Eff Seven

I’ve reviewed a few games for Pocket Gamer since officially finishing term, and they’re not exactly the kind of games you expect to play well. One of them’s High School Musical 2, to let you get an idea of what page we’re all on. It’s the page of licensed games that are primarily designed to sell as part of a franchise. That’s not to say they’re automatically bad, but it is to say that, well, quality might not be their first concern.

At the same time, I rented out Grand Theft Auto IV to get an idea of just what the fuss was all about, and so a few things happened in the same week. First of all, I was pleasantly surprised by the Hannah Montana game that I was looking at. And then, you see, Grand Theft Auto IV began to disappoint.

Grand Theft Auto IV is one of those difficult games that leap headfirst onto a media frenzy and hope the crowdsurfing carries them far enough. The Rockstar folks were sitting on one of the biggest licenses in gaming history, and yet they still knew they had to deliver a certain level of quality. People are calling it the ‘most important game ever’ for a reason - but like a lot of big games before it, that might be the wrong reason. Why? Not because Rockstar didn’t deliver the level of quality people expected, but because that level was set low. The bar was set too low, in fact, for Grand Theft Auto to really satisfy me. It could’ve been so much better.

Hannah Montana is one of those licensed games that, on the face of it, seems not to care about the gamer. It’s got the sort of graphics that just don’t sit on the screen properly, and the music isn’t that great for a licensed game. But the play. The play is great. Because the way the game plays is smooth, it’s not frustrating, it’s rewarding to do. It shows hints of playtesting, or good design at the very least. Is it fair to think better of Hannah Montana because the competition are frequently so poor? I think so.

Game scores are a hotly debated topic. If you think Grand Theft Auto IV is the best game you’ve ever reviewed, and then you give it less than other games, it feels like you’re making the wrong statement to the reader. Whether you intend to make it or not, it’ll inevitably get misconstrued by whoever comes to look at it. But the fact is that Grand Theft Auto IV, when compared to what we should expect from a $100million game, actually drops the ball a little. There are a few game design choices that feel broken. The atmosphere’s a bit overdone in places. It gives freedoms in some areas, but snatches them away just as you come to rely on them.

It’s not that it’s bad. Like Bioshock, playing GTA IV is a joyous experience, but every review I read I’m left feeling that the journalist in question is asking completely the wrong questions. Is GTA IV better than previous ones? Yes. Is it the best thing on the 360? Yes. But that shouldn’t be the end of the review, because that’s not how art forms mature. It’s not like those skyscraper races, building a new construction just one inch taller than the current tallest to grab the world record. It’s about considering what the game could be. Hannah Montana breaks free of my expectations of it, and that makes it a good piece of gaming. GTA IV, however, remains firmly nestled in its comfort zone.