Bad Endings: Grand Theft Auto 4

I finished The Most Expensive Game Ever Made! about a week ago ($100 million by all accounts). It was an occasion not without event, nor near endless retries, and was compounded by my own special brand of inflexible stupidity. It was none-the-less very satisfying indeed. Certain points the conclusion raises have been whizzing round my head ever since. Not only because I managed to breeze through just quick enough to unlock a particularly irksome looking achievement, but because Rockstar remembered to pack some tail-eating revenge daisy-chains and existential fatalism. God bless 'em.

If the subtitle wasn't hint enough, I wouldn't read on if you haven't finished GTA4. Not 100% like, just the story portion. Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn ya. I'm not kidding, this'll ruin everything. We pick up events in the dying seconds of story mode:

With Roman's greedy needling ringing in my ears, and my not-quite in-game girlfriend Kate's advice reading more like an order, me and Niko set off to get us some of that good old fashioned revenge. For those of you that haven't played the fourth installment of Rockstar's series, here's a quick (alright, long and meandering) story recap:

Niko Bellic (your grumpy avatar) is an Eastern European gent, quite likely involved in the Bosnian conflict whilst still at an impressionable age. Niko's platoon was betrayed by one of their number and all but wiped out. Niko knows he didn't sell out his mates, so it must be one of the two other survivors. Deductive reasoning! This is the the notional narrative thrust - to track down the chap who gave you up. A winningly vague goal, I'm sure you'll agree, that facilitates much violence / people meeting. If it was good enough for Doctor Richard Kimble, it's good enough for you. Attracted to New York analogue: Liberty City by your flighty but decent cousin's aspirational ramblings, Niko docks and climbs the criminal ladder with startling efficiency.

Along the way you are manipulated and betrayed by a speccy little shit by the name of Dimitri Rascalov (and what a rascal he is!), he even phones you up a few times afterwards on your in-game mobile to gloat. I hate him! Towards the conclusion of the story you get a choice: stow your principles in favour of money and work with The Rascal (and perhaps even complete a kind of redemption in Niko by not opting for the knee-jerk violent revenge response) or track him down to his little ice breaker hideout and exact a horrific knee-jerk violent revenge. Hmm. Decisions. Decisions. Stumbling out the strip-joint meet up, Niko dials up his nearest and dearest. Your cousin sniffs money and urges you chase it; your sort-of girlfriend tells you under no circumstances should you make the deal: "You're not the man I thought you were if you do Niko!"

So! Deal or kill?

Money or revenge?

Of course I chose the latter.

I didn't throw myself into it with any particular haste though, path junctions in GTA4 are fraught with decision anxiety - will I make the right choice? Did I make another save recently if this goes belly up? That sort of thing. Cannily foreshadowing just this dilemma, Rockstar have you catch up with the chap who actually betrayed your platoon (and left you a stumbling monster of a man) a few missions earlier - thank you shadowy CIA style connections!

The showdown you long for is neatly curtailed into nothing more than a ugly, bullying, bit of personal business. The Fink is a rambling, strung-out mess of a man. His name is Darko and he bears an uncanny resemblance to Niko when you first begin the game - same clothes, same haircut, very nearly the same face. You are only one bad decision away from becoming this man. He is hurled into you and your tag-along cousin's laps sobbing and confused from the back of a G-Man van. The location? That Michael Mann perennial: the existentially bleak airport ignore space.

After a cutscene detailing Niko's sheer fucking pain at what happened to him and his friends, you get the choice to kill the man or walk away. Grand Theft Auto 4 throws several curve balls like this your way as you play, usually they have a minute bearing on the overall narrative. That said, they can't help feeling important, mainly because of Niko. Whenever any of these decisions popped up I found myself thinking about it from the characters point of view. A word like avatar does Niko a disservice. He does not feel like a pixel / polygon extension of my will, larking about a sandbox city; he feels like a chap I'm trying to help and steer right. Would Niko do this or not? Would Niko shoot this unarmed, drug addict or simply walk away. Niko's cousin Roman is disturbed by the proceedings and urges you to just forget about it, show mercy. Is there a right decision? If I make the wrong one will the game steer down a irreversible track of doom? Am I doing right by Niko? There's a real weight of responsibility at play whenever you find yourself making Niko's decisions for him.

I ended up shooting Darko. It gave me no satisfaction to do so. I wanted to because I felt Niko would feel he had to; survivor's penance / guilt and all that. The action of doing so though, was anti-satisfying. It does not fill a hole. You are not content.



Turns out, it does not advance the plot in any specific direction. Darko does not figure in a side-strand of repercussion if spared. The repercussions are nil, no swelling triumph music plays out to affirm your decision. No congratulations. No end. Nothing. You're just left with 'why?' Why did I kill Darko? It just felt, in a fraught little instance, like the right thing to do. If you've played the game, maybe you felt different. Maybe you felt Niko would let it go, and try and forget about it. Darko's presented as the sub-human perennial: The Junkie. A derelict. I've heard tell that your make-shift family of friends congratulate you for being the bigger man should you spare him. My path: Niko just wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

Executing Darko is important to the themes of the narrative, if not specifically the direction. In killing Darko I grasped at what I felt Niko wanted, his long-lusted after revenge. In my actions there was the rejection of the carefully cultivated plot whisker of redemption (most explicitly realised through your near relationship with good Catholic girl: Kate). I remembered the past. Your next major plot decision is to work with or against the guy who betrayed not only Niko but the player too. Rascalov. Remember him? Animosity is compounded. This time a trespass not committed in some distant corner of pre-game time, but a couple of hours ago to my considerable chagrin. Plus! This particular dickhole has guns too. And likely an avalanche of well armed bodyguards. He'll put up a fight. Not like Darko, crying and shitting himself as I loomed over him, gun in hand. There might be some sense of satisfaction. He isn't some barely-there needle monkey, he's a snappy little devil with a buzz-cut and a considerable chip on his shoulder. Fuck that guy! I'm not going to work for him. Niko and me are going to kill him. We're going to transplant our long lusted revenge onto him.

And we do.



After cutting a swathe through his personal bodyguards we corner him in the bowels of his ship. He hides behind a box and throws peek-a-boo shots our way. Words are exchanged. Eventually he pops his head up for a gander and we are able to clip his (extended) life away from him.

This choice does have repercussions. Whole game altering ones. Shortly after the completion of the above mission you are asked to attend your cousin's wedding - the Star Wars celebration ending. Roman lives the closest approximation to a 'normal' life. He has money problems, love rivals, and has a crush on a woman who works for him - now his bride-to-be. This is were Grand Theft Auto 4 careens in two distinct, awful directions. One of your immediate circle of friends is going to die. If you listened to your-not-quite girlfriend Kate and took the path of revenge, she catches an angered Italian mob-boss' bullet - meant for you. She dies silently (relationship unresolved!) and you vow revenge. Alternatively if you listened to your greedy (but nice) cousin and took the deal, a bald Agent 47 alike pops up and attempts to slip some lead in your kidneys. One over-excited special forces disarm and an accidental discharge later and Roman is silent and gone. You vow revenge. Revenge is unavoidable. There is no redemption. Niko gets to create another revenge target, facilitated through his actions, and off you go to annihilate them. Sound familiar?

This particular thread of experience is just about were I can see why GTA4 is scoring 10/10s everywhere you care to look. There is no 'good' ending, there is only Bad and Catastrophic.



In the post credits load screen, Niko mumbles:

"So, this is what the dream feels like? This is the victory we longed for..."

A medium pushes onward.