D
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So I recently bought the two expansions for PC in a Steam sale. I had just finished Red Dead, and was kind of getting into a nice grove with the whole R* book of design. I never really bother with many stranger missions or mini-games, but I really fell in love with navigating a really well realised environment from mission to mission, enjoying the general atmosphere.
VERY MILD SPOILERS, SHOULDN'T BE AN ISSUE FOR 99% OF PEOPLE
Anyway, so I played Lost and Damned (the first expansion, the Biker one) and it started off really well. Billy was an interesting character and the playable character, Johnny, had potential. But then it did the thing that GTAIV did, and totally overstayed its welcome. Sure, it was much shorter, but the story written around the group of bikers totally went off the rails once Billy was removed from the centre stage and a whole lot of other less interesting characters were introduced.
Basically, it did the GTA4 thing of starting off with cool characters and a good central idea, but failed to actually support itself in Act 2. Video games. The Johnny character went no where, and Billy's motives were really unclear to me for the most part. The central relationship the glued the whole story together fell apart once the intro was over.
The mission design was... well, it wasn't awful, but it wasn't very good either. The shitty driveby GTA4 controls were necessary fairly often and the way the had you exploring the environment was totally boring. Most of the missions were gun-heavy, kill-a-bunch-a-dudes fests.
So yeah. On the plus side, shorter than GTA4 (the episodic structure is definitely where I think most all R* games should go from now on), but still totally fell apart in the middle and the mission design neglected fun in the name of pseudo-plausibly, which only made it more glaringly stupid when it came time to (last mission spoilers)
. I prefer games embrace their insanity, rather than try and hide it and then have these giant contrasts between what the world is saying and what the game is asking of you. Typical GTA4itis.
Which brings me to Gay Tony. It fixed basically all the complaints I had with GTA4 and L&D.
The core relationship that hold the story together, that of Luis and Tony, was super-engaging all the way through. At no point does the game suddenly stop and say HERE GUYS SUDDEN GEAR CHANGE TIME FOR NEW MISSION GIVERS, it actually trusts itself to remain interesting throughout with Tony as the primary mission-giver. I mean, there are characters that come in and out of focus, but for the most part all the characters you meet are interesting or at least entertaining. The Mauri/Brucie thing was great, Yusef was hilarious and Bulgarin, while the weakest character in the game (
), still shone interesting lights over the relationship that I actually gave a shit about, the friendship between Tony and Luis.
At no point did the game not trust itself to continue along that story path. In the time it took me to finish the episode, Luis and Tony actually went through a really well plotted bit of character development. So many games fail to do this thanks to the Act 2 problem. In the end, every character in the game, every single one, served as a way of making me think about the two characters we actually gave a shit about in some new, whether it be drawing attention to the weirdness of it, cleverly delivering a bit of off-hand backstory or reinforcing its strength.
Tony and Luis remained totally likable and endearing characters throughout the whole god damn thing. John Marsden was similar in that regard, but even RDR had the Mexico section, which while not terrible, really felt like fluff in the grand scheme of things.
The mission design totally embraced its weirdness. Throwing a blogger out a helicopter and catching him as he falls before parachuting to safety? You betcha. I won't spoil anything else, but the way the missions guided you around the city and let you see certain areas was masterful. Whether it be flying a helicopter through Times Square or seeing the Globe in a different light, it all felt natural, interesting and like it was doing the city justice. And to top it all off, most of the missions weren't totally KILL DUDES BRO, they actually had interesting ideas or scenarios. The mission complete screen with stats and the like was also a really cool thing which I hope makes its way into other R* games.
So the last two missions kind of fucked up in that regard. Absolutely ridiculous KILL ALL DUDES with unforgiving checkpoints. Luckily the shittiness is confined to those missions, and the last mission actually manages to end strongly after the bullshit Funland part.
Luis does crazy, unbelievable things, but the game embraces it. It made stealing a subway train feel more believable to me than a bunch of bikers smuggling in some coke.
So, I don't know, the reason I'm posting this is because I feel like this episode got so little love in the community, when it did so much right. I absolutely hope GTA5 focuses on more of a 'Tales from City X' vibe, showing the lives of a whole range of characters rather than trying to drag one story out over 20 hours and falling flat on its face as a result. Showing different stories also shines a light on how many different sorts of people can all live together in one place, which I find super-interesting, and it also gives a narrative conceit for wildly different missions, which previous GTA games have just had to force in at not always great times.
So yeah, if you hated GTA4 but liked the PS2 GTAs, or liked RDR, I would strongly suggest playing this game. I'd have paid full price for it and walked away totally satisfied.
I'm not proof-reading this, so shoot me.
tl;dr: Play this game and see why it does what GTA4 didn't and then pray that R* decide to make GTA5 in a similarly episodic way. Not as in, releases a new game every month, but in that it contains a series of different stories from the one city.
VERY MILD SPOILERS, SHOULDN'T BE AN ISSUE FOR 99% OF PEOPLE
Anyway, so I played Lost and Damned (the first expansion, the Biker one) and it started off really well. Billy was an interesting character and the playable character, Johnny, had potential. But then it did the thing that GTAIV did, and totally overstayed its welcome. Sure, it was much shorter, but the story written around the group of bikers totally went off the rails once Billy was removed from the centre stage and a whole lot of other less interesting characters were introduced.
Basically, it did the GTA4 thing of starting off with cool characters and a good central idea, but failed to actually support itself in Act 2. Video games. The Johnny character went no where, and Billy's motives were really unclear to me for the most part. The central relationship the glued the whole story together fell apart once the intro was over.
The mission design was... well, it wasn't awful, but it wasn't very good either. The shitty driveby GTA4 controls were necessary fairly often and the way the had you exploring the environment was totally boring. Most of the missions were gun-heavy, kill-a-bunch-a-dudes fests.
So yeah. On the plus side, shorter than GTA4 (the episodic structure is definitely where I think most all R* games should go from now on), but still totally fell apart in the middle and the mission design neglected fun in the name of pseudo-plausibly, which only made it more glaringly stupid when it came time to (last mission spoilers)
break into a Prison with a group of ten guys and actually manage to get out alive, without the FBI hunting you down and still manage to kill the guy they were after
Which brings me to Gay Tony. It fixed basically all the complaints I had with GTA4 and L&D.
The core relationship that hold the story together, that of Luis and Tony, was super-engaging all the way through. At no point does the game suddenly stop and say HERE GUYS SUDDEN GEAR CHANGE TIME FOR NEW MISSION GIVERS, it actually trusts itself to remain interesting throughout with Tony as the primary mission-giver. I mean, there are characters that come in and out of focus, but for the most part all the characters you meet are interesting or at least entertaining. The Mauri/Brucie thing was great, Yusef was hilarious and Bulgarin, while the weakest character in the game (
and a totally forced FINAL VILLAIN
At no point did the game not trust itself to continue along that story path. In the time it took me to finish the episode, Luis and Tony actually went through a really well plotted bit of character development. So many games fail to do this thanks to the Act 2 problem. In the end, every character in the game, every single one, served as a way of making me think about the two characters we actually gave a shit about in some new, whether it be drawing attention to the weirdness of it, cleverly delivering a bit of off-hand backstory or reinforcing its strength.
Tony and Luis remained totally likable and endearing characters throughout the whole god damn thing. John Marsden was similar in that regard, but even RDR had the Mexico section, which while not terrible, really felt like fluff in the grand scheme of things.
The mission design totally embraced its weirdness. Throwing a blogger out a helicopter and catching him as he falls before parachuting to safety? You betcha. I won't spoil anything else, but the way the missions guided you around the city and let you see certain areas was masterful. Whether it be flying a helicopter through Times Square or seeing the Globe in a different light, it all felt natural, interesting and like it was doing the city justice. And to top it all off, most of the missions weren't totally KILL DUDES BRO, they actually had interesting ideas or scenarios. The mission complete screen with stats and the like was also a really cool thing which I hope makes its way into other R* games.
So the last two missions kind of fucked up in that regard. Absolutely ridiculous KILL ALL DUDES with unforgiving checkpoints. Luckily the shittiness is confined to those missions, and the last mission actually manages to end strongly after the bullshit Funland part.
Luis does crazy, unbelievable things, but the game embraces it. It made stealing a subway train feel more believable to me than a bunch of bikers smuggling in some coke.
So, I don't know, the reason I'm posting this is because I feel like this episode got so little love in the community, when it did so much right. I absolutely hope GTA5 focuses on more of a 'Tales from City X' vibe, showing the lives of a whole range of characters rather than trying to drag one story out over 20 hours and falling flat on its face as a result. Showing different stories also shines a light on how many different sorts of people can all live together in one place, which I find super-interesting, and it also gives a narrative conceit for wildly different missions, which previous GTA games have just had to force in at not always great times.
So yeah, if you hated GTA4 but liked the PS2 GTAs, or liked RDR, I would strongly suggest playing this game. I'd have paid full price for it and walked away totally satisfied.
I'm not proof-reading this, so shoot me.
tl;dr: Play this game and see why it does what GTA4 didn't and then pray that R* decide to make GTA5 in a similarly episodic way. Not as in, releases a new game every month, but in that it contains a series of different stories from the one city.
