Getting Five Stars in GTA 4

Game: Grand Theft Auto: 4

Company: Microsoft

Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar North
Genre: Action, Crime
ERSB Rating: M+17

Premise/Story: You are Niko Bellic a retired war veteran who is trying to work his way up in social stature, but soon find himself caught up in an underworld of gangs and crime.
Objects: In GTA their are five main properties your clothing, weapons, cars, pedestrians, and your enemies. Each of these objects interacts with each other such as how when you pull out a gun on a pedestrians they would either run away, hide, or fall down, Your clothes have a effect on how people see you such as if you have rugged clothes then your armor isn’t as strong as it could be and your enemies will be able to kill you faster.

Behaviors: In the game you begin to feel like the main protagonist mostly due to the story. In the game you see of how the main character interacts with his environment based on how you are as a player. Such as how he will react when you get into a car crash or get shot. In the game most of the encounters and events are scripted and controlled by the main character, but in some instances you are able to decide the fate of certain characters.

FeedBack: In the game you get feedback for making choices and for the crimes that you do, such as if you kill a large number of pedestrians then the cops will come after you. Another example is when your given a choice to let someone live or die it has a huge effect on the story and how it plays out throughout the story. GTA: 4 give you feedback for completing objectives, causing mayhem, and even bowling.

Economies: In Grand Theft Auto: 4 economics are handled through the different shops and malls throughout the city such as clothing stores and restaurants. These stores include things such as hats, shirts, and even food. The game also allows you to get weapons through other means such as from the market or by using different cheat codes that can be unlocked throughout the game. In order to get money in GTA you must either kill pedestrians or you could complete the different missions, and objectives throughout the game. Each mission has a different objective and is more based on the amount of skill on the player, if you beat the mission without dieing than your awarded more money, but if your dieing a lot and not finishing the objective then you lose money.

Information Structure: The information structure is executed through your cell phone. In the game you will receive phone calls or text that gives you missions or different objectives. The cell phone is also the gateway to things such as the multiplayer. The phone is very useful and a clever way of giving the gamer information rather than having the player goes to the main menu. Another way that information is given to the player is through the map that can be both accessed by the main menu or your cell phone, the map tells you where you can get clothes, weapons and more.

Control: As the player you control Niko throughout the curse of the game. In different segments you get to make an avatar and use it in the multiplayer. A layout of the controls is shown below.