The prevailing current
Sometimes I find myself confounded by mainstream gamer opinions. For instance, I had no idea that Medieval Two: Total War was considered to be a bit of a dissapointment after Rome: Total War. I’m by no means a strategy game maven, but I thought both products were immensely satisfying.
On a somewhat related but tangential note, I heard some commentators on a gaming podcast describing Grand Theft Auto IV as “a masterpiece” and “the game that is truly moving game narratives forward.”
Really? Granted, I haven’t finished the game. But I’ve put in some time with it(more than I should have, what with a review deadline looming), and while I really enjoy the game and think that many of the great reviews and superlatives it’s received are justified, I just can’t agree with the critical fellatio the game is getting, especially in the mainstream press. Sure, the animations in the cut scenes are great, but is that really moving the narrative design of gaming forward all that much? I don’t think they’re any better than the work in Half Life 2, and that game is four years old. And is the storyline really all that good? It’s much better than previous GTAs, to be sure. Is this really the game that critics will look to in the future and say “This is where games grew up.”? Perhaps when I finish the game I’ll think so. For now, it seems doubtful.
This scenario reminds me of the way Halo 3 was reviewed when it came out. I still haven’t finished the campaign in that game, because I thought it was pretty boring and a dissapointment compared to the fantastic first game. Sometimes I think that critics in the gaming media so desperately want games to be “up there with the big boys” that they lose sight of what some games are, as opposed to what they want them to be.
All that being said, GTA IV is great. Really great. Go out and buy it. But I think some perspective is in order.
