In the Grand Theft Auto games, players will receive quests from all kinds of characters, which unfortunately includes a few that they would rather not bother with. At least some annoying quest-givers are optional, but others are required for the story. While the player at least gets compensated for most missions, they may find themselves wanting hazard pay for having to deal with such insufferable characters.
Given the criminal nature of Grand Theft Auto protagonists, it's little surprise that they accept jobs from many characters across their respective games. Most of the time these missions come from various underworld connections, but some come from close personal associates or even complete strangers. Much like the series itself, these missions have a tendency to get weird, especially when they are not a part of the main storyline. Grand Theft Auto's many protagonists have had their fiar share of missions that ultimately felt like a waste of time.
Grand Theft Auto games can offer some of the biggest sandboxes around, but it's not entirely a mix of exciting gunfights and car chases. Sometimes the game requires the player to spend some time with truly insufferable characters if they want to complete everything in the game. At least the missions from these characters are decent sometimes, but they still require you to deal with some of GTA's least likable figures.
Zero From San Andreas Gives The Player Annoying, Pointless Quests
To Zero's credit, he's far from the worst person to appear in a Grand Theft Auto title. It isn't even clear if he has a criminal record prior to meeting CJ. However, he makes up for that by offering some of the game's worst and most frustrating tasks, including San Andreas' hated Supply Lines mission. To make matters worse, his reasons for these missions are absolutely ridiculous.
Zero is an optional character whose missions the player can unlock by having CJ buy his struggling hobby shop. Zero has his own questline involving his feud with his rival, Berkley. The two have been feuding for years because Zero beat Berkley at a science fair. CJ rightly calls this ridiculous, but can still pursue Zero's missions anyway. These GTA missions require the player to either use a turret or one of Zero's RC planes, which have rather unsteady controls that add to the missions' already high difficulty. They are some of the most frustrating parts of the game, and the absurd nature of Zero and Berkley's feud is more pointless than funny.
It should say something that even San Andreas' David Cross hates Zero's missions, and he voiced the man. Although he also takes part in the rather entertaining casino heist questline, Zero's own missions are among San Andreas' most frustrating. His feud with Berkley is a diversion from the plot without a satisfying payoff, and it could have been removed from the game without consequence.
GTA 5's Joe And Josef Are Racist Jerks Who Aren't Worth The Player's Time
With Grand Theft Auto 5 being the offbeat game that it is, a lot of the Strangers and Freaks missions lead the player to some colorful characters. A good amount of them, like Mary Ann and Dom, lead to some fun interactions and missions. However, Joe and Josef, the self-appointed Civil Border Patrol, don't offer fun interactions or enjoyable missions.
Trevor is an odd man, so one would expect missions exclusive to him to be bizarre in an entertaining way, similar to RDR2's odd and intriguing stranger missions. However, Joe and Josef are completely charisma-free characters who send the player on some of the most boring GTA missions. Their only real character trait is their racism, with their only consistent joke being Josef's obsession with America despite only speaking Russian. Neither of them is funny, and even Trevor dislikes them, only working with them because he gets paid. The only two missions they send Trevor on consist solely of them harassing innocent people, so their missions aren't even any fun to make up for their unlikeability and lack of entertainment value.
The only enjoyable mission involving Joe and Josef is their final appearance, where they're the enemies. The player gets involved in a high-speed chase with Joe tearing around on a tractor while Trevor pursues him with firearms and furious trash talk. Trevor isn't Grand Theft Auto 5's best protagonist, but it's hard not to cheer for him against Joe in this fight. Although the final mission in the questline is good, it doesn't make up for having to spend time with such unlikeable characters beforehand.
It's Shocking That GTA 4's Vlad Survived As Long As He Did
Grand Theft Auto 4 is considered to be the most downbeat of the GTA games, which is one reason why it's considered something of an outsider when compared to the zaniness of the series' other titles. In fact, apart from Roman and Brucie, Niko doesn't get to spend a lot of time with lighthearted characters. Instead, the poor guy has to deal with a lot of unpleasant characters, with early-game antagonist Vlad easily being not only the most unlikable, but about as dumb as drunk driving in GTA 4.
Vlad was a member of the Russian mafia who was extorting Niko's cousin Roman at the start of the game. Considering Niko's protectiveness of his family, that already gives Vlad a fairly short lifespan. Instead of immediately going after Vlad, Niko instead ends up doing some jobs for him to try to get him to leave Roman alone. In each of these GTA missions, Vlad is a huge jerk to either Niko or someone else, and not in a comedic way. The fact that he treats Niko and Roman terribly casts major doubt on his decision-making skills, especially since he knows how dangerous Niko is due to the kinds of jobs that he sends him on. If the rumored Grand Theft Auto 4 remaster comes to pass, few players will likely be excited about working for Vlad again.
The biggest condemnation of Vlad as a character comes after his inevitable end at Niko's hands. His bosses end up recruiting Niko rather than punishing him because they hated Vlad and considered him a liability. Undeservedly arrogant and needlessly cruel, it's almost a blessing that Vlad is only around to push around Niko and Roman for the game's first couple of hours.
Grand Theft Auto protagonists see several bosses during their adventures, from criminal masterminds to complete strangers. Even so, for every mission giver that players like, there is probably one that they would rather not associate with. When it comes to Grand Theft Auto, one can only hope that the worst mission bosses can be safely avoided.