So this time I loaded the game, followed him until he met up with his gang, then let loose with the SMG I had. One down, two down, three down. The others got away, but not far. They had gotten off their motorcycles and were hiding behind some trees. So I took out my shotgun and carefully took them down.
So really all this mission required was so careful killing at the end, after a careful ride on the bike.
I also did about 4 other missions. It’s hilarious that if you can find a cab, even if you’re in a mission where the police are after you, you can skip to your destination in the cab! I never knew this! It sure is different playing the game while trying to do it as fast as possible.
Speaking of invincible fleeing enemies, I’m playing through San Andreas right now on the 360 and on the mission where you and Catalina (what a crazy, memorable character she is) are chasing 3 rednecks on ATVs in the country. You have to chase them and shoot them at the same time while Catalina shoots them. I thought at first they were invincible but after retries (this mission is hard, yo!) I noticed I was able to get them in different areas and it’s not scripted. I guess they added that only in IV.
Hit a wall last night. Was doing the first Jimmy Pegorino mission, where you take him to a mob meetup which (surprise!) goes south and you must safely get him out. I botched it twice and was just kind of disgusted, bailed out losing my progress (2 missions successfully completed since last save). It’s wearing me down.
75 missions down now. Got through the blocking mission, and funnily enough, after I rescued Pegorino, we got in a car to chase down the gangsters who were running away with his money. sigh.
So now I guess I need to think about the climactic decision. Last time I went for revenge so maybe this time I’ll take the deal, see how the other half live. Curious how differently it plays out.
Not sure why I’m basically live blogging this except that I feel the need to wrap this up before Andromeda lands on my doorstep. No distractions.
78 missions down, need to pick up the pace. I believe I’ve found a mission template that irritates me more than the enforced chase - the dreaded escort mission. There are comparatively fewer in GTA4 than the chase missions, so that’s good, but they consistently trip me up. Last night I had to escort a gangster through a boathouse full of Russians with machine guns, and it was hairy. Now I did get through first attempt but I did so by putting myself in harm’s way constantly - my companion refused to take cover properly (I.e., not leaving his flank exposed) when he took cover at all. Good thing I was wearing body armor.
Yeah, like I mentioned before this whole experience has been a dash of cold water on my remembered enthusiasm for this game. I’m still mighty impressed with the world they put together but man, the missions are all over the place. I did one last night that involved picking up a politician at the train station, driving him with a convoy to give a speech but getting ambushed on he way by Russians. So the. You shoot your way out, jump in a car and escape your pursuers. And it was great! One of the best I’ve played in this game. But there are so many that are either tedious or just putting stupid roadblocks right in your way.
At some point between GTA 4 and RDR they really stepped their game up. Maybe this is also nostalgia talking but I remember RDR having way more high points. But then I played that the way I do pretty much all open world games, a little of this followed by a little of that - not a straight shot through story missions like I’m doing now. Good grief, I hope I’m not psyching myself up for another shot at RDR, I’m going to need a break from Rockstar I think (though I do have an untouched Xbone copy of GTA5 that I’ve been meaning to try out).
One last item - maybe I’m getting old but I’m definitely noticing the casual misogyny and homophobia much more this time around. While Niko does support and defend his old friend Florian, who he finds living the high life late in the game, Florian is definitely played up as a gay caricature. And kidnapping Grace, then slapping her around and calling her all variety of unpleasant things certainly feels ugly. There’s still a corner of my brain that maintains it’s all just a game, but then I think - I would not want my wife and kids seeing this. So there’s an element of shame that I’m indulging my gamer side at the expense of, I don’t know, decency? humanity? Which sounds like an overstatement, but there is a small concern for me there.
That’s the way I mostly play them too. GTA IV is undoubtedly one of those games that benefits from a more casual/wandering approach. Go experiment with this, then try a story mission. Go on a date, now check out the next mission. Hunt for pigeons for an hour, then finish the story. Etc. Running through the missions one after the other is exhausting and frankly kind of frustrating. You really start to hang on the pain points.
It makes me wonder how early reviewers were able to score the game so highly when most of them were sequestered in an hotel room for 48hrs and forced to rip through the game as fast as possible. I would not have enjoyed that at all.
Yeah, the best and most memorable moments for me in GTA IV are definitely just wandering around the city at night, cruising in big giant American cars while listening to the new age/classical station. Or exploring the city while looking for the cars in the photographs sent to my in-game phone. Or cruising around the projects in north Manhattan while listening to the rap station. Or going to a bar with Roman while listening to him and Niko talk about random shit. Or cruising on the boat rides with Brucie as he cracks me up with his ridiculousness. It’s definitely my favorite GTA game by far.
And … that’s a wrap! Managed to clock in the last mission just a few minutes ago. I was actually surprised that the last few missions turned out easier than I expected, and remembered. Though they may have been slightly different since, as I mentioned, I went with the Deal option rather than Revenge.
And I liked it, it made more thematic sense to me. The differences probably aren’t large in terms of drastically different outcomes or missions (I think) but the details are entirely different. I remember when I played the Revenge option, so many years ago, it was Kate that was murdered in the failed hit on Niko at his cousin’s wedding. This time around, by taking the Deal mission you lose Kate’s respect and she doesn’t show at the wedding. And this time around, it’s Roman who gets gunned down, providing obvious motivation to find and kill Dmitri, who is the person you end up chasing by boat and helicopter to Happiness Island. That makes more sense - the way I remember it, I bailed out on the exchange mission the Pegorino sends me on, to make the deal with Dmitri. By doing this, and instead hunting down and killing Dmitri, I piss off Pegorino so much that he sends the hitman to Roman’s wedding, ending up in Kate’s mistaken murder. So then Niko goes on to avenge her, and killing Pegorino is the goal of the final mission.
That doesn’t make as much sense, nor does it seem as fulfilling now that I look at both of them in comparison. I may be misremembering the Revenge missions slightly, it was a long time ago. But I think I got the gist of it. And, this is funny, both missions involve chasing someone who is escaping so you can ultimately kill them. I’m wise to Rockstar’s moves though, in both cases you’re given a wingman who will take shots at the escaping opponent, and ultimately end the case. Since the chases aren’t too hard, and you aren’t really covering anyone, I found them to be pretty easy. Definitely easier than some of the earlier main missions. It’s way more of a slog than anything else.
So I don’t know, I admit I do nonsensical stuff for achievements at times (and by the way, I clocked in at around 22 hours, so the Liberty City Minute achievement is really not that hard) and this is probably one of them. But what the hell, there is satisfaction in achieving a goal as well. And now I can focus my attention on Andromeda.
