Niko Bellic is one of the most well realised and three dimensional anti-heroes to have been brought to the medium of video games. Perhaps it is even unfair to define him as simply an anti-hero, as his relationships and motivations mark him out to be a spectacularly well written and engaging character, more akin to a three dimensional person than simply a form fitting character trope surrounded by bumbling fools like Roman and Co. The opening sequence of Grand Theft Auto IV is a memorable drive away from the container ship that brings Niko to the new world, as Niko outlines his desires for his new life and his motivation for coming to America to his cousin Roman. It's clear from what Niko says that he left the old country to escape the poverty and rampant crime, the bribes needed to be safe from the police, the corruption that infests every echelon of society. The American dream awaits, opportunity, hard work, prosperity and justice. Unfortunately it is somewhat of a deus ex machina that this will never come to pass. There is no possible way for the player to guide Niko away from a life of crime, no shop that Niko can work at the make his way in the world and slowly build up enough currency to afford a car, and an apartment, to avoid being pulled into the seedy underworld of Liberty City. It may have been a necessary lie on the part of Rockstar in order to properly lampoon and juxtapose the fallacy of the modern American Dream, but it is still stinging that Niko never had a chance to live his life the way he wanted. He was doomed from the very start, and we were duped along with him.
