Though Grand Theft Auto V is now over seven years old, it is still arguably Rockstar’s best game and remains as popular as ever. The game has gone beyond the story of Michael and Trevor and is instead a living, breathing city full of gamers using the games’ mechanics to their advantage.
Whether it’s the modding community expanding what the already incredibly dense game is capable of, or Rockstar constantly trying to outdo themselves with vast amounts of game modes and additional customization options, GTA V is still one of the best open world games to explore. However, the legendary game developer has made some changes for the worse too.
Changed For The Better: Graphics
The change in graphics since GTAV’s release is undeniable, as San Andreas is more active than some towns and the world refuses to die, and updates are continuously made to the city. Though the game is so huge that if gamers aren’t playing on custom-built gaming computers, frame rates might drop and graphics might dip from time to time, but with the new generation of consoles, the game’s visuals are only going to get better.
Gotten Worse: Less Of A Focus On Story
When it comes to story, though it’s subjective, the Grand Theft Auto games have gotten consecutively better, as the worlds are bigger, there’s more space for zany characters, and GTA V is responsible for some memorable quotes. However, with there being such a focus on competition and cooperative gameplay, the genius of GTA V’s deep and satisfying narrative is long in the rear view mirror.
Changed For The Better: Freedom
Though it might come at the expense of a great story, there has never been more freedom in a Rockstar game, and given the vast amount of game modes that have been added into GTA V, players have the chance to play out almost anything. The amount of weaponry, vehicles, and customization that has been added to Grand Theft Auto V since its release is unlike any other game ever made.
Gotten Worse: Formula 1 Style Races
It sounds wrong to complain about extra game modes, but surely if gamers wanted to play Formula 1 style races, they would have bought a Formula 1 game.
Not only is the mode a huge departure from what the series is fundamentally about, but the racing is style is vastly different to the driving mechanics of GTA V. The game mode begs the question, why was the decision made to ever include such a mode?
Changed For The Better: Grand Theft Auto Roleplaying
Though it’s more intriguing than anything, pretty much anybody who has ever played the open-world game has wondered at least one point what it’s like to be a non-player character in the world of Grand Theft Auto. Well, a PC mod hilariously enables players to be able to act like an NPC. They can be customized in many different ways and the level of roleplay depends on the servers that the gamer is working on.
Gotten Worse: Not Enough Heists
Upon the release of Grand Theft Auto V, it wasn’t the giant world that had players enthusiastic, nor was it the crazy characters, as that is something that has been a trademark of the series for a long time.
It was the heist levels that had fans in love with the game, as it was something we had never seen before and features rather deep role-playing aspects. After the game had been out a while, Rockstar promised more heists that would be available online, and though that wasn’t exactly a lie, they are few and far between, which is a shame because many of the online heists are better than the story heists.
Changed For The Better: Mods
Grand Theft Auto V is full of small details players will only notice when replaying the game, but there are also tons of details that have been added throughout the years that were added by the modding community too. Depending on the player, mods can be seen as a good or a bad thing. But it’s undeniable that mods have added to the insane freedom of the game, added a ton of depth, and have even encouraged gamers to continue exploring the map, even when it has already been gone over with a fine-tooth comb at this point.
Gotten Worse: Microtransactions
Luckily, microtransactions don’t affect the player’s gameplay like Star Wars Battlefront or many other Ubisoft and EA games did, and there’s no such thing as grinding in Grand Theft Auto V. But unfortunately, microtransactions still exist in the game, and GTA V was arguably the game that made the idea of microtransactions popular amongst game developers in the first place.
Changed For The Better: Music
When GTA V was first released, the music and the radio stations were honestly underwhelming, as each station’s loop was fairly short before it reached back to the beginning. However, in the time since the release, Rockstar has righted this wrong significantly. Rockstar added tons of new songs and whole radio stations with contributions from some big record labels including Mass Appeal.
Gotten Worse: No Big Secret
There are loads of hidden quests players still haven’t found in the game, and there were many secrets that were quickly uncovered by eagle eyed explorers of Los Santos, but there is one huge secret that fans could never get to the bottom of. At the top of Mount Chiliad, there is a mural that looks like a riddle for players to figure out. However, seven years after release, nothing has come of it and it seems like it was just a big hoax created by Rockstar to mess with its players.