Union Drive is a mission in Grand Theft Auto IV given to protagonist Niko Bellic by his fellow former army soldier Bernie Crane from his residence in Middle Park West, Algonquin, Liberty City.
Description
Niko arrives at Bernie's apartment to find him hysteric and on the phone with his love interest, Bryce Dawkins. When Bernie gets off the phone, he tells Niko that he and Bryce are being blackmailed by someone who knows about their "relationship" and asks Niko to help warn them off. Once the player obtains a vehicle, Bernie explains that the people that he and Niko are meeting are representatives of the blackmailers in Northwood. When the player reaches the rendezvous point, it is revealed that the group of blackmailers is working with Dimitri Rascalov and plan to take their story to Weazel News. The player must then chase the blackmailers down and eliminate them.
Mission Objectives
In order to complete the mission the player must:
- Find a car and pick up Bernie.
- Take Bernie to the rendezvous to meet with the blackmailers.
- Kill the blackmailers.
- Go to Bernie.
- Take Bernie back to his apartment.
Video Walkthrough
Trivia
- The name of the mission is double entendre referring to three seemingly unrelated topics. On one hand, the name references the nature of the mission: To drive in order to secure a "union" between lovers; another is that Dimitri Rascalov blackmails Bryce to obtain control of worker's union contracts; and on the other, it references the names of highways where much of the car chase in the mission occurs, Union Drive East and Union Drive West.
- A Turismo will spawn near Bernie's apartment after the mission cutscene, which will satisfy Bernie as an intimidating car.
- The mission is one of only a handful of occasions in the game when a Super GT with a unique paintjob is available to be taken, as it is the Russians' getaway vehicle. After they eventually crash, the car can easily be taken.
- Dimitri calls soon after this mission. He implies that the goal of his blackmail is to coerce Bryce Dawkins into approving corrupt contracts with the city that will make Dimitri some money, offers to "cut [Niko] in" if he helps persuade Dawkins to give into the blackmail, and also taunts Niko about being gay for hanging out with Bernie.
- When the player gets to the Castle Tunnel, a Police Cruiser will chase the hitmen, but will lose control and crash, prompting Niko to say something like "If all the police in the city weren't on the take, I'd feel sorry for that guy", "Damn, cops have a hard time, don't they?" or "I thought the police might do our job for us for a second. No such luck."
- Strangely, the police officer that chases the goons does not turn on his sirens. This is a simple programming error, present in other missions such as To Live and Die in Alderney and can be observed when police officers chase NPC suspects in vehicles outside of missions.
- If the player shoots the scripted Police Cruiser during the chase, Niko will attain a wanted level as usual, but no more police will be alerted, and the officers won't fight back, because the chase has been pre-written.
