4.5/5 ★ – peacebrendanp's review of Grand Theft Auto V.

There isn't much to say about Grand Theft Auto V (GTAV) that hasn't already been said (I will still probably proceed to say too much, as means to get my thoughts out). It's incredibly iconic, from it's art style to it's music. There is a reason it has been remastered for every generation since it's original release. I wanted to revisit the game one last time before GTAVI releases within the next year or so. I replayed this game on the PS5 (playing via the PS5 specific port), and while there has definitely been a lot of enhancements, the game still fundamentally functions like the original 2013 release. It is surprising to me that this game released when it did. The visuals, physics, music, cinematics, and general cohesion of the world feel far ahead of it's time, and the PS5 enhancements definitely help showcase this. That being said, some of the mission structure and technical limitations of the time have not aged as gracefully. Regarding the mission structure, I just feel like there's a slight level of blandness here? I don't want to harp too much on the game, because it was released in 2013, and for the time I think it pushed the medium forward. But, playing it in 2024, I felt like you are either driving from point-A to point-B, or shooting your way through endless waves of enemies (which isn't bad necessarily, but I will touch on this point later). Even some of the side activities like racing seem fun to me on paper, but actually playing through them, I felt like they were easy, and not really dynamic in any engaging way. The technical limitations are obvious if you try and manage any number of cars. You'll supe-up a car, only to have it disappear for the rest of the game. I read somewhere online that the way the game handles "memory-objects" is a little funky. I would assume consoles of yester-yester-year had limited memory to keep track of all of the player-objects in the game, vehicles specifically. One time, I even had Franklin's vehicle in the impound, but it was there for Michael, and I had never driven Frank's car as Michael once. It's not a big gripe, but I wanted to mention it, as it did confuse me. There were a number of small issues like this throughout my playthrough. The combat is fair. It's not nearly as good as Max Payne 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2), but it holds it's own. The ragdolls are fun, but NPC's in general feel less dynamic than almost any other Rockstar game, making the combat feel, well, less fun. A good example is how in many other Rockstar games, there are dynamic reactions to injuries, i.e. NPC gets shot in the leg, he then limps away, but that is almost entirely absent here (NPC's still have a "wounded" state, it just feels more shallow than their other games). The game's default aim-settings help the player too much, so I had to switch my settings to "Free-Aim - Assisted" to actually feel like I had some control. All of that being said, there are many tools at your disposal for combat, and they mostly all feel unique and varied. Plus, some of the PS5 port enhancements make explosions and fire-effects look cool as hell. I've been mostly critical here, but it's important to note that the game feels great to play. Cars are weighty, guns feel good to shoot, and there's plenty of activities to engage with throughout the city. The world still feels like an incredible feat, to have an open-world that feels so true to the West-Coast, and to still have it hold up over a decade later? Great stuff there. Driving from a great metro area like Los Santos, to a desert, run-down area like Sandy Shores, to the quiet coast-line town of Paleto Bay displays the different varieties of areas to explore, all while driving through and around mountains, deserts, and forests. It's still one of the more impressive open-worlds around. The side-activities are varied and diverse here. They didn't all catch my attention this time around, however. I did some of the races around the area, and did some flight-schooling, but I was mostly uninterested in the sports activities, as I remember them from the first time I played, and felt that they are a bit too on-the-rails for me (though still impressive that they are there in the first place). The strangers and freaks missions are pretty good here. You get to engage with a wide-array of characters, that have fun, exaggerated, and satirical dialogue that give insights into the three main protagonist's psyches. The three main characters, Trevor, Michael, and Franklin, are all very well written, and all play a little different a la their special abilities. Franklin is probably the most grounded character in the game, while Michael is the middle-aged, washed-up, 80's-obsessed gangster, who is caught up in the past. Trevor is the crazy one lol. But, he is so well written, and the performance by Steven Ogg is incredible. Every time he is on screen, I was thoroughly engaged. I don't know if he's the best character ever written in a game, but he's definitely up there as one of the most fun and unique characters to see come to life. These three characters have arcs that intersect and weave together quite nicely. They have a fun dynamic that develops well over time, and moves the story forward. The story itself was fun, but it leans very heavily into the satirical nature of the series. You're essentially getting pulled back into a life of crime and planning heists to score on. The satirical tone of the game is unique in itself, but it is not my preference for these types of games per se. I thought there were interesting angles to the story, like the whole working for the FIB, but overall while I thought the last act was done wonderfully from a stylistic standpoint, I didn't think the meat was there necessarily. The main "bad-guys" weren't that great. I was left wanting a bit more from that area of the game's story. Overall though, it's a fun tale with some good set-pieces. Also, huge shoutout to the soundtrack. It's one of my favorite collections of music ever, and turned me onto a lot of music back in the day. They have added a station or two here with the port, and there are even more songs to pick from (even though I saw that some songs were removed due to licensing stuff). I liked the music more this time around, as I just generally have a greater appreciation for some different genres as I have aged. I don't note haptics in every write-up I do, but I like to mention them when they are utilized well. The PS5 port of GTAV has probably some of, if not, the best third-party haptics I have experienced. The triggers recoil when shooting a gun, they jolt at you when revving the engine or slamming the breaks, and the controller realistically mimics the feeling of driving on a gravel road when you are doing so in-game. It's really impressive, and I wanted to note it. RDR2 spoiled us. That game set the bar for what I want from Rockstar, which is a game that rides the fence between fun and immersion. Revisiting GTAV, I was disappointed with the lack of the immersion aspect in the game. Specifically when it comes to customization. I felt that whether I was customizing my car or my character, I was handicapped in expressing myself how I wanted to. While there are plenty of options to customize your car, it doesn't feel as deep as it could be. It's also weird that you can't buy every car that is driving around in the game (though I suppose you could steal and store one in your garage). Customizing your character feels super weird here, certain clothing items can't be combined (I assume they just didn't have time to make them all work together), and there is a pretty limited amount of hair/tattoo options available (though they are all apt to the respective character you are customizing). I'm hoping for a hair-growth system that was similar to the one in RDR2 to make an appearance in GTAVI. And in general, I hope and can probably assume that these gripes I have with customization in this game, will not really be present for GTAVI. I don't know what else to say about the game. After nearly 40 hours of playtime, I guess I would say: it's one of the most visually stunning games from the PS3/360 generation, and it's been enhanced to really sport the game on modern hardware. Sure some textures could use some enhancements, but overall the game more-so looks like a PS4 game that was ported for modern hardware. The combat services the game, the mission structure could be better, but there's still some great immersion going on here. The story is good and fun, and the characters are engaging and well written, even despite the story and character motives not being my favorite I have experienced in the past decade. I hope Rockstar leans more towards the serious nature of a game like RDR2, while still maintaining a healthy level of satire for GTAVI. By the looks of the first trailer released for GTAVI, it might just go that way. I started this all because I wanted to re-experience RDR2, and that turned into this mini-gauntlet of re-playing Rockstar's games from the past decade or so. It ends with this title, which feels apt given GTAVI's release looming on the horizon. Looking forward to what they can achieve next. Console Played On: PS5 (PS5 Port) Game Played: 05/2024 - 06/2024 Review Written and Published: 06/06/2024