The Grand Theft Auto franchise is the greatest franchise in Video Game history. Rockstar is one of the best Video Game companies. (opinion) From Grand Theft Auto on the PS1 to Grand Theft Auto V on the PS4, the GTA Series has always shined.
Spanning from the PS1 to the PS4, the GTA Series has had many great games. They have also been the center point of a lot of controversy. Usually the violence in the games and... well... adult actions... has lead to the controversy. GTA IV is one of my favorite games of all time, and I'm going to tell you why. Let's get into this review!

GRAPHICS, 9: While they do look dated, GTA IV is still a beautiful game. Liberty City looks like New York City, although Liberty City is a parody of NY. The city looks plain in some parts, but it's supposed to look like that, and great in other parts. Middle Park (Central Park) looks great and the attractions look great as well. GTA IV's map is on of my favorite maps in video games, simply stuff like this. The characters look great as well. GTA IV's main character, Niko Bellic, looks great (I've said great a lot, but it's a great game). The other characters in the story look good as well. Rockstar put a lot of attention and detail into each and every character model, and it really shows. The animations are awesome. Niko's hand-to-hand combat was motion captured by Bas Rutten a famous Mixed Martial Artist. Niko's kicks and punches look smooth and also reveals some of his backstory (see more in the story section). The walking/running/sprinting animations look realistic. The shooting and reloading animations looks good. Each time a police officer/enemy/or civilian is killed, a ragdoll effect is triggered. GTA IV was the first GTA game to use the ragdoll effects instead of having a falling animation. Even animations on the cars look good (wheels, lights).  The cutscene animations look realistic. IV is a beautiful game with fantastic animations. The only bad thing about the graphics is there are some low quality textures. Because of that, graphics get a nine.

SOUND, 10: The main theme is fantastic. The soundtrack is great and memorable. The voice acting is great, as well as the civilians speech. The radio stations play great songs, as well as great radio shows just as Just or Unjust and Integrity 2.0 The shooting sounds great, and each gun sounds different (obviously). The cars sounds great too. The car's engines, just like real life, each sound different and each sound realistic. A sports car will sound quiet, while a heavy car will sound loud. Sounds are great and get a ten.

ADDICTIVENESS, 10: I've played Grand Theft Auto IV for over 35 hours, and it's obvious why. This game offers a lot to do and it will most likely keep you busy. Various missions as well as side missions. It's very addictive and the game even has a 'level of addiction' section in the Stats screen. It's almost as if Rockstar knows you are addicted. I was addicted to it. You can see most of the thing you can do in the Depth section. Addictiveness is a perfect ten.

STORY, 10: The story is this: Niko is in the war filled county of Yugoslavia. He and a few friends (who later turned on him) where in the Yugoslavian wars. Niko  learned a lot through the war. How to fight, shoot, drive, and even fly a helicopter. Niko was talking to his cousin, Roman during the wars, and Roman was talking about how great America was, and even convinced Niko to come to LC. What Niko didn't know was Roman was addicted to gambling and owed a lot of people money. Niko migrated to LC to live with Roman, and Roman wanted Niko to help him out with some of his problems. Along the way, Niko finds his own problems, reunites with old friends, makes new friends, and even meets his enemies. It's kind of sad that Niko was trying to flee from his problems from the war only to find new problems at the new City. It's a very awesome story, and one of the best in my opinion. Story gets a Ten.

DEPTH, 9: Apart from the 80+ missions that take about 10 hours to complete, there's also stunt jumps, random character encounters, drug busts, assassinations, hanging out with friends, bowling, racing, car theft, adult clubs, and even police work. This is a very deep game filled with content to keep players busy for hours on end. Even exploring the city to find many different easter eggs, such as the heart of Liberty. There's so much stuff to find in GTA IV, and it's very very riddled with content, although I felt car customization would have made the game better. Depth gets a nine.

DIFFICULTY, 6: Grand Theft Auto IV wasn't very difficult, but there was a few missions I had trouble with. I didn't find the game too difficult but I didn't find it too easy, either. Three Leaf Clover, a bank heist mission that has Packie and Niko with a few others robbing the Bank of Liberty, took me three tries to complete, but I didn't find it that hard. Unlike SA, in IV you can hide behind cover, which made many missions easy, but it wasn't too easy. Missions can cause a few problems, but besides that, it wasn't that hard. Difficulty gets a six.

OVERALL, 10: Grand Theft Auto IV is one of my favorite games of all time, with great characters, great story, great soundtrack, and a almost perfect game, it is on of Rockstar's best. Overall, I give Grand Theft Auto IV a perfect ten out of ten. It's a prefect game to me, as I felt it got everything right, except it would have been better with planes.

NOTE: This is my longest  review! It's over 1,000 words! There's also 5589 characters.
Thanks for reading this review! Until next review, bye!