I have been avoiding GTA as a series for years. I loved playing the original 2D PC platformer, but when I gave GTA San Andreas a try I was pretty disappointed. The story was lacking in any real imagination and it was basically a slew of expletives and killing hookers. As it was a good way to kill time, it wasn’t exactly appealing or addictive gameplay. However, my wife recently saw a her cousins husband playing GTA V and watched a bit of storyline, and thought that I would enjoy this particular release of the GTA franchise. I was a little hesitant to say the least, but when I actually got started on the game, I was happy to find that Rockstar Games had done their homework and found that they needed to put more attention into their story and content.
First things first. I won’t go into the stories details. (I figure you’ll probably want to see that for yourself.) They have taken what could have easily been a very linear storyline and split it into three parts, each of which you can swap between at almost any point in the game. All three storylines crossover into one cohesive plot. In my opinion this was a great way to hook a player in and keep them going for hours. Personally I have a hard time putting it down. I just want to see what crazy thing comes next. You’ve got three very different characters.
Michael is the mastermind behind most of the jobs you pull and he also acts as a sort of mentor for Franklin.- Franklin is the kid that’s just trying to keep out of jail and get himself out of the hood. Michael takes him under his wing after he sees Franklin is a lot like he was at his age.
- Finally there’s Trevor. This guy is a total f***in’ nut-job. He spends a good portion of his time scaring the hell out of people and going on some seriously sadistic rampages. That being said, he really cares for his friends, even though he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them the minute he feels like they betray him.
On to the gameplay. I am seriously impressed by the amount of detail crammed into this game. This isn’t a next gen title, so seeing what they were able to do with it was amazing. It transitions flawlessly from cut-scene to gameplay. Driving isn’t clumsy anymore, they managed to make controlling your vehicle pretty intuitive and learnable (by learnable I mean that you can actually learn how your favorite car handles and keep it in one piece). There are plenty of side missions you can screw around with, making the game world feel larger. Several of which actually make it possible to manipulate the in-game stock market. There are far more choices to make in the world. Several missions make use of many different options that you can try. Save before starting a mission so you can see which one works out better for you, or to see what changes in the world when you do a job the messy way. The radio news you hear when in vehicles will talk about your exploits, although they don’t actually use names it’s interesting to hear that something you did was covered up or twisted by the news to sound more dubious then it actually was.
Online play, while interesting, isn’t what I personally will be playing a lot of. I gave it about 30 minutes of my time, and while I’ll admit that’s not a lot of time, it was enough for me to try a couple of the missions they have set up in the online Los Santos. The load times for missions involving other players are pretty long and if you activate it you’re in until you can get to a menu screen to exit out of the instance, and with the long load times, it makes it a bit like trying to pierce your cornea. Painful and frustrating. I hadn’t found anything in the time I played that was doable on your own, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, it just means I didn’t bother to find it.
My overall impressions, as they’re mostly apparent in previous text, are good with a few minor buts. I did, at one point, find myself stuck and not knowing how to move forward. I eventually figured out that doing the character specific story missions move you forward, but it could have been made more apparent then it was. I also found that some of the getaways aren’t as smooth as they could be. I realize that may sound stupid, but when you want to move forward with the game without using to ‘skip mission’ option, it can be difficult to maintain your sanity. Parts of the map get confusing and make it difficult to get away from pursuing cops, particularly near the docks where the roads go in circles. When you’re trying to keep from getting cornered it’s hard to concentrate enough on the map and driving to devise a good escape. The strategy I came up with was to enter the map in the pause menu and pick a place far from the side of the map you’re on and follow the GPS. It keeps you from going in circles and gives you the chance to get to a customs shop in order to change the color of your vehicle, effectively lowering your wanted level and ending the chase. If asked, I would rate this game like an 8 out of 10. The main game is excellent, but GTA Online needs some help.
Sixtydgree 