Rockstar deliver a stirring immigrant mafia fresco with Niko Bellic, a reworked Liberty City and Euphoria physics that bleeds into every fall. Slower than its descendants, but the writing on debt and the American dream remains an absolute peak.
Your verdict
Category
Action Adventure1 player18+
Description
Open-world action by Rockstar North and Rockstar Games, April 2008. Niko Bellic arrives in Liberty City from Eastern Europe seeking the American dream. New York-inspired open world, fluid cover system, social relationships and intense cinematic narrative. One of the greatest games of its generation.
Grand Theft Auto IV review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
MAX
Story
★★★★★
"Masterful"
Liberty City recreated with a dense, disenchanted realism, grey light and teeming architecture: the metropolis breathes a raw, living America. The coherence of the world and the density of the streets compose a credible urban theatre. This visual direction, dark and vast, brought the open world to a new maturity.
An immigrant come to chase the American dream in Liberty City, a former soldier collides with violence and the ghosts of his past. Darker and more adult than its forebears, the tale paints disillusion and revenge with unexpected gravity. Carried by a tormented hero, this bitter portrait of a city still fascinates.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first minutes"
Addictiveness
"Obsessive"
Crisscrossing Liberty City between scripted missions, unplanned joyrides and side activities sets up an urban sandbox where there's always a reason to extend the outing. Following the story and unlocking the city reward exploration. Its heavy driving and its phone calls grate, but the life of its metropolis and its freedom of action grip you relentlessly.
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Niko Bellic's American dream plays out in a startlingly alive Liberty City, where every contract comes paired with narrative choices and relationships to maintain. Friend outings, moral branches, safehouses to uncover and contacts' side missions thicken an already long arc, and that dramatic density still earns the game its status as a narrative peak of its generation.
The entry that brought GTA into the HD era with an unprecedentedly realistic Liberty City, a huge critical and commercial success of the generation. Sold in volume, it stays everywhere and cheap. Its desirability is heritage-based, that of a milestone of the series and the console, without scarcity, its market ubiquity ruling out any speculative value.
A cult cover
Cut into comic-strip panels, the cover juxtaposes faces, cars and silhouettes of Liberty City in black and white touched with yellow. This montage, now a signature, conveys the sprawling scale and cynicism of the series. Instantly recognizable, it displays Rockstar's visual DNA.
A questionable morality
Under the pretext of climbing the criminal ladder, you borrow other people's cars, lose the police and settle every dispute with gunfire, all across open cities built for chaos. The game makes no secret of its irony, yet the thrill of total freedom makes you accept, without flinching, a daily routine of crimes chained together with a slightly guilty grin.
Is Grand Theft Auto IV still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2008 on Xbox 360, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto IV marked a darker, more grounded turn for the series, with a strikingly realistic Liberty City and Niko Bellic's immigrant tragedy. The collision and body physics, then revolutionary, and the brilliant writing carry a memorable adventure with an adult tone. The repeated phone calls from friends can grate and the weighty driving divides. But the density of the city and the quality of the story hold up admirably. For fans of narrative open worlds and the Rockstar touch, this classic keeps great value today.
