What is the point of GTA V?

[MatTheCat]

Due to Rockstar's decision to opt for Always On DRM, I decided not to purchase this game and instead installed the 'Full Single Player Free Demo'.

Whilst the style, authenticity, and attractiveness of the world which Rockstar have created really does have to be applauded, as does the characters they have created and the story the game tells....

....after some 30% of my way into the single player campaign, the novelty is wearing thin and the rather thin gameplay is beginning to wear on me.


Is the point of GTA V, a bit like BF4, all about the online game?

 

[FL630]

IMO, the game is superb, it's like living a movie.

Not tried online but I am addicted to the story mode.

One assumes "Full single player free demo" means cracked copy?

 

[Antony101]

The singleplayer was outstanding in my opinion. Thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and felt I got more than my moneys worth.

 

[Rroff]

Struggled to get into it myself - partly due to the developer for some reason seeming to think that every single little action should have its own unique key bind - when most of it could be merged down to a lot less keys. Gameplay for me wore thin in way less than an hour.

 

[Smokey Deza]

I'm exactly the same. Got 30% through and just deleted it. Tired of the errand boy crap.

 

[Uncle Petey]

I felt that way with GTAIV.
With this though, I dunno, I kind of just get lost in the visuals and the size of the world. Not playing it all the time helps too
Haven't even touched the online section.

Oh, and the odd rampage is always fun.

 

[Disco_P]

I've loved the single player for every GTA game I have played. GTA V was no exception with brilliant story writing and a great set of unique characters.

I don't understand how you can get bored of the gameplay when what you can do is nearly limitless. There are so many ways of doing each mission.

 

[FoxEye]

San Andreas was the last really great GTA. Suspect they will never top it, because of trends in the industry towards easier games that play themselves.

San Andreas was the last one that felt like anarchic fun. It really captured the essense of the original top down games. IV was less fun but retained driving that required at least some effort from the player to stay on the road. And use your brakes.

The driving in V just sucks ass. They listened to the players who said braking wasn't fun. That losing control of your car at 100mph wasn't fun. That crashing wasn't fun. The cars barely even deform anymore. It's like a stupid fairground ride. Zero skill, just "easy mode" crap for the new generation that prefers watching games on YouTube to playing them.

Sadly, R* know that this is the way the industry is going. I suspect pretty soon more people will watch streams of other people playing games than are actually playing them.

 

[Boycey0211]

yeah I just didnt click with V, I enjoyed it but then played something else and can't be bothered finishing it. Mainly due to playing 3 characters i think, I got into the story and then it flips it areound and I can't be bothered remembering 3 backstories.

 

[MatTheCat]

Oh right....

So the single player mode, is 'the point' of the game?

Oh well.....yet another wildly over rated mediocre piece of crap.....

....I know the environments are excellent, the characters, the dialogue............but this is meant to be a video game....and the gameplay is at best, 'generic'.

"You can complete missions anyway that you want"

Yes, you can drive any car, shoot any gun, activate any real time event that you want...

Great, except the driving mechanics suck compared to actual racing games, and the gunplay mechanics suck compared to actual FPS.........and pressing buttons upon request can never be more than filler or conjunction material.

 

[Uncle Petey]

Ok, so that's your opinion and it's not for you. We can't all like the same things.

 

[Lethagized]

You can't please them all. You can name your best game and people will pick holes in it and ask the same questions as you do. If you need to ask what the point is, then you clearly don't get it. Pointless thread tbh but to answer your question, the graphics, the dialog, the comedy value, the way you can approach each mission to your own accord and order to name a few which stand out for me. I'm only 45% but loving it, and then i have the online part. Well worth it to me. Seems like excellent value for money.

 

[Rroff]

Great, except the driving mechanics suck compared to actual racing games, and the gunplay mechanics suck compared to actual FPS.........and pressing buttons upon request can never be more than filler or conjunction material.

Yeah I think that is what killed it for me - I've spent plenty of time free roaming in TDU2 which supports a wheel for driving and is fairly under-rated for its graphics plus driving in games like GRID ok not super realistic but far more satisfying driving model than GTAV, spent waaay too much time playing FPS games which feel fluid and natural to play - GTAV has horrendous problem with mouse sensitivity adjusting with frame rate and fov, most mouse settings result in split X/Y mouse sensitivity as well which screws with my muscle memory i.e. a mouse movement that produces a circle in most FPS games produces an oval in GTAV and thats before the clunky movement and cover system.

Having to remember several dozen key binds when many actions could be rolled onto 1 key and/or use context sensitivity for the action sucks as well I mean why does the phone even use keys (other than for shortcut actions) when it would be far better just to be able to interact with the mouse in most cases.

 

[spoffle]

Oh right....

So the single player mode, is 'the point' of the game?

Oh well.....yet another wildly over rated mediocre piece of crap.....

Over-rated isn't really a real thing. It's decidedly NOT mediocre either, and things aren't crap just because you don't like them.

The amount you moan and whinge about stuff is ridiculous. Your levels of negatively cannot be healthy for you.

 

[MatTheCat]

Having to remember several dozen key binds when many actions could be rolled onto 1 key and/or use context sensitivity for the action sucks as well I mean why does the phone even use keys (other than for shortcut actions) when it would be far better just to be able to interact with the mouse in most cases.

As with quite a lot of games these days, engine is designed primariy with consoles in mind and works best with a gamepad. I play with gamepad, and can't say that I have any of these issues you describe.

Over-rated isn't really a real thing. It's decidedly NOT mediocre either, and things aren't crap just because you don't like them.

The amount you moan and whinge about stuff is ridiculous. Your levels of negatively cannot be healthy for you.

Take away the massive sand box, and the characters, and the story, and all the other little details parodying modern American culture, all of which I admit are excellent.....

....and leave just the gameplay.

What you do have is indeed a very mediocre game. Of course, GTA V consists of all the other stuff that I just stripped away.....but surely the most important element of a GAME is the actual gameplay (which I have grown tired off)?

I can't help but think of other games, that have great story telling, characters, cultural observations and/or artistic re-inventions of culture. Games such as Bioshock, or Dishonored, that also happen to have compelling gameplay. But GTA V just doesn't.

Also, I was asking a genuine question. I was thinking that perhaps the online game must be really where it is all at with GTA V, considering the universal rave reviews. Only having access to the offline game, I am thinking that my low appraisal of the overall game might be akin to someone only having access to offline BF4 and thinking, "meh".

 

[shankly1985]

Single player is very good although the story is quite poor I think. Online I just could never get into it.

 

[davewhite04]

San Andreas was the last really great GTA. Suspect they will never top it, because of trends in the industry towards easier games that play themselves.

San Andreas was the last one that felt like anarchic fun. It really captured the essense of the original top down games. IV was less fun but retained driving that required at least some effort from the player to stay on the road. And use your brakes.

The driving in V just sucks ass. They listened to the players who said braking wasn't fun. That losing control of your car at 100mph wasn't fun. That crashing wasn't fun. The cars barely even deform anymore. It's like a stupid fairground ride. Zero skill, just "easy mode" crap for the new generation that prefers watching games on YouTube to playing them.

Sadly, R* know that this is the way the industry is going. I suspect pretty soon more people will watch streams of other people playing games than are actually playing them.

I don't think it's sad at all. Some people may be on the train, or on lunch break or might not have access to their game machine or may not have the actual game. Lots of reasons. If there are a few that watch instead of play I just say live and let live.

 

[spoffle]

Take away the massive sand box, and the characters, and the story, and all the other little details parodying modern American culture, all of which I admit are excellent.....

....and leave just the gameplay.

What you do have is indeed a very mediocre game. Of course, GTA V consists of all the other stuff that I just stripped away.....but surely the most important element of a GAME is the actual gameplay (which I have grown tired off)?

I can't help but think of other games, that have great story telling, characters, cultural observations and/or artistic re-inventions of culture. Games such as Bioshock, or Dishonored, that also happen to have compelling gameplay. But GTA V just doesn't.

Also, I was asking a genuine question. I was thinking that perhaps the online game must be really where it is all at with GTA V, considering the universal rave reviews. Only having access to the offline game, I am thinking that my low appraisal of the overall game might be akin to someone only having access to offline BF4 and thinking, "meh".

Dishonored is one of the best games ever made, for me at least. However, GTA V isn't mediocre (look up what that means). Your problem seems to be that you do not enjoy that sort of sandbox game where the "point" of it isn't that deep.

But that IS the point of GTA 5, to play around in a sandbox world with a story you can follow if you want that brings all the characters together. The sandbox part IS the gameplay.

If you've grown tired of the game, then as above a giant sandbox game isn't for you. But that doesn't make a game over-rated or medicore. The reason why I say over-rated isn't really a real thing is because it assumes that the speaker's stance is the defacto correct stance, and considering how ratings work it logically means that it can't actually be a real thing.

I hear a lot of good about the online portion too, I have yet to play it though because I have been extremely busy over the last few months. I have played a bit of the single player portion. I've enjoyed the story parts, I like to have a mess around doing what ever I want occasionally, but after a while I will go back to the story as that's what interests me the most.

 

[davewhite04]

Dishonored is one of the best games ever made, for me at least. However, GTA V isn't mediocre (look up what that means). Your problem seems to be that you do not enjoy that sort of sandbox game where the "point" of it isn't that deep.

But that IS the point of GTA 5, to play around in a sandbox world with a story you can follow if you want that brings all the characters together. The sandbox part IS the gameplay.

If you've grown tired of the game, then as above a giant sandbox game isn't for you. But that doesn't make a game over-rated or medicore. The reason why I say over-rated isn't really a real thing is because it assumes that the speaker's stance is the defacto correct stance, and considering how ratings work it logically means that it can't actually be a real thing.

I hear a lot of good about the online portion too, I have yet to play it though because I have been extremely busy over the last few months. I have played a bit of the single player portion. I've enjoyed the story parts, I like to have a mess around doing what ever I want occasionally, but after a while I will go back to the story as that's what interests me the most.

Well said. I think a lot of people do not like choice, like sandbox gameplay, they prefer linearity, go to point A then B etc. and I fully understand that.

I haven't took full advantage of GTA V tbh, I completed the story, which was good, not great(the environment is the best thing about the game) and that was it. I'm not into sniper sessions for no reward or playing with stocks or blowing things up for no reason. My worry with the potentially amazing online game is, as soon as you login people don't want to co-op they just want to kill you, that doesn't interest me.

 

[Rroff]

As with quite a lot of games these days, engine is designed primariy with consoles in mind and works best with a gamepad. I play with gamepad, and can't say that I have any of these issues you describe.

I don't play on PC to play with a gamepad and there is nothing in the game that couldn't be made to work optimally on keyboard/mouse either.