I've been playing GTA for a long time now, they all featured the same format and play style, point a to point b. None of the games raised the bar as high as this game. The biggest improvement is the story, I felt previous games were more enjoyable when you're a blood lust madman, but this games story was addicting unlike any other. I love great stories, and this one is one of the finest of the generation. I'll talk a little about the mechanics, but mostly about the story and characters. The main story will take you around 24 hours to complete, pretty standard. I did it over the weekend, three days of noon till midnight.
The game play: It's pretty much GTA 4 style controls aside from a few innovations. You can actually customize weapons in this game, considering games like "Scarface the world is yours" had this way back when, it's too little too late, but appreciated. The stats boasts for characters is back. The graphics are almost identical to Red Dead Redemption, aside from the facial animations, here they can pull off more realistic expressions. The feature to switch between characters at almost any point is a great new mechanic. Got nothing to do, lets go see what Trevor is up to, oh he's throwing someone off the side of an overpass, cool. I haven't noticed any new cars yet, in fact they took away my favourite car, the black Sabre GT. And finally an open world game that allows property purchase, if you can make the money the business is yours. But 150 million for a golf course is a ridiculous amount to earn. The map is about the same, if not bigger than Red Dead. You spend most of your time just driving though. The game does look beautiful at times, especially when you factor in night time or when it's lightly raining. The game physics are nothing new, but it does frustrate me to unbelievable levels when the cars spin out from hitting a pebble. The animations for Chop, are probably the best for any dog in a video game. The presentation is double that of previous entry's. I'll add some more here when it comes to mind.
The missions: Wow, they really improved the missions ten fold. There some big set piece moments that are great, without distracting you from the game. I can only remember one mission from GTA 4, the bank heist. But here there were at least a dozen. The heist at the bay town, was crazy. Securing a prisoner from atop the FIB headquarters, while switching characters, was a brief but memorable moment. Sometimes it's just the dialogue or actions from the characters can make a mission. My favourite was Family reunion with Michael and his family. But there were a few times it got disturbing. When Trevor is sneaking around The Lost's trailer park killing them, and the whole thunderstorm going on at the time, it's just great. The torture sequence of the prisoner was a bit out of place though.
The characters: I'm just going with the three main protagonists. I liked all three of them, even when Trevor is being a psychopath, it's hard not to like him. Franklin was the most stable out of all of them. Michael seams to have been based off of Michael Madsen, even down to the way he walks. Trevor is the most memorable, one of the best characters in the franchise, even probably best character of the year. He's a madman in ever way shape and form. The banter between M and T is all over the place, one second it's a nice moment, and the next they are at each others throats. The writing is really well done most of the time, but there was a few moments that didn't sit right. I was appalled there was even an option to kill Trevor and Michael.
Now I have only played through the single player missions, so that's all I can say for the game. I haven't done any of the side missions, leisure activities, or even watched TV. That will be added in here once I have completed those. Is it game of the year, well it's a close second to The Last Of Us, both of these had phenomenal stories and characters, but TLOU played my emotions much harder. Anyone that gives this anything lower than a 9 is just kidding themselves, Rock-star put years of hard work into this game, every aspect is top notch, aside from two glitches that required a mission start over. It is by far the best GTA game ever, it raised the bar, and set a new precedent of quality.
The game play: It's pretty much GTA 4 style controls aside from a few innovations. You can actually customize weapons in this game, considering games like "Scarface the world is yours" had this way back when, it's too little too late, but appreciated. The stats boasts for characters is back. The graphics are almost identical to Red Dead Redemption, aside from the facial animations, here they can pull off more realistic expressions. The feature to switch between characters at almost any point is a great new mechanic. Got nothing to do, lets go see what Trevor is up to, oh he's throwing someone off the side of an overpass, cool. I haven't noticed any new cars yet, in fact they took away my favourite car, the black Sabre GT. And finally an open world game that allows property purchase, if you can make the money the business is yours. But 150 million for a golf course is a ridiculous amount to earn. The map is about the same, if not bigger than Red Dead. You spend most of your time just driving though. The game does look beautiful at times, especially when you factor in night time or when it's lightly raining. The game physics are nothing new, but it does frustrate me to unbelievable levels when the cars spin out from hitting a pebble. The animations for Chop, are probably the best for any dog in a video game. The presentation is double that of previous entry's. I'll add some more here when it comes to mind.
The missions: Wow, they really improved the missions ten fold. There some big set piece moments that are great, without distracting you from the game. I can only remember one mission from GTA 4, the bank heist. But here there were at least a dozen. The heist at the bay town, was crazy. Securing a prisoner from atop the FIB headquarters, while switching characters, was a brief but memorable moment. Sometimes it's just the dialogue or actions from the characters can make a mission. My favourite was Family reunion with Michael and his family. But there were a few times it got disturbing. When Trevor is sneaking around The Lost's trailer park killing them, and the whole thunderstorm going on at the time, it's just great. The torture sequence of the prisoner was a bit out of place though.
The characters: I'm just going with the three main protagonists. I liked all three of them, even when Trevor is being a psychopath, it's hard not to like him. Franklin was the most stable out of all of them. Michael seams to have been based off of Michael Madsen, even down to the way he walks. Trevor is the most memorable, one of the best characters in the franchise, even probably best character of the year. He's a madman in ever way shape and form. The banter between M and T is all over the place, one second it's a nice moment, and the next they are at each others throats. The writing is really well done most of the time, but there was a few moments that didn't sit right. I was appalled there was even an option to kill Trevor and Michael.
Now I have only played through the single player missions, so that's all I can say for the game. I haven't done any of the side missions, leisure activities, or even watched TV. That will be added in here once I have completed those. Is it game of the year, well it's a close second to The Last Of Us, both of these had phenomenal stories and characters, but TLOU played my emotions much harder. Anyone that gives this anything lower than a 9 is just kidding themselves, Rock-star put years of hard work into this game, every aspect is top notch, aside from two glitches that required a mission start over. It is by far the best GTA game ever, it raised the bar, and set a new precedent of quality.