Revisiting Grand Theft Auto IV on an Xbox Series X after a long hiatus reveals a remarkably distinct open-world design, as reported by archive.org and Game File.
The wait for Grand Theft Auto IV felt long by early 2007, following a rapid succession of releases that included Grand Theft Auto III on the PlayStation 2 in 2001, Vice City in 2002, San Andreas in 2004, and spin-offs for Sony’s PlayStation Portable in 2005 and 2006.
By the mid-2000s, Rockstar Games had secured “Do Whatever It Wants” status, releasing a racing game, a movie adaptation, a high school mini-GTA, a censored snuff film stealth game simulator, and even a 2006 ping-pong game used to test new technology for GTA IV.
In March 2007, a debut trailer showcased a minute of scenes from Liberty City—Rockstar’s take on New York City—with a level of detail that remains impressive 19 years later. Developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games in April 2008, the action-adventure title secured an average score of 98.
Reviewers praised its graphics, story, better gunplay, better driving, better acting, and its more serious, mature focus on an Eastern European immigrant’s arrival in America. Set within fictional Liberty City and consisting of three main islands, the single-player story follows a war veteran, Niko Bellic, attempting to escape his past under pressure from loan sharks and mob bosses.
Returning to the game after last playing it in 2010 required reactivating an old Xbox 360 to process five system updates before sending Obama-era save files into the cloud, before ultimately restarting from scratch on an Xbox Series X. The open world design allows players to freely roam the map, while the game manages to keep 60fps most times for a smooth look.
The LP contains story missions including both endings and extra content such as missed phone calls, exotic exports, races, random character encounters, assassinations, most wanted missions, vigilante missions, friend activities, acts from Perestroika and Split Sides Comedy Club, and failed missions.
Players continue to modify the experience using tools available via platforms like Nexusmods. Available enhancements include practicing pool alone at Playboy X’s penthouse, rebinding controller buttons and triggers with separate layouts for vehicles and on foot, and utilizing an updated Working Speedometer ported to IVSDK.net.
Additional modifications introduce features such as a clean rev counter wrapping the minimap, a button to make the character stumble around or instantly sober up, a real manual gearbox with a 6-speed option and rev limiter flash requiring FusionFix, and a map mod inspired by the “Tribute in Light” memorial in New York City that adds two 16-beam arrays to the City Hall area extending above lower Algonquin.
