My ranking of Gta 4 Missions and review
This is my third time playing through, my first was about 28 hours and my second and third were around 18 hours long.
I played it first in 2021 and played it for a second time a few months back and what struck me straight away was how dark and depressing the game was. When I played it the first time I only really noticed how different it was to other gta's in regards to the colour palette. I didn't really think too much of it back then except that it was very slow paced and it had a cool bank mission (I was 13 haha).
IIRC after one of the first missions theres a random encounter where a person is racist to niko after he's only just got in after 1 day and that caught me off guard on my second playthrough and made me start looking deeper into the game as I continued.
It's actually really well done storywise for the most part, especially for a gta game imo as I've touched most of them but only completed gta v and san andreas which I thought had interesting stories but were executed really weirdly for me at least. Like san andreas you've got this awesome first quarter with the gang life and ending with the betrayal and the last bit of the game you return home but its kinda underwhelming because I was expecting more storywise (you don't see big smoke for 99% rest of the game after he betrays you and he has one cutscene in the last mission). V is kind of all over the place and every scene some crazy is happening and it just gets exhausting.
4 is not really subtle with its themes or messaging but for a video game it's really compelling, the characters you meet feel realistic and you see how they've all been affected by the world they live in and you delve into their pasts. I never took notice of the city too much but it's so cool even in 2026, just driving around and exploring is cool af. I wish there was an option for constant rain because it adds to some missions a whole lot, on russian revolution it added to the betrayal so much.
Niko is the best gta character, I think at least 60% of people who've played this game would agree with it. The entire game is so drastically different to the rest of the series, I can't tell if they were trying to rebrand the series and then course corrected with 5 but I think it makes it stand out the most on its own as a game. The realism is will never be matched by any other gta from before or to come.
The contrast between the narrative of the american dream to get rich and the actual world is drastic though. Like there is nothing to buy except for guns and food, I wish they would have added in some houses to buy and cars. It does have the best cop system in the series and the realism/physics does add to the tension to these chases and shootouts in general. I like how the game is nearly entirely commited to using these drab and generally everyday places as shootout locations. Compared to the other gta games I think a majority of these missions could plausibly happen in real life.
But stepping away from the craziness of the ps2 games means losing some of that gta charm and a lot of the missions are generally quite repetitive in nature. Most of the missions I put in C, D and F just blend together and I think the game would improve so much by cutting a lot of those missions out. Maybe not the beginning missions as I think the build up to your first shootout/kill is actually quite well done but when your 60% in the game and the mission is just drive over here and drive and shoot these guys in a car and the mission is complete, we have a problem.
It's not even that most of these missions are even that bad on their own, its just I don't need a slight variation of that mission 10 times. It felt like I would get a really creative mission and then 2 missions I never want to do again or I don't remember.
Some of my favourites in the game are just really creative ideas or just take you to someplace that sticks out. Take Tunnel of Death which is one of my favourites, your tasked with stopping a prison escort car, so you block off a tunnel, get into a massive shootout in the tunnel and steal the car. You escape the cops and packie and the prisoner have a conversation where you see he's geniunely happy to be out of prison and then you take him to the shore and reveal he's going to die.
A lot of the missions don't have this multiple section structure packed into the mission to differentiate parts in your head, thats why 3 leaf clover is the most universally loved mission. You have 5 parts to it, the drive over with planning and a memorable and funny conversation, bank robbery gone wrong and micheals death, escape/massive shootout through chinatown, shootout and running through subway station and train tunnel and then escaping the cops and going home with a bit of reflection from packie on michaels death that ties it back to the start of the mission.
It's actually really impressive and probaly my all time favourite gta mission, combining the realism of 4 with the more action packed and blockbuster feel of the earlier games. Most games don't have 20 minutes of greatness across a 20 hour runtime and 3 leaf clover manages to do it back to back.
Thats what makes me dissapointed in a lot of the missions in this game and what makes me feel that tbogt perfected the formula in terms of missions. Just back to back classics the whole runtime for 20 or so missions. Imagine if 4's first 2 acts were slow and methodical and the third act was fully action packed with the in between smaller missions left for the first two acts. I think a lot of the missions could have just been combined together which would have made it faster.
I forgot to mention the choices you have to make, I love that there are different consequences for some of the choices but the game never outright tells you made the wrong choice.
I actually think the deal ending is the best ending for the game, you can say it doesn't make sense for niko to make deal but I think you can make it work. You can tell gta 4 is a tragedy from the first few missions alone so it's more fitting and emotional that Roman dies. And the final shootout with Dimitri under the statue of liberty is so fitting, two immigrants fighting over some false idea of the american dream.
I love the contrast of the dreariness of everything and the dark colour palette of the world compared to the ads, radio and billboards. The radio stations are just high energy and every they spew is just garbage or sexual in nature for no reason but put in a way to try to make it out as positive and having no acknowledgement of it which makes it so dystopian in a way. The higher ups who run this world don't really know or don't care for how dark the world is and the billboard's are so funny.
Some missions I gave a high ranking if they had a particaulary good cutscene such as crime and punishment which is incredibly funny and one of the best in the game.
And a special mention to that special someone which is one of the emotional highpoints of the game and the moment where Darko reveals how much it all cost and him pointing out niko does that same thing everyday basically for the same amount. It made me realize that niko's whole revenge journey is just futile and he became basically as fucked up as Darko in his own way is my favourite moment in the game and probaly gta in general. I love that conversation on the way back with roman on the way back afterwards, I chose to let him live this playthrough but they are both good and emotional.
Overall, while I don't think I can call it a masterpiece unfortunately the game is really damn good. If say 25-30% had been chopped off in terms of length then it would be more enjoyable for me and if there was mission variety too.
Ask me about any of my rankings, I'd be happy to discuss.
Posted Apr 8, 2026, 1:12 PM UTC