When Grand Theft Auto V first came out on September 17th, 2013, it was met with some of the highest amount of praise that any video game could receive, so naturally I decided to check the game out for myself and got the game for the Play Station 3, and returned it the next day. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty good, but I just felt like something was lacking, like was something was left incomplete, and that if I continued to play the Play Station 3 version, then I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much as, say, the PC version. So I decided to go ahead and wait to play the PC version of the game, I remember thinking to myself “Well, it should be out within a few months, right?” Needless to say, I had to wait a bit before finally receiving the PC version. So was waiting for the PC version the correct choice? Let’s find out.
So the gameplay in Grand Theft Auto V is basically like every other Rockstar game, however the main gimmick for Grand Theft Auto V is that you can switch between three different characters. It isn’t really necessary, but it’s a neat little feature, so nothing really to complain about there. The three characters you can play as are: Franklin Clinton, your average bland Grand Theft Auto protagonist, Michael DeSanta, a retired bank robber going through his mid-life crisis, and Trevor Phillips, who’s insane and that’s about all the personality you’ll get from him. Out of the three characters, the only real stand-out is Michael, and even then, he’s not super interesting, he’s just better than all the other characters.As I said earlier, the gameplay is pretty much every other Rockstar game since Grand Theft Auto IV, but slightly better, and while this isn’t a bad thing, it certainly isn’t a good thing either. Grand Theft Auto V also has a beautiful open world with absolutely nothing interesting to do. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot that you can do, like Tennis, or Yoga, or Golf, but none of that is really fun, it’s just kind of there. Grand Theft Auto V also has side missions, which are horrible and you should avoid them at all costs. One of the other major selling points for Grand Theft Auto V is the online mode, which is finally finished. I mean yeah, Rockstar released it back in 2013, but the only interesting part (the heists) was only released recently, and even then, the heists aren’t that great, but the first two or three that you play are pretty fun, so there’s that. The best thing that Grand Theft Auto V has going for it is the Director Mode, which basically lets you create your own videos and movies simply by playing Grand Theft Auto V. It’s very simple, but it’s also extremely fun.
The main story is about the three protagonists doing missions for the FIB, and occasionally doing a bank robbery here and there. That’s really all the story’s about. I was actually pretty disappointed with the story, to be honest. After hearing so many people praise it I thought I was in for a treat, but what I got was a cluster of several different stories that weren’t as important as the FIB missions where, so I was left feeling pretty disappointed that that’s all that Grand Theft Auto V had to offer.
So while I don’t like Grand Theft Auto V as much as everybody else does, I still think that there’s some fun to be had here, it’s just not worth paying $60 for. Maybe $30, if you ever see it up for sale on Steam.
