I loved every old Rockstar game and GTA game up to and including San Andreas but hated GTA 4, (Red Dead Redemption was o.k.). I love arcade mode State of Emergency. Judging by this I suspect they never will make another classic. It's better than GTA4 (not hard) but it looks tired compared to recent games. The graphics suck bad. Really bad, but graphics aren't everything...but they suck. The controls are awful. I don't know why people keep saying they are so good. Play Crysis 3 and tell me the controls are anything like as good. Its awkward to swap weapon and the menus screens are clunky. The characters are tired and hackneyed and whilst I can take a bit of that I'm bored of the rockstar cliches. Good bits, well its a lovely big open world with well all the cool normal GTA stuff in that you like. Choice of guns vehicles and now the welcome 'character' abilities are a positive step. I like the way you can flit between characters for heists. It adds another much needed dimension. Radio shows are still funny with some truly awesome tunes. All the hype is a bit much though for what it is. Its o.k., maybe even as good as san andreas was at the time but with graphics and better competition from other great games. I have gone straight back to playing 'The last of us' and 'Fallout 3'. Buy if you would accept more or less anything from rockstar but if you want real deep innovation you will be disappointed.… Expand

Oh boy.. The hype for this game was so extremely forced, I thought it was a joke at times But to be honest, It turned out quite badly even while it does many things right such as the open-world enviroment, the interesting story and a fantastic attempt of immersion, It kinda falls apart from the ability to jump inbetween 4 different people in the chest-high-wall coverbased shooting combat, the moronic & repetitive AI, extremely scripted singleplayer missions and overall physics controls.
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To be more specific, GTA 5 does many of the mistakes the last XCOM did, such as having little to no realistic proportions when it comes to physics which can be seen in the very first hour of the game where you enter a car chase and slam a low-riding SUV police car from the side (with an old family-van model) and It goes flying off the road as you remain completely untouched without even the suspensions reacting to pushing 1-2 tons off the road like a sack of potatoes or how you have next to perfect grip with said old family van car on an incredibly icy dirt road at max speed in the middle of winter.
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But what really stuck out for me is the script and the overall consistency. An example would be minutes after starting, you're speeding down the road away from a huge shoot-out and you meet cop-cars going the opposite direction in the other lane. One of your buds thoughtfully gives the comment of "Oh, they don't know It's us so pay no mind" as rightfully so, the cops ignore you fully... until 15 seconds of driving ahead, there's a huge police blockade that starts to fire at your car with everything they got the very nanosecond they see you. Another example would be how they sometimes give you tutorials to do things.. AFTER you've done things, like the case where you fly your first plane.
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I know It is not a deal breaker but It's something that interferes severely with the overall consistency with the game and combine that with the physics, FPS lag, moronic AI and you've got a streamlined product that has been both overhyped & hastily made for the masses and add the final frosting to this sh!tcake with the inability to play online for the first couple of days and for that, the game gets a big, shiny 0 from me.… Expand

Poor framerate, poor graphics. Shouldnt have been released for this gen consoles. I would have loved to see this on my PC instead. It could have been so beautiful, but instead they sold out.

Very dumbed down car handling. It is pathetic and I bet that was made for all that casual players that dont know nothing about real world physics etc. So that kids can have fun in stupid games but when they grow up they are making car accidents because they have no idea about real car handling. Pathetic game because of what they did to car physics. And that funny ability to rock car back on wheels hahaha another feature for dumb kids. GTA is so childish that it hurts. I will not buy that game. I only hope that good moders will fix that pathetic childish car handling on PC version. Also add speedometer, fuel usage and stuff that will make this game more real so it will not look so much dumbed down.… Expand

Just like the other GTAs, I got bored of this after messing around using cheats(the best part of the game), seeing the highest points of the game and being disappointed. Driving cars is the best part and that's not executed as well as other games do.

The game is fun, but the Xbox 360 version keeps freezing every 10-20 minutes on my Original Xbox 360 (No HDMI version). It is frustrating to have to replay missions over and over and hope it doesn't freeze.

I'll cut straight to criticisms.

Camera is still surprisingly slow on maxed out sensitivity. You still have to tap A to sprint or peddle bicycles faster. Left trigger to ADS or lock on for melee which unfortunately is still not as versatile or interesting to witness as Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. You shoot with right trigger and you can't switch it with left trigger without switching sticks. Like in GTA IV you tap right shoulder button to cling to walls which while less clunky and more immediate will often slap you against a surface that has an open line of fire from the enemy.

There are a few differences. Crouching is a stealth action. The weapon wheel; engaged by holding the left shoulder button. Not only can you carry every class of weapon in the game but every model and you switch them by picking weapon class with the right stick then scrolling through models with directional buttons. You trigger sticky bombs by tapping left, while selecting weapons in a vehicle is done by pressing X. Needless to say it's convoluted and often even illogical.

Early on you'll notice how much easier the game is in some ways and more difficult in others. In both cases to the detriment of the experience. On foot, eliminating an enemy is a breeze due to far less recoil, lots of aim assist (yes, even in free-aim), and bullet magnetism. This leaves gun fights feeling shallow. To counter this difficulty is amped up by having more enemies per encounter leaving your health bar to erode faster. This holds true even in vehicles with them serving in no appreciable way as armor. You'll need body armor when engaging in a gunfight. I'll go into further detail why that's an issue when I touch on how the game's economy is a problem. Either way, if it's not as fun shooting one enemy as it was in the previous game you're not going to want to shoot even more of them.

Speaking of vehicles. They are a lot easier in every way. Accelerate and reach max speed faster. Decelerate almost instantly in comparison to GTA IV. Even the heaviest class takes turns as sharply as a formula one car. Further, when airborne you can control a vehicles yaw, pitch, and roll like they all come with an elevator, rudder, and aileron. This goes a long way in harming suspension of disbelief. Planes are a different story.

Much more can be said on the subject of cars, though. As if being less distinguishable from each other wasn't enough sports cars are everywhere. In GTA iV you quickly learned the characteristics of most vehicles and gravitated towards certain models, fully appreciating when they pop-up. You completely cherished sports/super cars and saved them for races and more difficult missions. In GTA V it doesn't matter. You can pop into most cars and they'll get the job done. Not only do they handle like go-karts they have their physics as well. Mach trucks will fly sky high at the slightest bump and vans can easily be shifted 45 degrees by kicking.

Physics in general are a step down from GTA IV. Nothing feels like it has weight including dumpsters which now feel like empty cardboard. Crashing is inconsequential. Even the damage model is bungled with the hardest collisions leaving minor scrapes. It's a testament to GTA IV that failing was as fun as succeeding. In GTA V it's hard to fail and it's not that much fun to succeed. Maybe this is by design. It's a big world. You'll need to get from mission to mission. With all that space this was their slipshod solution.

The missions themselves aren't handled much better. The side missions often have some scripted event and interesting character interaction to introduce them. Once that's done you're left with a painfully dull task that outstays it's welcome. Triathlons, Yoga, Towing Vehicles, Golf, Tennis which isn't bad itself but one set requires you to win six games. Against a good opponent this can go on for nearly half an hour. Bowling in GTA IV might not have been particularly engaging but it knew it was there for little else than flesh out a game world and it's characters.

You'll need to do missions for money which there's a scarcity of. I mentioned you'll need body armor but the average mission will pay for about two of those and hospital visits are insanely expensive. You'll need to buy up businesses (vary by character) which will pay too small off an amount weekly. To improve pay you'll need to do missions for these businesses. Some are time sensitive. Factoring in travel time, too sensitive. You will need to make investments. The biggest cash ins are during corporate sabotage missions. If you missed out. You're SOL.

On the subject of messing up, you will and then the cops arrive. They get provoked by as little as jumping face first into a wall never mind hostile actions. Even at one star they aren't easy to shake and one star takes too long to disappear but it can turn into two stars for no apparent reason and things escalate from there.… Expand

This game should be called Hollywood transport simulator for f**king idiots .

If you like bumbling around in helicopters, submarines and dumpsters while listening to your passengers literally SHOUT at you form point a to b Then your in for a treat..

The single player is very fun, but it is incomplete. The game encourages you to develop heist characters for a total of 2 more heists. There are no further heists you can organise on your own after you finish the game, in fact aside from buying property there is very little to do once you complete the game. As you don't make much money until the last 15% of the game you are left with a game that forces you to complete the story as fast as possible so you can have some money to modify cars and such. The game sadly feels incomplete.

The most telling sign of incompleteness is GTA Online. This is perhaps the worst ever online release I have ever seen. It should really have been ready with the game but this isn't the issue. Having waited for online to be released it took me 3 days to get online. Once I was finally online there were issues loading missions and with matchmaking. You lose a lot of money when you die to encourage you to use your real money to buy in game money which just ruins the gameplay. This micro-transaction mechanism works with free to play games but when I have already spend £45 on the game I don't expect to be encouraged to spend more.

The most irritating the about GTA Online is that my character, after hours of gameplay, has completely disappeared. In a response Rockstar comment on some of the minor bugs such as missing cars or guns instead of the really big issue of missing characters. Poor release and poor support since. I am sickened by the shambles Rockstar's release of GTAO is.… Expand

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. GTA 5 sucks balls. Had to restart 4 times because of servers. I will never play the game again. Why also because I had a house cost 120.000 did not save because of sever. Had a sweet car. Then the server went down. Level 32 The game did not save again because of sever. GTA 5 SUCKS BALLS THANK YOU.… Expand

The gameplay is fine, the graphics are very good, but the characters and story are a huge turn off. I made it about a third of the way through the story and just stopped playing because I couldn't relate to or enjoy anything that was going on it just is not motivating to play.

The sandbox elements of the game are fine, but there's not enough there to motivate you to keep playing, unless you find goofing off for hours and hours entertaining. Me, I find it fun for 10 minutes.

I keep trying GTA games because so many people love them, and I keep being disappointed. I just don't get it. The story isn't any good, the characters aren't relatable at all, and without that, there's no motivation to keep playing more than a few hours. Overhyped and overrated.… Expand

This is the most overrated game ever! It's poorly designed, with a stupid 3-heroes gameplay and primitive, but damaging role-playing system, Cars in this game are steering so badly, that it's be better if there is was no cars at all! And made race mission at the beginning of the game evil decision,

There is no atmosphere at all and a bunch of overplayed chars. This game is 100% money lost for some piece of unplayable crap.… Expand

To start off, I'll review this game in one word: shallow. The word rings true while calling to mind any and all facets of the game. A story that masquerades as compelling until it is quickly forced to open up and reveal its hollow interior, gameplay stuck on seemingly perpetual repeat, and dozens of elements that were clearly thrown in only for purposes of making the game look more expansive than it really is. I suppose some of my irritation comes not only from the game but from the way it was marketed. Biggest map ever? Only if you include the miles of sand and rocks that make up the game's underwater sections. Intense interactive heist missions? Only one can truly fit that description, while the others only do the bare minimum required to somewhat pass off as such. The world is no doubt impressive, but ultimately comprised of too much filler and wasted opportunity. So much of the world is incredibly detailed but ultimately useless and boring, and every time you come across an area that has the potential to defy that pattern, Rockstar has decided to neglect it (presumably to release it in a dlc pack later on). Really? The racetrack and CASINO (among other locales) are useless shells while i can go into a 7-11 and look at low-res cereal boxes? Sure, I can hold up the 7-11 for a comically small amount of money, which is nice considering the other 90% of stores you can't hold up, despite the creators frequently flaunting the new robbery mechanic. As far as the other new gimmicky mechanics, no amount of customization can spice up the relentlessly simple gameplay, which seems determined to etch itself into your head through gross repetition. Of course it's not all bad. The writing is often clever and the earlier missions are definitely creative, which stand in stark contrast to the last few missions, which feel more like side missions and hold about the same narrative weight. I also found the game quite funny, while my friend found it about as funny typhus, so I'd imagine his score to be even lower. The soundtrack is extensive and there are some fun side activities, but ultimately nothing that can save this game from the grave it started digging the moment they started marketing. There is just not enough to do once the story mode is completed, and that which there is feels more like a grind than a fun mechanic. You can't tell me navigating a poorly controlled submarine in miles of nothingness for an hour and a half, JUST to get a stupid collectible, is fun. You just cant! So please stop using mundane collectibles as a means to say "There is so much to do in this game omgggg!" There are several other small gripes I have with the game (such as the fact that they showed video of planes spewing toxic pesticides only to cheat us out of that actually fun mechanic) but I won't go into any more, as they come off as nit-picky. -Now, as I near the conclusion of my review, and many of you cry butthurt pc fanboy, let me say that I played this on 360 and am quite familiar with the GTA series. I'm not comparing this to a deep emotional experience like heavy rain, I'm comparing it to what GTA claims to be, and has succeeded at being in previous installments. A satirical sandbox with an entertaining story and mechanics that add to either the mood or enjoyment of the game. What you will find in GTA V is a dull story, shallow side activities and mechanics, and a city which has much more flare than substance. Also before I go i feel obligated to talk about gta's online feature. I don't even know where to begin with GTA Online. It's a glitch ridden mess, which encourages the complete opposite of what makes gta fun. It would've been much more accurate if they called it "Responsible Money Manager 2013 Where You Are Penalized For Committing Grand Theft Auto and Shamelessly Encouraged to Buy GTA Dollars Through the Online Store". Yuck. Online Freemode used to be such a chaotic and fast paced experience, and I couldn't have thought of a better way to ruin it myself. Obviously none of these criticisms are relevant if you can't even get in, or are unlucky enough to have all of your progress deleted, as is the case with thousands of users. Well, I hope this review helped to save you some money. If only I had read a realistic review before I dropped my precious $60.… Expand

Grand Theft Auto V is the worst game in the franchise. With one fell swoop, Rockstar takes away the soul of every good GTA game, freedom. Essentially, this game tried so hard to mimic reality that it was its downfall. GTA games aren't supposed to be like real life, that's what was so fun about the other games. Not being able to fire your weapon anywhere, only certain characters being able to buy certain properties, and the police contribute to the games sense of limiting personal freedom. The storyline and the graphics are the only good things about this game, which is probably the sole determinants of most of these reviews claiming the game is perfect. Selecting a weapon or radio station is unnecessarily difficult due to the Saint's Row-esque wheel. What was wrong with the previous controls? Playing this game seemed like an obligation. Continuing on the hamster wheel of mission after mission with little other options. The lack of available cheat codes sends an unmistakable message of you, do it our way'. As a GTA faithful since GTA III, this game is disappointing to say the least. Rockstar tried to make this game too real, and too much like Saint's Row, and by doing so, crushed the free spirit found in all of the previous Grand Theft Auto games… Expand

GTA online is Total utter changed my score from an 8 to a 0 just because of how bad online is and the lack of community communication by rockstar of how they are going to address these issues. the fanboy's if you put a EA logo on this game instead of a R* one people would be losing their Probably rioting outside their office. That was a joke but still people would be pretty ****ing pissed

A pretty sucks balls game is already overvalued with optical, but without fun to do and absolutely. I must admit that I stopped after 35% of the story continue to play consistently. I have no desire

GTA online sucks boring

In all honesty, I tried to play this game, and I tried... I tried so hard... and what ended up happening was that I was greeted with multiple segments of "avoid damage and drive safely" which to me is just a big step down. It was Driving Simulator 2014 I swear to god. A game is meant to catch the attention within the first hour. I know that the game can get fun, but all the things that you have to do to lead up to that fun is just not worth it. I'll admit I loved the past few games, but they were fun, it threw you into the action, this is just driving along a road avoiding other cars.… Expand

Like SimCity which preceeded it, the game simply isn't finished.

A large portion of buyers purchased the game for the online portion, which has been embarrassingly off the mark since launch day. The single player is more of the tired formula. Drive to point A...kill at point B...drive to point C.

Cars disappear rendering the money you earned to purchase them inert. Honestly there are so many technical issues with the game, it's best to just watch the game footage on YouTube.

Very poor. Does nothing to take the genre forward, and the only compliment I can pay is that the open world itself is a laudable technical achievement. Gameplay and server architecture...not so much.… Expand

too much like the saints row series and too much of the same game to me...i feel like it is way too repetitive with little improvements but nothing extraordinary...i guess i'm just burnt out on these types of games since i've played so many...

gta v is a disappointing game it fails to live up other gta for one money is scarce in the game and the missions are really boring. it has no good villains in the game and the online has far to go has to go.
overall i would not recommend this gta.

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I've played GTA since the third installment up until this new one. This is the worst one yet. R* is going the way of EA with souless games and trying to squeeze every cent they can out of you with DLC and microtransactions. If you plan to only play single-player, you should skip this one. The campaign is a total of 69 missions and once you complete them your already at over 50% complete with the game. Remember all those cool 'odd jobs' in previous installments? Pretty much gone except for the taxi missions.

- Not enough heists. What is the point of improving your crew member's skills when you barely get to use them?

- Grove Street was totally different. I barely recognized it from SA. If it wasn't for the cul-de-sac I wouldn't even know that it was Grove Street. Plus, the Ballas are now living there and there isn't an explanation why that is; which brings me to my next point.

- No gang territory. I loved taking over gang territory in SA. With GTA V you can't start gang wars, take over territory or recruit members. I wanted to retake Grove Street for the GSF but it will forever be Balla turf now. There were about 4 missions that involved the 'hood'. Way too short. One of the missions Trevor just decides to go down to Grove Street just for the hell of it. Literally for no reason.

- There is a casino in GTA V but you can't go inside and gamble. Another feature missing from SA.

- Purchasable properties You can buy them but cannot go inside? The missions for the 'properties' you own are mostly delivery missions that serve no purpose. It doesn't matter if you ignore them or not, you just won't get payed your $1k that week. There should be sub-missions for your properties which improve them.

- No purchasable safehouses. Franklin starts out with a house in the hood but then moves out to Vinewood. No longer can I buy a house in the hood, walk out the door and start shooting rival gang members like in SA. Now I have to drive from Vinewood all the way down to the 'bad' part of town, or take a cab and just steal a car when I get there. They saved all of the purchaseable safehouses for 'GTA Online'. So, if you only want to play singleplayer or don't have an internet connection, R* is basically saying screw you.

- The world map is bigger than SA only because of the ocean. I would have much rather preferred more land. Rockstar claimed that the world map for this game would be bigger than Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV combined with "the oceans, land and enterable locations." Well, the ocean is boring and there really is no point in being underwater and the enterable locations are very few and far between. There is A strip club, one, and about 15 gas stations that are all copy and paste. If you've been in one gas station you've seen 'em all. There are a bunch of clothing stores but they are copy and paste aswell, with just 3 different types. Suburban, Discount and a high-end one. There are also a few banks to go into but you can't do anything with them and they are also copy and paste. For Rockstar to claim that this is the biggest world yet just because of the ocean is very misleading advertising.

-On a random encounter mission, you had to transport a guy to the airport and when you got him there he tells you to buy stock that isn't listed on the stock market webpage.

-Vehicle Customization is back and was a major feature missing from IV.

-Stock market is a waste of time after you've completed the assasination missions. Also there isn't an option to short sell stock when you know the CEO for example will be assasinated.

-The movie studio was too short-lived.

-Fast-food resturants are still around but you can't interact with them at all or even go inside.

If you have ever played GTA: San Andreas you will know this game sucks but if you started playing GTA with IV you will think this game is the best in the franchise. Well, it isn't. The story sucks, the gameplay sucks, the characters are boring, the driving is very old style, overall just the worst GTA. After 5 years and over 260 million dollars this is the best R* can come up with? I guess paying for reviews on all those gaming sites aren't cheap.… Expand

a bugged piece of software that cannot be called video game. graphics are good, and that's it. gameplay is subpar and uninspired, there are so many bugs expect to play the game twice because your saved games are lost or you get stuck in the geometry. characters are shiit all in all the game is a bugged steaming pile of fuccking shhit

This game is generally good but I hate the fact that all women are walking around with 10 lbs of cleavage on their pencil thin bodies. Most of the time the game is great.

gta online 3 characters deleted.... why do any game companys go near cloud....... its just when u put 20 hours into a char x3 and have them deleted every time

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the Rockstar's masterpiece. The other games that came after are crap. They lost a great oportunity to make a great epic like San Andreas, but they ruined it.

The main campaign is too short because of the online game. They created a beautiful game, but forgot that it will run on old hardware.

I hope that Rockstar relaunch the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, with improved graphics and the new shotter mechanics.… Expand

I love this game it's one of the best i've ever played of and btw im here courtesy of OfficialNerdCubed break the system metacritic is suckish! Anyways i think that the graphics are good looking they don't overdue it at ALL. The missions are awesome and the story is like a movie.