Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

Niko Bellic is a horrible human, but he’s also a great character. In this video, DeVante breaks down what makes Niko so good even in a post-GTA 5 world.

The poor guy was on a steady losing streak that didn’t get much better after the war. Unable to find a job, Niko fell into human trafficking work in order to get by.

And I know, only monsters would smuggle and sell other human beings, so that last part may not seem like it's helping me sell him as a great character. But stick with me because I believe it's deep flaws like that one that help make him believable. We’ll get to that in a second.

Following a botched smuggling run, Niko joined the merchant navy to escape Russian crime boss Ray Bulgarin. This in turn led to his decision to head to America where he thought he could start fresh with his wealthy cousin Roman. In reality, Roman was broker than the district he lived in, and America proved to be just as crime infested as other places in the world.

Niko played the cards he was dealt, tried to reshuffle, but ended up with the same hand in a new city. Rockstar made a deeply flawed character with a troubled past and made me believe that he was a guy down on his luck looking for a change. I wanted so badly for him to have at least one win, even if he technically didn’t deserve it. Because deep down we all want to believe in second chances.

Unfortunately for Niko, that second chance was harder to achieve thanks to three of his key motivating factors: money, family / loyalty and revenge. Each time Niko accepts a new mission throughout the story, one or more of these factors lie behind his decision to say yes. And just like his flaws that I hinted at earlier, knowing Niko’s ‘Why’ is another way Rockstar makes him believable.

 

[FullMetalx117]

And this is one of the reasons I love GTA IV. The story was great and a lot had to do with Nico. No one in GTA V compares sadly

 

[Woggleman]

Niko is similar to Arthur Morgan in that they are complex hardened criminals. They can be equally terrifying and likable sometimes in the same scene. It's a shame GTA IV got so much hate because then we ended up with V that sometimes seemed like a playable Michael Bay movie.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

GTAIV is the best GTA. Fight me.

Best storyline, best characters, best setting, and besides the driving the best gameplay. V is shit.

IV>VC>SA>III>V

 

[p_xavier]

Only game in my life I returned because of his bad voice acting.

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

This is just media build up to GTA 6 reveal that Niko is a character in the game, right?

 

[Celcius]

I’d be down for a GTAIV remake/remaster… just not by the same people that did the other remasters

 

[bender]

Comes to America from a war torn country to change his life and a few missions in he's murdering rival drug dealers for a drug dealer he just met.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

GTAIV is the best GTA. Fight me.

Best storyline, best characters, best setting, and besides the driving the best gameplay. V is shit.

IV>VC>SA>III>V

I love how the driving feels in GTA IV. Cars have actual weight to them.

 

[kraspkibble]

driving in IV is trash. V is far better.

 

[killatopak]

I hope there's a remaster or something.

I never did finish GTA4. I think I only got to the bowling part.

 

[Outlier]

He wasn't.

He started off with the right mindset, but R* needs to make GTA... GTA and have the character engage in illegal actions, so we psychopaths don't get bored of trying to live a clean productive life. So, they made him an idiot for the whole game, which made me hate him.

I remember getting upset as soon as Roman encouraged Nico to get involved in crime and Nico reluctantly accepted. Wasted potential.

Would be nice if they made a game where at least one protagonist was a special agent (of sorts) allowed engage in destructive actions against criminals, so long as they kept collateral to a minimum.

 

[Bernd Lauert]

GTAIV is the best GTA. Fight me.

Best storyline, best characters, best setting, and besides the driving the best gameplay. V is shit.

IV>VC>SA>III>V

There's literally nothing wrong with that ranking.

 

[Goalus]

I hope there's a remaster or something.

I never did finish GTA4. I think I only got to the bowling part.

There is a remaster.
It's the original on Xbox Series/One X.

 

[Tomeru]

TIL pieces of shit have great character be ause reasons

 

[cormack12]

If GTA IV didn't have such divisive driving physics, would it be held in higher regard? Even above SA?

 

[Mediocre Arachno-Lad]

TIL pieces of shit have great character be ause reasons

Pieces of shit make for good characters in general.
Think of your faves and see how many of them are goody-two-shoes.

 

[GymWolf]

The accent mostly.

 

[Lukaku's First Touch]

I just need a decent graphics mod for the game that isn't 'everything is reflective like hell' . I got it on my pc ready to go but it looks so fugly.

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

GTAIV is the best GTA. Fight me.

Best storyline, best characters, best setting, and besides the driving the best gameplay. V is shit.

IV>VC>SA>III>V

Putting 3 above 5 is fucking retarded

 

[CaptainSlayAHo]

If GTA IV didn't have such divisive driving physics, would it be held in higher regard? Even above SA?

Not even close

 

[Hugare]

Oscar worthy story

But seriously, GTA IV is my favorite. It was peak Rockstar.

Amazing city, characters, story, writting, soundtrack ...

GTA V was a downgrade in so many aspects, specially the protagonists.

Niko was a terrible human being, but he was so likable. Compare him to Trevor, Franklin and Michael.

Michael fighting with Trevor during the whole game and being a terrible father and friend, Trevor being a caricature, Franklin being ... nothing at all.

 

[yamaci17]

one of my favorite gta games. niko is indeed legendary

 

[Miles708]

Comes to America from a war torn country to change his life and a few missions in he's murdering rival drug dealers for a drug dealer he just met.

Exactly. A couple missions in, and he's essentially a criminal yes-man for a different boss each mission.
How's that interesting.

 

[nominedomine]

To me what made GTAIV great was how fucking awesome that engine was, I can't even remember the story and I finished it at least twice.

 

[Stuart360]

Hated Niko at first. but grew to love him over the couse of the game. He's very well written, and acted. He's an arsehole and a hardened criminal, but also has a heart of gold, in certain circumstances anyway.
I'd take Niko over any of the 3 characters from 5.

 

[Tomeru]

Pieces of shit make for good characters in general.
Think of your faves and see how many of them are goody-two-shoes.

None are are criminal who trrafic humans I can tell you that.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

As a Serbian, I found Niko a bit of a strange character because they didn't specifically make him Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, he was a mixed bag off all of that. Back in the day when we were called Yugoslavia, yes we were all mixing but still distinctive accents/words from region to region. We never had someone that speaks all dialects at the same time and has a name that's specific for one nation but swear words that are spoken by another nation.

Felt like R* had some random immigrant friend that moved to the US 20 years ago and gave advice on what a Balkan person is.

 

[Soodanim]

Putting 3 above 5 is fucking retarded

Not who you quoted, but I'll choose 3 over 5 any day of the week, 5 is the only GTA that bored me too much to finish.

 

[sainraja]

I hope there's a remaster or something.

I never did finish GTA4. I think I only got to the bowling part.

I didn't either but it was because my PS3 died that had the save on it (I had just finished a very challenging mission too!) and I forgot to keep the HDD or make a copy of the HDD before sending it in.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Interesting character, tough characteristics, the other gangs were afraid of him and I don’t blame them.

 

[Unrivaledx88]

i wasnt the biggest fan of GTA4. my least favorite.

 

[ChiefDada]

Best GTA entry imo. I didn't think graphics could get any better at the time. Volumetric explosions were awesome.