Yeee-hah! I finished GTA4 last night. The last level was an involved affair, but a fitting climax to the game at hand. I must warn that this headline will contain multiple spoilers, so read on at your own risk if you're antsy about that sort of thing. To set the stage, during the game, I was presented (as you would be if you played it) with many choices that affected the game, and one that would affect the end. The first such choice I encountered was when drug dealer Playboy X and old-school kingpin Dwayne Forge had a falling out and each one frantically tried to hire Niko Bellic to kill the other. Not liking Playboy X's cocky attitude and dismissal of his mentor too much, I decided to take him out. Thanks to this, I was able to call Dwayne later and use some of his old gang buddies as backup on a tough job. Later, a falling out between two of the McReary brothers, Francis and Derrick, led them both to suspect the other of betrayal, and Francis nonchalantly asked Niko to assassinate his brother while the two had a peaceful meeting in the park. Francis had been a thorn in my side for most of the game, and although his connections to the LCPD might have been useful, he was one of the most corrupt officials in Liberty City and was at best a jerk to deal with. Derrick, on the other hand, had been at my side during one of the most combat-heavy levels of the game, and was just trying to keep his head above water. The choice was easy for me: Francis was out, and Derrick was free to go. Finally, the big plot-changing choice of the game: just prior to the final level, Niko is ordered by his current boss, mafioso Jimmy Pegorino, to take part in a heroin deal in which he will sell a large amount of the drug to Russian gangster Dimitri Rascalov, a deal from which both Pegorino and Niko Bellic will profit handsomely. However, Dimitri had previously betrayed Niko and tried to kill him several times, and at one point had kidnapped Niko's cousin Roman. So, I had to choose between doing the deal (and working with the snake Dimitri one last time) or complete the revenge and assassinate Dimitri. This was a no brainer: Dimitri had to die for what he did to the Bellics. As a result of Niko's action, the drug deal between the Russians and the Pegorinos fell through, and without that injection of cash, the Pegorino family collapsed. Pegorino sought revenge on Niko by attempting to kill him at Roman's wedding, but Pegorino botched the hit, killing Niko's new girlfriend, Kate McReary, in the process. This set the stage for the final level of the game: Niko's friend Little Jacob identified one of Pegorino's agents and Niko and Jacob, along with Roman, chased the man back to Pegorino's hideout, an abandoned Casino on the northwest shore of Alderney.

The last mission was a challenge, and I noticed that it included tests in almost every skill the game had presented up until that point: there was high speed driving in the chase sequence, including driving into oncoming traffic on the highway. I did not like that this part of the mission had to be played in a sluggish sedan rather than allowing me to use one of the many sportscars I had amassed, but I was glad I did not have to drive Roman's crummy car again. After the car chase, there was an extended (and heavy) gun battle behind the casino. I found the easiest way to deal with this part of the level was to use rockets to destroy all of the cars which served as cover for the enemies, conveniently taking out the enemies as well. Then, there was another gun battle inside the casino, which was a bit tough because there were no good vantage points or safe spots to find cover on the inside. I discovered an easy way around this: there are several holes in the roof of the casino through which light pours, with dramatic effect. If, instead of running in the front door, you run around behind the casino, there is a ladder to get on the roof and you can then shoot down through the holes at the mobsters below, with dramatic effect. This makes the inside gunfight much, much easier, since it can almost completely eliminate the chance for further injury. Finally, there is the showdown between Niko and Jimmy Pegorino. Pegorino makes a run for safety as Niko chases, involving some final gunfights on the water front. At the end of the chase, Jimmy jumps into a speedboat and tries to escape, while Niko comandeers a nearby dirtbike and chases Jimmy down the shore--where the game gives you a final test on your motorcycle skills. With the speedboat escaping, Roman and Jacob swoop in on a Deus-Ex-Machina model helicopter gunship and give chase while Niko catches up on the bike. The bike sequence culminates with a notoriously frustrating ramp jump. I only missed the jump once and realized the easiest way to do it was to take it easy on the throttle up until that point, to avoid wiping out on the bike and failing the mission on the beach, but then floor it onto the ramp and let go of the handlebars at the last second to ensure the launch was perfectly straight. Niko jumps off the bike and boards the helicopter in true action movie style. The game then throws you at the controls of the helicopter, testing your ability to fly low enough to dodge the rockets that Pegorino conveniently starts firing from his boat, but not too low as to crash into the river. The latter is what happened the first time I made it to this point, as I did not realize until the helicopter was hitting the waves that I was actually supposed to drive; in retrospect this was foolish of me, as there is no point in the game except for riding in taxis at which you are not the wheelman. The helicopter is then hit with a missile and spirals out of control--at which point I was angry, believing I had been shot down again--but as part of a scripted sequence, lands safely on Happiness Island (AKA Liberty Island in real life) where Pegorino has ditched his boat and is making a mad dash for safety. In the final moments of the game, there is one last foot race, and then the last duty is to find Pegorino hiding somewhere on the island. I discovered him as he jumped out of a bush yelling obscenities and shooting me in the head, bringing me dangerously close to death. I responded by spraying him with a barrage from my submachine gun, finishing the defeated mob boss, and securing revenge for Kate's murder.

The game would have finished differently if I had worked with Dimitri instead of killing him, but I think the general structure remains the same. I have read that Dimitri flies the helicopter in that scenario.

If that long-winded, descriptive summary does not betray it, I will say it now: I really, really liked this game. It was not without frustration (especially with the cover system and many of the controls) but in the end I think Grand Theft Auto IV was an awesome game and I am really looking forward to hearing more about and seeing what Grand Theft Auto V will offer.

So, with GTA4 under my belt, it is time to start that game of games that I have been yearning for months now: Demon's Souls. I can already predict it will be a brutal fight, but I plan to see it through. You should expect to see me crying here tomorrow when it beats me up mercilessly on my first attempt tonight.