Grand Theft Auto V Review, Part 1

Grand Theft Auto V was one of the most anticipated titles of this console generation, and near universally praised by "professional" critics. Often waving away its flaws(and there are many), and instead valuing the game on the amount of content, opposed to the quality thereof, many of the currently available reviews are a testament as to why the business of game journalism is often considered a mere shadow of the more traditional type(which over the past two decades has become even more soulless and manipulatory itself).

There will be none of that here. Grand Theft Auto V does have some high points(which won't be overlooked either), but they're often dragged down by the thoughtless content crammed in to fill the otherwise empty space around them. I've got an axe to grind, and Rockstar gave me a stone on which to do it. It's time to have a go at one of the most successful titles this year, both critically and commercially, with a jackhammer. I'm going to sort out which of the individual components aren't so shiny when looked at with an eye to detail, rather than being blinded by the total package.

Grand Theft Auto V, controversy, and rage... Let's fucking do this.

Grand Theft Auto V takes place in the fictitious state of San Andreas, primarily in the city of Los Santos, and the surrounding countryside of Blaine County, loosely based on Los Angeles, California. It has the largest map of any Rockstar title to date, however, much of it is empty countryside, and even a large part of the city has no real pulse to it. While the in-game tips tell you that you can hold up a store if in need of cash, this doesn't work with the stores you can actually purchase items at, and the vast majority of stores are just facades with sloppy texturing.

Even more unforgivable is the short length of the main story, only 69 missions with 3 playable characters, compared to Grand Theft Auto IV's 88, all with a singular character. While the 3 character structure lends itself well to the genre, it is still something that obviously needs work, with each character having little time for development or backstory. Certain missions upon completion even cause you to assume the role of a different character, and in the case of missions that can be started with multiple characters, you can miss several lines of dialog depending on who initiated it. The worst of these are ones where the character the game makes you take control of is the last to arrive canonically, making following the story somewhat challenging.

The random events system, taken from Red Dead Redemption, also has some serious flaws, with certain missions that unlock additional crew members for the heist missions sometimes appearing only once, while others rear their ugly head time and time again. 

Among other issues, are problems with texture load-ins taking too long at high speeds, causing you to drive through the surface of the road, at times nearly falling through the world. There are also currently problems with customized and purchased vehicles disappearing completely, and never returning. There are also some side missions that will never appear, even after the prerequisites are met.

Some of the additional content could have been handled better as well. I was able to consistently win within 9 darts, due to the ease of aim, the once per turn "focus", and the too-high accuracy of the characters. The tennis mini-game, while enjoyable and fairly well done, tends to fall apart later in the game, as playing sports increases your characters strength stat, which in turn causes them to hit the ball farther. This can lead to many unintentional and uncontrollable hits out of bounds because of the increased distance upon hit, limiting your ability to even play the mini-game. The golfing is probably the best handled of the bunch, however the display for the slope of the green makes it difficult to nail what would otherwise be a trivial putt on certain holes.

While the gun handling and driving mechanics have been refined from previous titles in the series, they're not up to the level I've come to expect from Rockstar, nor at the level they've displayed their capability with in other titles. Aiming can be slow and clunky, and the default reticle is a singular white dot, lost all too easily on certain displays, and the free aim is terrible, leading to encounters where using the traditional snap-to targeting is your only reliable option. In the late game, or at high wanted levels, where the enemy combatants have body armor, it behooves you to go for headshots, but this leaves you fighting not only the opposition, but also the game mechanics.

Some of the more traditional GTA systems have been retooled as well. The police in GTAV have become much more aggressive, and having completed the game without ever having been busted, I had started wondering if such a thing even existed in the game. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I finally got arrested. No longer do you lose all your weapons upon death or arrest, instead just losing your ammunition when arrested. Also gone is the "started from the bottom, slowly rose to the top" story often associated with the series, instead focusing primarily on the heists, the first of which occurs early on in the story, and can net you quite a bit of money. Other sources of income are few and far between outside of the stock market, and even that can be a bigger headache than it's worth.

It's not a terrible game by any means, but it's not worthy of the same praise given to GTAIII, which founded the sandbox genre, and GTA: San Andreas, which is still among the best within that genre. Both of my posts next week will be more on GTAV, with Tuesday being part two of this review, and Thursday being my initial impressions of Grand Theft Auto Online, so keep an eye out for those. There may even be a part three on Tuesday the 8th, simply because there's so much content to cover, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to wrap it all up with just one more post.