GTA 4’s story is “very dark” because Rockstar’s co-founder felt “single and miserable” when creating it

The fourth installment of Grand Theft Auto has such a dark story because one of the studio’s co-founders, Dan Houser, had the same feeling.

?What do you think of GTA IV? THE story of Niko Bellic had your start on PS3 and Xbox 360 with a much darker setting than others like Vice City or San Andreas. But why?

Since we didn’t say that, a former developer thought it was too dark and Niko almost died. But the problem was not Cousin of Romanobut Dan Houser’s life at that time.

We all agree that there was a big leap from this to GTA V to give the saga another focus, as Rockstar couldn’t continue like this; and thank God.

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Thanks, once again, to the podcast interview with Lex Fridman, the co-founder of Rockstar and main GTA 4 screenwriter answered the question about why was Niko’s litter box so dark.

“I had lived in New York for years and wasn’t sure I would be happy.“Houser said openly when remembering the stage where wrote the story and world of Grand Theft Auto 4.

“He was going through a lot of personal problems, as always. I recently rewatched some GTA 4 and it’s so dark I thought ‘Oh, that’s why.’ I was single and unhappy and wasn’t sure I wanted to stay in America.” he continued saying.

“My life was very unstable… As a company, we had that whole drama thing with Hot Coffee, so we were constantly thinking that they might shut us down in the middle of GTA 4 development.“.

For those who don’t know, he was referring to a controversial mode for GTA: San Andreas where you could take CJ through a sex minigame to get intimate with the game’s girlfriends.

It was a big scandal for the studio and they removed it from stores, until Rockstar spoke out and released a new version that restricted the minigame and gave it a new rating.

The story of GTA 4 was so “dark” by the co-founder of Rockstar

“After having had this sequence of success and a certain personal stability with GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas, life suddenly became quite uncertain” Houser then commented.

Summing up, I wanted to add at the end that all the fuss “leaked” in GTA 4 and gave us a delivery that, to this day, still seems to many as if it belonged to another franchise.

?Do you think GTA 4’s story is as dark as it seems thanks to moments from Dan Houser’s life?

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