GTA IV’s Time Capsule
This is a reprint of the Games essay from Issue #90 of Exploits, our collaborative cultural diary in magazine form. If you like what you see, buy it now for $2, or subscribe to never miss an issue (note: Exploits is always free for subscribers of Unwinnable Monthly).
———
The past few months have been a bit chaotic and for me, my coping mechanism has been retreating to the far-off world of 2008. The troubles of the Great Recession and the housing market collapse are nothing to worry about when you play as a Serbian soldier-turned-criminal who works his way through New York City’s – I mean, Liberty City’s – criminal underworld.
The world of Grand Theft Auto IV is one of stasis. And it’s a strange one. Internet cafes are still a mainstay, as well as the only way to access the in-game Internet (for the price of a dollar). Nobody carries a computer around in their pocket, and the fact that Niko Bellic can take pictures on his flip phone is a novelty. Dating websites are still the main form of online love and nobody talks about dating apps. Twitter has an equivalent in the form of Bleeter, but LifeInvader – GTA’s equivalent of Facebook – has yet to gain a presence.
Cash for clunkers has yet to take effect, so there’s still plenty of vintage, antique and plain old cars on the streets. Manhattan’s now-ubiquitous bike lanes are nowhere to be found.
It’s a simpler world. The Great Recession exists in-universe and is mentioned briefly in various throwaway lines, but Niko Bellic, being a killer for hire, never lacks for work or cash. He never worries about the housing market, as his rotating queue of bosses are quick to throw new housing to him once he’s done a few errands for them.
For me, the nostalgia is twofold. Firstly, I was a child in 2008, so for me it’s a return to a less complex world still seen through complex eyes. Secondly, I first played through GTA IV in 2020, during the early pandemic era, so I also get some weird nostalgia for lockdown and COVID – which even now looks like a simpler time.
That’s how it works. Time makes even recessions and pandemics look like quaint things of the past, to be looked back on with nostalgic wistfulness. GTA VI is just around the corner and someday, in twenty years, a whole new generation of gamers will look back on their days roaming Vice City with rose-tinted lenses as they reminisce on how simple the 2020s were compared to the insanity of the 2040s.
