Has GTA V Jumped the Shark?
StormyKnight
Moderator, Website User, Ambassador, Imerge Beta Tester, HitFilm Beta Tester Posts: 2,726 Ambassador
I never thought I would be the fan of a game in which you get to be the bad guy. When I first heard the controversy and debates about the games content I HAD to check it out for myself......that's just the type I am. I got GTA 1 and that was kinda fun. Running from the cops amused me as I work security for a living and it was the total reverse of what I would do in real life. So I got GTA 2. I wasn't as enchanted with that one and found it more difficult to play as in controller set-up, although I did get through the whole thing twice. I didn't get a PS2 until it had been out for about a year and a half (approx) but in the mean time, a friend's son had it and was playing GTA Vice City one day. I was amazed at the advancement from the previous GTAs; it was almost like controlling a movie rather than a video game. I was hooked. I've got them all now (I think) and found each one to provide hours of fun i.e. wasting my time, and I even got Red Dead Redemption.....not fond of the zombie version.
However, it seems to me, GTA V may have jumped the shark. While it's an interesting idea to play more than one character at a time, I found the story presentation to be more confining to the overall experience and well......rather weak. Really? THIS is what we've come to? Family therapy? Yoga? As Charlie Brown would say,"Good grief!"
I also find the interruptions in the action restricting. You used to be able to go through a mission beginning to end and if the cops got involved, they were the only obstacle beyond the missions completion. Now there are several interruptions in the flow of action that are too distracting, hold your hand to get to another 'step or stage' and take the fun out of figuring things out for yourself. A couple of the more advanced missions I completed on the first try....probably could have done it with my eyes closed....where's the challenge? What a let down! BTW- I am anti cheat code. Don't use 'em.....it's cheating.
Has anyone tried to get into a tank on GTA V? Can it be done without the cheat codes? I tried when I entered the airbase but it wouldn't open. Same with Trevor's 'rampage' involving the military. One tank left over was just sitting on the road and no apparent way in.
There don't seem to be a lot of buildings you can enter either. You can get on top of almost any building and I like that they've perfected the big rig 18 wheel trucks.....all playing country music when you get in.
)
So, to anyone who has followed GTA for a while, has it jumped the shark?
However, it seems to me, GTA V may have jumped the shark. While it's an interesting idea to play more than one character at a time, I found the story presentation to be more confining to the overall experience and well......rather weak. Really? THIS is what we've come to? Family therapy? Yoga? As Charlie Brown would say,"Good grief!"
I also find the interruptions in the action restricting. You used to be able to go through a mission beginning to end and if the cops got involved, they were the only obstacle beyond the missions completion. Now there are several interruptions in the flow of action that are too distracting, hold your hand to get to another 'step or stage' and take the fun out of figuring things out for yourself. A couple of the more advanced missions I completed on the first try....probably could have done it with my eyes closed....where's the challenge? What a let down! BTW- I am anti cheat code. Don't use 'em.....it's cheating.
Has anyone tried to get into a tank on GTA V? Can it be done without the cheat codes? I tried when I entered the airbase but it wouldn't open. Same with Trevor's 'rampage' involving the military. One tank left over was just sitting on the road and no apparent way in.
There don't seem to be a lot of buildings you can enter either. You can get on top of almost any building and I like that they've perfected the big rig 18 wheel trucks.....all playing country music when you get in.
) So, to anyone who has followed GTA for a while, has it jumped the shark?
Comments
Well, for one thing, you seem to be talking to yourself.
Oh. :-?
And, as interesting a technical achievement as it was, anyone who "played" GTA IV enough to view all 35 hours of in-game television really should just get Netflix.
None of this sounds like a bad thing to me... The games have always been about becoming a gangster millionaire.
Saints Row is interesting, because while it began as a GTA clone, they quickly realized that what people were missing from the GTAIV era of sandbox action games was the craziness and customization that was in San Andreas. Now we have Saints Row 4, which features Earth being destroyed, and gang members attempting to escape an alien simulation, and eventually taking over the galaxy. We're talking about a pretty wide spectrum of ideas here. GTAV looks pretty human and grounded in comparison.
I think it's pretty difficult, if not impossible, to quantify what "jumping the shark" means in terms of video games. Has Call of Duty jumped the shark by having a zombie game? Did Super Mario jump the shark when he went into space? Where do you draw the line? This thread seems to have the idea that evolving the nature of a game by adding features that not every player wants is somehow a negative thing.
I'm not complaining about the switching characters- the action holds so that's okay. It's the little inserts- like the first mission when they have you do one little thing and then they take control for the next segment- give control back to you- then they take control for some other little segment- then give control back to you. This type of process is repeated a few times in the later missions. Then there's the missions that don't seem to do anything at all excpet have you drive to the strip club for instance. By their own previous standards- that never should have been a "mission" but "mission complete" comes up when the "mission" is over.
It just seems to me like they were trying too hard to make it fun and took all the fun out of it by so doing. Picking the kids up and going to therapy, meeting the wife at the therapist's office and driving the family home afterwards *without any kind of threat at all* just doesn't qualify as a mission to me.
Interesting. Been in the matrix long?I'm afraid my gaming days are over though. PS4 and now games just cost too much. Even used, GTA V was $43.00 plus tax!!! Got the original case but I didn't get the booklet that's supposed to come with the game. They should take extra off for that.
I can use my PS3 for netflix instead of buying expensive games.
Agreed- and I don't play as much as I used to so it's probably an expense I can live without.....unless something spectacular comes along like a holodeck. I'd have to get me one of those!