LogFAQs > #899084711

Now, the missions themselves were mostly rather dull. San Andreas contained some crazy shit, if not brutally difficult sometimes. Getting on a Jeep and driving out of a plane (and the rest of Toreno's missions), burning down a weed farm, planning a heist and robbing a casino in GTA's Vegas equivalent, all of these types of missions are gone (but return in GTA5). Instead, the majority of mission are of the "drive here, go there, shoot this guy, shoot all those guys, chase this guy" variety. The most exciting mission of the game is a bank robbery gone wrong and your escape to the subway. It's nothing more than a shootout, but it's a tad more exciting than generic car race mission or generic foot chase mission. The characters and mission givers (outside of the "friends") aren't terribly interesting, either. It's like Rockstar went through a checklist of cultural stereotypes and squeezed all of them in. The friends/allies are well-developed, especially steroid junkie Brucie who would probably be a Jersey Shore dropout if the game came out one year later, but the rest of the NPCs are boring mafia types or angry Russians. In fact, the Godfather/mafia arc in the last third of the game was boring, because I'm tired of seeing these types of characters in games. GTA3 already did it (speaking of which, there are no yakuza in this game, feh!). As for the friends, one of the biggest bullet points from this game's features is the ability to call them anytime and go out with them to build you relationships. This was a cute concept back in 2008 but now we all remember it as, "Fuck you Roman, stop calling me, I don't want to go bowling."

I've said lots of mean things, but yet this game is ranked somewhere halfway on the list. Despite all my negativity, I freaking love it! As a GTA game it's not the greatest, but all the GTA games are made extremely well. Rockstar did not fail in delivering quite an excellent product with plenty of attention to detail and things to do, even if the latter is minimal compared to SA and GTA5. This being set in 2008 features cell phones and the ability to surf the Internet, which blew my mind back when I first played it. A game that has its own Internet that you can surf! If that doesn't suit your fancy, you can always go get a six star wanted level and blow shit up, and it's sometimes as thrilling as ever. The next game in the series improves upon the formula and it will be featured later on this list, but neither of them reach GTA: SA's level of near perfection. I can only hope GTA6 lives up to its standards. It's just sad that critics seem to think this is one of the greatest games ever made, without appearing to break it down and point out its faults when compared to the rest of the franchise.

I haven't played either of the DLC but I hear it's amazing and an improvement and maybe I'll check it out or YouTube it.