We've said in the past that we feel that games like Splinter Cell, Resident Evil 4, and Gears of War have influenced the action genre with the over-the-shoulder targeting system, and with GTA IV, we feel comfortable saying that it is now a standard. For a series that gets critical acclaim despite a highly flawed targeting mechanic, it's a welcome relief to see that the new game adopts the new standard. As Niko attempts to fend off not only security guards within the office building, but police outside, we got a chance to see how it seems to work. Niko can use the environment for cover, but just as you've seen in many a next-gen title, cover dissolves under pervasive gunfire, so he'll have to keep moving. He'll also have blind fire at his disposal; we saw him take down a guard without even peeking his head up.
During the gunfight, which took another five minutes, we noticed that ultimately, the firefight wasn't particularly out of the ordinary. In the past, GTA fans have shot their way out of countless missions throughout Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. However, between the visuals (admittedly, the framerate dropped out during some of the more intense portions, but there's still time to tweak) and the new shooting system, things just felt much more intense. While an old GTA shootout felt routine, this shootout felt as new and intense to watch as what we've seen from Gears, or even Kane & Lynch's homage to "Heat."
With that, our demo of GTA IV came to a close. If there was one thing that Rockstar emphasized most throughout the demo, it's that Rockstar North has been hard at work on devising a living, breathing Liberty City in which Niko is a small fish. In the GTA III Trilogy (all those PS2 and Xbox games you logged in hours playing), the experience seemed to put you in the shoes of a character, and the world centered around him. Eventually, you'd take that character all the way to the top and conquer the world. The idea behind GTA IV is that Niko is part of a truly grandiose world. He'll never conquer Liberty City, but if he can survive and dig himself out of whatever hole he's in, it will be a success. From what we've seen, he seems to blend into it all, but until we've got hands-on time, we won't know for sure just how much the team has succeeded. In the meantime, we're looking forward to seeing more of the new Liberty City.
