I haven’t played GTA IV yet. I want to, but I’m generally one of those people who waits before buying a new game, unless it’s something I’ve followed closely for months, or from a franchise I like. (Thusly why I was standing at EB waiting for their 10:30am truck shipment so I could snag Sly 3 on release day…)

Actually, I haven’t played any of the GTA games with the exception of the first one, and that was some time ago. So yesterday I decided to rectify that travesty. Also, I just felt like stealing cars and mowing down pedestrians. Ah the days of Road Rage 3D. But my main reason for playing was not a stress release, though admittedly it was much needed. Rather, I had read on countless blogs and review sites that the writing in the more story-centric GTAs was fantastic and an example of what good writing can and should be in a sandbox title.

GTA in all its incarnations has always netted a bad reputation from the (general) public eye. But you can’t deny how well made of a game the GTA model is. However, my focus is not on the gameplay; it’s on the writing.

Story

Since graduating high school I’ve mostly stuck to playing RPGs with a few strategy or adventure games thrown in the mix. Some people believe that the only good stories are found in RPGs. Some people believe this so vehemently that they’re unwilling to play any other genre. But as I started getting back to my roots and playing a little bit of everything, I learned just how much I was missing out on in terms of story.

Though open-ended with a player-chosen protagonist in previous installations, Vice City introduces the named protagonist with his own personality, backstory, and agenda. You play as Tommy Vercetti, a Mafia hitman who was just released from prison and is participating in his first job since – a drug deal that goes bad. This cutscene really sets the stage for the rest of the game, letting even first-time GTA players know that this is going to be a rough world.

Most of Tommy’s first missions center around figuring out who ambushed him and why. The critical path – the plot that must be completed for the game to be ‘won’ – is integrated in an unobtrusive way. Plot contacts are marked on your map very clearly, but there is generally no time limit or pressing need to get to them, allowing you to explore the city at will. But if you’re playing as Tommy, whose first concern is getting back at the bastards who tried to kill him, how do you explain going off and jacking three cars between missions? Fortunately, Vice City has allowed explanation for this by providing a rather general character. Tommy could be any criminal, and really his bottom line is getting paid and not getting killed. This allows for a lot of maneuvering with sidequests.

I believe when writing a defined PC for sandbox games it is important to make him rather general and in many ways, simple. This certainly doesn’t mean he has to be static and dull, however, which is really how most of these types of characters come across. They’re just some brute who has no motive, no commitments, and all the personality of wet cardboard. Tommy’s personality is revealed to us in cutscenes, barks, and even his animations. He has personal convictions, but they don’t drive his life in such a narrow-minded fashion as to restrict him from doing other things.

Dialogue

I removed the grammar/spelling category from this review because there’s nothing worth mentioning that can’t be said here. I haven’t caught any proofing issues yet, and the writers have done a great job of seamlessly integrating dialect into normal conversation. Admittedly, much of this comes from excellent voice acting. It’s much easier for us humans to hear dialect than it is for us to read it.

In terms of dialogue, Vice City was already jumping a hurdle by choosing such a modern setting. Sure, it’s the 80’s, but it’s far more modern and identifiable to us than a medieval or futuristic world. You can get away with certain things in those settings because there is a (very small, mind you) gray area where the brain allows some suspension of disbelief due to an unfamiliar world. But in something that’s supposed to be so close to our present world, we are much quicker to criticize. It’s the same reason that we are, as humans, so critical of the human form in artwork. We know when it looks wrong because we’ve been exposed to it all day every day for the entirety of our lives.

That said, Vice City has some of the best dialogue I’ve seen in a game, for one simple reason: it’s unnoticeable. It’s ordinary. It blends into the setting without so much as a blip on the radar. This is what good dialogue is. It doesn’t make us sit back in awe and contemplate the meaning of the universe. It’s just people talking the way they would and should talk, crafted to progress the story or build the setting.

Dialogue is one of the most difficult areas of writing, but it really doesn’t have to be. Some of my team members at RDS have had trouble writing in a natural way. Generally when this happens the dialogue reads like narrative, either in the form of an essay or an instructional booklet. Even the dialogue that reads like a philosophical pamphlet isn’t on the mark, in my mind. (Unless, of course, the character is meant to talk that way) I advise my team to carry a small notebook everywhere they go. Office Max sells pocket spiral-bound notebooks for about $1. Put it in your pocket or your purse, along with a pen. Or if you’re all high-tech and spiffy, use your PDA. Then wherever you are, really open your ears and your mind and listen. Listen to the way people talk to one another. Very rarely do we speak in complete sentences with proper grammar. Have you ever read a paper written by a second grader? They write the way they speak and the way they hear things being spoken to them simply because they don’t know the rules of narrative writing. As we grow older we somehow lose this ability to translate what we hear onto the paper.

So take your notebook with you and when you get a free moment, scribble down lines from your conversations – both your lines and theirs. Sit in a crowded place and observe the conversation going on around you. Take note of how differently people speak to one another depending on their level of intimacy. Make note of the body language used. It’s really quite fascinating.

I’d love to hear your comments on GTAIV or any of the other GTA titles. Do they stand up to this model of integrated story and dialogue?