Is GTA IV Still Worth Playing in 2026? Why Niko Bellic's Liberty City Holds Up Before GTA 6

With Grand Theft Auto VI landing on November 19, the whole series is getting a second look. San Andreas gets the nostalgia and GTA V gets the sales records, but the game that quietly shaped modern Rockstar is Grand Theft Auto IV. It traded jetpacks and cartoon chaos for a grim immigrant story, heavy cars and a city that felt more real than anything the studio had built before.

It's also the hardest mainline GTA to play legally today. Here's what made it special, how it holds up 18 years later and where you can still pick it up.

A brief history

GTA IV launched worldwide on April 29, 2008, for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with the PC version following in December 2008. Developed by Rockstar North on the then-new Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), it reportedly cost more than $100 million to make – a staggering budget at the time.

It paid off immediately. GTA IV took about $310 million on day one and $500 million in its first week, making it the fastest-selling entertainment product in history at that point. It went on to pass 25 million copies by 2013 and picked up Game of the Year awards from several major publications.

In 2009, Rockstar added two full expansions: The Lost and Damned, starring biker Johnny Klebitz, and The Ballad of Gay Tony, starring bodyguard Luis Lopez. Both stories weave in and out of the main campaign, and they were bundled as Episodes from Liberty City on October 29, 2009, for Xbox 360, then on PS3 and PC in April 2010.

What made it special

Niko Bellic. You play an Eastern European war veteran, voiced by Michael Hollick, who arrives in America chasing the dream his cousin Roman keeps bragging about. The dream turns out to be a cramped apartment, a struggling taxi business and a pile of gambling debts. Niko is tired, funny, haunted and morally conflicted, and the story keeps asking whether he can ever stop being the man the war made him. It's still one of the best-written leads in the series.

Liberty City. Rockstar's take on New York City is split into boroughs modeled on Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, plus Alderney standing in for New Jersey. The team reportedly shot more than 100,000 reference photos, and it shows: the steam vents, elevated trains, packed sidewalks and grubby side streets give the city a density that later, bigger maps rarely match.

Physics with weight. GTA IV used NaturalMotion's Euphoria animation tech, so people stumble, brace against falls and react to hits instead of playing canned animations. Cars feel heavy, lean in corners and crumple convincingly. Getting knocked off a motorbike or shoving through a crowd is still uniquely satisfying – many players think nothing in the series has topped it.

A story with consequences. Late in the campaign, Niko faces a choice between a deal and revenge, and the two paths lead to different endings with very different losses. Smaller decisions along the way – who lives, who dies – add to the sense that this is Niko's story rather than a string of jobs.

The little life sim. Niko's cellphone ties everything together. Friends call to go bowling, play darts or grab a drink, and hanging out raises their respect, which unlocks perks. Internet cafés, in-game TV shows and sharp talk radio round out one of the series' best satires of American life. (Yes, Roman really does call about bowling a lot.)

How it holds up today

The atmosphere and writing are as strong as ever. Liberty City's gray, rain-slicked mood looks dated in raw resolution, but its art direction and sheer detail still impress. The heavy driving takes an hour or two to click; once it does, it's more rewarding than the arcade handling of later games.

The rough spots are real. Missions follow a familiar "drive, chase, shoot" loop, the cover shooting feels stiff next to modern shooters, and the friend calls can feel like chores. Checkpoints are sparse by today's standards. Console versions also run at a modest resolution and frame rate on modern hardware because they're the original Xbox 360 and PS3 builds.

If you can accept those limits, GTA IV offers something its successors don't: a smaller, angrier, more personal crime story, and the best-feeling physical world Rockstar made before Red Dead Redemption 2.

How to play GTA IV in 2026

There is no remaster and no official PS4, PS5 or Switch version. Neither Rockstar nor Take-Two has announced one, and the "PS5 port" headlines from earlier this year referred to an unofficial hack on modified consoles. Here are your legitimate options:

A few things worth knowing:

• The Complete Edition is single-player only. The March 2020 update replaced the old Games for Windows Live version, added achievements and requires the Rockstar Games Launcher, but it removed the original 32-player multiplayer and leaderboards.
• PC players should look at FusionFix. The free fan-made mod fixes many of the long-standing bugs and technical problems of the PC port, and it supports both the Complete Edition and older retail versions. It's unofficial, so install it at your own risk.
• Xbox is the easiest console route. The 360 version runs on Xbox One and Series X|S, and the expansions are available through backward compatibility too.

Is it worth playing?

Yes – especially in the run-up to GTA 6. GTA IV is the moment Rockstar shifted from playful excess toward the grounded, character-driven storytelling that defined GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2. Start the main story, then play The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony to see the same city through three very different sets of eyes. Just take Roman up on that bowling invite at least once.