I love the story in GTA but for me it fell apart a little towards the end. In general, I think it would maybe benefit Rockstar to, not lose the humor, but maybe find a better balance between the over-the-top caricatures and real dramatic stakes
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GTA V on PS4/X1 Review Thread
- Thread starter ekim
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I love the story in GTA but for me it fell apart a little towards the end. In general, I think it would maybe benefit Rockstar to, not lose the humor, but maybe find a better balance between the over-the-top caricatures and real dramatic stakes
Can you summarize the main themes and story beats of GTAV for me?
use spoiler tags, of course!
Haven't played TLOU but I really enjoyed the GTA story aswell. The only thing I didn't really like about it is that Trevor became a "good guy" far too easy, I think I would have preferred to see him stay as a complete psycho the whole game
Fox_Mulder
Rockefellers. Skull and Bones. Microsoft. Al Qaeda. A Cabal of Bankers. The melting point of steel. What do these things have in common? Wake up sheeple, the landfill wasn't even REAL!
GTA+TLOU everyone wins
From Netherscourge's post:
Michael - save himself/family
Franklin - make a name for himself
Trevor - starts out as a total psychopath, but then he kinda/sorta falls in love and at least develops "concern" for someone other than himself.
Redemption, revenge and the pitfalls associated with the pursuit of the "American Dream".
All of which was bridged and delivered via great dialogue, interspersed with well timed humor.
GTA 5 did so much right for me.
TLoU narrative is something I can enjoy once, but not over again and again.
BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO
Junior Member
"The best writing and voice acting you'll see in a video game"..............
It didn't take Nostradamus to make that prediction.
That was actually one of his predictions. Ever watch the History channel?
Tidus_Great
Banned
oscar worthy thread cousin
Pankratous
Member
The writing of Trevor's character almost made me quit the game halfway through. Loud, stupid, annoying.
The Albatross
Member
I wish that you were kidding.
For a major game with narrative elements, GTAV has one of the worst stories in recent years. It's not worse than GTAIV, but it's still terrible. All of those elements you mentioned are true, except zero of them are fleshed out at all at any point in the story, Rockstar misses every opportunity to expand on them, and most are just dropped completely with no resolution. There are people who may not have played it in this thread, so I'll spoiler this:
- Nothing happens with Michael's family. They're together at the beginning, they split up for a few hours of gameplay, and then they get back together. There's no conflict other than surface-level silliness, like his daughter going on Lazlo's show, or his wife cheating on him with the Yoga instructor, or his son being kidnapped/whatever. They split up for no meaningful reason and they get back together for no meaningful reason. It just happens.
Michael's "movie" thing is so contrived and, again, goes nowhere.
Franklin is a low level thug throughout the entire story. You hear a lot about his roots and so on, but see none of it, and nothing gets resolved. Other characters criticize Franklin of losing his connection to the streets, and Rockstar's way to resolve this is just to have Franklin say things like 'whatever.' Also Franklin kinda-sorta has a female girlfriend who's mentioned in missions by minor sub characters, but you never see her or see any of them.
Trevor has no compelling storyline, which is fine, he doesn't really need one. But, there are things that are never developed... His antagonism with "The Lost" motorcycle gang is staged in 1 mission and then over in the next. Same with any wars he has with any drug trades. The only compelling thing that Trevor has is his hilarious relationship with that guys wife and his mother... But again, just like Michael's substories, those are small joke diversions and not meaningful storylines. Tanisha or whoever she is will text him or call him and criticize him, but that's it... She's in like 1 cutscene. Their entire relationship is told via about 5 text messages.
There is no plot to GTAV. Things just happen and you go from mission to mission with things happening. Michael destroys a house in the Beverly hills for basically no reason (oh, his wife cheated on him... which is something we're led to believe has happened dozens of times) and now he's got to pay for it so he has to become a criminal mastermind again. That's ridiculous. Michael has avoided this lifestyle for 10 years or whatever and is under witness protection for it, and now, his wife cheats on him and he has to go back to that life style...? C'mon
The storyline with Michael and Trevor is the biggest flub in game storylines in a long time. Trevor thinks his best friend is dead for 10 years, when in fact, he just sold out to the Feds which in turn got their other best friend killed. And then Trevor, the psychopath, finds out that didn't happen, and... well... basically nothing changes. The first confrontation between Michael and Trevor is so stilted. The same thing happens with the scene of Trevor learning that their other buddy isn't in jail, but he's dead. It's setup for missions on missions, and then the resolution is like a 30 second conversation and it's over, basically forgotten about in any serious way.
There are no bad guys in GTAV. No villains. Just annoying characters who make you do something for them, whether they're bad or good who knows, they're just "there" to push missions forward. When you do interact with "bad guys" you don't care about them, they're just there as an opponent in a particular mission. I'd say the same about GTAIV and Red Dead as well. What I do like about GTAV is that it doesn't take itself seriously like IV and RDR do, so this issue doesn't really matter.
Every other storyline that could develop doesn't, they just get "resolved" with a simple mission.
The worst thing in GTAV is two of the three endings. The "Go down guns blazing" ending is fine. The other 2, where you kill Trevor or Michael for literally no reason are just tacked on and meaningless. I did the kill Michael mission and Michael becomes so out of character, and Franklin keeps shouting how Michael held him back and didn't let him get ahead... and it's like... what... where did any of this come from? The third ending, IMO, is fine and fits what we know about the characters.
Michael's "movie" thing is so contrived and, again, goes nowhere.
Franklin is a low level thug throughout the entire story. You hear a lot about his roots and so on, but see none of it, and nothing gets resolved. Other characters criticize Franklin of losing his connection to the streets, and Rockstar's way to resolve this is just to have Franklin say things like 'whatever.' Also Franklin kinda-sorta has a female girlfriend who's mentioned in missions by minor sub characters, but you never see her or see any of them.
Trevor has no compelling storyline, which is fine, he doesn't really need one. But, there are things that are never developed... His antagonism with "The Lost" motorcycle gang is staged in 1 mission and then over in the next. Same with any wars he has with any drug trades. The only compelling thing that Trevor has is his hilarious relationship with that guys wife and his mother... But again, just like Michael's substories, those are small joke diversions and not meaningful storylines. Tanisha or whoever she is will text him or call him and criticize him, but that's it... She's in like 1 cutscene. Their entire relationship is told via about 5 text messages.
There is no plot to GTAV. Things just happen and you go from mission to mission with things happening. Michael destroys a house in the Beverly hills for basically no reason (oh, his wife cheated on him... which is something we're led to believe has happened dozens of times) and now he's got to pay for it so he has to become a criminal mastermind again. That's ridiculous. Michael has avoided this lifestyle for 10 years or whatever and is under witness protection for it, and now, his wife cheats on him and he has to go back to that life style...? C'mon
The storyline with Michael and Trevor is the biggest flub in game storylines in a long time. Trevor thinks his best friend is dead for 10 years, when in fact, he just sold out to the Feds which in turn got their other best friend killed. And then Trevor, the psychopath, finds out that didn't happen, and... well... basically nothing changes. The first confrontation between Michael and Trevor is so stilted. The same thing happens with the scene of Trevor learning that their other buddy isn't in jail, but he's dead. It's setup for missions on missions, and then the resolution is like a 30 second conversation and it's over, basically forgotten about in any serious way.
There are no bad guys in GTAV. No villains. Just annoying characters who make you do something for them, whether they're bad or good who knows, they're just "there" to push missions forward. When you do interact with "bad guys" you don't care about them, they're just there as an opponent in a particular mission. I'd say the same about GTAIV and Red Dead as well. What I do like about GTAV is that it doesn't take itself seriously like IV and RDR do, so this issue doesn't really matter.
Every other storyline that could develop doesn't, they just get "resolved" with a simple mission.
The worst thing in GTAV is two of the three endings. The "Go down guns blazing" ending is fine. The other 2, where you kill Trevor or Michael for literally no reason are just tacked on and meaningless. I did the kill Michael mission and Michael becomes so out of character, and Franklin keeps shouting how Michael held him back and didn't let him get ahead... and it's like... what... where did any of this come from? The third ending, IMO, is fine and fits what we know about the characters.
(edit... looks like you can't spoiler tag a whole list... Eh. I'll clean this up later and leave the spoiler. FYI this was a bulleted list.)
I don't really care that the game has a terrible/non-existent story, because it never takes itself too seriously... So it doesn't matter. I think it's much more harmful that GTAIV doesn't have a coherent storyline because GTAIV took itself so seriously.
Despite that, though, I think the voice acting and writing is still very good, and definitely worthy of being one of the best written and voice acted games.
The storytelling in GTAV, in service of creating scenarios for entertaining gameplay moments based on well known pop culture/film/TV tropes, and the incidental dialog and actions creating character, are fantastic. The actual story is kind of a meandering mess in which the resolution just happens rather than being a logical culmination of an overarching narrative featuring character progression and change. It doesn't really detract from the entertainment you get from playing through the story though.
This is actually my biggest problem (and probably my only "real" complaint) with GTA5's story aswell, for how much they were building Michael to be a family man I was expecting Trevor to start showing how much of a psycho he really is and how much Rockstar wanted us to believe he is and start kidnapping Michaels family threatening them etc, instead.. he just rolls over and takes it like a dog.
toddhunter
Member
The problem with GTA5 is a young crook, old crook story would have just been fine.
Trevor is thrown in for large sections of the game, serves no real purpose, is completely inconsistent depending on what missions you do and is generally unpleasant to play as.
This is probably meant to be the point, but that doesn't make it a good choice and it brought down the whole game for me.
Based on the reviews, I'll probably get it, mess about with the first person mode, play until Trevor and think "fuck this".
Trevor is thrown in for large sections of the game, serves no real purpose, is completely inconsistent depending on what missions you do and is generally unpleasant to play as.
This is probably meant to be the point, but that doesn't make it a good choice and it brought down the whole game for me.
Based on the reviews, I'll probably get it, mess about with the first person mode, play until Trevor and think "fuck this".
I believe it is touchpad on DS4, wherever you are.
Also you can set defaul preferences on how and when will fps/tps change automaticaly.
It's the same button you would use to switch camera angles in a vehicle (so touchpad on PS4 and select or whatever on XBO). Pressing the button on foot switches from 3rd to 1st. It will remember your preference for vehicle and on foot separately, so will switch automatically when you enter/exit vehicles.
I don't have one mate.
Art Vandilay
Member
Wasn't that special right after the new episode of Swamp People? Haha
GTA V isn't any triumph of storytelling. But they managed to constantly up the ante without it feeling contrived, and that's quite the accomplishment to me.
To your points, Albatross:
To your points, Albatross:
1 - There's family drama because that's what happens in families. I don't see why anything else needs to happen. Michael loses and regains his family over the course of the game.
And the movie thing did come out of nowhere ... but then you realize it doesn't. He spends most of his days watching films. He gets into conflicts with his family so he can watch films. You see this all passively throughout the game. When you realize that he has a genuine love for cinema that's an interesting moment for the character.
2 - Franklin is a former low-level thug by the games' start. They address that. "You're looking more like a sn-i-tch every day". His arc is that he left the gang live, and decides to get a real job with Simeon. But soon he realizes that his only skills are as a thug, so he decides he wants to go all the way with it (Bank Robbery). He interacts with his 'girlfriend' as often as you interact with her, that's the point. He drives her away living this 'thug life' dream.
3 - Trevor's storyline is the warping of his mind when he's abandoned and his best friends die. He goes full 'Trevor'. He gradually grows back towards normalcy with Michael and Franklin, until he realizes he was betrayed and becomes cold 'Trevor' again.
4 - There is a plot. A retired bank robber realizes that luxury wasn't want he wanted from robbing banks, but the thrill of executing it. He meets a younger wannabe bank robber, and they also meets up with people who knew from his bank robbing days. As a group they get involved in more and more illicit activities, eventually reaching the government level.
5 - I will say this, as much as I didn't expect the resolution that Michael and Trevor's relationship has, it prefer that over a cliche. Trevor realizes that they were destined to die, and Michael took the easy way out to protect his family. He doesn't go "Arrgh, I must kill you". His response is far more understated and sad.
6 - There are 'villains' in GTA V. Just some of the bad guys don't appear so bad in comparison with the protagonists.
7 - The endings that aren't 'C' aren't great.
And the movie thing did come out of nowhere ... but then you realize it doesn't. He spends most of his days watching films. He gets into conflicts with his family so he can watch films. You see this all passively throughout the game. When you realize that he has a genuine love for cinema that's an interesting moment for the character.
2 - Franklin is a former low-level thug by the games' start. They address that. "You're looking more like a sn-i-tch every day". His arc is that he left the gang live, and decides to get a real job with Simeon. But soon he realizes that his only skills are as a thug, so he decides he wants to go all the way with it (Bank Robbery). He interacts with his 'girlfriend' as often as you interact with her, that's the point. He drives her away living this 'thug life' dream.
3 - Trevor's storyline is the warping of his mind when he's abandoned and his best friends die. He goes full 'Trevor'. He gradually grows back towards normalcy with Michael and Franklin, until he realizes he was betrayed and becomes cold 'Trevor' again.
4 - There is a plot. A retired bank robber realizes that luxury wasn't want he wanted from robbing banks, but the thrill of executing it. He meets a younger wannabe bank robber, and they also meets up with people who knew from his bank robbing days. As a group they get involved in more and more illicit activities, eventually reaching the government level.
5 - I will say this, as much as I didn't expect the resolution that Michael and Trevor's relationship has, it prefer that over a cliche. Trevor realizes that they were destined to die, and Michael took the easy way out to protect his family. He doesn't go "Arrgh, I must kill you". His response is far more understated and sad.
6 - There are 'villains' in GTA V. Just some of the bad guys don't appear so bad in comparison with the protagonists.
7 - The endings that aren't 'C' aren't great.
The Albatross
Member
Alienous, I think we have a difference in opinion of what constitutes a storyline/plot versus what constitutes "things happening sequentially." Almost nothing before an event in GTAV has any effect on anything after an event in GTAV, beyond a single quick resolution to it. I look at all of those things you've listed and see them as "things happening sequentially," but not a storyline or plot. Like, if I walk into the kitchen and stub my toe, and then crash my car the next day, and then my house burns down, and then I buy a new house, that's not a plot or a storyline... It's just things happening. Characters doing things isn't a plot or a storyline to me, it's just characters doing things.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's fine in the context of GTAV, which I think is Rockstar's way of creating an awesome world and great missions and just saying "we don't need to give you a good reason to do these awesome things in this awesome world, just go do it." I am 100% okay with that and I think it works for the game, but I don't think that it has a good story. It has a ton of gold in there, but storyline or plot -- IMO -- is not one of them. Personally, I don't think it needs a good story, and I'm very happy that Rockstar did not try to take themselves so seriously as they did with GTAIV, where they really tried to shoehorn a weak story into the world.
Personally, I don't think that Rockstar knows how to make a narrative. Their best narrative (San Andreas, in my opinion) is one that is borrowed heavily from the medium. I think that this worked for them, though, and when they wanted to go out and write original narratives, they were either stilted and over-serious (GTAIV) or disjointed (RDR). I really, honestly, think that they decided early on that they don't need a real storyline for GTAV and the game can persist on it's premise alone... Which it does (IMO).
I feel like this is a GRRM Game of Thrones thread with the spoilers...
I think Rockstar has generally forgotten how to make storylines in games since PS2-era. IV, RDR, and V all lacked storylines. I really liked RDR and V as games (even IV when it came out though less later), but they are pretty weak with story. I'd say RDR has the best non-existent story, followed by V, and then IV... Mostly because IV is a complete and utter trash mess, but I've wasted too many words on IV's story before.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's fine in the context of GTAV, which I think is Rockstar's way of creating an awesome world and great missions and just saying "we don't need to give you a good reason to do these awesome things in this awesome world, just go do it." I am 100% okay with that and I think it works for the game, but I don't think that it has a good story. It has a ton of gold in there, but storyline or plot -- IMO -- is not one of them. Personally, I don't think it needs a good story, and I'm very happy that Rockstar did not try to take themselves so seriously as they did with GTAIV, where they really tried to shoehorn a weak story into the world.
Personally, I don't think that Rockstar knows how to make a narrative. Their best narrative (San Andreas, in my opinion) is one that is borrowed heavily from the medium. I think that this worked for them, though, and when they wanted to go out and write original narratives, they were either stilted and over-serious (GTAIV) or disjointed (RDR). I really, honestly, think that they decided early on that they don't need a real storyline for GTAV and the game can persist on it's premise alone... Which it does (IMO).
I feel like this is a GRRM Game of Thrones thread with the spoilers...
Agreed. And it's not like he even really rolls over and takes it, there's just literally no resolution... It's just like the previous 10 years didn't happen, save for a handful of joke comments made throughout the game. Like, he walks in, see's Michael is alive, and is then like "I can't believe you're alive! ... Okay let's go save your son" the end of it.
I think Rockstar has generally forgotten how to make storylines in games since PS2-era. IV, RDR, and V all lacked storylines. I really liked RDR and V as games (even IV when it came out though less later), but they are pretty weak with story. I'd say RDR has the best non-existent story, followed by V, and then IV... Mostly because IV is a complete and utter trash mess, but I've wasted too many words on IV's story before.
I am pretty sure the point of that was to show that while Trevor is an evil monstrous human he still has core values, like friendship and loyalty. And to then contrast that insane violent personality with Michael, who is presented as a "family man" but ultimately is revealed to be a snitching coward with no loyalty to anyone who is willing to throw anyone under the bus to save his own ass. And we are further allowed to explore this angle with the 3-way ending, especially Trevor's, which gives us a good view as to how Trevor might have felt upon learning he was betrayed by Michael.
Trevor's reaction to Michael and his family, specifically not going after them is meant to highlight what little humanity he has and how despite the fact that his line in the sand is drawn waaaaay further back then most, he will not cross it. Even if you try to recruit him to kill Michael in the ending. Michael on the other hand, has no such qualms. And whose worse?
Trevor's reaction to Michael and his family, specifically not going after them is meant to highlight what little humanity he has and how despite the fact that his line in the sand is drawn waaaaay further back then most, he will not cross it. Even if you try to recruit him to kill Michael in the ending. Michael on the other hand, has no such qualms. And whose worse?
KyanMehwulfe
Member
Oh, I agree... what I meant was hood vs cockpit... a hood cam is always better than third-person IMO. far better control. what I meant was, I can understand how cockpit cams can be difficult though because they block so much of your view.
you know, if you sit really close to your TV, so that the road viewing area is the same as a hood cam (so, your viewing area shrinks by, say, 30%, so move 30% closer or something)... then I love cockpit cams. but I feel I have to sit closer to the TV to feel the same control/view of the road as a hood cam, otherwise the viewing area becomes too small vs a hood cam.
in that way, cockpit cams can be more difficult. so i'm not surprised gamespot found it hard. that said... there's a big difference between bad and hard. the review sounded like he just found it challenging, and seeing as he really didn't play that much (didn't even finish the game) he probably wasn't very used to it. so I'm not sure why they summarized it as bad rather than just difficult/steep learning curve.
Truth.
jellies_two
Member
Gamereactor.eu 10/10
http://www.gamereactor.eu/reviews/272824/Grand+Theft+Auto+V/?cat=reviews
and for you 10/10 means perfect nerds
" I can't do anything other than award the highest score to this edition. While there are still some shortcomings, nevertheless it's a masterpiece. GTA has never been better."
http://www.gamereactor.eu/reviews/272824/Grand+Theft+Auto+V/?cat=reviews
and for you 10/10 means perfect nerds
" I can't do anything other than award the highest score to this edition. While there are still some shortcomings, nevertheless it's a masterpiece. GTA has never been better."
Everyone has their own opinion, but respectfully I could not disagree more.
That said, TLOU deserved GOTY for 2013, but GTA V, with all of its additions to an already ridiculously good game, deserves it for 2014.
KyanMehwulfe
Member
yup.
after bury the hatchet, becomes such a bitchfest... and the story arcs are so fragmented, missions like lamar down are so seemingly random. and the whining and bitching between T and M ruin it for me. the end of the Big One Subtle is such an akward and anticlimactic scene... the story was so much tighter with the heist 1 build up, the initial FIB arc, or the Exile arc. also, devin weston was distracting, felt it was a waste to focus so much on steve haines and build of a dislike for him only to have devin became the bigger focus on the end. haines should have been in that trunk. that said, i thought the story and writing from the intro to heist 1, and at least some of the initial FIB arc and then during Exile was very well done.