Is GTA IV Still Worth Playing in 2026? Rockstar’s Best Crime Story Still Has One Huge Problem
- Niels Gys
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Is Grand Theft Auto IV Still Worth Playing, Or Is Rockstar’s Greatest Crime Story Just Beautifully Broken?
Quick Verdict: Yes. Absolutely.
If you can tolerate some PC nonsense, Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition is still one of Rockstar’s best games and arguably the strongest crime story they’ve ever made. The world feels grimy, dangerous, believable, and gloriously corrupt. The downside? The PC version still behaves like it occasionally wakes up angry for no obvious reason.
TL;DR Verdict:
✅ Worth buying in 2026
✅ Incredible story and atmosphere
✅ Three criminal campaigns in one package
✅ Legendary bank robbery mission
❌ PC optimization still occasionally behaves like it lost custody of itself
❌ Missing multiplayer and some music due to licensing
Final Score: 9.2/10
Sentence: Guilty of being Rockstar’s best crime drama while simultaneously committing minor war crimes against PC optimization.
If Liberty City’s criminal circus has you hooked, wait until you see what happened when Rockstar gave psychopaths a private island and a submarine. Our GTA Online Weekly Update tracks the fastest money methods, the scams actually worth your time, and which businesses deserve your cash instead of setting it on fire in a decorative pile.
Is GTA IV Still Worth Playing in 2026?
Let’s not waste time.
Yes, GTA IV is still worth playing in 2026.
In fact, if you somehow skipped it because GTA V swallowed the oxygen in the room for thirteen geological eras, now is the perfect time.
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition bundles together:
Grand Theft Auto IV
The Lost and Damned
The Ballad of Gay Tony
Meaning you’re effectively getting three criminal stories stitched together into one giant Liberty City underworld opera, where everyone lies, everyone wants money, and nearly every problem can somehow be solved with either intimidation, gunfire, or driving extremely aggressively through traffic.
It still holds up.
Not because nostalgia is doing gymnastics.
Because Liberty City still feels alive.
And angry.
And slightly damp.
Like New York after somebody punched it in the kidneys.
What Is GTA IV: The Complete Edition?
If you're wondering whether GTA IV: The Complete Edition is just the base game with a lazy DLC sticker slapped on top, good news.
It isn’t.
You get:
Grand Theft Auto IV
The main story following Niko Bellic, an immigrant ex-soldier dragged into organized crime while chasing revenge, money, and a version of the American Dream that turns out to be mostly debt and emotional damage.
The Lost and Damned
A biker-gang expansion starring Johnny Klebitz, where loyalty collapses faster than a supermarket lawn chair in a hurricane.
The Ballad of Gay Tony
A nightclub crime story starring Luis Lopez, bodyguard, fixer, occasional disaster-management expert, and reluctant babysitter for wealthy idiots with catastrophic impulse control.
Together, they create one of Rockstar’s smartest ideas:
Three criminals. One city. One connected criminal ecosystem.
The same deals, betrayals, and disasters overlap from different perspectives.
It feels less like DLC and more like watching the criminal underworld through three different dirty windows.
The Best Thing About GTA IV? Crime Actually Feels Serious
This is where GTA IV still wipes the floor with a lot of modern open worlds.
Crime in GTA IV feels dangerous.
Not goofy.
Not consequence-free.
Not “lol random chaos.”
Dangerous.
You steal cars because you need them.
You work for mobsters because survival demands it.
You murder people because Liberty City runs on violence the way normal cities run on coffee.
You’re not collecting shiny hero points.
You’re surviving inside an ecosystem built entirely on corruption.
The game lets you:
Steal vehicles
Perform mob jobs
Assassinate targets
Work for gangsters
Evade police
Engage in drive-bys
Participate in biker gang wars
Run nightclub criminal operations
Pull off one of Rockstar’s greatest bank robbery missions ever
And unlike many modern sandboxes where NPCs feel like cardboard waiting for animations to happen, Liberty City fights back.
Police escalate.
Traffic turns into chaos.
Pedestrians panic.
Car crashes feel heavy enough to rearrange your spine.
Every chase feels one bad turn away from absolute catastrophe.
Sometimes by accident.
Sometimes because Niko decided sidewalks are merely enthusiastic suggestions.
Does GTA IV Have Heists?
Yes. But don’t expect GTA Online-style robbery systems.
There are no elaborate planning boards.
No crew management.
No replayable million-dollar robberies.
No Lester standing in a warehouse explaining basic mathematics like a disappointed substitute teacher.
Instead, GTA IV gives you quality over quantity.
Specifically:
Three Leaf Clover
The Bank Robbery That Walked So GTA V Could Sprint
If you remember one mission from GTA IV, it’s probably this.
A bank robbery involving the McReary family spirals into one of Rockstar’s most chaotic police escapes ever created.
The streets erupt.
Cops swarm everywhere.
Bullets fly.
Subway tunnels become escape routes.
Liberty City basically has a nervous breakdown.
Even now, Three Leaf Clover remains one of the greatest heist missions Rockstar ever designed.
The frustrating part?
GTA IV never fully builds on it.
It gives you one incredible robbery, then says:
“Anyway, back to emotionally unstable mobsters asking for favors.”
Still brilliant.
Just not a full-blown heist sandbox.
Want the criminal briefing before everyone else? This Week in Crime is our underground report on broken updates, villain-worthy games, stupid industry decisions, secret money methods, and the occasional gaming catastrophe dressed up as a feature. Join the operation before another developer invents a battle pass nobody asked for.
Niko Bellic Is Still Rockstar’s Best Protagonist
Yes, I said it.
Come at me.
Michael is great.
Trevor is entertaining chaos wearing cargo shorts.
Arthur Morgan is phenomenal.
But Niko Bellic still feels the most human.
He’s funny without trying.
Dangerous without showing off.
Haunted without becoming melodramatic.
He arrives in Liberty City expecting wealth and opportunity, only to discover his cousin Roman has essentially sold him the world’s saddest travel brochure.
Instead of luxury?
Debt.
Gangsters.
Russian mobsters.
Dirty apartments.
And enough betrayal to make a daytime soap opera feel emotionally restrained.
Niko isn’t a superhero.
He’s exhausted.
A deeply damaged man who keeps trying to walk away from violence while also being spectacularly good at violence.
Which is admittedly not ideal.
The Three Stories Ranked
1. Grand Theft Auto IV (Niko Bellic)
Still the strongest overall campaign.
Dark.
Funny.
Bleak.
Emotional.
One of Rockstar’s best-written stories.
2. The Ballad of Gay Tony
The most fun.
Bigger missions.
Nightclubs.
Diamonds.
Luxury chaos.
Parachutes.
Ridiculous excess.
This expansion feels like GTA IV discovered energy drinks.
3. The Lost and Damned
Still excellent, but the grimmest.
Biker politics.
Gang loyalty.
Violence.
Meth-fueled bad decisions.
Imagine Sons of Anarchy after three consecutive terrible ideas.
Good story.
Just significantly less fun than Gay Tony.
The One Massive Problem: GTA IV On PC Is Still Weird
Now for the ugly bit.
The PC port is still messy.
Better than the old Games for Windows Live disaster? Absolutely.
Perfect? Not even remotely.
Even modern hardware occasionally struggles with weird frame pacing, inconsistent performance, stutters, and strange behavior.
Which is baffling because this game came out in 2008.
A toaster should be able to run it.
Instead, GTA IV occasionally behaves like an elderly racehorse with trust issues.
Things you should know:
Multiplayer is gone.
The Complete Edition removed online multiplayer.
Some music changed or disappeared.
Licensing agreements expired, meaning some radio stations no longer sound exactly like launch-era GTA IV.
Community fixes help.
Many players improve performance using modern fixes, tweaks, or framerate caps.
Our recommendation?
Cap the game at 60 FPS and spend ten minutes fixing settings before playing.
Treat GTA IV like owning a classic muscle car.
Magnificent.
Iconic.
Occasionally alarming.
What Aged Brilliantly
Liberty City
Still Rockstar’s best city.
Smaller than GTA V’s map.
Far denser.
Far more believable.
Every borough feels distinct.
Every alley feels suspicious.
Every taxi driver feels two unpaid bills away from becoming a criminal enterprise.
Physics
Cars feel heavy.
Gunfights feel dangerous.
Euphoria ragdoll physics still create moments of accidental comedy no scripted system can fake.
A simple crash can become slapstick tragedy.
Atmosphere
Nobody does urban decay like GTA IV.
The city feels exhausted.
Cold.
Corrupt.
Alive.
This is not sunny influencer Los Santos.
This is capitalism after a hangover.
What Aged Poorly
Mission Structure
Rockstar had a habit in this era:
Drive somewhere.
Listen to conversation.
Shoot men.
Drive away.
Repeat.
The writing saves it, but mission variety occasionally feels limited.
Driving
Some people love the heavier handling.
Others drive for ten minutes and briefly consider walking instead.
Cars feel realistic.
Which also means sometimes they corner like furniture.
PC Stability
Still the biggest frustration.
A game this legendary deserves better treatment.
Should You Buy GTA IV: The Complete Edition In 2026?
Yes.
Without hesitation.
If you love:
Crime stories
Mafia fiction
Organized crime
Urban open worlds
Character-driven writing
Bank robberies
Dark comedy
Rockstar games
Then GTA IV remains essential.
Even with the technical headaches.
Because underneath the occasional stutter lies one of the greatest crime sandboxes ever built.
Not the biggest.
Not the flashiest.
But arguably the most believable.
GTA IV understands something many crime games forget:
Crime is not glamorous.
It is messy.
Desperate.
Violent.
Occasionally ridiculous.
Usually expensive.
And in Liberty City, it always arrives with someone shouting in a terrible mood.
If this review saved you from buying digital disappointment or convinced you to revisit Liberty City like a responsible criminal, you can toss a few coins into the getaway van on Ko-fi. It keeps CRIMENET alive, caffeinated, and dangerously capable of spending unhealthy amounts of time exposing gaming nonsense.
Verdict
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition is still worth playing in 2026.
The story is exceptional.
Niko Bellic remains one of Rockstar’s best protagonists.
Liberty City still feels alive.
The criminal fantasy still works.
And Three Leaf Clover alone deserves to be studied by anyone making heist games.
The PC version may occasionally behave like it was assembled by exhausted engineers during a power outage, but once you get past that?
You’re left with one of the finest crime stories gaming has ever produced.
Charge Sheet:
Guilty of setting an absurdly high standard for criminal storytelling.
Also guilty of making players troubleshoot a 2008 game in 2026 like digital archaeologists.
