Grand Theft Auto V has proven to be a massive hit, it was breaking sales records within the first 24 hours it was on sale and has been receiving critical acclaim across many outlets. The Guardian’s review was featured heavily on the front page of its website. Here at Reticule Towers though, we haven’t yet delivered our Verdict, that will change in the coming weeks, but for now you can check out some thoughts from Chris and Kevin after the break.

Chris

I’ve barely even scratched the surface of this massive game having only just met the sociopathic Trevor. He’s a bit nuts, yet despite being hardened to how video games can present certain moments, his introduction was a bit…nasty. I’ve heard about a torture scene that comes along later in the game which you apparently have to take part in. I haven’t got there yet, and I won’t go on about the morals of the game much further, but I do feel that Rockstar might be doing some things just to see how far they can go before receiving a massive media backlash. Which of course would only serve to make the game more popular, as is the way of things.

Regardless, I have been having fun with this trip into Los Santos so far, hell I’ve actually played it for more than a couple of hours. That is certainly an improvement over San Andreas and Nico Belic’s adventures in IV. I’m enjoying the interaction between Michael and Franklin and completing the first heist was a barrel of fun.

Something does seem to be missing though, I am sure that when all is said and done that I will give it a good Verdict, but it lacks the je ne sais quoi of GTA3 and Vice City. Maybe it is the bloat of leveling up your character and getting haircuts, maybe it is just the city being too big, but I doubt I will live in the world quite like I did in the older titles.

Are there no special jumps? Billboards? Rampage missions? Vigilante jobs? If there are I haven’t found them yet, and this is a shame as they made the earlier games for me. I need to get back to the game though, for all my bugbears, it is damn fun.

Kevin

What can be said about of the biggest and most talked about games in all history that hasn’t already been said? Quite a lot it seems and most of it is bad. Grand theft Auto is one of those games that everyone and their gran just has to play and the hype surrounding the release of GTA V was nothing short of monumental. Everything I read talked about the innovative features, grandiose characters, massive map packed with detail and the hours of gameplay that is contained within. While all of this is of course true, making this in my opinion the greatest GTA game ever, it is far from perfect, something that very few people have dared to talk about. Well it seems I’m about to walk that dangerous path.

Let me start with my biggest objection, the illusion of choice. When it comes to certain heists, you are given an option of how to approach. For example hiring extra gang members or playing smart by disguising yourself. Having talked to friends about this it appears there are instances in which I have made completely the opposite decisions and have ended up with the same outcome. I can’t go into too much detail without dropping some major spoilers but it saddens me to say that the choices you make actually have very little affect in some, but not all cases. What I would have liked to see, were choices that really affected the story and it’s characters in unique player driven ways. It’s one thing to have an impressive world to play in, but it’s an entirely different thing to affect that world in your own way.

My next point, and this could be down to misinterpretation of hype, is that GTA V was supposedly to contain a thousand missions. Having completed the main campaign of sixty nine (twenty less than GTA IV) I’m feeling a little lost as to what exactly I should do next. I’m sure a large portion of these will be contained in GTA‘s yet to be fixed online section, but surely having invested so much time into characters, skills, vehicles and so on, there would be something a bit meatier to sink my teeth into after the final whistle. For example it would be nice to have a few minor missions that only unlocked once you had completed the main campaign as there’s only so many times you can play tennis or hunt for collectibles before you get bored.

GTA V is in my mind, the best game of the year so far with stand out characters, gameplay and sheer attention to detail that has spanned years of painstaking development. It’s more engaging than ever before, more daring than ever before and bigger than ever before. In a world that large it’s impossible to be perfect however and GTA V is not without it’s faults. Don’t mistake my objections as dislike for the game, It’s simply important to take off rose tinted glasses from time to time.