GTA (Grand Theft Auto) IV is the fourth main title in the series and was released back in 2008. Soon after its release, it became an instant hit game due to its innovative graphics, fantastic plot, and balanced storytelling, as well as its adaptation of New York City into the fictional Liberty City. It focuses its narrative around an immigrant from Eastern Europe, Nico Bellic, as he tries to find his identity in this brand-new world.
The game mixes free exploration of the open world, spontaneous side missions, and main quests that push the storyline forward, resulting in a title that engages and doesn’t become boring, no matter how many hours you spend playing it.
Why should I download Grand Theft Auto IV?
If you’re looking for immersive entertainment with an open-world location that offers a variety of themes and missions, you should definitely download Grand Theft Auto IV. Set in the fictional Liberty City, inspired by New York, the graphics and level of details, as well as light design, make this more than just a backdrop for the game. Each neighborhood has its own atmosphere and pace, with realistic, non-playable characters (NPCs) and city landmarks, whether they are industrial areas or busy downtown streets.
The main idea behind Grand Theft Auto IV is that you play in a third-person view the character of an immigrant arriving in this new place and trying to navigate his way through the power dynamics, crime, and moral dilemmas of the city and survive it all. As part of main missions and side quests, you engage in shootouts, robberies, car chases, and much more. You can explore the city on foot, but you can also steal multiple vehicles from the Liberty City streets to move between locations faster.
When you download Grand Theft Auto IV, you get to enjoy realistic driving mechanics and physics, dynamic combat, and shooting, as well as advanced character animations and impressive light design. All of those make Grand Theft Auto IV a landmark title in the history of games, and the themes of corruption, mob life, and moral disintegration pull players to this day. The game can also have different endings based on the actions and decisions you make throughout the storyline, so this mechanic encourages replaying the title to check other possible outcomes.
Overall, Grand Theft Auto IV is packed with action sequences but balanced out with narrative elements, so whether you’re a player who enjoys more intensive gameplay or someone who likes to progress more slowly, you’ll be able to find the pace and play the game the way you want it. GTA IV has been an inspiration to a number of open-world games that followed it because of its storytelling, graphics, and mechanics, so it remains a great title to check out despite how old it is.
Is Grand Theft Auto IV free?
While you can sometimes get the game on special offers or with a discount, you need to pay for this title to download Grand Theft Auto IV and play it. It’s available through different online stores, such as Steam or Rockstar Games Launcher, and you can also try hunting down physical copies of the game.
What operating systems are compatible with Grand Theft Auto IV?
In order to download Grand Theft Auto IV and play it, you need to either own a desktop running on Windows or one of the original consoles the game was released and optimized for. Back in 2008, the game was available on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and you’d need one of them to play this title. Grand Theft Auto IV has not yet been ported to any of the newer consoles and is yet to receive a remastered version that can be launched on modern platforms.
What are the alternatives to Grand Theft Auto IV?
While Grand Theft Auto IV remains an absolute classic and offers impressive gameplay, it might be hard to get your hands on it because of the lack of support for modern gaming platforms. If you want something that can run on your current devices, there are many options to consider.
To stay within the GTA Series, you can give Grand Theft Auto V a go. It follows the path of the previous games but brings the player to an open-world location in a city inspired by Los Angeles - Los Santos. The fifth GTA title allows playing three different characters instead of one. Due to that, you can carry out 3 distinct storylines as they struggle within the ranks of the criminal underworld of the city. The game also supports multiplayer and online experience, thanks to GTA Online. Originally released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, GTA V is supported by modern consoles and PCs, too, so you can download and play it on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and newer Windows versions.
Another title worth exploring is Saints Row IV, which offers a less grim and humorous approach to open-world adventure games with characters with superpowers and a cartoonish feeling. It’s more of a parody of the gang underworld and includes science-fiction elements such as alien empire invasions or zombies. You can get the game on Windows computers and PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 as well as Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
If you want to keep exploring a game that remains more realistic but offers a more historical setting, Mafia II will be a great choice. Based in mid-20th century America, it follows the story of a young mobster climbing the mafia ranks, all within truly cinematic graphics and atmosphere with massive attention to details specific to this period. Mafia II was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows computers, but it has been remastered for modern consoles and can also be downloaded and played on them.
