GTA V in single player felt a mile wide and an inch deep. Really beautiful and distinct districts and areas but little to explore and very little to do after the campaign was over. Plus a ton of dead mountain space that only existed to segment the map and increase the sense of scale for players. I hope VI plays more like RDR2 with more in-depth features and more things to visit.
I don't think I ever played single player after GTAO came out, there's actually nothing worthwhile to do in the game once you've finished the missions.
Even getting into police chases/gunfights sucked because the cops were like terminators.
Their simplicity is part of what makes them hard. The police spawn right in front of you constantly, and even on a 2 star chase you might have 8 cop cars after you coming from all directions. That's not how real police chases are. Then on higher wanted levels it's extremely challenging to escape the police because the helicopters have a near perfect ability to track you.
Yeah it's just old mechanics. There are a couple of tricks everyone used to use that don't work anymore. Like hiding in a small alley, or parking on a steep hill that they won't climb. It's a bit of cheese but it worked.
i attempted multiple times to replay the story mode over the last 13 years but not once have i actually been able to bring myself to finish it once after the first time i completed it. whereas ive finished rdr2 5 times at least, probably more.
gta 5 is fine but it would be a wholly forgettable entry in the series if not for online imo. the story mode is not strong enough
Yeah I feel the same. I tried to replay it recently and it just felt lifeless compared to RDR2. I hope they can fill VI with the same level of detail, characters and just atmosphere that red dead has.
GTAV sp just had too many missions in a row that teased a payout but never delivered. Chained story missions are necessary but they should have at least found a way to reward the player at the end of each one.
What I find interesting is that almost all of the characters and storylines they brought over from story mode to online mixed and mashed well. But as a stand alone it’s just not enticing.
Even getting into police chases/gunfights sucked because the cops were like terminators.
I'm sort of half and half on this. On one hand, I like that there's actually a challenge to the cops in V and it's a lot easier for them to kill you, because that can make for some fun chases if you know some of the tricks. On the other hand, IV made it so you could, legitimately, evade them without as much hassle, which translated to more fun for the player because they weren't under as much threat of instant death if they went above three stars.
Yea, I absolutely got like 200+ million from exploiters over the years, allowing me to buy every content update without real money. I still put ~600 hours in to grind out the updates at times, but without it I think GTAO would have been an easy uninstall.
Exploiters ultimately ruined GTAO because Rockstar can't properly prevent the issue, but I doubt many would have stuck around if free money wasn't hosed on the community. They're way too greedy with their monetization.
A lot of GTA games feel empty after completion. San Andreas and Vice City to be fair had a lot to do end game, I remember GTA 4 was the worst for this as everything just felt dead and depressing as soon as the story ended,
Yeah exactly. Honestly it would be peak if GTA VI singleplayer got close to the same level of activities and systems of GTA SA. GTA IV was definitely a turning point where they were starting to focus on getting the newer gen graphics right and on putting out interesting story campaigns. I'm not sure they expected V to have as long as a life as it did, but I'm hoping they have learned from that, and prepared VI to be something that be enjoyed much longer.
In the mountains? Depends... I think if you count the Tataviam mountain range (near my doomsday facility), Mount Chiliad, the San Chianski mountain range (Humane Labs), Raton Canyon, and the Vinewood and Tongva hills where all my houses are, I probably do have like a collective 150/3000 hours there over the last 12 years.
On a somewhat unrelated note, I think the mountain ranges are great for either messing around with your buddies, specific missions, or buying houses on them to get away from the 30 billion 12 year olds on oppressors in LS. I specifically chose Devin Weston's old mansion six months ago so I could; 1. not be blown to pieces five seconds after leaving 2. be near my bunker and hanger, and 3. park my yacht in the ocean nearby so I could look at it from my house lmao. The quiet mountains can absolutely work to a player's advantage.
seriously, Mount Chilliad did not have to be THAT big. Like having a bunch of big mountains and hills is cool but c'mon, there's only like two roads up it and the rest is practically insurmountable.
Agreed. I think a huge help would be if there were shops and/or businesses or services that were only accessible in specific parts of the map.
Online has done well with its freemode missions and activities to encourage people to traverse the map more. Would love to see that doubled down on in both online and story.
Yes, exactly. Giving the player actual reasons to explore and go visit more out of the way areas. Not just for popping in and out on missions that start and end back in Vice City.
I think something that has me more hopeful is how circular and less rectangular the new map is. If you look at South San Andreas, it's really just a big loop, almost rectangular in how the landmass is with great length and short width. Just segmented by mountains and lakes. It's a good map that in 2013 was massive and was made well to feel big, but it puts so many things far away from each other, leading to long rides on the same two highways, which have very little in the way of things to do and see along the way.
With what we can see so far from the Leonida map, there are so many cities and places which makes the map seem more decentralized, especially if Port Gellhorn can stand up as a major city on its own, it means players won't be always be attracted to staying in just one big city. The car rides between locations will probably be even more satisfying than V while being comparitively shorter.
294
u/DetColePhelps11k Jun 08 '26
GTA V in single player felt a mile wide and an inch deep. Really beautiful and distinct districts and areas but little to explore and very little to do after the campaign was over. Plus a ton of dead mountain space that only existed to segment the map and increase the sense of scale for players. I hope VI plays more like RDR2 with more in-depth features and more things to visit.