An in-depth, and un-biased review of GTA V ( single player )
In GTA V there is 3 main characters. Michael, a middle-aged rich white man who gained his money from robbing banks, and has 'retired'. Franklin, a young black man from South Central Los Santos. A man trying to escape the gang culture and make some real money. Trevor, a crazy physcopath who runs a meth industry in the outback of San Andreas. The 3 characters interwine in the story perfectly and the addition of multiple characters is one of the main strong points in the game.
The map in this game is big. It may not be Skyrim big and as we have seen massive worlds before, it is nothing amazing. But the world's success isn't in size but in detail. The detail is literally breathtaking and this detail allows you to forget about the occasional texture pop-ins, and ageing character models. The world is beautiful, but the up-close on characters isn't anything special, i mean it's not much of an improvement over Red Dead and that was released what, 3 years ago?
The story in this game is structured similar to past GTA games, but is built around a half-dozen of big heists that you perform. Don't get me wrong, the heists are fun and provide a decent paycheck, but they feel very structured and limited as to the planning. Rockstar made it seem like you would be able to customize the heists to make them unique to you..Phaha. You get to chose between 2 ways of entry, normally loud and dumb, or quiet and clever. You get to chose between a handful of people to help you on the job, but the decision is usually only going to go 1 way. A guy who's stats are really high, or a guy who's stats are really low.. What do you think?
The gameplay is improved, the shooting feels more fluid and the slowing down when switching weapons helps with the immersion. Driving is.. different.. It doesn't feel as realistic as in IV, this has been done to make for more fun police chases and it reduces crashing but i feel like my car is glued to the road. It may be very weak pritstick glue, but glue nonetheless.
Each character in this game has a special ability, and this makes for some real fun. Michael's is a little lame, he slows down time similar to John Marston in Red Dead. But Trevor goes into a full blown rage mode where he takes no damage and he dishes out double damage. Franklin can slow down time in cars, this is handy in chases and times you think your going to crash.
This games world is massive, there is many activities to do, stranger missions,cars to customize, multiple playable characters and a 25 hour story. But, somehow it feels limited. You can't go to the gym, the character customization is VERY one dimentional. There's hardly any buildings to enter, the idea of just robbing a store when ever you feel like it is well.. theres only a handful of stores that you can go in, never mind loot. I hope im not giving off a bad impression of the game, and im sure ive missed things out in this review. But it's just not the super realistic, free to do whatever you feel like game i was expecting.
GTA V: 8.5/10