That was the long haul. Honestly I never thought this day would ever come. But today I finally beat the game. At least the story mode. I think this is the longest it ever took me to finish any game. The journey started about two and a half years ago, in 2013 September, on a PS3. But the console controls made me quit about 10% into the story, and I never went back. I decided to wait for the PC version.

But before moving on, a few words on the last gen version. The graphics was actually pretty good, and the biggest perk of that version is that it came on BD. Man I don't know why PC releases still use fucking DVDs when you can pick up a BD drive for the cost of a game. So it shouldn't be a big investment for a gamer. GTAV PC came on no less than 7 DVDs, and it literally takes hours to install, this is just unacceptable by my standards.

Apart from that quibble though the game is technically flawless as far as I see it. But it's not perfect. The physics engine in it is starting to show it's age. It's almost exactly the same as it was in GTA3. I hope the next GTA will use softbody physics instead of rigid bodies with fake deformation on the vehicles. But still the driving in GTA is one of the best in it's genre. In fact it's so good, that it has inbuilt driving aids to make less able players comfortable, while at the same time make driving game enthusiasts like me frustrated. Why not put an option in the game to disable these aids?

My main issue with the game, and the reason why it took so long to finish is the story. After GTA IV I thought they can't make a less inspired less immersive story up. But I was wrong. I don't understand why the main stories are so bad, when both the Lost and Damned, and especially Ballad of Gay Tony were very very good. The main story is too loosely connected. There is no real storyline just a series of jobs after the trio is formed. I admit until Michael, Trevor and Franklin team up it was somewhat interesting, but after that not so much. And the characters can't keep me interested on their own merit, since they are completely unrelatable. A lunatic murderous psychopath, a small time crook, and a backstabbing ex-bank robber? I couldn't care less if they all died a horrible death at any point in the game.

The only thing that kept me somewhat interested were the comic relief moments, and missions. But we get less and less of those in GTA it seems.

And the missions were mostly very generic. Not much variety, and the final last mission of the game was really really disappointing. It was very easy comparatively, just a generic assassination mission. There were tons of more interesting missions during the game. Probably the only ones worth mentioning are the heists. Those were good I admit.

And as far as side things go, it's great that you can buy things over the internet in the game, and buy property, but until the last big job, you don't have enough money to waste on bullshit. And after the last job I wasn't inclined to go back to the game to buy stuff. What's the point? I'm not going to use it for anything anyway.

Let's see the pros and cons.

+

  • Huge explorable environment,      with beautiful graphics
  • Good physics
  • Some good comic relief missions
  • Crew banter

-

  • Uninteresting story
  • Unrelatable characters, I never      thought Niko Bellic will be a positive example
  • not enough money until the end      to "go and have fun"
  • not nearly enough side      activities, means the environment just sits there with nothing to do in      it.
  • scripted chase sequences
  • on rails missions


Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 9/10
story/atmosphere: 3/10
gameplay/controls: 8/10

overall impression: 7/10

It's hard to recommend this game wholeheartedly. It shows nothing new over GTAIV, it's more of the same, with less interesting characters, story and missions. But much better graphics, and environment.