Now that the GTA V hype is gone...

[Sirron Kcuch]

I think of buying GTA V for 60 ?, but I want to ask you Escapists if it's worth that much.

Your opinion is apprecciated!

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

If you like GTA in general, Rockstars characters and writing, long single player campaigns with lots of varied missions and tons of side stuff, an online mode with almost the same amount you should ask yourself why are you spending the 60 now and not on release.

If this post sounds a bit hyped it could be that i still am. I got the game one day before the official release. I`m still playing it and nothing else since then.
Yes, it`s worth the money.

 

[Racecarlock]

The gameplay and physics are fine and the story is kind of alright sometimes. But the satire is really where it falls flat. Look up any list of LA stereotypes and you now don't need to listen to any piece of GTA V satire.

I miss Pressing Issues with Maurice Chavez. That show was actually funny.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I'd say no. The game isn't good enough to warrant a "You must play this ASAP!" I'd hold off until it is a fair bit cheaper.

 

[Sirron Kcuch]

I really enjoyed screwing around in GTA IV, I really liked the emergent gameplay scenarios, but even then I felt there were too many constraints in Liberty city. Anyway, most of the fun came from the physics and random stunting. I enjoyed Just Cause 2 a bit more though, partly because I actually brought myself to play the latter's campaign, but still I've grown a bit tired.

If GTA V provides a Just Cause 2 degree of freedom while keeping GTA IV-like physics, I'm sold on it.

 

[krazykidd]

Well you waited this long, i saw wait for 1 price drop. Unless you have absolutely nothing to play. That being said, with all the content is has, and it's a good game to boot, i say it's definately worth it.

 

[Someone Depressing]

No. I didn't like the game. It was repetetive, and had a story about as interesting as one would expect from a stereotypical ghetto inhabitant, money-wanting but money-hating idiot, and someone as bland as bland can be.

Then again, that's just my opinion.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

It's okay.

I felt the 3 different protagonist thing hurt the story more than it helped.

The online mode is lukewarm at best, and I personally said the hell with it when I got chucked into the bad players lobby for no reason.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I'd honestly say no. It's an utterly gorgeous game and it's worth experiencing that world for a while. The story and missions are just... meh. I was sure that once I finished the story I'd have this desire to go back into the side missions or play online, but I just didn't. (The online, by the way, was just an exercise in tedium. The missions might be boring in single player, but at least I don't have to wait and wait and wait to play them.) It just felt like this next great amazing part was right around the corner and it just never came. It made me long for the days when GTA was about committing crimes and not about mopping floors, torturing people for confusing reasons, and appeasing a guy's ungrateful family. Even the racing which I enjoyed from previous games was mediocre here - you can only do it at night, you can only do it with the most boring character, you can slow down time to make it stupidly easy, and you can mod your car to blow everyone else off the road for a relatively low cost. Thankfully I didn't spend $60 on this game myself when it came out thanks to some wheeling and dealing.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I got it, and it seems to be a good game but I don't really enjoy it. Not sure why, but I just can't get into it. I loved 3 and 4 but this one just seems to have lost its charm for me.
Then again, that might be because I've moved on to games of other styles. I can't even bring myself to enjoy Pokemon much now.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's okay.

I felt the 3 different protagonist thing hurt the story more than it helped.

The online mode is lukewarm at best, and I personally said the hell with it when I got chucked into the bad players lobby for no reason.

The online mode is not helped by the fact that it's incomplete and Rockstar have screwed it up at literally every step. Also, Rockstar are lying bastards who claimed that they fixed the stat problem, when I just lost levels in two stats weeks after it was fixed. And it's not an issue of me not saving or something, since those stats were higher for weeks. Honestly, I feel really bad for anyone who puts money into the online game, as it looks like the bugs they wanted to work out before the stimulus drop happened are still somewhat there.

But Los Santos is still a fun sandbox. The problem I have is that there's not much to do in online except deathmatches (which are really pay to win) and races, and not much reward for doing anything.

Sirron, I feel my 60 dollars was worth it for the game, but if you've held out this long, sale prices are going to be happening. Amazon had a flash sale or whatever the other day for 35.00 USD. Online play may even one day be worth it, but it kinda sucks right now.

And I don't know how Sane got in the bad sport lobby when one of my friends keeps blowing up personal vehicles and getting good sport rewards. EDITED: I'm not bitching about his actions, BTW. We've actually been trying to get him in the bad sport lobby, so we're as much to blame as he is, if not more.

Speaking of, now that medical bills are smaller, death doesn't sting as much. A certain Escapist thanked me for helping him out by costing me 30G in a little under two minutes back when the game was young. Thank God he didn't blow up my car, or he might have ended up a bad sport, you know?

 

[Something Amyss]

Screwing around afterward is even more fun. It's not an RPG, and i think that's a mistake a lot of people make so the activities run out eventually, but with a good imagination you can make your OWN fun. Try landing a passenger get on a sky scraper. It CAN be done... and it's a lot of fun trying.

I can make my own fun in ANY game, though, and many games aren't as restrictive.

EDIT: I should qualify sandbox games. There are plenty of tunnel games and the like that are totally more restrictive.

I really wish I was playing Saints Row (preferably 2, but I'd take any of them) on a map this size. I would give this game a perfect score if they had done that. I would give it 12/10 if they did that.

You want to win me back, Volition? You know what to do.

Stilwater/Steelport on a map this big with hoverbikes and crazy gangs.

 

[samwise970]

Of course its worth it. GTA V is a great game, well worth the 100 hours I've already put into it, easily worth the 60 cents an hour its cost me.

 

[Rogue Ranger]

I liked it. The story was a bit confusing, but the heists were awesome and Trevor hysterical. There's a big leap for NPC vs NPC, but I'd like to see a bit more. The car physics are superb. However, the Internet in the game is kind of awkward to interact. The stock market gets confusing when no momentum in rise or fall exists, and somebody ought to tell me what missions affect WHICH stocks.

 

[FFP2]

Let me put it like this:

I have not taken GTA V's disc out of my 360 since launch. And my play time is over 150 hours (80 of those from the first week alone).

It's one of only 2 games that I consider to be game of the generation.

 

[Something Amyss]

I understand your point of view, but that's why you have Saints Row, and you have GTA. If both were identical, what would be the reason of having both?

If that was the prevailing logic, we wouldn't have many sandboxes at all. Many were created as heavy ripoffs of the GTA series.

And you know what? That's actually good. We had a ton of games that all had a similar fun factor.

What a game should not do, however, is make me wish I was playing a different game.

Personally, I couldn't get into Saints Row. Yeah, freedom and all, but it was all a bit TOO silly for me. That might sound strange but there just weren't any stakes involved. No reward for exploration. Just balls to the wall insanity, anywhere, any time.

What do you mean by "rewards?" what games, for that matter?

I mean, Saints Row 3 LITERALLY rewarded you for exploration (XP or whatever the equivalent is actually called), but Saints Row 2 had more Easter Eggs than GTA V does

I LIKE that GTA is more grounded in reality - I didn't say realistic, I say more grounded in reality.

Which it's not. It's absurd and cartoony. I think you're working backwards from "I like it" to "therefore it's more grounded in reality" rather than from the logical standpoint. You like it because you like it. Why try and rationalise it with something that's just not true?

It makes the car chases much more fun for me.

I can't see how, but whatever floats your boat.

You don't interact with Steel Port, you DO interact with San Andreas.

Saints Row 3 is where the series downgraded to shallow and hollow. One of the reasons SA reminds me of SR2 is because it brings back the diversity of Stilwater on a larger map. Hell, Stilwater IS a larger map than Steelport. Not huge like SA, but what game is, honestly?

Honestly, the only thing I want from 3 in 2 is hoverbikes. Maybe luchadores. That wouldn't really change the heart of things. 3 is ultimately shallow, but then, so is GTAV. Which brings us full-circle.

The idea that one should have to make their own fun is a testimony to how shallow GTA really has become. San Andreas is pretty, large, and hollow. Rockstar doubled down on sizzle over substance, and this is why people are already coming down off their "BEST GAEM EVAR" sugar high.

You may notice that, for my criticism of the game, I was one of the most positive people on here when I posted about it. I think that's really telling. For all the "win-win" talk, I don't think that's the case.

Also, I don't know how you can be playing V and bring up meticulous car chases. The car physics in this game are as bad as, if not worse than SR3 (and I hear in IV you don't really need a car). This seems like an offshoot of the "grounded in reality" argument, and it's the perfect example of why GTAV is NOT grounded in reality, more grounded in reality, or even close to reality. GTA V did not have sexual relations with that plane of existence.

And you know what? That's fine, but it still doesn't make it fun.

 

[MarsProbe]

Yes, it is. If you liked GTA IV, then you should get on fine with GTA V, plus it cuts out the terrible "hangout with friends" feature (well you can still hangout, but it's not forced). Personally, I liked the story, characters and humour, 3 things a lot people seemed to have issues with. Depends on your taste, I guess.

Anyway, I'm out of here before this descends into a tiresome repeat of the GTA IV backlash we had to endure way back then. You know it's going to happen eventually.