360 Tag: Im No Batman
Getting Online
Multiplayer is accessed from the single-player game via Niko's cell phone and supports up to 16 players. Oh, and the entire world runs at the same time. That's right -- all the pedestrians, traffic and cops are there. The entire city is open to you and your fifteen friends in apparently every mode.
Levelling/Ranking Up
You won't play the story mode in multiplayer. In fact, no one gets to be Niko online. Instead, you'll create a custom character (dude or babe) from about a half-dozen options. While the options we were shown were fairly limited, new clothes and accessories unlock as you rank up. Ranks run from 0-10, with experience earned by collecting cash in multiplayer. Cash is dropped by opponents and can be nabbed by anyone and is also automatically earned for performing certain tasks in the various modes. We didn't get to experience the leveling system, but it appears fairly simple. It's meant to reward you for playing a lot of multiplayer, but leveling up your character isn't the focus as it tends to be in Call of Duty 4 and Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
Lobby/Rules
We weren't given a view of the lobby system, but from Rockstar's hints, it sounds like you will just run around going Bananarama in Liberty City until someone launches a game. The good news is that when a game is set up, the host has a myriad of options depending on the mode. This is everything from turning on cops (yes, you can have a wanted level in multiplayer), adjusting the density of traffic, selecting from several weather options (fog and heavy rain being the coolest), time of day, and even what radio station is playing. We counted sixteen options for one mode and the others had similar amounts.
From here (your cellphone), you can choose to enter the multiplayer game, at which point your single-player progress is saved and your console accesses its online network. As with Burnout Paradise, you'll be able to see which of your friends are currently playing GTA IV online, and if they're in an open party, you'll be free to join them. Likewise, if you choose to create a game, you can restrict it to just your friends list or open it up to the online community.
While you're free to talk to your teammates at any time by speaking through the microphone, you can also call individual players by accessing the mobile phone and just ringing them up.
Stealth
Before we break down each of the four modes played (Team Deathmatch, GTA Race, Cops N Crooks and Hangman's NOOSE), there is one significant gameplay change from single-player mode. When playing MP, your names shows above your head along with a colored dot. However, if you crouch, your name disappears, making you tougher to spot. And if you use cover, both your name and dot disappear. It may sound insignificant, but both bring an unexpected pacing to GTA multiplayer by rewarding you for being strategic in your combat.
Deathmatch
I went into GTA IV believing that the multiplayer would be like a third-person version of Quake -- twitch gameplay, lots of deaths, and just a touch of shallowness to the whole deal. I was wrong. The cover system makes a big difference.
...
As with many of the other modes, there are a lot of options to suit your personal tastes. This includes altering the weapon layout. A game of shotty? Done. All heavy weapons? Bingo. Rockets only? Hell yes.
...
Winning Team Deathmatch isn't a matter of scoring the most kills (though that helps). In true GTA fashion, it's about coming away with the most cash. Much of that does come from killing people, but picking up bonus cash left by the dead makes the difference.
Cops N Crooks
The mode has two derivations: In All for One you need to kill the boss, played by one of the crooks. In One for All everyone has just one life and once the crooks are dead the cops win.
...
There are a few twists that make this the most interesting version of VIP I've ever played. The cops can see the crooks on their radar (with the boss getting a unique icon), but they don't know where the escape vehicle is located. Remember, all of Liberty City is open, so it's not going to be easy to immediately guess where the crooks might be headed. While the cops spawn in cars, the crooks start on foot and must find transportation.
GTA Race
In our introduction to the mode, myself and Newsweek's N'gail Croal were burning around the course, which I believe took place near GTA's Central Park, when we came to a stone archway we absolutely had to go through to complete the lap. Problem was, there were cars, lots of cars blocking our way. By the time I had assessed the situation, one of the other players ran up to me and killed me at the wheel.
The race quickly devolved into a deathmatch until we realized that Croal had nosed his car through the wreckage and was burning through the laps. In another race, this one taking place at an airport complete with moving planes, I didn't bother trying to speed through the course and instead clamored on top of an airport gangway with a rocket launcher and just waited. When people came by I blew up their cars. Meanwhile Rockstar's Jeronimo Barrera was taking great pleasure trying to mow down Croal in what looked like a golf cart.
From what I played of it, GTA Race could easily be a standalone game, something that would occupy a gamer's attention for months.
Hangman's Noose
CRUNCH! The rim comes flying off of the back wheel of our armoured security van, burst by an eagle-eyed copper aiming from a pursuing cop car. We battle to control the battered van as it swerves across the Liberty City highway, with twenty police cars burning metal behind us, eager to ram us into the nearest lamppost.
The entire Liberty City SWAT team is on our case, after we managed to snatch a notorious criminal boss from their custody at the Francis International Airport. But it's only a short stretch across the city to sweet, sweet freedom, and the rendezvous point is in site...
Suddenly it looks like it's all over; two loaded-to-the-teeth attack choppers emerge above the sprawling concrete horizon, miniguns aimed and poised to turn us into a flaming chunk of twisted metal. Our task to escape with the NPC convict looks almost hopeless, until we realise that not all the helicopters in the sky are being flown by the police...
As the first police chopper falls flaming towards the road, the second player - with a third gunning from the back of the 'copter - lays down covering fire on the police convoy laying chase behind our van.
The fourth player is laying down covering fire from the passenger seat next to us. This is GTA IV multiplayer. And it's bloody brilliant.
A Rockstar developer took the wheel of the armored car again, and another rode shotgun. Croal hopped into the back to shoot at pursuing cops. I opted to swipe a helicopter that was on the runway and followed the wagon as it entered the interstate, trying to gun down the stream of cop cars in pursuit.
Then it happened: Croal was shot. The hit didn't kill him, but it did knock him from the truck which continued to speed toward the drop off point. Soon Croal was surrounded by cops on the middle of an interstate. I turned my chopper around and told Croal I was coming for him. Landing the copter in a nearby clearing, I got out to try and find Croal, but he had snatched a car and was already out of the police infested area.
I ran back to my copter only to find its rotors had been snapped off during my crap landing next to a copse of trees. The whole thing ended with me being gunned down by a phalanx of cops as I ran down the interstate toward the distant extraction point, and the whole team losing.
