March 31st, 2008

GTA4 Story Missions take 40 hours to complete

Published at 10:00 PM PST

Awhile back you'll remember that VideoGamer ask some questions of Rockstar we had yet even considered, such as how long Grand Theft Auto IV would take to complete. A Rockstar Games spokesman said in answer to that:

"If you're not in a rush and you answer the phone when it rings it'll take about 100 hours to complete,"

At this time we knew nothing of a multiplayer side to the game, so you may be thinking, that now included, does the time taken to complete GTA4 change? Well, no, Grand Theft Auto 4 games testers have apparently played the entire single player / story missions part of the game and one of Rockstar's most prized developers, Jeronimo Barrerra had this to say:

"It takes testers playing 4 hours a day, a good 2 weeks to get through the whole single-player game."

Which, if my mathematics is right, means it takes exactly 40 hours to complete the story missions of the game. That is excluding weekends (so 4 hours for 10 days, not 14 days), that is a spectacular accomplishment, now consider these testers are probably GTA pros, as I would imagine they'd have tested past games for Rockstar.

So thats the single player story missions, 40 hours, that leaves 60 hours of additional game play if the 100 hours statistic was correct. It's unknown if multiplayer will be counted as actual "game play" and add towards game completion, or if it will just be like it was in San Andreas, added fun and enjoyment. Considering that, the side-missions and no doubt yet to be known about extras will fill the gap.

Shaping up to be a fantastic little kettle of joy this game, the more and more we read, the more and more we want. With 100 hours of game play, I can see us all becoming a little anti-social for awhile after April 29th. Can't barely wait!

Kudos to QJ.net for the update.