Community:GTA IV Gripes

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.

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

How To Gripe

• Find the appropriate section 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 you 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."

Gripes about GTA IV

Gameplay

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.

No store hold ups for easy cash or burglary missions.

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 Hand-to-Hand Combat is not as good as in San Andreas.

Stated somewhere else, the hand-to-hant combat has a new purpose: subduing enemies that you aren't meant to kill.

Stealth kills as in San Andreas are no longer possible.

There aren't as many different clothing styles and options as there used to be, especially in San Andreas and theres very few "silly" options like mad hats and such.

At least there are some! Compare GTA IV to its predecessors, except San Andreas, in terms of customizing your pro/antagonist. Also, GTA isn't exactly a 'silly' game.

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

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.

You can't evade or outrun your wanted level in a helicopter.

It's rather difficult to run away when everybody in the city can see you flying 200 meters up in a helicopter. Don't you think?

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.

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.

Some missions are somewhat difficult to pass.

Try harder.

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.

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.

No matter how hard players try to get away from the police's radius, cops seem to spawn near the player's vehicle. Hiding is nearly impossible, even on secluded areas.

Rockstar, I believe, was trying to make the game more realistic. It's like that in real life, too.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

No parachute.

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

Cops manage to shoot your tires out, even if you're going 100mph.

Crashing on a motorcycle and bailing out of a car aren't fun anymore, and often result in death.

once more, the game is meant to be more realistic.

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.

Combat is unrealistic and hard to attack people. You'll have to use weapons to kill them instead (not meleé ones).

Hand-to-hand combat was meant to injure the victim, without killing him. It's useful for missions.

During shooting missions, you die very easily by shooters before you even run for cover. Enemies somewhat has great aiming, and Body Armor is highly recommended for hard missions.

Once more, the game is meant to be more realistic. If you'd be facing down ten trained gunmen with nothing more than a few grenades and a pistol, do you think you would live?

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.

You cant fight the cops like in other GTA games.

Actually, you can fight cops. Just take out your gun and shoot them. You also fight them in missions, like the Bank Heist.

That's one of the worst ideas you posted on. If you take out a gun and shoot at the cop, you'll get 2 wanted star levels and more cops will swarm in and kill you. And if you attempt to fight a cop, he will easily arrest you and don't even bother holster a weapon. Cops will always shoot back anyways.

All cops attacked you in previous GTA IV games. And if you don't suck, then you are able to survive the cops with no problem. So yes, you can fight the cops.

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.

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

That's your opinion.

Whenever you crash you go flying out of the windsheild.

Well, the game designers are trying to be more close to reality. I always found it to be extremely far-fetched that Claude, Tommy Vercetti, and Carl Johnson could slam into a brick wall at 100+ MPH and emerge without a scratch.

Vehicles

There is no Tank in this game, nor are there airplanes.

Tanks would be unrealistic, as the armed forces would not send a tank into New York City after a single man. Airplanes would also be unrealistic because air-travel around New York City is extremely restricted, plus there's really not enough area to need air-travel.

There are no car mods or even simply choosing your paint color.

The yellow boxes in front of safehouses are stupid and poorly made. Often AI traffic hits them as they're driving, causing the saved cars to disappear. Garages were much better and safer, and less chance of cars disappearing.

No "R3" Missions for anything other than the police cruiser.

There are not enough special vehicles like golf carts, lawn mowers, and bicycles.

There are fewer cars in the game compared to San Andreas, and no fixed-wing aircraft available to the player. Even though the city is smaller than GTA San Andreas, the designers of the game shouldn't have lost more stuff than they put in, that includes Vehicles and Planes. Just a general mistake on behalf of rockstar

How the Voodoo was changed.

That's your opinion.

In my opinion, rockstar really blew-it by ruining a perfectly good muscle car with Hydraulics. Now, its just as useless as the perennial.

You can't operate trains like in GTA San Andreas.

The Hunter helicopter isn't here anymore.

When Niko steers the car in any direction, the steering wheel doesn't move at all, which left Rockstar Games no explanation to this problem.

Airbags do not deploy on any vehicles when slammed head-on at high speeds.

You can't attach trailers in the back of your truck like in GTA San Andreas.

Brucie's helicopter is useless. It would have been better if you could fly his helicopter yourself.

There are only two unique helicopters in the game, and only 1 of them is armed.

Rare vehicles aren't here anymore.

You can't go fast when driving boats because even the smallest wave will completely slow you down.

No Hydraulics.

Some car names have been recycled for new cars and the names don't really make sense with the car they resemble anymore.

No remote controlled vehicles (rc-car/plane etc).

No gocart.

The Quad is absent.

Most vehicles are very rare like the Infernus which you get only one chance to own, and never see again.

To see a rare car again, you have to use your own frequently. On my completed game, I have FOUR Infernus-es.

Iconic sports cars like the Stinger and Cheetah are nowhere to be found.

Only 1 sportbike is in the game, while GTA:SA had about 6 or 7.

Roofs from vehicles doesn't get crushed when you roll over. There aren't any roll bars from any cars.

The Dozer is gone, regardless on gong into any construction sites.

There are only 5 residential vehicle parking spaces, which means you are forced to store few of your favorite cars into the parking space, since Rockstar Games refused to explain why.

Weapons

Ammo limits are really, really annoying.

This is personal opinion. Ammo limits are not so low that it's difficult to complete missions. In fact, it's more than enough.

What if you are confronted against FBIs and NOOSE patrol teams? If you're very low on ammo, then you're completely defenseless and then you die. Like in GTA SA, there were no ammo limits (you can store 900 rockets, have 7000 pistoms, SMGs, have 900 Flamethrower containers, etc.). Besides, Ammo limits are very humiliating.

After you beat the game the ammo limit is gone, you keep putting them in, after awhile it may saw you have 9999 of 30 for the machine gun but fire and reload and it says you still have 9999 of 30, ammo limit is removed with completion of the game.

Well, by the time the limit is gone, there won't be any real-good reason to utilise it. It would have been much better to just have it on while a person was going through the storyline missions and not after.

There are not enough "special" weapons like the chainsaw, the golf club, the pool cue, or the fire extinguisher like there were in GTA San Andreas.

If you check the page under features it explains why many of the weapons have been removed. link is here. Grand Theft Auto IV/Features

Weapons are now seen on top of buildings, which is harder to find.

Tear Gas and Satchel Bomb was removed.

RPG can only hold 8 rockets.

In real life, an RPG does NOT hold two thousand rockets. Sorry.

Weapons stores are few and far between.

That is explained in game by the mayor's "Crackdown" on weapons

Little Jacob doesn't sell all the weapons, so an expensive trip to the gun store is required.

Later on in game he sells armor, rockets, m16 ammo, grenades etc.

Dual-wielding weapons is no longer possible.

In real life, would you be able to dual-wield a shotgun?

You can't use free-aim because the targeting reticule automatically locks on to pedestrians, so you'll have to use your Sniper Rifle to shoot pigeons. Even if you try and force the aiming reticule off of the pedestrians, it will simply lock on to another pedestrians, so there is no way to make the aiming reticule let you aim yourself.

If you hold the aim trigger all the way down it targets a person, if you hold it part of the way down you can move the reticle around to aim how you please, like shooting through the winshield of a moving car to kill the driver.

Where is the fire extinguisher?

No one handed gun use.

In-game World

No random games like the off track betting, Pogo the monkey or other arcade games save from Qub3d.

No, but the player can play pool or darts, or go bowling. New games for a new game.

True, but I prefer arcade games. They're much better than doing bowling or darts.

There are only 3 unique Clothing stores in the game.

Given that a generic interior could be created, there's too few stores and the like to wander into compared to San Andreas (Cluckin' Bell outlets as just a facade with no way in).

The trees are invincible.

Well Stacked Pizza is missing.

: But you can eat at restaurants and off the street.

Military base is completely gone.

 : Yes but i dont think there would be a military base in the middle of the city.

ProLaps are seen at the Starlight District, but is no longer accessible. Didier Sachs may be seen at the same location, but is also inaccessible, including Binco.

You can't go underwater to see fishes, dolphins, turtles, even sharks.

The two largest straightaways in Alqonquin are both under construction, leaving no place to really go fast.

Alderney doesn't have any food stores and barely any places of interest, making it a useless area to visit.

The Bars is inaccessible because you have to be accompanied by a friend.

Rockstar Changed The Name Of The Islands(i.e. Staunton and portlands name are changed).

True the names are changed, But no city would enjoy having it's name in a blow up, cop killing game. Since the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York it would be bad taste to have Niko a soviet immigrant cause hell and kill New York cops.

But in-reality, why would a city just change a whole lot of districts names with-in 7 years. It ruins the game a bit and it's history

It didnt change its name, it has always been that in Liberty City. It is BASED off of New York, it isn't actually New York. With names changed Rockstar can make it resemble NY, but also shake things up.

The Alderney safehouse is crappy and run-down, a downgrade even though the Algonquin safehouses are luxurious and much bigger.

Grand Central Terminal isn't accessible, despite being in the game.

ZIP clothing shop is gone.

In a game where money is useless you would think you could use some of that 1,000,000 dollars you make to upgrade the crappy apartments, buy a garage in the alley, add internet, add a big screen tv, pay rent, etc.

Alderney City has no darn train stations, I thought that New Jersey was full of sub-ways.

Characters

Returning characters are completely absent, such as Claude Speed, El Burro, 8-Ball or even Toni Cipriani. There is little explanation why Rockstar Games did not return older characters from the past GTA eras.

There is an Easter Egg that shows the previous protagonists along with "R.I.P."

Where is the location to this easter egg?

Check the link above

Pedestrian conversations are repetitive and are no where near as funny as they used to be.

Isn't the game supposed to be more serious? I mean come on, the games based in poor, old, drug and crime filled New York. Nothing funny about that. But i do agree they aren't as funny as prior games but I understand why Rockstar did that.

Some of the characters are downright painful and tedious. i.e. Brucie, Dwayne etc.

Even after she died, you still have to go on a date with Kate.

Story

The humor is weak throughout the game.

That is a personal opinion. I, for one, found many conversations hilarious.

Too bad that there was just not enough of these "hilarious conversations".

Rockstar should of atleast brang back atleast one character from the GTA III era games. I mean, what ever happened to the Leone Family in the seven years leading upto the events in GTA IV]. Stuff like this should of been answered in this game, where I really expected Rockstar to build on a successful era of story-lines instead of taking 100 paces back to a new beginning.

There is Lazlow He's been in every game so far.