissoring someone in a car makes them feel completely different than smacking them. One too many drinks may make it temporarily difficult to put one foot in front of the other.

The results are often pretty poor - like when Niko goes through the windshield after not wearing a seatbelt, or when NPCs insist on closing your car's door handle as it starts to peel off. I still live for these moments. In fact, I often hesitate before getting on the throttle to give carjacking victims a brief window before taking them on a short trip to their destination road rush. I don't know what it says about me. Nothing good, probably

Much of the endless experimentation offered in GTA IV is a direct result of Euphoria, and the fact that no encounter is ever the same. But it also works because it's part of a much broader commitment to gritty realism. I mean, what good is a world that exudes so much character and originality if people feel like they've been painted over? Like they're skating in it rather than actually inhabiting it? Everything about GTA IV is designed to immerse us in its world. Like we're another living, breathing citizen of Liberty City.

Despite GTA IV's incredible critical acclaim, it remains one of the most divisive games in the series. While I'm totally partial to the slower nature of the more pragmatic story and simple missions as a change of pace, it wasn't to everyone's taste, and neither was the relationship system. It was a clever way of handing out rewards to strengthen relationships with your in-game friends, but it could certainly have benefited from a wider range of activities to do with them around town - and preferably activities that were a bit more fun too. As it stands, the relationship system is very similar to chores, requiring you to repeat the same cycle: pick them up, go to one of several locations, and deliver them home.

Similarly, GTA IV's heavy driving physics is another point of contention. For me, I've actually always been quite partial to the feel of GTA IV, especially on certain cars where I think exaggerated body roll and slow steering makes sense - like muscle cars and nimble 4x4s. I'd like to see more clarity on its range of sports cars and supercars - they should have stiffer suspensions, as they should be the cars with the strongest rides - but I prefer GTA IV's approach to damage modeling to GTA V's.

There also doesn't seem to be any real consensus when it comes to radio stations either, with the feeling that it oscillates between heaping praise on the incredible variety of stations to claims that the tracklist is the most forgettable of the set. I have to admit that I lean towards the latter. I remember being a bit underwhelmed at the time – although the soundtrack has been significantly expanded and improved since the arrival of The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, two of the most clever pieces of DLC Rockstar has ever produced.

Emotionally, Grand Theft Auto IV isn't my favorite of the series – but I'd say it's the series I respect the most. It was bold to choose everything from the aimless freedom of San Andreas in favor of a slower, more grounded crime saga, but it was a decision that allowed Rockstar to emphasize the importance of having a city with details that become a character in itself, as well as providing a technical solution to the character animation that has become a defining pillar of the series' brand of fun. Obsessively detailed and strikingly timeless, GTA IV is the prototype of the modern Grand Theft Auto.

For more reflections on the incredible Grand Theft Auto franchise, you can read our new Legacy reviews of Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Luke Reilly is an award-winning journalist with 23 years of media experience at Official PlayStation Magazine, Australia 360, and IGN - which he joined in 2011. You can find him at Bluesky @mrlukereilly and ask him about things.