Liberty City's Liberation on Xbox LIVE

Published May 7, 2008

As stunning as the single-player campaign is in Grand Theft Auto IV™, it is Rockstar's willingness to brave the online frontier for the first time in the franchise's history that may very well end up as the game's defining characteristic.

Don't worry, Niko won't mind if you head online.

Even if the multiplayer aspect had only offered the opportunity to cause our own brand of custom mischief with friends in Liberty City, it would have likely been branded a success. Luckily for all of us, GTA IV offers that and so much more.

Every multiplayer match plays out drastically
different than the match before as players
and teams take advantage of the endless
creativity provided by Liberty City.

Executing Online

Before delving headlong into the game's various game modes, we must first give due consideration to Rockstar's clever Xbox LIVE® implementation and technical accomplishments:

• Same world, same everything: Remarkably, you'll find the exact same Liberty City on Xbox LIVE as you do offline. The same visuals, physics, enemy A.I., lighting, draw-distance and every other detail you could possibly expect all runs with up to sixteen players simultaneously. After hours of dedicated online play, it's easy to take it for granted, but this is an astounding technical feat worth applauding.
• In-game access: Accessing any of the game's multiplayer modes is handled with a few quick key-strokes on Niko's cell phone. Whether Player-Match or Ranked, co-op or adversarial, you can jump online no matter where you are or what you're up to. What's more, you'll find yourself right back at Niko's safehouse once you've wrapped up your multiplayer matches, ready to dive back into single-player mode.
• Party mode: Want to tackle the city with your friends? Use Party Mode to set up a dedicated group and then join matches together against other pre-made parties.
• Option time: Whether you're setting the time of day, traffic and pedestrian density, the weather, police activity, friendly fire, or available weapons, you'll find all the options you could want to create a multiplayer match tailor-made to your tastes.
• Ring, ring: No matter the game mode, you can whip your cell phone out mid-match and dial a friend or enemy and chat it up in total privacy. I am ashamed to say that my first experience with this feature was after taking a rocket launcher to the face for the third consecutive time, only to have my opponent call and cackle delightedly in my ear to gloat over his well-earned victory.

No better way to cross the finish line.

Liberty City's Game Types

In addition to the always popular Free Mode, where the whole of Liberty City is laid before you and your friends to do with as you please, GTA IV offers ten adversarial game types and three cooperative missions.

Most of the adversarial matches could conceivably be played across all of Liberty City, but you can also limit the scope of the map by choosing individual islands, thus tightening the focus and eliminating hefty travel times between firefights.

• Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch: Though the classic objective of eliminating as many enemies as possible remains, GTA IV throws a welcome curveball into the mix by awarding victory not necessarily to the person or team that kills the most, but rather the person or team with the most money. While each kill will award you instant cash, every victim also drops a bit of their own loot behind. These additional cash-drops can spell the difference between victory and defeat, and cause fresh chaos as players dash to collect their due, and enemies take advantage of their momentary exposure or simply race to claim the cash for themselves.
• Mafiya Work and Team Mafiya Work: Moments after dropping into the world you'll be contacted via cell phone and given a random objective (such as eliminate a target, deliver a package, or retrieve a car). You'll earn a bundle of cash for each objective completed, as well as for each opponent you kill. Once one objective is completed, another is phoned in.
• Car Jack City and Team Car Jack City: The cars marked on your map must be jacked and then delivered to a predetermined location, with your cash reward determined by how pristine the vehicle is upon delivery. Of course, when one player takes a car you can bet their opponents will be gunning for them, or worse yet, be lying in wait at the delivery point. The wild card here is that certain cars contain drugs, which offer full cash rewards no matter the amount of damage to the vehicle.

It's your playground. Now invite some friends.

• Cops 'n Crooks: This team-based-only game pits one team of criminals in a desperate race to escort their "boss" (randomly chosen) out of the city by boat or helicopter against a team of cops hoping to eliminate the boss before they reach their extraction point. The trick here is that the cops can see the criminal boss's location on their map but the criminals can only see the location of their extraction point.
• Turf War: Like Cops 'n Crooks, Turf War is a team-only affair requiring each team to capture each of the three available bases, earning cash for each base controlled. Though similar to other capture-the-base games, Turf War takes on a life of its own in Liberty City with player-made road blocks, snipers picking off defensive teams from rooftops, armored car assaults, and any number of other creative offensive and defensive plans only conceivable in GTA IV.
• Race and GTA Race: Pick among cars, motorcycles, trucks, boats, and even helicopters as well as a host of unique tracks in a race to the finish. Choose Race for a purer test of racing prowess where driving skills alone determine the winner, or opt for GTA race, which includes the use of weapons for a more chaotic but often even more entertaining experience.

Co-Op Time

Where the adversarial modes include up to sixteen players, the cooperative missions offer a more intimate, four-player experience, complete with cutscenes and story lines. Whether you're storming a cargo ship with a helicopter in Bomb da Base II, cutting down a violent motorcycle gang at a construction site in Deal Breaker, or springing a mob boss free from a SWAT infested airport in Hangman's NOOSE, these cooperative missions combine the mission-style of the single-player campaign with the team-based tactics of a multiplayer match.

The multiplayer offering in Grand Theft Auto IV is an astounding accomplishment both technically and creatively. While there are hundreds of hours of fun to be had in the single-player mode, the multiplayer modes offer even more hours of great gameplay. Every multiplayer match plays out drastically different than the match before as players and teams take advantage of the endless creativity provided by Liberty City. Take your GTA IV online. You won't regret it.

Article by Ryan Treit