Game Stooge

FIRST TAKE: Grand Theft Auto IV Multiplayer (360, PS3)

• Scribbled on May 15th, 2008 by Jonathon Howard
• Filed in Action, First Take, Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3

I’ve put a couple more hours into Grand Theft Auto IV with a focus on the many multi-player options that Rockstar has put into the game. I think it’d be best to give you a quick run down through all of them and then talk about the ones I’ve been enjoying the most, and finally a little bit about the fine people you’ll be playing with/against.

Here we go:

Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch: I shouldn’t have to explain this one to you, every woman and man for themselves. Score money by killing the other players and looting their bodies. In team mode you and your team work together to kill the other team.

Mafiya and Team Mafiya: I didn’t know what Mafiya meant til I could Google it (mafiya is Russian for mafia - who knew!) Do the dirty work for an upper level mobster while others are also doing it, whoever does the most wins! You can knock off your competition but it doesn’t have the same pay-out as completing the mission

Car Jack and, Yes, Team Car Jack: Just like the Mafiya but this time you’re only stealing cars, so it’s like all the multi-player version of Brucie. Unlike with the Mafiya missions, you’ll be competing with the others for the same cars at times.

Turf War (team only): This isn’t really worth playing unless you have a lot of people playing. Each team is given a base, and you’re required to hold your own and take the other teams, which is done by getting within range of it and slowly converting it to you, which takes a minute or so. If you get killed the counter starts over.

Deal Breaker (team only): This is one of the cooperative modes. You and your team have to take out a biker gang, take their merchandise, and return to the safe house. You have a limited number of lives in which to do it. Money awarded by kills, number of lives left, and getting to the rendezvous point.

Hangman’s Noose: You and the other players have to escort a mob boss from the Airport to the safe house, all while fighting off government agents and police. This is a difficult game to play as you start under fire and have to keep the boss alive. Win in the same as the last game.

Bomb da Base: Your team has to hijack a truck, fly a helicopter, and blow up a tanker. Money is again awarded for killing people and completing the mission.

Racing: You can race a variety of cars, boats and helicopters. In standard races there is no fighting allowed, but in GTA racing you can play dirty… I haven’t spent much time here, as driving every car in the game is like piloting a boat through Jell-O.

Free: The world is your oyster! You and your friends do whatever you want (the strippers aren’t available though.)

Multi-player games are either free or ranked. You can also jump into any game with random strangers or set up games with spots set aside for your friends. In each type of game, there are various options: from the difficulty; number of lives; location; weapon selection; and, game length. I’ve been playing either Deathmatch, Deal Breaker, and Bomb da Base. Deathmatch is fun, mindless and quick, which is when I only have a few minutes to play this is where I go. Deal Breaker and Bomb da Base require a greater time commitment and some strategy and skill, but it also makes everyone play nice and work together to complete the mission. Bomb da Base is especially fun necause when you make your way to a tanker to blow it up, it reminds me of the intro mission in Call of Duty 4, though the game play is so strikingly different. The loose shooting controls create an artificial difficulty, but with other people it is a lot of fun.

Finally, the people. None of my friends have this game, and the one that does lives on the other coast so finding time to get together is difficult. I’ve been fairly lucky so far in meeting some pretty nice people in the games. This might be because I’ve been playing the cooperative games more so, but even in deathmatch most people have been good sports. There have been a couple of instances where an immature person can’t seem to stop swearing/whining/using offensive racial slurs. But hey, in random games you can just leave and jump into a new one.

Lastly, some complaints: The cellphone menu system is tiny and hard to navigate with serious nesting issues. The multi-player options are opaque as well, unless you enter and than exit. You can’t start new games while in one. Your team of friends can also be broken up without telling you depending on the rules of the games you go in.

Overall, I’ve had a good time with this multi-player I’m just hoping to make some friends in some of these games so that I have a crew to play with consistently, that might be the most important factor in having a great time.