I only played for about an hour yesterday. Here are some quick impressions on my very limited time with it:
- This game has the coolest opening credits I have ever seen for a video game. Great job Rockstar.
- I read in all the reviews how likable your character Nikko is. I was skeptical going in, but they were right. In my short time with the game I already like him.
- The graphics are impressive in their scope and scale. If you scrutinize individual elements, they are eclipsed by other games, but taking into account what the game is pulling off, Rockstar did a fine job in this regard.
- So far I am loving Euphoria's implementation. I've barely had a chance to really see what it can fully do though. I'm so early in the game I have not even found a gun yet (to see the rag doll effects). But just walking around, climbing fences, and running up and down stairs produces some great animation.
- As has been mentioned in reviews, driving takes some getting used to. I find it impossible to make a turn on a street corner without using the emergency brake. If you try to make the turn without it, you'll just slam into whatever is in front of it. It could be the cars I have been using so far (no sports cars for me yet), but still, kinda iffy.
- One of the first things I did was watch a tv show. Kind of like in "The Darkness" you can watch tv, now you can as well in GTA. But unlike The Darkness which had actual video of old movies/shows, the GTA programs were created just for GTA, using the game engine. I was expecting to immediately stop watching and play the actual game, but I found myself laughing like a complete idiot at the show that was airing. It was genuinely funny. I was watching some talk show with two male hosts. The set was the inside of a Men's Bathroom. I don't want to ruin it for everyone, but one of the hosts had me in stitches!
- I did run into one problem with Euphoria. It might be too sensitive. At the very beginning of the game, as I walked out of my apartment, I see a hotdog vendor across the street. I get a message saying I can buy hotdogs to replenish my health. Even though my health was full I wanted to buy a hotdog, so I walk up the vendor, accidentally brush up against his stand, and knock some things over. Apparently this pisses him off and now he does not want to sell me a hotdog. So I walk away (annoyed at the fact that I barely touched his cart and he took that as a sign of war) and notice a few guys standing around in a circle talking. Their conversation sounded interesting so I attempt to get a little closer. Again, I accidentally brush up against one of them and he gets very upset and decides he wants to fist fight me. Great. Here I am, trying to just take in the sights and act as a model citizen (I really was trying to keep a low profile) and I've upset a hotdog vendor and I am now in a fist fight with some random guy. At this point I don't even know what I am doing control-wise but I manage to get a few good punches in. All of a sudden, somebody from off screen starts shooting at me and I get killed!! What the?! Wow, not a good start to my first time stepping outside my apartment.
- I had another weird thing occur. I decided to do a bit of exploring on foot around my apartment (technically it is my cousin's apartment). I find a back alley and some stairs that lead to a walkway above one of the main bridges. So I start walking down the walkway. There are a few people up here walking as well. No big deal. All of a sudden, I have 6 stars on my police wanted meter. I have helicopters above shining spotlights on me and the cops start shooting!!! What did I do?! I begin to run for my life! I make it back to the apartment and the entire police force is after me. I do not know what I did to warrant such a high level of police activity. I know that the other lslands are off limits at the beginning of the game (some sort of terrorist alert) but there was nothing blocking that walkway on the bridge to indicate it was off limits. There was no officer standing by turning people away, no sign, nada. If the 6 stars were a result of me being somewhere I shouldn't have been, then Rockstar definitely overlooked the fact that someone might wander up to that walkway on foot because they put nothing to deter pedestrians from getting up there.
So far I have tried to play the game as legit as possible, putting myself in Nikko's shoes as a newly arrived immigrant and I've tried to keep a low profile. My reward? Getting into a fist fight in the street and shot (probably by the hotdog vendor I pissed off) and having the entire Liberty City police force after me for walking on a bridge. Weird. lol.
Anyway, about an hour of playtime is barely scratching the surface of this game. I'll chime in with more impressions when I spend actual time with it.
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