Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend is the final mission for the McReary Family in Grand Theft Auto IV. In this mission, Niko Bellic and Packie McReary arrange a deal on Charge Island to exchange their hostage, Gracie Ancelotti, for a ransom of diamonds. The mission later appears through Luis Lopez's point of view in Ladies Half Price.
Description
Niko meets Packie and Gracie in a car on Frankfort Avenue in Northwood. The trio head to the Charge Island Sewage Works, and once there, they meet Tony Prince and Luis Lopez. Niko and Packie offer to give Gracie back to her family in exchange for diamonds that Luis stole in an earlier incident. While Gracie is successfully returned to her family, the deal is interrupted by Ray Bulgarin, whose men temporarily steal the diamonds. Niko and Packie engage in a prolonged gunfight, but the man with the diamonds throws them onto a passing dump truck out of spite, trusting neither Bulgarin nor Niko and Packie to let him live. Packie kills him, and he and Niko lament that they have no ransom and no reward as they head back to Packie's Ma's house.
Mission Objectives
In order to complete the mission the player must:
- Go to Packie's car in Northwood
- Drive to the Charge Island Sewage Works
- Go around the back to the exchange point
- Take out Bulgarin's men
- Make your way across to the walkway
- Take down the reinforcements
- Take out the last of Bulgarin's men
- Follow Packie
- Take Packie back to his Ma's house in Dukes
Walkthrough
Head over to the safehouse on Frankfort Avenue in Northwood. Packie and Gracie are waiting for you in the car. Hop in and drive to the Charge Island Sewage Works.
Drive into the yellow marker at the exchange point, which is an abandoned oil factory. A cutscene shows the deal. The deal becomes botched when Ray Bulgarin steals the diamonds and Luis Fernando Lopez and Anthony Prince escape with Gracie, so basically Packie and Niko lose everything.
Gain cover and shoot Bulgarin's men. There are about a dozen, so take your time. Use a grenade only when Packie is far from the detonation point. Once the nearby men have been wiped out, get closer and ambush the remaining ones. Follow Packie to the hallways above ground. There will be a lot of men on the aboveground hallways so use the pipes as cover.
Packie and Niko will split up with Niko taking the "low road" and Packie taking the "high road." The view will focus on three cars that skid on the ground nearby; use a rocket launcher or a few grenades and blow up the cars before the men can spread out and cause trouble.
Meet back up with Packie and corner the two men with the diamonds. Watch as the men drop the diamonds into a moving Biff dump truck below. Packie curses and draws his gun; help Packie kill the men, then slide down the ladder. Drive Packie to his Mom's house in Meadows Park, Dukes. On the way, Packie will lament the failure of their plan.
Video Walkthrough
After the Mission
On the radio and in The Liberty Tree an article mentions a poor man living in the garbage finding a bag of diamonds, and becomes rich. The man said he was going to Vice City to open a weapons business. However this is ret-conned in The Ballad of Gay Tony where in an updated version of the story states that he found them in the trash in Meadows Park (as seen in the closing cutscene of the mission Departure Time) in Luis' side of the story.
Gallery
Trivia
- It is possible to follow Packie when Niko and him take different paths in search for the diamonds, so the player will only have to defend themselves.
- If Niko wears a hat in this mission, it will be removed during the cutscene, and following the cutscene, Niko will have it back on. This doesn't happen if Niko is wearing the balaclava.
- In GTA IV, Luis speaks with a more Dominican accent, while he speaks with less of an accent in TBoGT.
- Tony's glasses and haircut change between this mission and Ladies Half Price; he has tapered sides and wears blacked out sunglasses in this mission and becomes black and purple glasses and a full head of hair in Ladies Half Price. Also, Luis' face is less detailed in GTA IV and looks skinnier, while Gracie wears a long coat with a belt on in GTA IV, but in TBoGT she wears a striped shirt along with an open leather jacket. In addition, the shootout starts earlier in TBoGT rather than GTA IV. This is likely a developer's oversight.
- In Ray Bulgarin's cutscene appearance, his goons are carrying AK-47s. Although, the sound of the shots against Packie and Niko is never heard with any weapon in the game. it is possible that it was the sound of AK-47's shots before the game is released.
- If Ray Boccino has not been killed yet, Niko will automatically call him upon completion of this mission. Niko will mention that a "serious Russian" he knows claims that the diamonds belonged to him as well, and also informs Boccino of the diamond's likely destination.
- If Pest Control is completed before this mission, the dialogue will change. Also Niko will tell Packie that he has intentions of going after Ray Bulgarin, Packie says that it ain't gonna come true, foreshadowing the mission Departure Time, where Bulgarin is killed by Luis.
- After the diamonds are thrown into a Biff, you can see the Biff driving down the freeway overpass, albeit without the diamonds.
- Dimitri Rascalov will call soon after this mission to accuse Niko for stealing off Bulgarin a second time. It appears Dimitri knew about the deal and informed Bulgarin which is what led him there, and thus Dimitri is the reason why the deal went sour. Dimitri also says he went to where the deal took place, only to find Niko's body not with the others, to his disappointment.
- After the diamonds are dropped into the Biff, most of the cars on the streets of Liberty City are Biffs (they can spawn in any variant) until the mission ends.
- Niko's line when Bulgarin's last surviving henchman drops it into the Biff ("fucked up, as usual" in Serbian) is the same line that Niko said in the introduction of The Lost and Damned.
- The mission has the same name of Marilyn Monroe's song in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
- It is revealed in TBoGT that Niko used a Carbine Rifle during this mission.
- A dark green Vincent is used during this mission. But in Ladies Half Price, the car is black instead, but you can still see it with black rims.
- Even though the man who drops the diamonds off the catwalk is supposed to be one of Bulgarin's men, he speaks with a distinct Italian-American accent. However, this may be because he is simply a hired gun, not a full member of Bulgarin's organization.
- This mission along with She's a Keeper and Ransom can be done even after That Special Someone but only if the player has completed the following missions: Pest Control, Buoys Ahoy, Liquidize the Assets and Weekend at Florian's despite this mission taking place before That Special Someone.
