Is GTA V Overrated?

While many major reviewers were quick to sing the praises of “Grand Theft Auto V,” a lot of flaws went overlooked.

The game has a rather underdeveloped story revolving around Franklin, Michael, and Trevor. Franklin, who steals cars for a living plays a large role in car theft missions. Michael is a former criminal who now lives as a drunk with a cheating wife and not so obedient kids. Then there is Trevor, oh Trevor, a psychopath who has no regard for human life, unless it is the life of an old hispanic lady who is unattractive to say the least.

The character’s lives all intertwine somewhere along the storyline. However, the gist of the story is the crew holding heists for a variety of organizations, or sometimes for personal gain. Although there is no need to delve too deep into the story since it is once in a blue moon that “Grand Theft Auto” is played for the story.

So, what did the game succeed at? The graphics are advanced especially for an open-world game. The RAGE engine also greatly assists in a smooth game without any hiccups in gameplay. The driving mechanics have improved exponentially from the prior games in the series. No longer does a fender bender cause a driver to spin out and lose control of their vehicle. A new system was added that allows a player to assassinate CEOs to influence the stock market, resulting in more money from a few “lucky” investments. Yet most importantly, the game knew what the fans wanted and delivered.

However, the game fell short in many aspects. First, keeping track of vehicles when they get abandoned for a mission, is near impossible. It is so easy to enter a mission, and then forget where your vehicle was left. Which would be alright if they showed up back in your garage, or if the impound system worked. But, that is not the case, only sometimes do cars show up in the impound. Even when they do show up they tend to be stolen cars rather than cars that were actually purchased. So, there is either no formula or it is never explained, which are both equally frustrating.

Another issue, the crosshair is just a dot which makes drive-by shootings and firefights borderline impossible. Then the online which is almost entirely broken, led to a lot of disappointment. The servers did not work for the first week, and even now there are plenty of unlimited money glitches and other problems. Lastly, there is no reason to care about any of the characters, since the entire game they are proving how evil they can be.

In all, the game provided a good 100 hours of entertainment. Yet, with all the talk of “Grand Theft Auto V” being the greatest game ever made, it is quite a bit overrated. In fact, “Bioshock Infinite” and “The Last Of Us” both deserve game of the year, over “Grand Theft Auto V.”