I’m planning to possibly write something a bit longer about Grand Theft Auto V in the coming week, so I’m really looking to hear your thoughts on the game in this week’s Community Review.
I’ve only put in about three hours so far, so I’m loathe to make any judgements yet. Grand Theft Auto games typically start slow. It doesn’t truly come alive until you’ve gotten a full sense for the world and its possibilities.
I would say, however, that (so far) the writing seems a step below what we saw in Grand Theft Auto IV and particularly Red Dead Redemption. I might be wearing the rose-tinted glasses, but the last third of Red Dead Redemption set a new high point for Rockstar in that regard. I don’t know if GTA V is going to match it.
But in terms of world building? Grand Theft Auto V already seems to have raised its own bar — and I say this having done minimal exploration. It just feels more alive and more vibrant than any video game world I’ve explored to this point, and that’s a feeling you get instantly. I’ve found myself wondering if I’ll actually have the time to explore it properly. I hope I will.
I’m keen to hear your thoughts. I always take the early first reviews of Grand Theft Auto V with a pinch of salt. Of course Rockstar’s games are, — from a production perspective — absolutely world class but I think the proof is always in how the games are remembered in the long term by fans of the series. How are you all enjoying it so far?
Comments
86 responses to “Community Review: Grand Theft Auto V”
I like the world and the mechanics, though I don’t care for Trevor yet
What he did to Johnny Klebitz put me instantly offside, and since then he’s done nothing but bully peopleI don’t think the satire is as sharp in this one as it has been in previous ones (it’s never been the height of satire, but many of the targets here are particularly low-hanging).
I need to do more in the wilderness, which I love- I dirt biked to the top of mount Chiliad yesterday, which was fun. Can’t wait for online, and I do love the heists and the prep missions
Are you kidding me, in my opinion Trevor is the best of the three by far.
I agree.. I find Trevor to be the most enjoyable of the three to play because he is deranged. When I play this game, I get into the characters. For example, with driving when I am playing as Franklin I drive carefully (fast but careful) making sure to not hit anyone, using my special ability to make 90 degree turns at speed.. he’s a racer at heart etc.. so I get into his character in that way.. but with Trevor.. lol… I get to have a lot of fun.. if I see a deer on the side of the road, I will swerve (usually with detrimental consequences) to hit that thing..
Trevor is the new element of GTA5. Franklin is essentially the extension of San Andrea (Grove street etc), Michael is essentially an extension of Vice City (leisure suits, fast cars, fast women, a little overweight from all the excess etc).. Trevor is something new.
I think that’s a great, accurate way to put it. Michael is the embodiment of VC, Franklin is SA and Trevors the new, unbound, unbridled craziness we’ve been missing all this time. The crazy as shit element.
Almost like a modern version of one of Red Deads Characters.
Yep absolutely. I would definitely say Trevor is a modern day version of a few of those lol
I wouldn’t say it has been missing, just that we have lacked a playable character that is defined by it. I admit over the years, the crazier aspects of the characters have been less obvious from the need to tell an engaging story, and I think Trevor’s character is a throwback to the earlier days with the return of Kill Frenzy/Rampage missions for him alone. Even Michael shows signs of highly volatile rage which makes his character mixed in with the modern family somewhat scarier than Trevor for me who makes me laugh more than anything.
Indeed, the thing is though, I don’t think Trevor would work properly as a character by himself in a GTA as well as he does as part of a group. The balancing act here is great, the craziness is balanced by Michaels hidden volatility and Franklins naive nature yet surprising maturity in comparison to the other two.
I don’t find him sympathetic at all.
But that’s the whole point to him, he’s just psycho.
You either haven’t played through it far enough yet or you overlooked one crucial part of his story.
Perhaps, but I’m a fair way through and don’t enjoy switching to him as much as the other two.
Well that’s what is so great about having 3 of them! 🙂
I can’t say anymore without spoilers but he does have a heart.
For sure. He’s the most interesting and ‘complex’ character of the lot. Michael has identity issues and Franklin is pretty darn boring.
Trevor definitely grows on ya. I find him hilarious and always look forward to what sort of situations he is in when you switch to him. Its funny how when I control him, I’m just compelled to cause havoc but not so much with Michael and Franklin.
My only real complaint with this game (and it’s something that affects the majority of contemporary games) is the lack of quality acting/character development. A lot of games get the nuts and bolts of the game perfect, but completely fuck it up with the low quality characters and acting. In the past, we’ve had great characters like Tommy, CJ, Niko, Luis, but we’ve also a lot of terrible ones like Yusif Amir. For me, this time around, most of the personalities I’ve encountered were terrible ones like Yusif. I’m not sure if this is an attempt at a ‘satirical’ take on LA types and Californians in general, but it plays out as sloppy and badly written. In fact, most of the ‘satire’ has become increasingly ham-fisted and mediocre to me, particularly in the radio stations. Compare something like K-Boom 108 from Saint’s Row 1 with any of the GTA style radio dialogue since SA, and the GTA stuff seems so crass and utterly ridiculous, like something a 13yr old would find hilarious. But, that’s just me, other players might dig it, and good for them– different strokes for different folks and all that.
As for the main characters, Michael, Franklin are fine, they’re intriguing, somewhat relatable and captivating to follow, but I thought Trevor was an utter dick from his opening scene. I thought he would grow on me, and he did for a time, particularly when he showed himself to be more than a one dimensional character:
Particularly with the Mexican gangster’s wife. It was slightly clichéd, but it showed he was more than some redneck psychopath. But what undid it all for me was the entire scenario with Floyd and Debra and how it was attempted to be presented in a somewhat, ‘humorous’ way. I dunno, I just thought the whole scenario was a dumb, crass, unfunny resolution as was the way he simply decides to take the strip club as his own.
…so for me, after that, he has no redeemable qualities for me and if there’s a chance I can get rid of him, and his douchebag buddies, especially Wade (there’s a mercy killing needed if I’ve ever seen one!) I’ll do so without hesitation.
It’s a fantastic game, a great evolution of the HD series with some great new features (quicksave on your mobile– godsend!!), and once there’s patch that’ll fix my stock exchanges, I’ll be even happier with it, but my only real gripe is to do something about the shittier characters. They really detract from the experience for me.
Fuck Gunnie, sorry! That was meant to go at the bottom of the page.
Haha, all good.
I like switching to him and seeing him in his jocks, passed out in the middle of the desert or someones backyard surrounded by beer bottles or other passed out people.
yeh, I switched to him and he was in his jocks at the beach, staring creepily at a couple sun bathing. I then did a mission and he was still in his jocks piloting a helicopter.. classic Trevor!
I switched to him passed on a train line as a train approached. Silly T.
I have the same disdain for Trevor due to that incident. TLAD was my favourite DLC for GTAIV. That said, Trevor’s actions have dramatically changed the way I play him.
No matter how much I try, I constantly play the hero. All my ME games I was a Paragon, Skyrim I was the honorable anti-hero, Fallout I could never screw someone over. But because GTAV has three characters, and due to Trevor’s actions; this is the most villainous I have even been in a video game.
I reckon R* planned this. They knew that Trevor doing what he did would leave him with a terrible opinion by gamers. As a result, we are no longer apprehensive about playing him as psychotic as he should be played! 😉
Yeh.. it was pretty brutal.. and even the more controversial later mission where he has to
torture a guy(do some bad stuff)He doesn’t come across as evil as that one moment in the beginning of game with Jonny.
Trevor is the base desires and visceral thrills of the id, Franklin is the ego, while Micheal has some insight in to his behaviour due to therapy and has some self actualisation represents the super ego, He knows he is coming of the rails.
Franklin is therefore the the most boring character, middle of the road, every time I switch to him he is just chilling at his crib in the Vinewood hills smoking a bong or vegging out watching TV.
Yeah, I switched to Franklin once and he was ironing clothes. Trevor on the other hand is always entertaining. His are the funniest “switching” moments. Like I switched to him once and he was
taking a shit behind a dumpster.I busted him
Eating trash from a dumpster, the funniest/most disgusting thing about that was he was dressed in a sharp suit with over $100k in his bank account 🙂I feel genuinely sorry for the people who know Trevor, another time I switched to him
and he was spooning Floyd, who was dressed in pink pyjamas, on his bed while the poor bastard was sobbing gently mourning the loss of his teddy bear (who Trevor had fvcked in the eye earlier) and most likely (but never shown or talked about) trying to recover from the rape that had been perpetrated on him, there was an axe in his door, the apartment was trashed with holes punched in the walls, trash, blood, sh!t and graffiti everywhere. The whole time I was exploring this carnage Floyd wouldn’t stop sobbing, I just wanted to end the poor guy’s miseryThe whole situation was deeply disturbing even more so than the torture mission.
That aside, the game is brilliant.
Haha.. yeh.. those are good but disturbing memories of Trevor’s part in this game 🙂 Made me chuckle 🙂
Poor Mr. Raspberry Jam. lolIf they wanted to introduce Trevor that way, fine. But I did not like how it was at the expense of one of my favourite characters in the franchise. If it was someone else, or if it didn’t kill him and was only enough to scare him away, then I wouldn’t have had that much of a problem with it.
Agreed. i thought Johnny was sympathetic and likeable, and the first thing you see is him dying violently and triviallyI also loved his journey through the DLC. Which says a lot as many people view DLC as just weapon skins. But his story is a look into poisonous relationships, friendships and what it means to be loyal. How his loyalty and old friendship caused nothing but trouble when his old boss came back and the eventual spiral of truth of leaving it all behind for his own benfit as a person.
In a way I could relate to him as I eventually decided to stop hanging out with my old highschool friends due to their poisonous and negative attitude towards me, as well as constantly taking advantage of my good nature.
There’s also the fact that despite being part of DLC, he’s also a main character and nobody wants to see a main character thrown off the franchise so easily.
I wonder if your reaction to Trevor is due to the fact that the particular scene in your spoiler happened during a cutscene and was out of your control. You do some truly violent and heinous things in this game yet that particular scene with Trevor was one of the only shocking scenes to me as I had no control over stopping it or controlling it.
Awful game. 0/10.
Pc?
Nah, just figured I would troll so badly it would be seen as being ironic.
Two words, AWESOME SAUCE!
I haven’t spent buckets of time with it yet but it’s probably one of the best looking games I’ve seen on this generation of consoles.
It does indeed look pretty damn good. I still marvel at the awesome sunsets this game has to offer.
The driving is a big step away from the realism from GTA IV and that’s a good thing. The gameworld is amazing though. Previous games, GTA and non-GTA alike, have only hinted at what Los Santos is like. For years in reviews you read ‘you feel like the world continues on with or without you’. Well in GTA V you actually get that sense.
Character development is a bit off compared to previous games though. With 3 protagonists it would always be hard to give them equal screen time, but I feel that
this is really Michael’s story that you can also view from Trevor and Franklin’s point of view and therefore Michael’s character is explored more(that might change, I’m only 20% through). That’s only nitpicking though. The game itself is largely living up to expectations, only give us more to do up in the North of the map.I remember reading after the GTA IV games that they felt they took too long developing TBOGT and TLATD and that they’ll work on bringing out new content quicker for GTA V.
Clocked in about 30 hours so far across the three characters and I’ve got maybe 6ish missions to go. Despite the occasional texture pop or slight drop in the frame rate, the amount of world building that’s gone into the game is crazy awesome.
The driving’s a whole lot better than GTA4 … flying’s about the same, although the camera while flying takes a while to get used to.
Mission checkpoints are the things of gods, especially if you’re pretty horrible like me.
Having the three different characters gives you some interesting play choices. Personally I play each character differently. Michael is the try to be stealthy and completely screw it up so it’s silenced shotguns all the time during missions, in the off time he partakes in Yoga and I haven’t really taken him out of the city. Franklin is my default and probably how I’m going to approach online, investing heavily in the stocks, riding around on a bike called lola and generally just cruising around in the off time. Trevor is an interesting one, he’s the guy I change to when I just want to uppercut a hooker while wearing a floral dress and work boots. He is the character that could be a tame Saints Row. During the first half of the game he’s the one that would chase down a guy for denting his car, run them off a mountain, shoot them, lead a trail of petrol from the car and ignite the trail with a grenade launcher … then he got a taser and he’s become surprisingly less lethal outside of missions.
I can definitely see myself putting in another weeks worth of play to finish off the missions and just try all the other stuff before gta online comes out … then the fun begins
I’m about halfway into the game, but so far it has met and exceeded my expectations.
I can’t say too much without spoilers but let’s just say that I have plowed over 15 hours (probably closer to 20) into the game already and I am still not bored.. there’s just so much to do both on and off missions. The vast amount of scripted storyline missions with stellar voice acting and cutscene animations is amazing. I’m not sure how far I am through the missions.. but I’d guesstimate about half way (I haven’t actually checked the completion stats)..
Having the three characters to play seems a bit clumsy at first.. but once you get used to it, it really lets you open your mind to the different possibilities within the game. They are three separate characters that have a great deal of separation and variety in them.
The scenery is just gorgeous.. I find myself frequently stopping to take in the view, or going to the different landmarks to check things out.. just to see the sunset or sunrise or some cool postcard perfect scene.
The only gripe I have that is really worth complaining about would be the way traffic AI is setup to always cut you off at intersections when you are going high-speed through a red light. I can understand it happening frequently but not every time being in the perfectly timed spot to be directly in front of you as you pass through the intersection. The first 10 to 15 times it is a great challenge to try and swerve around them but once you realise it happens EVERY time, it becomes an annoyance.
I’m really feeling the culmination of so many great games that have come together to make this (RDR, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, Max Payne etc). It really shows that they’ve listened to the fans and brought back a lot of good stuff as well as improving on other things. At times I get a San Andreas vibe (mostly with Franklin, the Grove Street gang stuff and all that kind of gameplay) and other times I get a Vice City feel (mostly with Michael.. the suits he wears, the life style he lives and so on).. and then there is Trevor.. hehe.. he’s great fun.
Everything about this game oozes with production quality and replayability is high as well because you can replay old missions (even story ones) any time you like to try and score higher ratings in them etc.. Then there is of course all the mini-games and other things to do, which are actually quite playable in their own right. The golf is actually quite a decent simulation without getting too bogged down in the details and the tennis is as enjoyable as most tennis games I have played, with multiple shot types and so on. There’s just so much to do..
I was originally going to wait for a PC release.. but really.. who was I kidding, this is GTA.. and it’s actually the best GTA ever since Vice City (my personal favourite). I liked San Andreas a lot but nothing could hold a candle to Vice City for me.. but GTA5 does.. in so many ways.
Good write up. It echoes my thoughts exactly.
Bring on the MP!
Oh! How could I forget!
There is real, spoken Mandarin Chinese in this game! It’s quite refreshing to hear it compared to the usual Cantonese stuff you get in games and movies in the west. As I speak a reasonable amount of Mandarin Chinese myself, it was quite the treat to be able to understand what was being said, especially in the interactive action parts where there are no sub-titles. Really great!
I haven’t gotten up to Trevor yet, and have barely ventured outside the metro area. Even so the wealth of things to do is staggering.
Last night I was playing and the baby had woken up and needed a bottle – I’d just ran over a guy under an underpass and parked about 2 metres up the road with radio going.
1 minute later the paramedics rock up to treat my victim – as they get to his body another car crashes into the original accident site – the driver gets out and starts yelling at the paramedics. The paramedics then proceed to beat the living crap out of this second guy – they then ignore their original patient and tend to his battered corpse instead -after about a minute of looking at him they get up and walk to their bus, leaving his dead body in the middle of the street! It’s moments like this that make this game top of the heap!
Haha seen this happen myself near Michael’s place, a gunfight / brawl erupted with the paramedics and another guy.
10/10 would bang.
I’m enjoying it so far. There are some infuriating moments. I both love and hate the new police search system. The line of sight cones are a positive because they indicate that it’s possible to avoid the police and sometimes when you duck down an alley and hide waiting for the search to blow over is great.
Then other times it seems you have fifty cars converge on your exact position and just “happen” to find you despite the fact you only have a one star rating and are miles away from the crime scene hiding in an alley they had no good reason to search in the first place. Other times you’ve got a clean getaway and a car will spawn off to your side and reinitiate the search. It’s understandable that cars might cut you off and be searching in a wide area, that’s fine! But when you’re in the clear and a new cone pops into existence so close you’re surprised you can’t feel them breathing down your neck, it gets a bit annoying.
That’s just my pet grievance, partially because every time I switch to Trevor he’s in the middle of making the police angry.
In all other respects I think the game is great. I only got about 2 hours into RDR to I don’t have that to compare it to. I think the writing is a step up from GTAIV and the character motivations are more clear so I find all of them relatable to a degree. Trevor is kind of a hoot to play as even though I don’t like him very much. I feel the story is more about Franklin’s growth, even though the story seems to be more centralised around Michael’s past and present and Franklin is a newcomer.
I think there will be an even split around who people think is the true protagonist and that indicates to me that the writers did a good job of giving everyone an even share in the story.
Yeh.. I dislike how a 1 star rating seems to take as long as a 3 or 4 star rating to dissipate.. as there is no timer to see how long it will be.. it does seem a bit rich at times.
Loving it more than anything I’ve played this year except maybe Bioshock Infinite, but very close.
Special mention goes out to the ocean. Pants down, best ocean in a videogame ever. Surface at sea in a submersible and prepare to shit.
Yeh the ocean is amazing.. but all the water is. In one instance, I was diving at night looking for stuff on the bottom and when I came back up the waves were so high and realistic that I had lost sight of my jetski. Had it been daytime, I probably would have still had trouble finding it being someone just swimming in among a swell like that..
Another time, at the end of a mission, I was near a river of fast flowing water. I made the mistake of trying to swim through it and I got swept away down the river for a while.. it was really an awesome experience to have that in the game.. it’s all so dynamic and lovely to look at but also interact with. I relate this to Skyrim, which also had fast flowing rivers.. but you never got sucked/dragged by the current and over the rapids etc in Skyrim..
I wish the water pulled you more when swimming though. Anyone who has swam in the ocean or at the beach knows that water pulls at you and pushes you. It ruins my immersion when I’m swimming through or against 4 foot waves and not being pushed or pulled. You may as well be in a swimming pool.
I swear I saw a two headed person with a burgundy suit and orange afros. Just walking down the street he was. Anyone else see this? I’m not going crazy….
I’ve bumped in to a zombie, chatted with Christ (WTF!?), shot post-ironic hipsters to hell and back again, met Impotent Rage Man and more but don’t think I’ve run in to a 2 headed guy (yet).
I’m at around 45% now and loving every minute of it (except flying helicopters – I just can’t master it.) Ocean looks amazing, city has a life of its own and in general the scenery is stunning. I think the first time I was in a plane as Trevor I was heading towards the northern tip, I did a 180 degree turn and the view that I was greeted with was heavenly.
Gameplay is fun. Love the added combat controls, gun controls and driving. The customization you can do on the cars/weapons is sick. I have the same annoyance as @light487 in that your wanted level takes a ridiculous amount of time to go away once you are out of police sight, regardless of how many stars you had accumulated.
I was looking through the achievements and noticed that roughly half of them are for GTA Online. I was already excited, but seeing that just took my excitement to a whole other level.
I can’t wait until I start (legitimately) earning some big bucks so I can buy some fancy cars & planes.
Play the stock market before missions with Lester, invest in the opposite company as to the one you’re about to murder the CEO of, you should in theory make a killing if you buy enough.
Finished the main story, only about 75% completed the entire game thus far. Amazing game, can’t fault it at all.
I am 15-20 hours (39%) in so far and I absolutely love it. Im the type that will not even see small gripes if a game is what I like so hard for me to be too critical. Biggest issue I have is the speed that the map loads when you select pause.
The environment is amazingly detailed and diverse, the play between the characters is awesome. I really enjoy just how different they are from each other and that the plot/writing/design encourage you to switch often.
To me, this is the true sequel to GTA San Andres and that was one of my fav games of all time. All of the freedom and fun is there and I can’t wait to do more.
I will say that the money side of things seems a little hidden and that at the completion of a mission, i am not sure if I have been paid or not and I have no idea where my money is coming from. Perhaps I am just too distracted by it all.
This is FAR better than GTA IV and I am enjoying the story so far and am looking forward to more of it.
I’ve clocked in about 36 hours so far and finished the storyline a couple of days ago, my only problem with the game would be the endings, I have played all 3 endings but none of them gave the satisfaction that GTA endings have in the past, GTA IV killing Dmitri was the most satisfying part of the game, same with Tennpenny’s death in San Andreas, but the endings and the build up to them don’t carry any real emotional weight.
The game never really gave me a good reason to choose any of the endings so i went with the one that did the least harm to the post game. The final mission itself just sprang up on me rather suddenly, until the credits rolled I just assumed it was a normal mission building up to a grand conclusion that would play out across another 4 or 5 missions, to make the final ending that little bit more powerful, which unfortunately it wasn’t. Whether that was because Rockstar deliberately tried to limit the game to 69 main missions for the “lol 69” aspect or just because they couldn’t be bothered stretching the storyline out any further, we’ll probably never know, but ultimately the low amount of missions hurts the game more than it helps it.
That said it is still one of the most satisfying games of this console generation and with the online component coming soon it will be a game that will entertain for years to come.
69? Thank god – GTA IV without the DLC clocked in at about 110 missions – that was way too much and caused too much repetition by the time you unlocked Alderney you were sick of it – I’m glad I finished it, but it took some effort!
I’m on the opposite side of the fence, when I got to about 50 missions in I started procrastinating and looking for side missions as I didn’t want the main story arc to finish. Now that I have finished the story I have a few strangers and freaks and random encounters to unlock but otherwise the game now lacks directions for me. At least with missions you get an objective and potential rewards. I would have liked more missions, actually I would have liked more character specific missions as I feel there isn’t enough missions which flesh out the characters.
I thought it was 75 for some reason.. but still.. they are all fully scripted, voiced, awesome missions.. there’s a lot of content there.. I don’t think 69 or 75 is a small number of missions.. I’m not at the end yet but I know what you mean by things just ending.. I’ve had it happen in a few games and it is terrible.
It’s good.
The hype around the world size seems over-estimated. It’ll fit RDR, GTA 4 and San Andereas maps into it? I don’t want to go into area numbers, but it definately doesn’t feel like that. Yes it’s big, yes it feels alive, but it doesn’t feel that large.
The story doesn’t seem to go on forever as San Andreas did. I don’t usually like comparing one game to another in a series, but they (R*) have done it themselves as a marketing strategy. I have finished all the main story missions already. I never finished San Andreas.
The characters are great. Michael is the family man. Franklin is the up and comer and Trevor is the psychotic sadist drug addict.
Out of all three characters though I felt myself leaning towards Trevor for his way he speaks his mind and doesn’t hide behind a layer of synicism or hypocricy. I did find one of the missions disturbing though. Torturing people is just not something I want to do.
The sound in this game is one thing that surprised me. Lawn mowers in the distance, sirens going off, shoot outs with the police in the distance, cars clicking away while cooling down, it all makes the world feel alive.
The graphics are good too. In particular the water in the ocean. The foaming of the water doesn’t seem to be affected by the waves actions but the textures of the foam looks like a photo.
Chugga Chugga Chugga Chugga Chugga Chugga Chooo Choooo
After putting in about 40 odd hours:
Pros
– The characters are diverse and interesting. Though I may be in the minority when saying this, I find them to be better written than in GTA IV. Trevor grows on you however unfortunately Franklin is pretty boring.
– The graphics are excellent. I hate to over use the word, but they’re mindblowing given that they’re being rendered on a console that’s 7 years old.
– The’ve nailed the gameplay. The driving and shooting mechanics are solid.
– There’s lots to do. Side missions are fun and the detail of the world makes exploring and looking for collectables fun.
Cons
– Some glitches like your vehicle disappearing for no reason or rain on a cloudless day.
To be honest, I’m enjoying the game too much to really be bothered by the minor things that don’t really distract from this amazing game.
In the end though, you get out of it what you put in. If you have a positive mind-set and spend the time to really immerse yourself in GTA’s game world, it will reward you like few other games can. However, if you go in with a negative mindset and rush through it, while it’s still a great experience, you’re missing out on really experiencing a truly awesome game.
I have found most of the glitches funny so far.
When I first started the game I got into a chase and shot at a truck. It glitched and the truck (still facing its original direction) moved on a 90 perfect degree angle into my car and took me out. When you jump into the garage door in Micheal’s house you sometimes glitch under the house.
A glitch that annoys me though is the shadow from mountains during the day follow you.
S’alright.
I am a diehard GTA and Rockstar fan who has put countless hours into the series (over 140 into SA, which was my favourite. Nearly 180 into GTA IV – both with multiple playthroughs) and I am about 16% into V. I have to say I absolutely love it. It plays sensationally well and is as aesthetically please as any game I’ve played. Everything about the game so far screams perfection. Everything bar one major part of the game. The storyline for me is really lacking, I loved how emotionally gripping San Andreas was with CJ’s chase of revenge against his homies who turned on him and to finally see the treacherous Tenpenny down for the count was one of the most enjoyable storyline moments I’ve had in a game. I felt largely the same about IV, Niko’s character felt real and the choice you made for the final missions having such huge unforeseen consequences was a truly epic way to finish an epic game. So far I am disappointed in the change of storyline structure for V but I can understand it and while I am definitely still enjoying it I just feel the lack of villain to fight against leaves me feeling as if the game could’ve been better. I think this feeling might be enhanced by the fact that the last two games I completed were The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite and the epic, intense, emotional story those two games told really raised the bar with what I expect from a videogames storyline. Needless to say though that this game is a once in a generation experience and I don’t think I will be playing anything else until I move onto the PS4 and even that will take a while considering there is just SO MUCH TO DO IN GTA V!
top game, only complaint is i can’t drive trains other then that one mission
Oh.. This explains why I can’t hijack one. Damn it Rockstar, I wanted to derail trains 🙁
I did the flight practicing missions at the Airport last night, got gold in all of them – they were quite fun. The Helicopter speed runs were somewhat challenging.
Amazing game finished the story line and most of the strangers and freaks. Chucked in over 50 hours so far and enjoyed every minute of it. I do however have a long list of annoyances/disappointments or things I want/would change, but there are really only a few that I feel are important.
First it looks amazing, so much depth and life in the game world, however it plays like it is being played on an system that can’t quite handle the performance requirements. I assume they have squeezed every ounce of performance they can out of the outgoing console generation.
Secondly the heists were sold to me as being a part of the game for earning money, but are only in the main story line (assume this will be more present in online) and seems like a fantastic idea that got streamlined. Choosing crew members and performing heists sounded amazing and when the early game informs you to pick your crew and they will level up with each heist I assumed this would mean that I would be able to complete 20-50 (or infinite) heists in a side mission/revenue earning way. I really hope the online fleshes this out more.
Last, its too easy/simplified. I never once felt like I was in an epic mission or overwhelmed by opposing forces. Switching characters in some of the bigger gun battles was great dynamic and yet the cover system and auto aim just made dispatching targets far too easy. Although trying to outrun the cops (off-mission) in a Winebago style camper-van after blockading the highway with petrol tankers and accidentally blowing up my getaway vehicle was pretty tense. Slow, but tense. Here again I feel the online may solve this issue as I assume auto-aim will be off when playing against online people.
As an additional note, which is probably my own personal grievance… The Ocean. It is fucking amazing, it looks incredible, under the sea is so beautiful, Yet I have no desire to go there, like so much of GTA’s environment, the detail is so deep and rich and yet there isn’t really any draw for me to explore it, the places I have explored look great, but there is nothing to do when I get there. I still have fog-of-war areas on my map. Maybe I should have started smoking weed again for GTA.
Yeah the number of heists and money gaining missions are pretty small. I was hoping for more.
I always found myself trying to get more money. The stock exchange requires a hefty amount of money to see any real profits.
Fair assessment and I too have mixed feelings about the environment.. it’s so wonderful with so much potential.. but a lot of the time there isn’t a lot to do there.. I’ve explored a lot of ocean and just general landmarks.. maybe 10% of the game time I have played has been spent doing that stuff.. but I am an explorer type person with sandbox games.. still.. there could have been a little more planning in terms of achievements and activities that make more use of the environment.
Speaking of (not) making use of the environment… The Prison. The very first time I saw that and there was talk of a friend being locked up in there I was like “HELL YEAH!” I couldn’t wait for a mission to overrun the prison and enact a breakout or get locked up and have to escape… Well it never happened. Too many interesting areas that aren’t utilised, makes me think Rockstar already has some deep DLC lined up, or perhaps the online will utilise these areas.
Hmm… Think, I might go fly into the prison now and see what happens, Trevor?…
Yes.. the prison.. it’s odd that it’s there and not even used… they, Rockstar, even
put in an entirely different map for the player to fly to rather than use existing map assetsrather than making use of all the map assets.
Pure sex. Can’t wait to keep playing it!
lovin’ it so far about %45 into the game and the first gta since san andreas, ATM one of the best moments I’ve had has been switching to trevor and he was in bed with that dude who works on the docks( can’t remember his name) the guy was wearing what looked like his girlfriends cloths while crying in bed followed closely by another trevor moment of taking a dump behind a trash bin
also like how you help random ppl out and get rewarded I helped one guy get his bike back worth like $1500and next thing I know he sends me 100k worth of stocks in his company
and the only con I’ve got ATM is the driving its weird has hell and motor bikes kinda suck badly at lower speeds
I have spent about 33 hours with the game so far, (got 10 missions to go before I complete the story) and I can’t remember the last game I spent this much time with over the short space of a week.
Absolutely loving it.
Amazing gameplay, amazing world that they’ve built. You can tell that all the things that worked in RDR and MP3 have been incorporated into this massive sprawling game. The hype surrounding the map size seems excessive… TBH it feels smaller than RDR, then this could be my perception.
My only complaint is with the story. The entire game seemed to lack direction, and didn’t really go anywhere interesting for me throught the entire campaign. I would have been happy if it just centered around the heists etc, and if they were executed better… but they felt lackluster to me.
I am a sucker for a good crime story, and GTA IV filled that spot in my gaming collection so well. I think alot of that had to do with the fact that the world and the story felt like they were given equal importance, and one boosted the other. In GTA V it feels like they built this (amazing) world, then crafted a story that fits in various locations of it. It was definitely the least engaging GTA for me, story wise. Also, the ending was abrupt
I chose the path least resistance and saved all the characters…. and then in that mission 4 main antagonists have to die but do so within that one mission? I feel like a more satisfying end game could definitely have reduced my criticism of the story, with individual stand out missions involving all three characters to working together to take each target out.I also got sick of doing heists and earning nothing -.-I also haven’t been excited about multiplayer in a game for years, but I am looking forward to the launch and have renewed my XBL sub just for it 🙂
It’s incredible – I loaded the game up late at night, and realised I was tired and didn’t really feel like playing. So I just walked around for a bit, wandered around the block for ten minutes, just looking at things. It was really enjoyable, relaxing and entertaining.
It’s the game that I thought GTAIV would be.
Well after a week of playing GTA 5 I can say without a doubt that I am very disappointed in this game. It has it’s good areas, but on a whole is lacking in so many ways.
The story is too short. (I finished it in 2 days)
A LOT of the map has no point in being there.
Little to no character customization.
The safehouse garage bug is infuriating.
Too little opportunities to make any decent in-game money.
The hunting sections are utter rubbish compared with RDR.
Out of 10 rubber chickens I give it a 7. The online section better be absolutely amazing or this game will be getting traded in. I’m having more fun playing Farming Simulator.