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Grand Theft Auto V Review:
The Same Old GTA.... Just Superficially Different & More Flawed. Also: Money, Where?


The disappointment I now feel, having completed GTAV, was not what I expected to be feeling after being overwhelmed on my first day playing it. The moment I realised I could play full-on, completely optional tennis was a genuine 'WOW' moment where it hit me just how big the game is. And the the narrative being broken up between three characters - suggesting a more focused story than in past 'do jobs for random people/initial letters on map' GTA games - helped immerse me completely. But then it hit me: it's big yet an ultimately hollow experience where you get no rewards for your effort (yoga QTE...) and the vast majority of the side content just isn't fun. At all. The best example of the emptiness of it all is that you still cannot enter 99% of buildings, even in the 50GB+ PS4 version, leaving the world as a lifeless collection of tall buildings. And Rockstar's point black refusal to shift the gameplay of past GTA's to match GTAV's three-way story and heist focus meant the failings of the series' structure were highlighted, rather than being corrected.

Let me start with the most bothersome of GTAV's issues: money. In past GTA games, you began as nobody but then, slowly but surely, got more money from doing odd jobs for eccentric characters until becoming a rich career criminal. In GTAV, in spite of the entirely superficial changes mentioned above, you STILL spend all of the game doing missions for random individuals. The key difference is this: you get no money for doing missions in GTAV. NONE. You see, GTAV instead relied on 2-3 heist jobs (out of roughly 110+, including optional ones) that each give you a substantial amount of money. But, even so, it's nowhere near enough to buy anything other than weapons and a few of the less expensive properties until AFTER beating the game. So, basically, you do missions with no reward other than advancing the game, and only after beating the game (where you'll spend an hour buying everything, pointlessly, then either quit or play online) you get enough money to freely spend. The stupidity of this just blows my mind. And, worse yet, it seems like Rockstar nerfed the money given by side-activities, such as racing, so that you only get a few $100-1000 for winning--MAX. Then we come to buying properties: if you spend $100,000's buying a property, you get anywhere from $500-10,000 PER IN-GAME WEEK. Which is to say, you won't even get what you paid back by the end of the game. Only 2/15 unlock side-activities, only 1/15 gives you a real profit via side-activities, and if you don't do tedious kill/drive mini-missions when phoned for the properties you own, you get ZERO for that week, with no way of increasing your profit. You cannot even enter most of the properties you buy. I'm genuinely baffled by Rockstar defying common sense here. It's not as if you can do random heist missions to make money, or rob stores (I only found 1-2 in 60 hours that I could rob since they don't appear on map) for more than $300, either. The only real way you can make money in GTAV is to wait until the game is over and do Franklin's assassination missions post-game so you can manipulate stock prices (entirely artificial: can only profit at set points). THAT'S IT.

Next, we come to the second most irksome issue: the story. A three-way narrative suggested that GTAV would present three different distinctive character arcs that would eventually become one. What actually happened was Franklin (one of the three) - unnaturally - going from 'the hood' to becoming a sort of subservient sidekick to a white, rich, self-centered, family failure of a DSPGaming lookalike (with the goatee) in the form of Michael right at the start. Basically, Franklin starts out as the best character, with his own arc, before getting absorbed into Michael's arc. Until Trevor was introduced, with the promise of something more given by his psychotic-destructive self, the story was purely a black comedy centered around Michael's mid-life criminal crisis. But, in the end, Trevor only served to emphasise how little story there is and how padded it was, despite him being an unforgettable / brilliant character. He's introduced whilst fueled by anger over the apparent betrayal of his best friend, Michael, yet almost instantly becomes yet another black comedy prop for Michael's life: the questions he wanted to ask not being asked for some 20-30 missions, for no reason. And when the truth is revealed, AGAIN the inevitable gets delayed... just 'cause. At one point, you go from working for the FBI one minute, then working for a rich businessman connected to the FBI... then working for a movie director connected to the businessman. Which is to say, the structure and randomness of the previous GTA games is retained, with the three-way premise just being for decoration. And that angered me. When you reach the end and find yourself killing off a cast of insignificant nobodies for a Hollywood conclusion (unless you go for one of the two short/tacked-on alternate endings that bastardise Franklin's characterisation), if you're like me, you'll be left utterly underwhelmed. Pacing and story have always been Rockstar's main openworld failing, and this is doubly/triply true in the case of GTAV. As a black comedy, GTAV succeeds. As a crime drama, it fails.



If there's one moment where it hit home that GTAV was a disappointment, it was when I'd just got the mini-sub and was sailing around the map at excruciatingly slow speeds in an attempt to find 30/30 items, having purchased the one property that was worth buying in terms of profit. There were dolphins and sharks swimming in the unnecessary but very welcome underwater part of the map. But after finding myself stuck on a beach one too many times (when underwater, following sonar beeps, it's hard to see and easy to get marooned) and having to spend a silly amount of time sailing back from the one respawn point the mini-sub can be used from, like with the game-world as a whole, it struck me as how huge but empty it was. If you hit any sea life, they instantly go stiff and sink to the bottom, and there's no way to hunt anything, or even any side-activities such as stopping others hunting. No: you just keep chugging along, hoping something happens or it ends. And that was GTAV in a nutshell, for me. Even when I found myself absorbed in a rare side-activity of value, such as hunting on land, it quickly became a kick in the teeth after I'd spend 30mins trying to find animals and get under $1000 for a gold medal of no significance whatsoever. There was always something to detract from my enjoyment.

Also, GTAV is a surprisingly buggy game. And I'm not talking about just small things here: at one point I pressed the PS button to message a friend. When I returned to the game, I was back at the start, doing the prologue robbery. Luckily the game hadn't auto-saved or else I would've lost some 20hrs of gameplay. Others have had this happened and had to start over. But my troubles didn't end there: ever since that happened, the game would keep asking me to re-calibrate my screen, as if I was playing for the first time, and when I started playing all my settings would be reverted to the default settings. So, I'd have to change my target reticule and turn on subtitles. EVERY TIME. Worse yet, cars I'd spent $10,000's on and stored in my garages would vanish, then be back again the next time I played... then vanish completely. Hairstyles and facial hair would be there in one part of a scene, then not the next, or just revert to default after a scene. Vehicles, such as that damned drill, would get stuck on nothing and require restarting the mission. Just tapping characters with my car by accident would mean missions being failed. The list goes on. I don't know if the settings/garage issue is PS4-only, but many other people in forum threads have reported the same problems. Either way: it's shocking such a big title, when re-released, has these issues. And that's saying nothing of other sandbox games where you can just use your phone to select vehicles you want to keep, or request they be delivered to you. GTAV expects you to drive to and from garages, or just order taxis everywhere. So outdated and easily corrected with effort.

And Rockstar provided one additional kick in the teeth in the form of trophies. Now, I know: trophies/achievements do not make or break a good game. But they're important to this generation of gamers and offer an incentive for replay value. There are two striking things about GTAV's trophies: the first is how few players bothered playing beyond the start. There were drastic drops between each story-related trophy, and by the end something like only 13% finished what is supposed to one of the greatest games ever made, which is a bit... odd. The second is that the BRONZE trophies for optional content had percentages as low as 0.9%. Having spent time getting as many trophies as I could, I ended with something like 24 bronzes and 3 silvers. Considering GTAV is a 30-60+ hour game, rivaling JRPGs in length, it just added to the unrewarding / pointless vibe the no-money-for-missions game itself gave off. I will never understand why games make every damned trophy a bronze; even for skill/effort/time requiring things. Bronze trophies should be for easy or unmissable things: not almost everything. GTAV was so stingy in terms of trophies I had to sleep 40 times in a row and run for FIVE MILES to get an optional silver. Other than that, you practically have to 100% the game - finding 100 unmarked collectibles for more bronzes - and/or play online.

The saddest thing about this is I don't hate GTAV. It's a good, entertaining sandbox game. The characterisation (aside from Franklin existing solely for an endgame choice) and dialogue are mostly outstanding; often making the cut-scenes worth enduring everything else for. Many of the optional freak missions are also fun, albeit short. But the flaws are so numerous and irritating that, by the end, I was playing it just to validate paying £40 for a re-release of a PS3 game... which, by the way, though obviously looking sharper and running better is far from 'next-gen'. Rockstar did some things right, such as adding skills (such as downgraded bullet-time from Max Payne) for each character to add individuality, yet they took so many obvious missteps it's hard for me to praise the game. The best I can say is that I love Trevor's psychotic self and the series has come a long way from GTA3's silent protagonist. The worst? That Rockstar were too cowardly to stray from their established formula, even with multiple characters and an almost non-existent heist focus leading the way. Let me put it this way: I enjoy going to GTAV's lap-dancing club as much as the next guy... it's just, I want something more to remember it by than a picture. And that's GTAV, in a nutshell: enjoyable but unmemorable. A jack of all trades but a master of none. Instead of terribly designed, needless parts such as drill-stealing stealth missions, more attention should've been put into perfecting what GTA is best at. The problem is, I don't think even Rockstar know what that is, anymore... though online play limited to 30-players max, chucked into the single-player world with added unimaginative competitive modes sure as hell ain't it.

Final Score:
6-6.5/10

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inFAMOUS: Second Son Review:
The Best / Shortest InFAMOUS. Makes Superpowers FUN. Also: Story, Where?


Without any hesitation, even when taking into consideration the SHORT length, I can say that this is the best of the three main InFAMOUS games. When playing the first two, I often felt like I was forcing myself to play them, just because they were PS3 exclusives. But Second Son, whilst not quite being a system seller, is worth playing on its own merits--if only because it makes using superpowers SO MUCH fun, with added power variety that its prequels totally lacked. When creating the original InFAMOUS, Sucker Punch tried so hard to escape the cute talking animals of Sly Cooper that they were known for that they drained all life, colour and personality from it: forcing you to play as a balding Neo-Nazi lookalike called Cole, complete with a Batman-esque 'badarse' voice. It's saying a lot that the most/only likable character in those games was a fat, jealous and traitorous sidekick. In contrast, Second Son's lead (Delsin) has a naturally sarcastic sense of humour and something the previous lead lacked: likability. This is true for the supporting cast, as well; especially the lead's serious-yet-funny older brother. What's more, gone is the trying too hard dull/dreary colour palette of old: Seattle is - visually - very bright and lifelike, yet not overly so. Clearly, Sucker Punch learned from many of their previous mistakes. But, sadly, Second Son is held back by Sucker Punch seemingly having been content creating a short-lived spin-off that demonstrates the PS4's graphics with its jaw-dropping cut-scenes, as a opposed to creating a truly great game that was meant to last and be continued.

Firstly, the superpowers. The PS3 InFAMOUS games made me feel underpowered: limited to one power and having to climb and grind on rails in order to get from A-to-B. Traversing the lifeless world was a chore. In Second Son the reverse is true. In addition to three (one only unlocks during the final boss battle, though) other unique powers, Cole's electricity power returns in the hands of Delsin. But not as it once was. Now, you can hold a button and run up walls and dash around at light-speed. And that's got nothing on the 'video' power, which allows Delsin to glide with wings from building top to building top, aided by satellite dishes that boost Delsin high into the air. With the ability to either run up walls and/or fly, I didn't even need to use fast-travel: it was so easy and fun to get around, so why bother? In terms of combat, having so many powers at my disposal was a major plus. The way it works is, depending on whether you drain smoke, electricity or video energy, those are the skills you are limited to at any one time. Each power is is similar in the sense that L2 aims, R2 fires a basic long range attack, R1 fires a special and L1 uses an easy takedown skill. But, for example, if you press L1 when using video power, you become invisible and can do a melee stealth takedown on a single enemy. If you press L1 with smoke power, you make a group of enemies cough and can do melee takedowns in the confusion. Likewise, electricity's R1 special is good for taking out single targets, whilst smoke's equivalent is best targeted at groups. This on-the-fly need to change skills depending on the circumstances adds depth the prequels never had, where you'd either just use electricity or melee.

Where Second Son runs into problems is with its underdeveloped narrative and limited characterisation. Ironically, where as in the prequels too much time was spent on unlikable characters, too little was spent on likable characters here. If you ignore the typically extensive amount of blast shards/side content (which, I'm happy to report, are less of a chore than the busywork of old, with new tasks such as motion-controlled graffiti art), the game can easily be beaten in around 5-10hrs, and that's only because you can't skip the cut-scenes... which isn't a huge negative considering the facial animation is probably the best I've seen to date and the voice acting talent includes some of the best around, such as Troy Baker and Laura Bailey. You see, the game flows like this: smoke power prologue/tutorial > find character (Fetch; electricity power) > find character (video power) > smoke power revisited > final battle. THAT'S IT. It's all so rushed that, by the time you get to know a character they serve no purpose and get little to no time; as if they're only there for cameo roles so that prequels such as First Light could be made. What made this especially disappointing was that Fetch had the potential to develop as a love interest... but, instead, either hints at her feelings in a 'good' path scene or randomly demands sex in the 'evil' equivalent scene. The villain(ess) has an intimidating aura that initially impressed me, yet she's underused and, at the end, reveals that - like practically every villain not left as evil in badly written fiction - she's really just trying to save people by doing nasty things to them them in what can only be described as a WHATEVER late twist. But the greatest tragedy in all this is Delsin's brother, Reggie. He jumps from caring brother to anti-superpower discrimination on the fly. There was a great character arc for him that was ruined by the pacing, and the emotional weight a dramatic late scene was meant to carry missed the mark completely; the pacing also making Delsin seem strangely indifferent. What it all comes down to is a potentially excellent new InFAMOUS series turning out to be a limited in scope spin-off.



And this leads me indirectly to a problem that has plagued the InFAMOUS series ever since it began: moral choices that don't change the narrative in any meaningful way. Just like in the prequels, you either get good or bad karma, depending on the choices you make and actions you take. The problem is, the only purpose they serve in Second Son is replay value, minor superpower skill differences and a few altered missions/scenes. It's good in the sense having to play a short game twice for 100% completion makes the length less irksome but, ultimately, is a superfluous design choice that Sucker Punch seem increasingly unable to do anything meaningful with. Let's use the very first choice, right at the start of the game, as example: you can either choose to admit Delsin has superpowers to the game's dominatrix villainess or not admit it and make her ask others, using her rock powers of persuasion. What changes depending on which path you take? NOTHING. Either way, people are tortured with rocks and Delsin wakes up in the exact same way. And this lack of alteration is true of all the choices, ignoring edits to scenes. In addition, unlike with Cole whose character was designed to be an anti-hero, Delsin was designed to be a likable hero, and that meant that Delsin randomly telling other characters to kill protesters and gangsters in throwaway parts of the evil playthrough seemed incredibly out of character. This is the problem when a game's basic structure isn't altered and, instead, only the most superficial of changes are made. It's a tricky situation for Sucker Punch since the series is reliant on the (in)famous aspect, yet the story and setting would work better without it... unless you consider random NPCs attacking you in suicidal/comical fashion on your evil playthrough as a worthwhile difference!

In summary, Second Son is an incredibly enjoyable but also quite a frustrating experience. Enjoyable because it makes using superpowers both fun and empowering; putting right many of the mistakes of old. Frustrating because it could and should have been so much more than half a spin-off, half a PS4 tech demo. More effort should've been put into re-working InFAMOUS as a series, as opposed to just chucking it in the same universe as its prequels when there's no link between Cole and Delsin besides both having superpowers and both going obsessive-compulsive over finding blast shards. The characters held tons of untapped potential, had the game been longer - with more of a story than 'HAVE SUPERPOWER; FIGHT VILLAIN' - and the characterisation been less... abrupt. If you're looking for InFAMOUS with added fun and colour, Second Son is it. But if you're looking for a more complete, fulfilling experience and not just another sandbox world that consists of tall-yet-empty/unmemorable buildings, then you're barking up the wrong tree. By the end, Delsin either becomes a hero or villain, yet none of that mattered when the world and its inhabitants came across as unused props. My advice is to just enjoy the visual feast, enjoy flying around, enjoy the epic last boss and enjoy the relatively easy platinum trophy. If you look for more, you'll come away disappointed. I still don't even know WHY Delsin is related to some sort of fictional Indian tribe, but hey: ask no questions and get irritated far less. Apply that logic and you'll love the game.

Final Score:
7-7.5/10

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Arkham Knight BATMOBILE NOOO Initial Thoughts:


Usually I do not review games before finishing them. However, in this instance I felt the need to drive home a - potentially - game ruining point to early buyers: the game shoehorns a... clumsy Batmobile into the game as much as is humanly possible, right from the get-go. So far, it is best described as GTA with a car that transforms into a tank, but without anyone in the city bar a few generic goons and the same exact enemy vehicles. Dull, and not exactly inspirational for a last in a trilogy sequel! Honestly, it feels like a DLC Batmobile expansion.

The Batmobile is by no means the small-cool part of the game I expected it to be since I have spent more time in it than punching and/or flying around in the first few hours... which is a pity when I quite liked the idea of punching people and/or flying around. Also, it is difficult to actually see (or appreciate the graphics) given how dark AND rainy it is when you are driving, with motion blur not helping matters. The game tries to compensate for the speed/visibility issue by making the Batmobile seemingly impervious to crash damage and providing a breadcrumb arrow-trail on the road. And the tank resilience is most useful given the handling and controls drive me batty: accelerate is R2 and brake is SQUARE... with tank mode assigned to L2, which most driving games use for the brake. (EDIT: Hidden at the bottom of 'game options', rather than 'controls', is a vague 'Battle Mode Toggle' option that switches the brake to L2. WHY NOT HAVE THAT AS THE DEFAULT SETTING!?) Naturally, I keep switching to tank mode by mistake. So, up to yet, the game has made me feel like an especially blind bat and not punished me for button confusion crashing. Last night I did two things: a CHECKPOINT RACE (in a Batman game!?) through some kind of sewer tunnels and a failed attempt at PLATFORMING IN THE BATMOBILE across buildings, which required 'precision' usage of the tank mode. I drove off the top of a building a few times as my frown engraved itself onto my forehead.

I played Arkham Asylum and was impressed by the compact, focused approach it had. I avoided Arkham City because it just struck me as a 'bigger MUST mean better' open-world continuation. Perhaps unwisely, the allure of the Batmobile, for whatever reason, made me give Arkham Knight a chance after having ignored the series for all these years. But I have to say, the story set-up for Knight is incredibly LAME. Instead of going for a little chaos and anarchy, as one would expect of super villains, Scarecrow... err, knowingly scared the entire population of the city away with a threat which, I must point out, is the the most THINLY disguised 'The game would be 10x harder with a fully populated city, so... that is that.' game design choice EVER. Maybe watching Batman Begins and the Scarecrow toxin plot in that spoiled me here but the game opening with an anti-climax, after bizarrely random 'press button to burn!?' Joker scene + being a first-person view cop set the tone for the rest of the game. And, up to yet, it has not swayed my opinion.

All I can say, for now, is that as first impressions go, Knight has not impressed. Finding firefighters, Riddler collectibles / trials, serial killer clues and other optional busywork seem to be the only alternative to main story Batmobile driving. EMPTY open-world + tedious BUSYWORK do not excite me greatly, I must confess. I was hoping to get straight back into the whole square punch / triangle counter combat, but instead, that has played second fiddle to driving, with few to no reintroduction combat tutorials since Batmobile tutorials were required... which is a problem for me especially given that I went into it disconnected with the series and unaware of new moves/gadgets.

UPDATE:
Played for a few more hours, taking me to the end of the ACE Chemicals section. Most, I wager, would start to truly hate the Batmobile busywork emphasis shift here. The driving and the rest of the gameplay just do not blend together smoothly. At all. The IN-OUT-IN-OUT routine goes overboard to the point all coherence is lost: I would constantly be forced exit the Batmobile, hit a switch, then jump back in to resume attempting to platform with a car-tank, which is every bit as enjoyable as it reads... or, instead, mash 'X' to dodge in tank mode whilst shooting rockets at identical enemy vehicles. Repeatedly. Occasionally I got to actually fight some goons, with Batman SO OVERPOWERED that what made the series so loved originally felt like a mere afterthought (mashing my way to a x50 combo proving easy enough). But this was only when doing 'puzzles' to allow the Batmobile to advance a few more inches... before another roadblock appeared. Rocksteady clearly decided something fresh was needed... but the execution is so misguided here that it is alienating to fans of the series. Especially when the Batmobile is SO LIMITED: fire rockets, blow identical things up, DONE.

To give you an idea just how much the car-tank is forced into a game that may as well have been titled 'Batmobile Knight', here are three examples.

Batmobile 'Puzzle' Example #1:
Inside a building, I frowned upon the discovery of pipes/gas designed with the sole intent of ruining Batman's day. I then remembered the Batmobile: I had been pulling down walls with it, so the next logical step was - naturally - pipe pulling. After using 'Batman Vision' outside to find where to attach a cable, I reversed the Batmobile until the pipes broke. Next, I returned to Batman to deal with FUSEBOX BUSYWORK in order to open shutters and use a crane to position jump ramps for vehicle platforming awkwardness. This was then repeated over and over AND OVER.

Batmobile 'Puzzle' Example #2:
An elevator blocked Batman's way after jumping down a shaft; possibly with suicidal thoughts in his mind by that stage. Once more, only the Batmobile could save the day. So, following more investigating, I switched to it and pulled the elevator up. Next, I helpfully moved Batman into the elevator, before switching back to the Batmobile AGAIN in order to lower myself down. And, on the way out, OF COURSE: I had to use the Batmobile to pull up the elevator to make my exit. WHY NOT JUST HAVE THE ELEVATOR WORK!?

Batmobile 'Puzzle' Example #3:
The game wanted me to blow a hole in the upper wall of a building, using the Batmobile's tank mode, which I dutifully did. My first instinct was to glide through the hole. SUCCESS... or so I thought. After reaching enemy vehicles, I was informed the Batmobile felt neglected and needed to come through the hole with me. Back outside I went to reposition the jump ramp. This was followed by me repeatedly failing to make it through the damned hole and, instead, spastically hitting the wall--falling to the ground in defeat. WHY NOT JUST LET BATMAN FLY THROUGH HOLE AND LEAVE THE DAMNED TANK!?

Even the narrative seems to be intentionally anti-climatic at every turn: Batman might be dead!?... NEVERMIND: he is shown to be perfectly fine literally a few minutes later. Controlling Gordon as he walked EXTREMELY SLOWLY for a few minutes, before a first-person 'jump scare' was just there to add variety. Overall, it is just disappointing and underwhelming. If there are no further updates, assume that - although I will have completed it - this is my final score, with the game having been sold. I am starting to think I would be better off just replaying the original and then trying Arkham City. At least I would be free of Arkham Knight's 'selling point': the vehicle platforming busywork suffering NOOO.