GTA repackaged, with a Vinewood facelift. Nothing exciting or new.
One thing they did change was that you play as three different characters: Michael De Santa (Townley is his real surname), Trevor Phillips, and Franklin Clinton. This change must have been too drastic, so they couldn't afford to find another template from which to build their next protagonist. Instead they opted for a tried and true formula of a street thug that is looking to branch out, a psychopath who kills for fun (except now he can talk and is more more white trashy), and a slick white collar criminal that hob nobs with federal agents, lawyers and big businessmen. Sound familiar? Well, that's pretty much the lineup for GTA3, GTA Vice City, and GTA San Andreas. Oh yeah there may be some slight differences, namely they are all over the hill and on their way out, but the principle is the same. These are obvious calls back to the original protagonists.
Visually, the game is beautiful. If looks gave a game a perfect score, this would get a 11/10. They captured the LA look very well with this city. The countryside areas are a marked improvement over previous GTAs. The experience gained from making Red Dead's landscapes really shows. Small details like wet clothes, moon cycles and living fauna really make this a visual treat. I wish I could be fully satisfied by just a scenery show. Too bad I wanted more of a complete package like we were offered in GTA San Andreas.
The map is very large for a video game map. The urban street design for Los Santos is well done, and serves as a more compact version of Los Angeles. The countryside areas are fun to travel, but seem kind of void. There are very few activities here and not many missions utilize the vast landscape. You get the feeling this is "reserved space" for future DLCs and online play. Too bad I probably won't be playing online, nor do I want to wait for DLCs for the real game. There are also many seemingly important places like a prison and military base that never really factor into the story in any major way.
The general lack of real estate options let me down. There are many mansions and condos in this game, but only one house for each character. I liked being able to choose where I live in GTA:SA, but you are pretty much stuck with the house Rockstar chooses for your character in this game. It's a big map. Sometimes you may want a cabin in the woods or a shotgun shack in some no-name town to hide out or out of which base your next adventure.
I am getting kind of tired of the same cities though. Are there only 5 cities in the GTA United States or something? There are so many other ones to parody and stylize in GTA fashion. You'd think they'd do Chicago or Washington, DC by now. I guess Los Angeles is a "sexier" market to the penny pincher analysts working sales and advertising at Rockstar. (You can't argue against over a billion dollars in sales so far...)
The main mission line seems a little short and one-dimensional. At the risk of spoiling too much, I will just say that bank robbery is going to cover a huge part of the main story. Sure there is a side story between Trevor and Michael, and each main character has a dysfunctional family which surfaces throughout the game. Maybe it's just that I have done this type of stuff before in every GTA game that I have played, but it seemed rehashed. Corrupt government agents, crime bosses, and general outcasts of society seem to be a part of every GTA game. It gets to be overload to remember which game is which. All the game storylines seem to blur into one big muddled mess in my memory.
Controls and general gameplay are serviceable. I have no real problems, other than the new helicopter wobble. Nothing really new is added in this game. Everything you do in GTA V you did in GTA San Andreas. Okay, they added underwater diving and took out weightlifting. I guess that makes it about even. Checkpoints were added in GTA IV, and mean less wasted time on do-overs. I guess that's a good thing. You also have airplanes "introduced". If only they weren't "de-introduced" in GTA IV.
I liked the music and sound in the game. Song selection was pretty good, but I liked the period-based soundtracks of 80s Vice City and 90s San Andreas. I dialed into the classic rock station much of the time, so I don't know much about the other stations. There seemed to be a good variety from what little I sampled of other stations.
Many have complained that the dialog is still pretty juvenile and crude. I guess this plays into the teenage demographic base they are targeting. It does turn off the older fans that would like to see this series turn into a more serious work of interactive fiction. There are other games for this however, and GTA has made this type of humor and satire a signature. Whatever works for them. I'm far more concerned with declining gameplay value than dialogue which can be skipped with a single button press.