Just started playing GTA IV on the Steam Deck after having it sitting in my Steam library for years. It’s really fun. I really like the protagonist, the setting, and it’s openness. It’s a bit more tame than GTA V which I have played as well and I prefer the more subdued tone.
Having been a fan since the very first game, I always found 4 to be the black sheep of the series. It’s tone is so far removed from every other GTA that if not for the gameplay being identical, it could have been something other than GTA. I am absolutely a fan of the more comic, over-the-top film genre love letters that the other games deliver. The goofier missions, the demented humor, even the god damn color palette is brighter and poppier in every GTA that isn’t 4.
That said, I didn’t dislike it at all. It’s got one of the best stories in a game. It makes you feel things other than anger and catharsis (IE anger at Tenpenny for being a bastard man, carthisis when you finally kill him). It’s deeper in that regard. The physics are also more realistic, and while I do appreciate this for the on-foot combat, GTA5 absolutely nails the balance between real and fun with vehicles so I find driving much less fun in 4.