Halo 2, the long-awaited sequel to one of the most widely praised, most influential first-person shooters ever created, has a very tough act to follow. Fortunately, it's built on a foundation that's as strong as they come. The game's success was preordained--publisher Microsoft tallied more than 1.5 million Halo 2 preorders in the weeks leading up to the game's release, which demonstrates just how confident Halo's fans are in the sequel's quality. But how is it, really? The good news is, the sequel to the Xbox's defining action game is an absolutely superb, fully featured game, boasting an excellent presentation, a highly replayable campaign, and the greatest, most complete online multiplayer component in a console shooter yet. A surprisingly disappointing story and a fairly short single-player portion are noticeable shortcomings, but there's just so much breadth of content in Halo 2, and the action itself is so outstanding, that there can be no denying its quality. Overall, it's one of the very best action games available. It's good to see you, Master Chief.
There are several reasons why the original Halo ranks up there with a very small number of other first-person shooters as one of the definitive games in the genre. For one thing, Halo succeeded at establishing a cohesive, memorable, and original science-fiction universe. For another, the Master Chief, Halo's cybernetic protagonist, made a great hero. A fearless, enigmatic man, the Chief could succeed where pure flesh-and-blood humans could not, and guiding him to victory against the alien menace known as the Covenant, as well as the parasitic creatures called the Flood, made for a gripping story and an intense and satisfying gameplay experience.
Halo's gameplay was amazing in that it seamlessly integrated top-notch first-person shooting with incredibly fun third-person vehicular sequences and outstanding friendly and enemy artificial intelligence. The game's subtle innovations--the tactical consequences of such things as having recharging energy shields, being able to carry only a couple of weapons at a time, the ability to throw powerful grenades in between shots, and the option of dishing out fierce melee attacks--also did a lot to differentiate Halo from other shooters, and proceeded to influence subsequent games. Halo's multiple, well-balanced difficulty settings, two-player cooperative campaign option, and assorted multiplayer modes also ensured that the game had tons of lasting appeal. All these factors contributed to the game's well-deserved success, and they're all back in Halo 2. For the most part, the sequel takes an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to its gameplay--everything that you loved about Halo's action is back in full effect here. At the same time, the handful of new additions in Halo 2 are well thought out and well implemented, enriching the gameplay and making it seem fresh but still familiar.
Everything that you maybe didn't love about Halo is pretty much back, too. Let's face it: Halo was an incredible game, but some aspects of it were relatively weak. Most notably, many players felt that the game's occasionally repetitive level designs undermined the action, such as when the Master Chief squared off against the Flood in the infamous Library level. Also, though the game's visuals were terrific in the heat of battle, Halo's cinematic cutscenes using the game's 3D engine left a lot to be desired--they looked decidedly rough when compared with the rest of the game. These shortcomings rear their heads again in Halo 2, at least during the game's campaign. Some of the in-engine cutscenes are kind of ugly, though they're much better than those of the original. Meanwhile, the action itself is as dynamic and intense as ever, to the point where it can be tons of fun to replay the same sequence over and over, since you'll find that the friendly and enemy forces you'll be battling with will never act quite the same way twice. However, Halo 2's campaign--though it features a number of memorable, spectacular set pieces--frequently boils down to straight-up run-and-gun corridor crawls, one after another. Halo 2 plays much like its three-year-old predecessor, and the gameplay's just as fun and intense as ever. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
All your attention tends to get concentrated on the action itself, partly because the action is just so good but also because there's often little of interest in the game's environments. The level design is quite striking at times--you'll find yourself stopping just to gaze at the architecture--but it's occasionally monotonous enough to be confusing. You'll sometimes wander aimlessly for a few minutes, unable to tell which way is forward and which way is backward, until you happen upon the next signs of enemy resistance. Basically, the campaign is still a linear series of shootouts, some of which are open-ended enough to afford you the ability to choose from multiple weapons or vehicles, and some of which are more rigid. If the Flood levels of Halo didn't bother you, then you probably won't mind the similar sequences in Halo 2. If you don't fondly recall those bits of the first game, though, you might find yourself frustrated that Halo 2 follows a similar formula.
Even the content of Halo 2's campaign isn't significantly different from that of the first game. Prepare to take on many of the same foes in many of the same types of situations and locales. Of course, the game does take you into some new territory and pits you against some new threats (such as some hard-to-hit flying enemies and an enormous spiderlike Covenant battle tank), and sure enough, these sequences turn out to be some of the best bits of the campaign. Early on, for instance, you'll be defending Earth itself from a Covenant assault, rampaging through the war-torn streets on foot, at the wheel (or the mounted turret) of a Warthog 4x4, or in the belly of a devastating Scorpion battle tank. All this is thrilling. Yet while it's hard to imagine a better setup for Halo 2's action than putting the fate of Earth's defense in your hands, the game turns out to have other intentions, and rather suddenly changes gears after just a few hours.
Halo 2 gives up some of its focus from a storytelling standpoint, which becomes especially apparent once you finish the campaign. A great deal of attention is paid this time around not to the humans struggling for survival, but to the Covenant and what turns out to be a major political upheaval within their ranks. You spent the first game indiscriminately killing these fiends--yet now you're expected to be sympathetic to them and their hatred for humankind. To the game's credit, all this adds some newfound complexity to the story (even the collector's edition version of the game's manual is written from the Covenant perspective), and the plot itself is executed quite well. Still, chances are you'll wish that the game spent less time telling you about the Covenant and more time telling you about the Master Chief, his trusty AI companion Cortana, and, well, the fate of Earth. Halo 2's campaign is a blast to play, but is ultimately disappointing. Fortunately, the rest of the game is a blast to play, period.
As previously suggested, easily the worst part about the story is the way it ends, insofar as it doesn't. You'll run into this game's cliff-hanger ending like a compact car into a brick wall, and you'll certainly be left aching for more. Cliff-hanger endings are not necessarily a bad thing--some of the most successful film franchises in history (Star Wars and Back to the Future, to name just two) have relied on cliff-hangers to sustain their audiences' feverish excitement over time. The difference is, those cliff-hanger endings arrived in the context of storylines that at least offered some resolution or catharsis, whereas there's little satisfaction to be found in the ending here, and there's no telling when the next Halo game will come around to potentially wrap things up. There's a good chance you'll feel emotionally betrayed by the story, and it certainly doesn't help that the campaign, at the default difficulty, is going to take an average player less than 10 hours from start to finish. Many excited Halo fans will quickly blow through it in a day, or even a single sitting. Yes, the actual gameplay of Halo's single-player campaign is a blast. But the campaign also winds up being the most disappointing part of the game--probably the only disappointing part. Fortunately, Halo 2 more than makes up for these shortfalls in other ways.
From a technical standpoint, Halo 2's campaign features some significant improvements on the original. Some of the battles are on a noticeably grander scale, with many more vehicles and enemies mixed in for chaotic, breathtaking results. Much like the original, Halo 2 features some pitched battles involving more than two opposing factions, and it's great to be able to either lie low and watch the fur fly, or take advantage of the situation. Halo 2 also offers a virtually seamless gameplay experience, with only occasional split-second pauses in the action to divide up miles and miles of combat zones. Saving and loading is also handled extremely well, in that it's done automatically. Intermittent checkpoints punctuate the action, and you'll start back at these should you die or quit playing for a while--you never need to manually save your progress. Furthermore, the enemy AI is as impressive as ever, fighting with nearly the same unpredictability as a human opponent. The AI has a few weaknesses, especially when it's in the driver's seat of a vehicle, where it has trouble steering around obstacles, but it's still interesting and fun to fight both with and against.
Halo 2 plays very similarly to the original, but there are some key differences. Your jump is higher and floatier this time, and you don't suffer damage from falling anymore. There's no longer a health meter to worry about, which might sound like a pretty severe change, but it simply means that, unlike in the original game, you never need to concern yourself with finding health packs. It's just you and your recharging energy shields, which again give the game its tactical pacing--a slightly faster pacing than before, actually, since your shields recharge more quickly than in Halo. You can run and gun for a while, but when your shields are depleted, it's time for a hasty retreat behind cover. You can withstand a few light hits after your shields are drained, but that's it.
It's now possible to dual-wield some weapons--the smaller, one-handed ones. This isn't exactly an original feature, but Halo 2 implements it very well, both in single-player and multiplayer. When you're dual-wielding, you can independently fire both weapons using the left and right shoulder buttons. This leads to double the stopping power, makes some previously underpowered weapons (such as the needler) quite potent when used in tandem, and creates the potential for some inventive weapon combinations. On the other hand, while dual-wielding, you cannot throw your frag grenades or plasma grenades (which any Halo player knows are extremely useful), and you cannot execute melee attacks without automatically dropping the off-hand weapon in the process. So, dual-wielding doesn't dominate the game; it has its place, and it's an interesting addition to the game's tactics. Halo's memorable vehicles make a triumphant return in the sequel.
Halo 2 also sports a few vehicles not seen in the original, but the first game's vehicles get most of the attention. Fortunately, they've all been freshened up a bit. The Warthog can now powerslide for even tighter turns than it was capable of before. The Ghost, which you'll remember as the Covenant's one-man attack hoverbike, is probably the most fun-to-drive vehicle in the game now, thanks to the addition of an afterburner that makes it superfast and very deadly as a battering ram (the Ghost's plasma cannons are disabled while boosting, though). The Banshee, the Covenant's hang-glider-style flying vehicle, can now perform barrel rolls and loop-de-loops, and it also has an afterburner-style boost. It has a powerful main cannon that you'll get to use in the single-player portion of the game, but in multiplayer it's limited to its rapid-fire plasma guns.
Also, all the vehicles in Halo 2 now noticeably sustain damage when struck, but this effect is mostly cosmetic. It looks really terrific, to be sure--location-specific damage means you'll see the vehicles get shot apart piece by piece, depending on how you hit them. However, even if you're piloting a burning husk of a vehicle that seems held together by duct tape, chewing gum, and hope, it won't blow up unless your shield meter is depleted and you're killed as per usual. This seems counterintuitive, but then again, not having to worry about your vehicle's health independently of your own certainly doesn't hurt the game. And besides, if your opponent is sporting a shinier ride than you are, you can try to take what isn't yours.
The ability to hijack vehicles is probably the single greatest addition to Halo 2's play mechanics. It's done by simply pressing the X button when you're in the proper position, but getting into position can be tricky when you're face-to-face with a vehicle bristling with deadly weapons. Still, should you flank a vehicle and execute the command, you'll see yourself "remove" the opponent from the driver's seat and replace him. The particulars of the act depend on the vehicle (for instance, you'll actually have to bash open the hatches of the game's tanks and flush the crew out with grenades before taking control), but the bottom line is it's possible to turn the tables on a heavily armed opponent. This can lead to some incredibly satisfying unscripted moments in both the single-player and multiplayer portions of the game, such as when you jump up and grab onto a low-flying Banshee and fling its pilot into a bottomless pit, or when you jack a Ghost and make crushing its former owner your first order of business. Most of Halo's weapons return in the sequel, and are joined by a number of brand-new human and Covenant guns.
Halo 2 also features a number of new weapons. The most exciting of these is the energy sword, which some of the Covenant used to make your life miserable in the first game, but which you couldn't use--until now. The energy sword is as deadly as you remember, though the obvious disadvantage is its lack of reach. However, its reach is better than you'd expect. If you get within about 10 feet of an opponent and center him in your sights, you can execute a very quick lunge that will instantly kill the target 90 percent of the time. In the single-player campaign, the energy sword will prove to be a reliable tool whose only real drawback is its limited energy capacity--basically, it can run out of ammo. In the multiplayer modes, for whatever reason, there's no ammo limit on the sword, which can make it seem somewhat overpowered in some of the more-confined multiplayer maps. Whatever the case, the energy sword is a lot of fun to use. It sizzles with crackling energy and looks every bit as deadly in action as it truly is.
The other new weapons include the Covenant beam rifle, a highly effective sniper gun that can fire as quickly as you can pull the trigger but overheats if you don't space out your shots. There's also the Covenant carbine, a semiautomatic rifle with a decent scope, and its mean-looking human counterpart, the battle rifle, which fires in three-round bursts and is effective from afar. The submachine gun is another new addition, and it effectively replaces Halo's dearly departed assault rifle, which is nowhere to be found in Halo 2. The submachine gun doesn't pack much punch on its own, but dual-wielding them can be very effective. Also, the massive Covenant hunters' devastating fuel-rod cannons from the original Halo can now be wielded (which was first possible in the multiplayer mode of the PC version of Halo). Another new weapon, the brute shot, is a semiautomatic grenade launcher that requires good aim but causes terrific damage.
Most of Halo's weapons are back, with the magnum (which no longer has a scope, to the benefit of the multiplayer game), the shotgun, the sniper rifle, the rocket launcher (which can now lock on to vehicles, making it even more dangerous), the plasma pistol, and the plasma rifle all making a return. Once again, the human weapons are basically more satisfying to use, since they pack a more visceral punch. But, all in all, Halo 2's arsenal is diverse, balanced, and interesting. You'll frequently be challenged to make tough decisions on the fly about which weapons you should hang on to.
Of course, the core of Halo 2's action is still totally top-notch. It gets all the small, important stuff right. For instance, the game gives you excellent feedback using both graphical and audio cues about when you're hurting the opponent and when you yourself are being hurt. There are intuitive indications when your shields are charging up, when your ammo's running low, when you need to reload, and so on. As a result, you really don't need to spend much time glancing at the heads-up display elements in the corners of the screen--you can squarely concentrate on the action in front of you. Also, in multiplayer, onscreen waypoint indicators help you keep track of friendly players, turning into Xs when they're killed and generally letting you know where your help is needed in a clean, unobtrusive fashion.
Melee attacks are once again immensely satisfying and very strong, and consequently are a great way to finish off an opponent, especially in multiplayer. Fans of Halo's melee attacks will be pleased to find that there are even more attack animations this time around, although for some strange reason, some of Halo's best melee attack animations (the overhead shotgun bash and the needler slap, to name a couple) have been replaced with less-severe-looking moves. No matter--these are just as effective as before. Multiple difficulty settings and split-screen co-op play give the short single-player campaign some much-needed lasting value.
Given that the fundamentals of Halo 2's gameplay are so outstanding, it's fortunate that the campaign offers some breadth beyond the initial less-than-10-hour play-through. There's a two-player cooperative mode, which can be tremendously fun, as anyone who's played the first Halo in co-op could attest. The game runs great in split-screen (even in a four-player multiplayer match), so the co-op mode once again is one of the highlights. Unfortunately, you cannot play the co-op campaign online or via system link, for whatever reason. The single-player and cooperative portions of Halo 2 are given additional lasting appeal thanks to the game's multiple difficulty settings. At the normal setting, the game is actually going to be mostly a breeze for experienced Halo players. The next-hardest "heroic" setting is a better challenge, and should be your choice for co-op play, unless you've been practicing and are up for the toughest experience that Halo 2 can throw at you: the suitably named "legendary" setting, which will bring even the best Halo players nearly to their knees. If you really want to stretch out the offline experience of the game, just play on "legendary" from the get-go and you'll have your hands full for a long, long time, thanks to the droves of incredibly deadly enemies you'll be facing. Actually, once you finish the campaign for the first time, you can play through any of the game's chapters either solo or in co-op at any difficulty setting.
Like its predecessor, Halo 2 supports up to 16 players in its multiplayer modes, though many Halo fans never got to experience the original game's full-scale multiplayer action. They maybe played four-player multiplayer on a single system, but participating in a 16-player system-link game (ideally requiring four TVs, Xboxes, and copies of Halo) wasn't exactly practical. Nevertheless, system-link play remains a welcome option in Halo 2. Obviously, the ability to play with and against others online this time around is a very big deal, especially since Halo 2's multiplayer is so good. In short, this is one the best multiplayer action experiences available on any platform. Though the PC is home to some of the best-ever multiplayer-focused shooters, Halo 2 stands firm even in direct comparison with the PC's finest, thanks partly to its unprecedented player-matching features.
Halo 2's multiplayer options build on the strong foundation established by its predecessor, mostly by taking the action online and introducing a variety of great player-matching features that help make the online play much easier to get into here than in most shooters. In fact, these rather subtle features turn out to be Halo 2's greatest innovations. For starters, you can customize your appearance by choosing from a large variety of different color options and insignias (you can also look like the Master Chief or like a Covenant elite--a purely cosmetic choice). Once you get online, expect Halo 2 to play just as responsively as it does offline; during the course of several days of Xbox Live testing on a standard DSL connection, we experienced perfectly smooth, lag-free gameplay in almost every match. Multiplayer Halo 2 has what it takes to keep you busy till Halo 3 rolls around.
Halo's classic multiplayer modes, including slayer, capture the flag, king of the hill, and oddball, return in the sequel, and are joined by a new mode called territories, which replaces Halo's gimmicky race mode. There are seven different multiplayer modes in total, and each one has several variants, which translates into literally dozens of different possible game types. Multiply this by Halo 2's dozen-or-so multiplayer maps, all of which support each of the different modes of play, and consider the fact that you can customize the game rules to suit your preferences, and it's easy to see that the potential lasting value of Halo 2's multiplayer component is extreme.
Each mode of play is entertaining in its own right--some more than others, though. Slayer, Halo's deathmatch equivalent, is the simplest mode but nonetheless one of the highlights. Team-based and free-for-all variants are available, and you can also limit the action to particular weapons (for instance, swords-only matches can be great fun), or enable the use of cloaking shields for some cat-and-mouse action. Again, since the core gameplay of Halo 2 is so great, just slugging it out against other players--or stalking them using the onscreen motion sensor--can be very fulfilling. Too bad there's no option to play with or against computer-controlled bots, which is a noticeable omission, especially given how good the AI is in the single-player portion of the game.
Besides slayer, capture the flag is another returning favorite. It offers one-flag, two-flag, and other variants that considerably change the dynamic of the action. King of the hill forces players to fight for superiority in a key location on the map. The new territories mode is similarly themed, filling maps with different strategic points that can be captured and recaptured tug-of-war-style for some truly tense and exciting battles reminiscent of the PC's Battlefield series or Unreal Tournament 2004's onslaught mode. Assault is sort of a reverse CTF, requiring players to drop bombs into the opposing side's base. Oddball is a great game of keep-away, in which you're trying to hang on to a skull-shaped "ball" for as long as possible. Juggernaut imbues one player with super strength, and compels everyone else to gang up on him or her. You might easily play Halo 2 for dozens of hours without ever experiencing all the variants of these modes, but chances are, you'll quickly find several mode-variant-map combinations that really suit you.
One potential consequence of being able to freely customize a multiplayer gameplay experience is that you might discover some combinations of modes, maps, and numbers of players that aren't very good. For example, a juggernaut match in which the juggernaut can fly off to safety in a Banshee isn't necessarily much fun, and a four-player CTF match won't work well on some of the larger maps. Still, the game's flexibility is ultimately to its great credit, and the quick match and optimatch features on Xbox Live do a great job of throwing you into ideal game sessions based on your basic preferences, an optimal number of players, and those players' relative skill levels (based on their rankings). To whatever extent is possible in a multiplayer shooter, there's something here for everyone.
The maps themselves are clearly designed with well-balanced multiplayer competition in mind. You'll spot some of the classics from Halo back in full effect here, along with some new maps, including a few that are asymmetrical and therefore very interesting in team-based game types. The maps include sprawling vehicle-focused battlefields and close-quarters corridor crawls, and pretty much every discernible shade in between. There isn't an exhaustive number of maps, but since you need to learn a map to be competitive on it, this isn't a bad thing. Besides, any given map tends to have a noticeably different feel to it, depending on how the chosen mode of play focuses the action. For example, much like in Halo, being in the driver's seat of a Warthog won't be terribly effective in a free-for-all slayer match, but since the vehicle can transport several of your allies, it's much more useful in CTF or one of the other team-based modes.
Many of Halo 2's multiplayer modes encourage or require teamwork, and to this end the game affords you a variety of tools for coordinating with your allies. Online, it's possible to find open sessions not just when playing solo, but also when playing as a team--your entire party can hopscotch to and from different sessions. More than one player can get online with a single Xbox, too, so while you can't play the co-op campaign over Xbox Live, you can take part in multiplayer matches online together in split-screen. During a match, you can use your headset either to speak to whoever's in the general vicinity (friend or foe), or only to your team by pressing the white button. Furthermore, Halo 2 basically gives you all that you need to set up and manage a competitive team (or "clan," to use the long-standing first-person shooter slang, as Halo 2 does), and to track its ongoing progress against other such groups. As a clan, it's also easy to jump into ranked games against other clans, and Bungie's official Web site records some ridiculously detailed statistics about your time spent playing online, so Halo 2 seems well suited to support its hardcore fans.
The game also incorporates a variety of systems to punish players who go out of their way to try to ruin others' experience, including one that penalizes them with increasingly lengthy respawn times. Halo 2 even dynamically switches host servers in the event that the player who created a game session quits out. These types of under-the-hood features may not be obvious, but they should help ensure that the stability and integrity of Halo 2's online play experience lives up to standards set by the gameplay itself.
Another aspect of Halo 2 that's incredibly impressive is its audio. The game features Dolby Digital 5.1 support and puts it to good use, since the positional audio can give you a tactical advantage. The sound itself is stunning, too. The weapon effects are memorably fierce, and they're made even more effective through some excellent use of the Xbox controller's force feedback. The voice acting in the campaign is convincingly delivered, and some of it comes from some recognizable talent: actors Keith David and Ron Perlman and comedians David Cross and Orlando Jones, to name a few. Tons and tons of voice work permeates the campaign, and though you'll often hear friendly marines shouting in battle, you'll practically never hear them repeat themselves. Hearing all the Covenant speak English is jarring at first, but their voices still fit them well. With all that said, the music is the best part of Halo 2's sound. It's truly the best "character" in the story, kicking in at the most opportune times and delivering an eclectic sound that includes the stirring strings and choruses of the original Halo, as well as some driving guitar rock that'll really get your blood boiling. The action's not radically different from that of the first game, which is to say, it's still really damn good.
The game's visuals are also very impressive, though they aren't quite as pristine as the sound. As mentioned, some of the cutscenes don't look so hot, and you'll also sometimes see low-resolution textures jarringly switch to much sharper, higher-resolution textures as you approach an object or when the scene changes. Also, some of the game's environments are relatively lacking in detail, despite a prodigious use of bump-mapping, which gives everything in the game a realistically textured look. These rough edges are a bit of a shame, since the rest of Halo 2's visuals present themselves beautifully. The Master Chief, with his well-worn Spartan armor, has never looked better, and the game's outdoor environments seem to stretch for as far as the eye can see. The game usually maintains a respectable frame rate regardless of how much destruction is being waged, and its animations, believable physics, weapon and vehicle designs, and colorful explosions and other effects look terrific. All this makes the game just a lot of fun to watch, especially during densely packed multiplayer matches. Halo 2 of course looks especially good running in progressive-scan mode on a compatible widescreen display. This benefits the game's split-screen modes, too, giving players more real estate and higher resolutions to work with.
To say that there's a lot to like about Halo 2 would be an understatement. Despite a rather short campaign and a disappointing storyline, Halo 2 is an exceptional shooter that frequently delivers thrilling, memorable, and unique moments in its online, co-op, and single-player modes. Depending on what you most want from the game, you may find that Halo 2 leaves you desperate for another installment in the series--but even if it takes Bungie another several years to produce that game, there's enough first-rate action and lasting value here to keep you happily entertained till that time comes.
Do you have what it takes to become Most Wanted? Designed for a new, more connected generation of racing fans, Need for Speed Most Wanted offers players an expansive open world packed with exhilarating action where they can choose their own path to become the Most Wanted. Players will have the freedom to drive anywhere, discover hidden gameplay, takedown rivals, challenge friends or just hang out and toy with the cops. Everything they do counts towards the end goal of becoming #1 on their personal Most Wanted List.
The only rule in Need for Speed Most Wanted is to race without rules. There's a start and a finish to every race -- but how the player races, where and when they choose to compete, and the skills they choose to compete with -- are all up to the player. It isn't enough to be the Most Wanted amongst rivals and cops. Now players will fight for ultimate bragging rights amongst their friends thanks to Autolog. In Need for Speed Most Wanted, everything players do will earn Speed Points that will take them up the Most Wanted list, from competing for best race times and battling cops in pursuits for the highest scores, to catching the most air off a huge ramp and more -- if there’s something to do, there's someone to beat.
Stepping off a boat in the shoes of illegal immigrant Niko Bellic as he arrives in Liberty City at the start of Grand Theft Auto IV, you can tell immediately that Rockstar North's latest offering is something quite special. Yes, this is another GTA game in which you'll likely spend the bulk of your time stealing cars and gunning down cops and criminals, but it's also much more than that. GTAIV is a game with a compelling and nonlinear storyline, a great protagonist who you can't help but like, and a plethora of online multiplayer features in addition to its lengthy story mode. The PC version adds a customizable radio station and a video editor to the package, and also ups the multiplayer count from 16 to 32 players. It's not all good news, though; the game suffers from some noticeable performance issues even on rigs that far exceed the unreasonably high recommended system specifications, and you need to be signed in to Windows Live to save your progress in the single-player game. This should have been the best GTA game yet, but it's inferior to its console counterparts. Liberty City has changed a lot since 2001.
One of the many things that set GTAIV apart from its predecessors is Liberty City, which is more convincing as a living, breathing urban environment than anything you've seen in a game before, and which bears little resemblance to its namesake in 2001's GTAIII. Liberty's diverse population believably attempts to go about its daily business, seemingly unaware that several criminal factions are at war in the city. Niko has no such luck. He's compelled to start working for one of the factions shortly after arriving, when he learns that his cousin Roman has some potentially fatal gambling debts. Niko's military experience makes him a useful freelancer for employers in the business of killing, and though his reluctance to carry out their orders is often apparent, he does whatever is asked of him in the hope that completing missions for other people will ultimately give him the means to complete his own.
But Niko doesn't have to do everything that's asked of him. On several occasions as you play through his story, you'll be presented with decisions that afford you the option of doing what you think is right rather than blindly following instructions. You don't necessarily have to kill a target if he or she promises to disappear, but you have to weigh the risk of your employer finding out against the possibility that the person whose life you spare might prove useful later in the game, or even have work for you in the form of bonus missions. To say anything more specific on this subject would be to risk spoiling one of GTAIV's most interesting new features, but suffice it to say that every decision you make has consequences, and you'll likely want to play through the game at least twice to see how the alternatives unfold.
Grand Theft Auto IV's story mode can be beaten in less than 30 hours, and there are so many optional activities and side missions to take part in along the way that you can comfortably double that number if you're in no hurry. The majority of the story missions task you with making deliveries and/or killing people, and play out in much the same way as those in previous games. With that said, most of the missions are a lot easier this time around, partly because Niko is a more agile and efficient killer than any of his predecessors, and partly because the LCPD seemingly has better things to do than hunt down an illegal immigrant who's gunning down undesirables all over the city. Some of the more imaginative missions sprinkled throughout the story include a kidnapping, a bank heist, and a job interview. The cinematic cutscenes associated with story missions are superbly presented and are the sequences in which the game's characters really shine. Without exception, the characters you encounter benefit from great animation, great voice work, and superbly expressive faces. They're not always so impressive when they join you on a mission and refuse to do what they're supposed to (for example, not following you on an escort mission, or failing to negotiate a doorway). Nevertheless, these problems are few and far between, and they're made less painful by the new "replay mission" option that you're presented with whenever you fail. He's a gun for hire, but Niko Bellic is the most likeable GTA protagonist to date.
New abilities in Niko's arsenal include scaling fences and walls anywhere he can get a foothold, shimmying along ledges, and, most importantly, taking cover behind objects. The ability to stick close to walls, parked cars, and the like at the touch of a button makes GTAIV's gunplay a huge improvement over that in previous games, and, in tandem with the new targeting system, it also makes it a lot easier. Enemies are rarely smart enough to get to you while you're in cover, and given that you can lock your targeting reticle on to them even when they're hidden, all you have to do is wait for them to poke their heads out and then pick them off with a minimum of effort. Locking on to enemies targets their torso by default, but you can use the right analog stick to fine-tune your aim and kill them more quickly with a headshot or two. Playing without using the lock-on feature is viable if you're using a mouse and keyboard, but makes things more difficult on the Xbox 360 controller. You'll need to master the technique at some point, though, so that you can shoot blindly at enemies from positions of cover when you dare not poke your own head out to line up the shot.
Given the amount of trouble that you get into as you play through the story mode, it's inevitable that the police are going to get involved from time to time, even when their presence isn't a scripted feature of your mission. Liberty City's boys in blue are quick to respond when you get flagged with a wanted level of between one and six stars, but they're not nearly as tough to deal with as their counterparts in previous GTA games. They don't drive as quickly when pursuing you, they rarely bother to set up roadblocks, and you'll need to blow up practically an entire city block before the FIB (that's not a typo) show up. Furthermore, you're given an unfair advantage in the form of your GPS system; when you're not using it to plot a valid route to any waypoint of your choosing, it doubles as a kind of police scanner. Any time you have a brush with the law, the GPS shows you the exact locations of patrol cars and cops on foot in your area, and highlights the circular area (centered on your last-known whereabouts) where they're concentrating their search. To escape, all you need to do is move outside the circle and then avoid being seen for 10 seconds or so, which is often best achieved by finding a safe spot and just sitting there. It's not a bad system in theory, but in practice it makes dodging the law a little too easy, especially when your wanted level is low and the search area is small.
When you're not running missions for criminals, taking part in street races, stealing cars to order, or randomly causing trouble, you'll find that there are plenty of opportunities to unwind in Liberty City. Some of these optional activities offer tangible rewards that can prove useful in missions later on, whereas others are just a fun way to kill time and take in more of GTAIV's superb humor. For example, you can watch television, listen to numerous radio stations, check out some genuinely funny shows (including some big-name acts) at cabaret and comedy clubs, and use a computer to surf the in-game Internet. In case you were in any doubt as to how the series got its name.
GTAIV's Internet is filled with spoofs of all the kinds of Web sites that you'd only ever look at accidentally or when you know there's no danger of getting caught. Some of them can be found only by clicking on links in spam e-mails, whereas others are advertised prominently on the search page. There's plenty of amusing stuff to find if you spend some time in one of the "TW@" Internet cafes, but the most interesting site by far is an online dating agency through which you can meet women who, if they like your profile, will agree to go on dates with you. Dating and socializing with friends is something you can spend as much or as little of your time doing as you like, and though the people you meet can occasionally be demanding to the point that they become irritating, keeping them happy invariably benefits you in some way.
Keeping friends and dates happy means spending time with them and doing things that they enjoy, and all of them have different personalities. Some friends like to join you for minigames such as tenpin bowling, pool, or darts, whereas others prefer to go out for a meal, get drunk, or take in a show. Of course, dates are much fussier than regular friends, and their opinions of you are influenced not only by whether you pick them up on time, where you take them, and whether you try your luck when dropping them at home, but also by a number of much more subtle factors. Dates will comment on things like the car you drive, how you drive it, and the clothes you wear. They'll even notice if you wear the same outfit two dates in a row, though not all of them will be bothered by it. The rewards that you get when another character likes you enough vary depending on who it is. Without wishing to give away specifics, befriending a lawyer can prove useful if you're having trouble with the cops, for example, and having a nurse on your friends list can literally be a lifesaver.
You'll keep in touch with your dates, friends, and some of your enemies using another of GTAIV's great new features: a cell phone. It's hard to believe that something as simple as a cell phone could add so much to a game like this, but it's implemented so well that it's hard to imagine leaving any of Niko's safe houses without it. If you've ever used a cell phone in real life, you'll have no problem operating this one and, given that it's controlled using only the arrow and Enter keys or your controller's D pad and a single button, it's easy to call up acquaintances and take calls even while driving. There's no unwieldy conversation system to deal with; you simply choose which friend you want to call, what you want to talk about (it could be work, a fun activity, or asking for a favor) and then, assuming that he or she answers the phone, the conversation plays out. Incoming calls are even easier, though they occasionally come at inopportune (or amusing) times; hearing your cell phone's signal interfere with your car radio is the least of your worries when you consider the possibility of a date calling you while you're with a prostitute or embroiled in a gunfight with the Mafia. Incidentally, new ringtones and visual themes for your phone can be purchased via the in-game Internet, which is typical of the incredible attention to detail that you'll come to take for granted as you play. Your friends in GTAIV invariably come with benefits.
To give you some idea of just how much thought has clearly gone into the crafting of GTAIV, even the act of stealing a parked car, which is still achieved by pushing a single button, can now result in any number of different things happening. If the door is locked, as is often the case, Niko will smash a window with his elbow or his foot to get inside. Once inside the car, he may need to hot-wire it to get it started; you can speed up the process slightly by using the shoulder buttons on your controller. If the car has an alarm, it'll sound for several seconds and cause the headlights to flash on and off as you drive away--practically begging any nearby cops to come after you. Stealing cars with drivers and/or passengers inside opens up lots more possibilities, the most amusing of which is someone (possibly you) getting an arm caught in a door and dragged along as the vehicle speeds away.
Most of the vehicles in GTAIV, like those in previous games, have very loose handling that makes it easy for you to perform Hollywood-style U-turns, skids around corners, and the like. You can play through most of the missions without ever violating a traffic law if you really want to, but you can get away with (and will have a lot more fun) driving like a lunatic, provided that you don't collide with any police vehicles or mow down too many pedestrians. A neat touch when driving with the default camera view is that the camera, which is positioned a few feet behind the rear bumper of the car, centers on you rather than on the vehicle, effectively offering the vehicular equivalent of an over-the-shoulder view. When you take the control of something sporty, the camera also positions itself much closer to the ground, which adds to the sensation of speed.
With an Xbox 360 controller, the vehicle handling is difficult to fault, regardless of whether you're in a sports car, a garbage truck, a motorcycle, a speedboat, or a helicopter. The mouse-and-keyboard combo doesn't work nearly as well as the controller when you're at the controls of a vehicle and, while it's still possible to win races and such, the WASD keys are no substitute for an analog stick and two analog triggers. Regardless of which control setup you opt for, you might notice one odd quirk that has been a constant ever since GTAIII: When taking the controls of certain vehicles, you'll suddenly notice a lot more of the same vehicle on the roads. It's not a big deal, and it isn't detrimental to the gameplay, but it's a little jarring if you get into one of the more unusual vehicles in the game--for example, the equivalent of either a Ferrari or a pickup truck--and suddenly find that the city is filled with them. That particular quirk is pretty common in some of the multiplayer modes as well, though you'll likely be too busy keeping an eye out for other players to take any notice when you venture online. Multiplayer games are an opportunity for up to 32 players to get together in Liberty City.
Getting online in Grand Theft Auto IV couldn't be easier, though you need to have both Windows Live and the Rockstar Social Club application running in the background to do so. You simply select the multiplayer option on your cell phone, choose which type of game you want to host or join, and then enter a lobby and wait for the game to start. The PC game supports 32 players where the console versions supported 16, but even games with as many as 16 players can be difficult to find depending on which mode you're looking to play. There are more than a dozen different multiplayer modes to choose from, and although some of them are variations on similar themes, there's certainly no shortage of variety. As the host of a multiplayer session, you also have the freedom to greatly customize all of the game types with variables such as friendly fire, police presence, weapons sets, traffic levels, radar functionality, and many more. You can choose where you'd like your game to take place as well, considering that many gameplay modes can be played either on a specific Liberty City island or across the entire map.
Even conventional-sounding modes such as Deathmatch and Race feel quite different than anything that you've played before. And in addition to those, there are objective-based games in which you're tasked with completing missions similar to those in the single-player game: a team-based Cops 'n Crooks mode, a Turf War mode in which teams compete for control of territories, a carjacking mode, three cooperative missions that support up to four players, and more. With the right group of people, there's no reason why you can't have a lot of fun with every single mode that's available. We experienced a few frame rate issues and lag that caused other players and their vehicles to jump around the screen at times, but for the most part GTAIV's online play is a real treat. One especially neat touch is that, as a passenger in a vehicle being driven by another player, you can mark waypoints on the GPS system for your driver using a map that tracks the locations of other players and objectives.
If you're wondering about differences between the PC game and the previously released PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto IV, the truth is that even with its handful of extra features the PC version isn't quite as easy to recommend. That's largely because, even on hardware that easily exceeds the extremely high recommended system requirements, the frame rate struggles to maintain a steady 30 frames per second and regularly dips as low as 15 when the onscreen action gets crazy. Oddly, this doesn't have a big impact on gameplay, but it's noticeable nonetheless. Frame rate inconsistencies, a lack of antialiasing, and known issues with some graphics cards notwithstanding, the PC game looks a little better than its console counterparts overall. You might find some blurry textures that don't appear to have been created with PC resolutions in mind, but for the most part playing on the PC affords you an even sharper look at the game's incredible attention to detail. With the Video Editor mode you can share memorable moments online.
The audio in the PC version of GTAIV is every bit as impressive as that in the console games, and can take a lot of the credit for why Liberty City feels so alive. True to form, GTAIV's soundtrack has plenty of great licensed songs and, unlike other games we could mention, it doesn't force the artist and track information down your throat with pop-up windows that detract from gameplay. However, if you want that information, you can simply dial up a song-recognition service on your cell phone and, after a few seconds, receive it in a text message. Genius. New for the PC version is the Independence FM radio station, which, in between the usual assortment of commercials and such, will play tracks from your own music collection. The other radio stations' playlists will be hard to beat, but the option to try is a great addition.
Another new feature for GTAIV on the PC is a Video Editor mode that, provided you're willing to spend some time with it, is a great way to get creative with and share some of your most memorable moments in Liberty City. With it, you can edit multiple clips together as well as add custom music, camera filters, and onscreen text to your movie before uploading it to the Rockstar Social Club. Capturing raw gameplay footage is as easy as hitting a single button to start and finish recording, and when you're ready to watch it back or start editing, the Video Editor mode can be accessed via your in-game cell phone.
Grand Theft Auto IV is a game that, in spite of its technical shortcomings on the PC, you simply have to play. The single-player game, which you can still play long after you complete the story, is the series' best by far, and the multiplayer features are good enough that you'll likely have no problem finding people to play with for many months to come. The minor flaws that you'll experience are no more difficult to overlook than those in previous GTA games, and they're greatly outnumbered by the features that will impress and surprise you anytime you think you've already seen everything that
Hot Pursuit is a Need for Speed game in name only. This blisteringly fast racer has more in common with developer Criterion Games' own Burnout series than it does with any previous Need for Speed offering, despite lacking a number of features that are commonly associated with Burnout games. This isn't a game in which you're rewarded for crashing spectacularly or for jumping through billboards, but it is a game that encourages you to drive dangerously and to take down your opponents by any means necessary. The option to play both as illegal racers and as the cops that are chasing them brings some much-needed variety to the action, while spike strips, road blocks, and other satisfying countermeasures ensure that Hot Pursuit doesn't feel quite like any racer that you've played before. Regardless of whether your interest in Hot Pursuit stems from a love of Need for Speed, Burnout, or neither, you won't be disappointed.
If you're familiar with the Burnout series, you'll immediately feel at home with the handling in Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. Licensed cars from the likes of Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and Porsche can be made to slide around corners with only the briefest of touches on the brake, and you earn nitrous by driving dangerously close to other vehicles and into oncoming traffic. Furthermore, there are plenty of shortcuts available if you stray from the Seacrest County roads, and should you wreck your ride while attempting to take one, you're treated to a glorious slow-motion shot as panels buckle and debris starts to fly. A similar slow-motion treatment is used to alert you when additional cops show up to chase you down and when you successfully take out an opponent, which adds a welcome touch of Hollywood to these high-speed chases. Not that they need it.
Even in the Career mode's time trial and rapid response events where you have no cops or racers to worry about, the potential for disaster is ever present. Oncoming and slow-moving traffic, risky shortcuts, and sharp corners all conspire to keep you on the edge of your seat, and other event types add so many additional hazards for you to concern yourself with that your heart will likely still be racing long after you cross the finish line. As a racer, you find yourself being pursued by cops who can organize roadblocks, hit you with EMP blasts, drop spike strips in your path, and even call upon helicopters armed with spike strips to slow you down if you get too far ahead of them. And as a cop, you're expected to chase racers who have their own EMPs and spike strips, as well as powerful turbo systems and jammers that render all of your equipment useless for a short time. The good news is that as your opponents slowly gain access to more and better equipment in Career mode, so do you. Hot Pursuit's cars are resilient enough to shunts that they get their own health bars.
Equipment is mapped to the D pad and is available only in limited quantities. This keeps events of the same type from feeling too similar because, for example, taking down racers by overtaking them and then dropping spike strips is very different from hitting them with EMP shots that take a few seconds to lock on after you position yourself directly behind the target. You always have the option to just bash into other vehicles in order to take them out, but these cars are much more resilient than their Burnout counterparts, and it generally takes several hard shunts to put them out of commission. Incidentally, as a racer you're free to run your opponents off the road or even to use countermeasures against them, but when there are cops in pursuit, it's best to save your aggression for your common enemy.
Cops and racers in Hot Pursuit benefit from impressive AI that makes them both formidable and occasionally unpredictable opponents. Both are smart about using their countermeasures effectively and are appropriately aggressive. But they're also fallible, which can make for some exciting moments when racers collide into each other directly in front of you, for example. Racers won't always take shortcuts, but it's not uncommon to see them doing so; impressively, when you're tailing them as a cop, they often wait until the last second to turn off the road, which makes attempting to follow them much more challenging. Cops will take shortcuts as well, but only when they're pursuing racers down them. Interestingly, not all of the alternate routes actually save you time, and how effective they are as shortcuts is in part determined by how well your car handles off-road. If you're in a four-wheel drive Subaru Impreza or Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, loose surfaces don't slow you down much, but if you're in a low-slung exotic like the Koenigsegg Agera or Pagani Zonda, you're probably better off staying on the tarmac. If cops all got to drive cars like this, who wouldn't want a job in law enforcement?
Predictably, though AI opponents do a great job of keeping things interesting, they're still no substitute for other players. Hot Pursuit doesn't support local multiplayer, but its three online modes are so much fun that it can be hard to tear yourself away once you start playing. Online races support up to eight players, and since they don't feature any weapons or cops, they are a test of your driving skill and nothing more. Hot pursuit events, on the other hand, are four-against-four races in which a team of cops with full arsenals must try to prevent equally well-equipped racers from reaching the finish line. These events never play out the same way twice, and therefore you're unlikely to tire of them anytime soon. Similarly, you never know what's going to happen next in online interceptor events, which pit just one cop against one racer. The difference here, other than numbers, is that you're free to drive anywhere on the map. As the cop, you obviously need to stick close to your target, but as the racer, it's extremely satisfying to outwit your pursuer by taking a shortcut, using countermeasures to gain an advantage, or just doing something as simple as performing a quick U-turn. The chase ends either when one of the cars gets wrecked or when the racer manages to outrun the cop, at which point you have the option to switch roles and start over.
Regardless of whether you're playing online or in Career mode, your performances earn you bounty points that increase your overall cop and racer ranks. These ranks aren't just about bragging rights; as your bounty increases you unlock additional cars and, just occasionally, upgrades for your countermeasures. Cars are sorted into five classes according to their performance, so you never gain an unreasonable advantage by having access to cars that other players don't, because everyone uses cars from the same class. Equipment upgrades do afford you a noticeable advantage, but it's not so significant that you're going to dominate as a high-level player in a room full of newcomers. Longer spike strips still need to be dropped at the right time to be effective, and even being able to drop two simultaneously doesn't change things much. EMPs that lock on more quickly are definitely easier to use, and high-level road blocks are tougher for targets to avoid, but nothing feels unbalanced or unfair. In fact, equipment upgrades are more likely to impact your results in Career mode than online, and unlocking them can be a good incentive to replay events that you've yet to achieve a gold medal time in.
Bronze, silver, and gold medals are up for grabs in all 70-plus Career mode events, and even after you've earned yourself gold in an event, there's a good chance that you're going to be replaying it at some point in the future. That's because Hot Pursuit's autolog system does a great job of constantly comparing you to your friends and compelling you to compete with them. Events in which you're losing to friends who have played recently are highlighted on the career map, and postings on your "speed wall" alert you when your best times are beaten. Furthermore, you can easily jump straight into events that autolog recommends to you via an option on the main menu, so if you hear that your time in an event has been beaten, you don't have to go looking for it on the map before attempting to reclaim your crown. It's a good system, and the option to post taunts on friends' walls after you beat their times is a nice touch. It's unfortunate that the autolog completely replaces rather than complements traditional leaderboards though, because there's no way to know how your times compare with the best in the world, and ultimately the autolog is only as good as your friends are competitive.
One of the few frustrating features of Hot Pursuit, especially when you're trying to shave seconds off a time to beat one of your friends, is that just occasionally the slow-motion shots used to show off crashes and such can mess with your driving. Most of the time, when the camera switches away from you to show an opponent hitting your spike strip or perhaps another cop entering your pursuit, control of your car is handed over to the AI, and it does a good job of keeping you moving. That's not always the case, though; you might regain control of your car just as it's about to slam into the back of another vehicle or a split-second too late for you to take a high-speed corner without straying from the tarmac. It doesn't happen often, but it's annoying when it does. On the flip side, you might also miraculously avoid spike strips or road blocks when the AI is in control, so it all evens out. Road blocks will slow down your targets, but they rarely stop them.
Awkward camera switches aside, Hot Pursuit does very little wrong with its presentation. All of the licensed cars look superb, and the varied environments that they race through are far more detailed than you can appreciate at over 200 miles per hour. The frame rate is silky smooth even when your driving isn't, and the heads-up display, while busy, is never distracting. The audio is also impressive; the roar of engines, the wailing of police sirens, the whoosh of nitrous, and even the chatter on the police radio sound great. It's odd that the default audio levels place more importance on the loud and lively soundtrack than on the sound effects, but that's easily rectified in the options menu.
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is one of the most thrilling racing games around. It doesn't matter which side of the law you prefer to play on; the unpredictable nature of these events and the sheer speed at which they're played make this a tough game to put down. If you're in the market for a ride with superb handling, great looks, an impressive top speed, and more than enough room for all of your friends, this is the one you want.
fter Saints Row: The Third, it was hard to imagine how this series of increasingly zany open-world crime games could possibly get any zanier. Rather than attempting to tackle that challenge head-on, Saints Row IV sidesteps it by being an almost completely different type of open-world game. Sure, the core of Saints Row is still there; there are still plenty of absurd weapons, costumes, and activities. But the way you interact with the world has changed. No longer are you an ordinary earthbound mortal. Saints Row IV turns you into a superhero capable of running up the sides of buildings and flinging people with your mind. This isn't a refined game or a challenging one, but it is a sometimes hilarious playground of a game that gives you plenty of fun abilities to use and plenty of opportunities to use them.
How does the game explain your new capacity for doing things like leaping tall buildings in a single bound and zapping enemies with freeze blasts? It's simple. You saved the world from a terrorist threat and became the president of the United States. Then Earth was invaded by aliens, and the evil alien overlord had you placed in a Matrix-style computer simulation of a city where, much like Neo, you can acquire all manner of abilities that break the rules of the simulation.
Saints Row IV mines its goofy premise for all it's worth. When "What Is Love" by Haddaway comes on as you're escaping from an alien spaceship, the juxtaposition of grim sci-fi visuals with '90s dance beats is so unexpected that it's delightful. And there's an infectious joy in the way your extremely customizable character, puckish rogue that he or she is, delights in it all, whether you've opted for one of the male voices, one of the female voices, or the aptly named Nolan North voice.
Being the president means having to make the tough choices.
The simulation in which you spend most of the game is a virtual re-creation of the city of Steelport, and the city's layout hasn't changed much since Saints Row: The Third, but the evil alien overlord, Zinyak, has remodeled a bit, and he likes to keep it gloomy. Because there's no day-night cycle during the course of the campaign and the whole city is shrouded in darkness, Steelport is a drab, monotonous setting. But it's much more attractive on the PC, where objects are sharp and defined well into the distance, than it is on consoles, where objects even a short distance away look muddy by comparison.
Given that this is a game in which you can run around naked shooting people with an Inflato-Ray, you might expect the humor throughout to be crass and juvenile. And, for the most part, it is, but not always in the ways you expect. The game's humor is unabashedly stupid, but it's smart about being stupid, working in references to Shakespeare, clarifications about the distinction between alliteration and assonance, and knocks at those silly people who don't know the difference between a robot and a mech suit. The banter among Saints is consistently sharp and will definitely have you laughing out loud on numerous occasions.
Sprinting around at super speed: the only way to travel.
Very early on in Saints Row IV, you acquire the abilities to leap incredibly high and to sprint at superhuman speeds, and by collecting ubiquitous glowing blue clusters, you can enhance these abilities and the others you gradually unlock. Once you can sprint, you'll probably hardly ever use a vehicle again, since you can run faster than any car, which makes all of the car customization options carried over from earlier games feel a bit superfluous. But it's hard to lament the lack of emphasis on vehicles given the exuberance that can accompany leaping 15 stories into the air and gliding all the way across town.
Those collectible clusters are visible from a great distance, so on your way from point A to point B, you're constantly incentivized to divert from your path, zipping up this building or leaping atop that house to collect them. And if you've attracted too much unwanted attention from the authorities, you can wipe out your notoriety by pursuing a golden snitch-like alien computer orb as it zips around the streets of Steelport and destroying it. It's a refreshing take on the common process of wiping out your wanted level in open-world games, and one that makes using your sprint ability a lot of fun.
You will do a barrel roll. Keith David demands it!
While sprinting may replace driving as your primary way of getting around, the powerful attack abilities you acquire, like freeze blast and telekinesis and stomp, don't totally replace your regular weapons, but instead just augment your arsenal. Your offensive abilities need a brief time to recharge, so in between each use, you have a reason to switch to another ability or fire a few shots of whatever weapon you have handy. Unfortunately, though enemies may sometimes overwhelm you through sheer numbers, their AI is thoughtless, so the satisfaction of battle comes not from overcoming a challenge, but from reveling in the power fantasy of obliterating them with energy swords and dubstep guns.
Because the game is so good about doling out new weapons and abilities at a steady pace, you often feel like you have some fun new toy with which to torment your puny alien oppressors. However, because you have so many ways of so effectively overcoming them, combat eventually starts to feel rote and inconsequential, and you may often find yourself just freeze-blasting and shattering your enemies repeatedly to be done with a fight as quickly as possible. And it doesn't help that even though many of your weapons have crazy visual effects or other gimmicks associated with them, they lack any sense of oomph.
The sun never rises on Zinyak's Steelport.
Thankfully, there are activities that give you a compelling reason to use some of your abilities. In the twisted game show Mind Over Murder (from the mind of returning murderous madcat Professor Genki), you need to use telekinesis to hurl people, cars, and Genki heads through designated hoops, and it's empowering to zip around the city streets, picking up hapless pedestrians and sending them flying for your own benefit. But the best activities are the old familiar standbys. Hopping into a tank to cause as much destruction as possible is a simple, explosive pleasure, and hurling yourself into oncoming traffic is still good for a few morbid laughs.
Saints Row IV definitely recycles plenty of ideas from earlier games in the series, but it's also frequently inventive, not just in its shift from absurd crime game to absurd crime game with superpowers, but in the content of its story missions. You play a 2D beat-'em-up, return to the series' Stilwater-set early days, complete a Metal Gear Solid-esque stealth mission, battle a Godzilla-size can of the Saints Flow energy drink, and get embroiled in all manner of other insanity. Almost every core story mission and optional crew loyalty mission has an entertaining concept or a funny surprise in store. However, these missions often focus on the same ho-hum combat you find throughout the game, so even though the ideas on display are varied, the gameplay feels a bit flat. Still, it's well worth playing through the story missions just because of their outrageous scenarios and sharp writing.
Even if combat sometimes falls into a rut, there are more than enough surprises in the game's story missions to keep you entertained, and as in previous games, you can increase the mayhem by inviting a friend along to do missions and other activities. Saints Row IV owes a lot to games like Crackdown and Prototype, but the absurd humor that infuses every aspect of this game gives it an identity all its own. The simulated city of Steelport doesn't offer deep gameplay or the most satisfying challenge, but it is a great place to mess around.
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