GTA 5, for the Gamers

GTA V REVIEW

SCORE: 8/10 

OVERVIEW

GTA 5 is a blockbuster game that will please fans of the GTA series but doesn't have the same revolutionary feel that GTA 3 had when it was released a decade ago. The game looks and feels a lot like GTA 4 with a different approach to the story and some gameplay enhancements. The multiplayer mode, GTA Online, has a lot to offer and a lot of potential, but at release it was mostly unplayable and some problems persist. GTA 5 is a game worth playing, but it is not without its share of problems and shortcomings.

GRAPHICS

GTA 5 looks a lot like GTA 4. The characters look a little more detailed, the cars look a little shinier, and there is slightly more detail in the environments. It feels like there are more people in the streets, and the addition of wildlife makes the game feel more realistic. Despite those additions, as in all the GTA games since GTA 3, the city sometimes feels hollow and empty, like a movie set or theme park instead of a real city, because most of the buildings are there just for show and cannot be entered. While the trimmings of a city are all on display, there's no substance to most of them. 

SOUND

Rockstar hasn't found a way to top the sound of GTA: Vice City. By taking popular hits from an era and making them part of the game environment, Vice City came to life and really felt like all of the gangster/mafia movies from which it derived. In GTA V, the music is almost completely ambient, and mostly comes from the radio stations in whatever vehicle you are driving. I recognized only a few of the songs that I heard, and none of it was good enough for me to listen to outside of the game (as compared to Vice City which made me crack open a few albums I hadn't listened to since I was a kid). Plenty of cutscenes could have benefitted from a more dynamic original soundtrack. The sound effects are fine, some sound recycled from previous GTA games. The acceleration and braking in the vehicles does sound especially good and makes getting behind the wheel of a sports car a lot of fun.

STORY – NO SPOILERS

GTA 5 had a tough act to follow, with GTA 4 featuring a movie-quality storyline and a memorable main character in the anti-hero Niko Belic. Rockstar wisely chose to take a different approach entirely, coming up with a fresh story that features multiple main characters whose stories are intertwined in a main plot that develops over a longer period of time. It's a smart move that breaks from the example set by every other GTA game and adds much needed variety. It also makes sense from a gameplay perspective, because a game that prides itself on some measure of realism shouldn't have one character be an expert at everything and pulling off complex crimes alone.
The story moves too slowly, though, kind of like a movie that goes on for a half hour too long. It opens big, with an exciting bank heist that goes wrong, and then fast forwards a decade and slowly fills in the gaps piecemeal. While I really like the juxtaposed storytelling method, which reminds me of a Tarantino film that bounces from time to time instead of telling a linear story, it gets slowed down when Rockstar tries too hard to work missions into the plot. The story is fun and engaging, and the characters are generally interesting, but like a movie that goes on for too long, the game could have used more editing, and the ending was a little disappointing and anti-climactic. My favorite way to play is online, It is like Criminal Sims in HD.

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