Grand Theft Auto - More than child's play

ULTRAVIOLENCE: Grand Theft Auto 4 promises a better combat experience than its popular predecessor.

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Far removed from the simplistic experiences of their predecessors, today's video games are a powerful and maturing medium that allow for intricate narratives rich with complex themes.

They can reflect on the human condition as well as any film or novel, and the infamous Grand Theft Auto series is at the forefront of this development.

Beneath the violence and the crime lies a satirical social commentary on the commoditisation of the American Dream.

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good," Gordan Gekko once advocated in Wall Street. Happiness is the colour green, and the best way to pursue this is to be unscrupulous.

Although this theme has been explored in many classic films such as Scarface, developer Rockstar is a pioneer at bringing this to the video game industry. Digging deeper than patriotic bombast of war games, GTA looks at the very core of American capitalism.

Vice City, for example, looks at the excess of the 1980s. In one scene, crime lord Ricardo Diaz destroys a VCR he believes is malfunctioning and declares his indifference as he could afford hundreds more.

 In GTA III, media mogul Donald Love - who proudly proclaims that the assets he controls include ten senators - reveals his sinister intentions to expand his empire by declaring: "Nothing drives down real estate prices like a good old-fashioned gang war."

GTA also explores the increasing cavern between the rich and the poor due to America's obsession with wealth. Turn on the radio and one might hear a self-help entrepreneur respond to a request for help from the state by replying: "This is the negative kind of self-obsessed greedy talk that doesn't help anyone. My program will teach you a new outlook on life. Instead of complaining about being poor, enjoy it. Watch TV. Don't vote. Who cares?"

In a trailer for the upcoming GTA IV, Russian immigrant Niko reflects on his past life and how in America things might be different. One can only wonder at how GTA IV will explore immigration to the Land of Opportunity.

It's true that this rhetoric might fly well over the heads of small children, but as a title restricted to adults over the age of 18, small children should not be exposed to GTA anyway. Those who are old enough experience the series will find a brilliant critique of American culture if they are willing to look beyond the surface.

- NZGamer.com