Here’s the thing: you could spend hours on Grand Theft Auto IV without encountering any of this stuff. Many players prefer to explore the open world; they set up interactions between its dynamic aspects like kids playing with a chemistry set. The new multiplayer modes are ideal for this purpose. Along with several competitive games to play with on-line friends, a free mode allows up to 16 players to treat Liberty City as their personal sandbox. The only rules are those you make for yourself.
Grand Theft Auto IV has gotten its share of negative attention for its unsavory aspects, and the criticism hasn’t been entirely unfair. Yes, Niko can patronize strip clubs, hire prostitutes, and go on shooting sprees. If these were the only parts of the game you saw, you might not realize how much more there is to it. Niko can also save lives, stop random crimes, and topple criminal syndicates. Even that’s a small, unrepresentative sampling. Grand Theft Auto IV is what you make of it — nothing more, and nothing less. Only in a video game is such a thing possible.
