This review contains spoilers
It cannot be stressed enough : GTA V is Rockstar's magnum opus, and one of the most impressive and immersive game ever. The radio stations are an example of this: so much licenced music, and in my 30 hours with the game, I didn't hear a single repeat radio talk-show segment. There was so much voice acting done for this game, it's very impressive.
On the gameplay side of things, GTA V is, once again, very impressive because of how much stuff there is. You can play tennis, you can go to see your therapist, you can run a triathlon, you can fly a plane, ride a boat, shoot, make stuff explode, fist fight... It doesn't do anything amazingly well (even though the flying is quite impressive honestly), but the sheer diversity of things that there are to do more than makes up for the average gameplay of everything. I do need to talk about the driving though: it is insanely fun. Thankfully, Rockstar remembered that this game is called Grand Theft AUTO, and they really made the driving very good. Every car feels different, it's fun to try and go at high speeds without crashing into other drivers. I would've liked the CPU to put a turning indicator when it switches lanes, because it happened quite often for me to drive on the back of a car that was switching lanes abruptly, but apart from that, the driving is perfect. A big difference between this game and Red Dead Redemption II is that I actually didn't mind coing to the other side of the map for a side-quest, because getting there is fun, and I just can't say the same for Red Dead, where horse-riding is not fun at all.
The shooting isn't fun though. The auto-aim is a bit too powerfull (you just need to flick your stick up to get a headshot, because you'll automatically aim for the chest of the enemy), and I honestly can't tell the difference between most weapons. The shotgun doesn't feel like a traditional video-game shotgun because of its range for example.
You may think that the underwhelming shooting makes the missions dissapointing, but that isn't quite true. The missiosn focused on shooting are a bit boring. I noticed this during Trevor's first missions, where all you do is shoot stuff, which is pretty in line with Trevor's character, but underwhelming from the gameplay perspective. However, most missions focus on other things, or at least have other things in them (driving, flying a plane/helicopter) or put the shooting in an interesting context (a heist, an infiltration...). Often, there is a "drive to this point on the map" part to the mission, which is used to dump exposition dialogue, but these are fine because, again, the driving is terrific. These travel sequences are way worse in Red Dead Redemption II (I do prefer Red Dead II to GTA V but let's just say my love for that game comes from other places than the story missions).
Furthermore, the stories these missions tell are often quite good, so you're encouraged to complete them. They're often wacky, funny, crazy, featuring good dialogue. This game doesn't take itself too seriously, which is good. The overarching story however isn't bad, but it is held back by a lot of pacing issues. This game does not know how to end itself. Just when you're about to get the big heist going, which gets you excited, Trevor decides to go back to North Yankton, and shit just hits the fan, both for the characters, and for this game's pacing. Before you get to that Heist you really want to do, and that you've already started to plan by the way, you need to : save Michael, do another completely different Heist for the Bureau, end the bureau ark (which gets Trevor back in the story), end Michael's family ark, save Lamar (who gets completely forgotten for half the story) and then you get to do the Heist. Don't get me wrong, I like those arks individually, but they should've ended sooner to not clutter the end of the story. This game simply does not know when to end its different arks. And the actual endind to the game is... dissapointing. They force a multiple endind story, which really doesn't make sense, or feel earned. You can guess that getting Trevor killed is still on the mind of the Bureau, but the "kill Michael" option just comes out of left-field and comes out as just an option to make this a three-way choice rather than a binary one. But even then, the first option doesn't feel all that deserved: the game doesn't do a great job at making it clear that the Bureau still wants Trevor dead. So that option to kill Trevor is weird, because it feels like the end to a storyline that started before the game's main action takes place, and isn't really developed throughout the game.
So, you can either kill Trevor, kill Michael, or save both. Clearly, the way Rockstar wants you to pick is the third option. Killing Michael makes no sense for Franklin's character, and Michael is pretty much the main character of this game. Killing Trevor is a bit more plausible, because he is clearly the principle antagonistic force of the game, but why would the player stop himself from using him in the future by killing him ? Furthermore, why would Franklin, a character who is known to be loyal to a fault, kill a guy who helped him multiple times ?? The multiple choice ending is forced, and the Rockstar-intented ending isn't very good. You just kill every antagonist in the game, and all your problems are solved somhow. So firstly, why did no one do that before if it were that easy ?? Secondly, the game doesn't really have a main antagonist, so the tail-end to the game, which doesn't even see you kill the most unlikable antagonist of the game, is a bit meh.
I do have to end on what GTA V is most known for: the free-roaming. It is excellent. Everything is fun, the web browser was a great idea, full of fun little things to do. The stock markets are a really underrated part of the game in my opinion. You can't make tons of money with them, but they're fun to fuddle around with, and see the stocks of comanies you interact with fluctuate depending on your actions in the game. Getting in trouble is fun, even though losing the police is a tad too easy in my opinion. There are so many activities that I won't even start to talk about them here, I'll just list a few I liked : street races, triathlon, plane trials, shooting range. The side quests, entitled Strangers, are fun. They highlight gameplay elements you don't necessarily see in the main story, and develop everyone's characters quite well, through interactions with fun characters. The towing missions aren't amazing gameplay-wise, but they really show how loyal to a fault Franklin is, which make him even more likable to me.
GTA V is an amazing game, and is a fun version of Red Dead II. That game is amazing in its own right (again, I prefer Red Dead II to GTA even though I think GTA is the better game), but the gameplay wasn't that fun, because it tries so hard to be immersive that it becomes realistic, which isn't the same at all. I can feel immersed in a game without having to sit through a 3 second animation every time I want to loot someone. GTA V is immersive becaus eof how varied it is in its gameplay, because of its presentation, but it doesn't sacrifice fun. However, the story, while it is fun when looked at mission-by-mission, is terribly paced, and it really kills the enjoyment I had of the game in the last few hours, and made me put the controller down immediatly after I was done with the last mission, which is a shame.
On the gameplay side of things, GTA V is, once again, very impressive because of how much stuff there is. You can play tennis, you can go to see your therapist, you can run a triathlon, you can fly a plane, ride a boat, shoot, make stuff explode, fist fight... It doesn't do anything amazingly well (even though the flying is quite impressive honestly), but the sheer diversity of things that there are to do more than makes up for the average gameplay of everything. I do need to talk about the driving though: it is insanely fun. Thankfully, Rockstar remembered that this game is called Grand Theft AUTO, and they really made the driving very good. Every car feels different, it's fun to try and go at high speeds without crashing into other drivers. I would've liked the CPU to put a turning indicator when it switches lanes, because it happened quite often for me to drive on the back of a car that was switching lanes abruptly, but apart from that, the driving is perfect. A big difference between this game and Red Dead Redemption II is that I actually didn't mind coing to the other side of the map for a side-quest, because getting there is fun, and I just can't say the same for Red Dead, where horse-riding is not fun at all.
The shooting isn't fun though. The auto-aim is a bit too powerfull (you just need to flick your stick up to get a headshot, because you'll automatically aim for the chest of the enemy), and I honestly can't tell the difference between most weapons. The shotgun doesn't feel like a traditional video-game shotgun because of its range for example.
You may think that the underwhelming shooting makes the missions dissapointing, but that isn't quite true. The missiosn focused on shooting are a bit boring. I noticed this during Trevor's first missions, where all you do is shoot stuff, which is pretty in line with Trevor's character, but underwhelming from the gameplay perspective. However, most missions focus on other things, or at least have other things in them (driving, flying a plane/helicopter) or put the shooting in an interesting context (a heist, an infiltration...). Often, there is a "drive to this point on the map" part to the mission, which is used to dump exposition dialogue, but these are fine because, again, the driving is terrific. These travel sequences are way worse in Red Dead Redemption II (I do prefer Red Dead II to GTA V but let's just say my love for that game comes from other places than the story missions).
Furthermore, the stories these missions tell are often quite good, so you're encouraged to complete them. They're often wacky, funny, crazy, featuring good dialogue. This game doesn't take itself too seriously, which is good. The overarching story however isn't bad, but it is held back by a lot of pacing issues. This game does not know how to end itself. Just when you're about to get the big heist going, which gets you excited, Trevor decides to go back to North Yankton, and shit just hits the fan, both for the characters, and for this game's pacing. Before you get to that Heist you really want to do, and that you've already started to plan by the way, you need to : save Michael, do another completely different Heist for the Bureau, end the bureau ark (which gets Trevor back in the story), end Michael's family ark, save Lamar (who gets completely forgotten for half the story) and then you get to do the Heist. Don't get me wrong, I like those arks individually, but they should've ended sooner to not clutter the end of the story. This game simply does not know when to end its different arks. And the actual endind to the game is... dissapointing. They force a multiple endind story, which really doesn't make sense, or feel earned. You can guess that getting Trevor killed is still on the mind of the Bureau, but the "kill Michael" option just comes out of left-field and comes out as just an option to make this a three-way choice rather than a binary one. But even then, the first option doesn't feel all that deserved: the game doesn't do a great job at making it clear that the Bureau still wants Trevor dead. So that option to kill Trevor is weird, because it feels like the end to a storyline that started before the game's main action takes place, and isn't really developed throughout the game.
So, you can either kill Trevor, kill Michael, or save both. Clearly, the way Rockstar wants you to pick is the third option. Killing Michael makes no sense for Franklin's character, and Michael is pretty much the main character of this game. Killing Trevor is a bit more plausible, because he is clearly the principle antagonistic force of the game, but why would the player stop himself from using him in the future by killing him ? Furthermore, why would Franklin, a character who is known to be loyal to a fault, kill a guy who helped him multiple times ?? The multiple choice ending is forced, and the Rockstar-intented ending isn't very good. You just kill every antagonist in the game, and all your problems are solved somhow. So firstly, why did no one do that before if it were that easy ?? Secondly, the game doesn't really have a main antagonist, so the tail-end to the game, which doesn't even see you kill the most unlikable antagonist of the game, is a bit meh.
I do have to end on what GTA V is most known for: the free-roaming. It is excellent. Everything is fun, the web browser was a great idea, full of fun little things to do. The stock markets are a really underrated part of the game in my opinion. You can't make tons of money with them, but they're fun to fuddle around with, and see the stocks of comanies you interact with fluctuate depending on your actions in the game. Getting in trouble is fun, even though losing the police is a tad too easy in my opinion. There are so many activities that I won't even start to talk about them here, I'll just list a few I liked : street races, triathlon, plane trials, shooting range. The side quests, entitled Strangers, are fun. They highlight gameplay elements you don't necessarily see in the main story, and develop everyone's characters quite well, through interactions with fun characters. The towing missions aren't amazing gameplay-wise, but they really show how loyal to a fault Franklin is, which make him even more likable to me.
GTA V is an amazing game, and is a fun version of Red Dead II. That game is amazing in its own right (again, I prefer Red Dead II to GTA even though I think GTA is the better game), but the gameplay wasn't that fun, because it tries so hard to be immersive that it becomes realistic, which isn't the same at all. I can feel immersed in a game without having to sit through a 3 second animation every time I want to loot someone. GTA V is immersive becaus eof how varied it is in its gameplay, because of its presentation, but it doesn't sacrifice fun. However, the story, while it is fun when looked at mission-by-mission, is terribly paced, and it really kills the enjoyment I had of the game in the last few hours, and made me put the controller down immediatly after I was done with the last mission, which is a shame.