As a modern urban city sandbox this is still pretty much unmatched. The city just makes sense as a space, it´s interactive, it´s populated, it really feels alive and most importantly it is fun to traverse and explore. There´s a crazy number of activities to partake in, you are sure to find something interesting there, and the famous GTA mayhem is as fun as ever. The shooting is ok, standard third person cover action, nothing special there. The driving is simply excellent, you are going to be driving a lot in this game, and it manages to always be engaging.
I’m not as fond of the story sadly. The main trio is very well realized and compliment each other wonderfully. All the systems introduced to make playing with three characters at once while also making them feel like individual characters work flawlessly. It´s just the narrative and its structure that doesn´t quite feel as polished as the other elements of the game. The plot is technically moving along, but it doesn’t feel like it goes anywhere or that there is any reason behind the things that are happening. It lacks some major end goal or evolution in its characters and story that leaves it feeling aimless and similar to doing a set of chores. I can’t help but compare it to Red Dead Redemption 2, which I believe is a way better game in pretty much every sense, where there always was something to look ahead for, plenty of unexpected surprises, and honestly, the strength of the writing and characters held up any sequences that might feel a bit lackluster in comparison. Here it seems like they are hiding behind the irreverent tone and jokey satire to not really develop much of anything, and the comedy and satire are not nearly as solid as they should be to carry the momentum all by themselves. It starts strong, but it just becomes more of the same as it goes along, never really surprising the player nor justifying itself. I also played a bunch of the side missions and while they have some interesting moments, they don’t really amount to much sadly.
I´m not even remotely interested in trying out the Online component.
Amazing city sandbox, not so great story, you probably have already played this, so you know it already.
I’m not as fond of the story sadly. The main trio is very well realized and compliment each other wonderfully. All the systems introduced to make playing with three characters at once while also making them feel like individual characters work flawlessly. It´s just the narrative and its structure that doesn´t quite feel as polished as the other elements of the game. The plot is technically moving along, but it doesn’t feel like it goes anywhere or that there is any reason behind the things that are happening. It lacks some major end goal or evolution in its characters and story that leaves it feeling aimless and similar to doing a set of chores. I can’t help but compare it to Red Dead Redemption 2, which I believe is a way better game in pretty much every sense, where there always was something to look ahead for, plenty of unexpected surprises, and honestly, the strength of the writing and characters held up any sequences that might feel a bit lackluster in comparison. Here it seems like they are hiding behind the irreverent tone and jokey satire to not really develop much of anything, and the comedy and satire are not nearly as solid as they should be to carry the momentum all by themselves. It starts strong, but it just becomes more of the same as it goes along, never really surprising the player nor justifying itself. I also played a bunch of the side missions and while they have some interesting moments, they don’t really amount to much sadly.
I´m not even remotely interested in trying out the Online component.
Amazing city sandbox, not so great story, you probably have already played this, so you know it already.