Community:GTA IV Gripes/Gameplay

This is the official Grand Theft Wiki GTA IV Gripes list.

For now, this page is open to everybody. If there is any abuse of this page it will be locked, and all submissions will have to go through the Discussion page.

The "Gripes" on this page are intended to warn new players of things they may not like about the game.

The "Rebuts" on this page are intended to explain to new players why some gripes may not be a "gripe" for all players.

Please do not repeat other people's gripes. Also, no silly/stupid/idiotic/explicit/racist gripes or rebuttals.

How To Gripe

• Find the appropriate sub-page for your gripe.
• Make sure your gripe hasn't already been mentioned.
• Start a gripe with {{Gripe}}, then follow with your gripe.

How To Rebut Gripes

• Rebuttals to gripes should be directly underneath the gripe.
• Start your rebuttal with :{{Rebut}}, then follow with your rebuttal.
• Rebuttals should address reasons it is not a valid gripe, and should not accuse the gripe of being "silly" or "stupid."

In San Andreas, you would be able to raise your driving skill. However in GTA IV you cannot do so, which makes driving hard and unrewarding. Obviously, if you do a lot of driving, you become more experienced in it. Not having the ability to raise your driving skill detracts from realism in the game.

You get better in driving, if you do a lot of it, because you get used to the controls.

Getting used to the controls is one thing, but GTA IV offers no way of *raising* your driving skill, which was one of the aspects that GTA SA was known for. The feature of opening the trunk of a car and storing items in it is not in the game, and hurts the realism of the game when the player can't open the trunk of the car.

If you stored a lot of weapons in the trunk of your Infernus and it would go up in flames in a police chase, you'd be pretty angry to loose a car AND some expensive weapons. Also, it would be pretty time consuming to put the weapons in the trunk and take them out a few blocks later.

Maybe not weapons, but you can store items in the truck that contains no weapons, like shopping bags. It's unrealistic how pedestrians gets to open the turnk and look for something, while the player can't. Scarface The World Is Yours had a feature that stored weapons in the trunk. Granted, the cars were special vehicles that had to bought and phoned for, but the feature was helpful, and saved a lot of time. GTAIV lacking such a feature detracts from the longevity of the game.

The Packie bomb can only be put on certain cars, not motorcycles or trucks.

There has to be a pretty stupid person not to notice a man sitting behind their motorcycle putting a bomb under the motor, don't you think so??

Yet people seem to ignore the same guy putting a bomb under a taxicab.

The feature of calling up a boss to "meet them here", etc. is not in the game, and the same goes for friends.

Minor clothing items are removed during some cut scenes and missions. (glasses, hats)

This can be easily explained by Niko having manners... i.e. he would remove his hat or glasses before speaking with someone.

Still affects realism though because the items just disappear into thin air.

How about Niko drops them in the gutter or accidentally crushes the glasses. Problem solved.

The ability to hang from a helicopter, shown in trailers, isn't seen in-game, nor is the ability to ride in limos.

The last mission requires you to do it. Also there's a glitch in MP that lets you hang on to the heli for unlimited amount of time.

But right after the mission, hanging a helicopter is no longer possible outside of missions. This feature strays away realism.

There is no real sense on hanging onto a helicopter and then falling down, don't you think so?

The feature should still be there, or R* shouldn't show it in a trailer if it isnt in the game.

All sorts of cool stuff gets cut out of games for more important things due to time constraints. How often would you be hanging off of a helicopter or swinging on chandeliers anyway?

No store hold ups for easy cash or burglary missions.

You can steal money from the register in places like Tw@ internet.

You can't buy real estate like in San Andreas and Vice City.

You can't Own Businesses.

You can't do home invasion like in San Andreas.

This isn't San Andreas.

Still, it's stupid that you can't do something, so cool.

The semicircle health/armor system is weak, and can't be upgraded like in San Andreas.

Friends often call to do things at inconvenient times and are often on the other side of the city.

Choose the sleep mode on your phone.

The sleep mode does help quite a bit. However, the friend system does get rather annoying when you're trying to do missions and sleep mode gets turned off. The feature is a decent start, but it definitely needs some overhauling for the next game. Less frequent calls, offering to meet you some place or maybe picking you up instead of you always driving them around, more places to go (Liberty City only has two places to see a show?), more benefits for keeping constant contact, mini-missions that occur while out and about, etc.

Friends don't give you enough time to get to their location before they become impatient.

You can Hail a taxi, get in it, and do the auto ride feature which gets you there in a matter of seconds, or take a helicopter.

Yea, the taxi actually takes you there faster than you drive to the destination yourself, just skip it. Jack a car and then go with your friend.

The camera angle is too low with no way to change it, I spend all my driving time holding UP, same as San Andreas.

Try different camera angles to find the one you like.

All of them are two low. The only two third person ones are two low to the ground and it is hard to see oncoming traffic/poles and stuff. The other two are cinematic and first person.

I agree--it's annoying that the right-stick camera positioning isn't sticky.

There is no riot cheat! No more chaos.

As posted below somewhere, the cheat may be present, but no one's found it yet.

Well, until then, that's -1 point for GTA IV.

Last I checked, GTA IV wasn't about riot cheats. And even if you believe it should have a riot cheat because it's a open world game, well, there are missions for a reason...there are minigames for a reason...there are dates, friends, and a ton of hidden content for a reason too...

Some missions are somewhat difficult to pass.

Try harder.

Find an alternative way to beat the mission. For the more difficult ones, there's usually at least a few options at your disposal.

Ordering items on TV or at Tw@ does not work. You can't even order vehicles by calling them, even though it says so at AutoErotiCar.com.

The internet site offered a lot of possibilities to expand the gameplay and give you so much more to do on the side. However, it ended up serving as primarily a huge repository of inside jokes...which isn't a bad thing, but there was a lot of missed opportunities. It was disappointing to see so many attractions listed, and finding out you could only make use of a very small portion of them.

Destruction of buildings isn't featured.

Destruction of buildings would permanently(?) alter the area, and make it difficult for normal activities or activities to occur.

But we can destroy street lights, government property (mailboxes, etc.), drive to a different zone, come back, and it's like they were never hit, AND cops don't care. No consistency.

Think to yourself for a moment. You are going down the street at 80 miles per hour. The cops are on you. A pole, NO! You run into it, and it doesn't fall down. Breaks the game if you can't. Alternatively, building destruction would also break the game.

You can longer respond to random comments either positively or negatively.

That was a minor feature, and its removal doesn't affect the game very much.

It is still one more thing that detracts from the game's attempt at realism. And it has a fairly big impact on the free roam part of the game.

You're some Serb fresh off the boat. Who cares about you? No one cares about you. You're just another member of the crowd. No one will bother talking to you.

You must keep your 'friends' happy to retain their special perks. It would have been preferable to unlock their abilities once and then be left to the player to decide whether they wish to continue the 'friendship'.

Don't you have to keep your friends happy in real life?

But you don't drive them all over town like a soccer mom, especially if you are one of the most in demand hit men in the city. Roman owns a car service business, yet needs to be picked up and dropped off every time he wants to do anything. The friends feature becomes irritating because it lacks realism.

Street Gang-Banging and generally street gang-related missions have been dramatically reduced, means, no point in shooting other gang members.

Since Niko is not exactly in one of those 'gangs', I would see no point in earning anything for the deaths of gang members.

The 5 families are crucial to the storyline. Niko is involved heavily with gangland violence in the story, yet outside of missions there is no evidence of any gangland tension. Once again this detracts from the realism of the game. For example; Niko kills 10+ members of the Pavano family, yet there is no consequence what so ever. He can walk into the same mob owned car dealership he has just blown up hours before and nobody recognizes him. This badly affects the attempted realism in other areas of the game.

Only 9 street races available and difficult to access them through the phone system.

GTA is not exactly a 'racing game'. The racing missions are practically just mini games, save for when they affect the storyline.

Racing is one of the few things left to do once the storyline has been completed.

You can always race online.

While it isn't a 'racing game,' it's a feature that would've been nice considering this is the 4th installment of a multi-million dollar series.

Actually 8th, counting the expansions.

No special races that unlock special cars (like Destruction Derby).

There are also other mini-games that earn you special vehicles.

Still, it's pathetic that you don't earn special vehicles that you complete side racing missions, like the Bloodring Banger as well as the Dune truck.

With so little to buy Money is worthless.

You have guns to buy, don't you?

After you complete Steve's missions you can sell cars as often as you want, even spawning them and selling them getting you hundreds of thousands of dollars that for all purposes are still worthless.

Don't bother, kill yourself, get into 6 star chases, die, give some money to the hospital. Buy the rest of the clothes, enjoy your taxis and trains.

There is no need to buy guns because you can find them so easily.

Given that entire storyline is underpinned by the pursuit of money, from the minute Niko gets off the boat to the deal or revenge option at the end. The fact that money plays such a small part in the game outside of the cut scenes hurts the games attempt to provide a realistic experience.

There really does need to be more to do with the money in the game. Buying more safe houses, outfitting them with internet access, more clothing shops, more shows to see, parking spaces to keep cars in, revenue-generating businesses, etc.

No parachute.

there are also, more or less, no aircraft to jump out of at high altitudes.

Plus the 'chute was quite boring to use anyways.

Yet another component that affects the longevity of this game. The fact that Niko can't base jump into Star Junction and start shooting up the area is just another shortcoming of IV in terms of action.

R* said that the game will be much more realistic than previous games. Have you ever seen a man done a basejump with several guns and maybe an RPG down the TImes Square, then shooting 200 people??

You can't order cars from Stevie's garage once the text message missions he gives you are completed.

That function was specifically for the aforementioned missions.

A useless set of missions at that. You can't access Stevie's Garage after completing the missions, and there is no use for the money you made from the missions. Just another bland effort from GTA IV.

Autosave may not happen all the time. Whenever you complete missions, you are forced to save the game manually instead of having the game to automatically save for you.

Then try saving manually more often; You'll get used to it.

It happens the same thing and much worse than the first one. It would have been better if Rockstar Games would fix this problem, rather than just asking you to save the game yourself too often.

It's really no big deal to hire a cab and save the game, isn't it?

The majority of the good cheats are gone (like chaos, citizens with weapons, cars fly away with hits etc etc etc).

Rockstar never releases cheats they are found by the players most likely the same cheats are there, they just haven't been found yet.

The range of cheats is another source of disappointment. There is no more to be found.

There are only 2 pairs of glasses in the whole game, and both of them are ugly.

That's your opinion.

They are. Both are big "owl" style glasses from the 90s. No actual sunglasses or anything.

I don't think that R* made this game just for the sake of different clothing you can buy for Niko.

Badly affects the realism though. 2 pairs of sunglasses in the whole of Liberty City? Geez...gritty realism if ever I've seen it.

Cheating blocks achievement points

Cheating would destroy the challenge in getting achievement points. Besides, if you want to cheat, just make a separate save file.

The realism of the game seems extremely inconsistent, and if you want examples, just read over a good half of the previous gripes. It would seem to me that a game that sold for 500 million on the first day would have the budget (and let's face it, from the look of previous GTAs Rock* had the budget) to put some more effort and, dare I say, "polish," into the game. For me, it just felt like GTA III all over again--the exception being that some of the characters were more vivid and interesting, and the plotline kept me hooked. If there is a GTA V (and I'm assuming there will be) I really hope they put more time into it. GTA IV just felt half baked, which was a major disappointment. =/

Aiming is difficult when slow-mo is activated during driving and flying thanks to the cinematic angles.

Whenever a mission has you chasing another vehicle, they run on a rail. Shooting out their tires does nothing, they still take square 90 degree angle turns at 100 MPH+. You can't catch up to them to ram or PIT them as they'll automatically go into over drive and match your speed. There's no incentive to engage in a good high speed chase since you'll suffer at turns and they won't. And motorcycle chases aren't fun since the AI target can't get into an accident or spin out after their tires are shot out, it actually REPAIRS ITSELF while they speed down the road.

Strange, I never experienced that problem. The AI vehicles behaved just as mine did.

I can agree that this is kind of annoying, but it seems to be done for when it's essential for the vehicle you're chasing to reach a particular area for the story. I recall a few instances where an NPC "crashed their vehicle" and/or are "fleeing on foot" as examples.

The stunt jumps in the game suck. No building to building jumps, no over bridge jumps, no motorbike window jumps a la Vice City.

You can't buy cars at the dealerships found in the city. Grotti in Algonquin, Westdyke Bikes in Westdyke, Autoeroticar in Alderney City...nothing.

Why buy when you can steal?

Purchasing vehicles are crucial to the gameplay. In real life, stealing cars in dealerships is a bad thing to do and against the law. Purchasing vehicles are a perfect part of realism and has to do something to spend all of your 50k money, but they did'nt. Gritty realism if I have ever seen it.

Somethings in the game bothers me since they are transitioning GTA games to be more realistic. Whats the purpose of all those big buildings and you can't access them or destroy them. And how come when you blow up people they fly backward or upward? From what I've seen when you shoot a rocket or throw a grenade at somebody, limbs suppose to come off...i mean in previous GTA games when you shoot somebody in the head with a powerful weapon it disappears. Wassup with that?

They wanted to keep the M Rating on this game. GTA IV looks much more realistic as Vice City or SA did. In fact, Vice City and SA looked a bit like a comic to me.

How come you can't play basketball on the courts in Algonquin?

For me, playing basketball was just an useless timekiller, like the arcade games or the gym. It doesn't really alter the gameplay.

Wouldnt it be nice if you could destroy those bridges and cause havoc? All you have to do is drive off to a differnt area and come back and the bridge would be right there. But not only the bridges, the buildings as well.

That's not possible in the current generation (PS3 and Xbox360 is the current gen, not NextGen!), also it wouldn't be very realistic, if they'd pop up, when you go for a little ride round the block.

Compared to True Crime: New York City and its realism, GTA IV lacks in some areas. OK when Niko is about to open a door, he just pushes it; doesnt turn any knob or nothing. What door with a knob just opens like that?

It's not important to gameplay and it would be rather annoying after some time, or even deadly in a police chase.

This heavily detracts realism. I mean, why would a person just push the door instead of turning the knob? That's really unrealistic.

It's not important to gameplay and it would be rather annoying after some time, or even deadly in a police chase.

You can't order anything at Tw@ internet. There is nothing you can do to purchase anything, except ringtones (which plays a small part to this feature).

The ability to operate cranes (like in GTA: SA) is no longer possible, which means you can't lift vehicles with magnets, or hit vehicles or peds with wrecking balls.