JohnMcdermott

For it's day the graphics were superb, being Rockstars first GTA game to switch to 3D you kind of expect it. The gameplay is not perfect, the driving mechanics can be a bit difficult at times and the hand to hand combat is poor but the overall experience is worth it. Set-pieces are amazing at times. Plenty of side missions to keep you invested for hours and the variety of friends missions were a breath of fresh air at the time. I admired Rockstars attempt at making a more mature darker narrative for Niko Bellic but it can often be overlooked in the hours of carnage that the user can get up too. I think they perfected this narrative in their later games particularly the Red Dead Redemption series. I enjoyed the choices the game gave you for certain story moments and liked how they improved on it in GTA V. Overall an enjoyable game for its time

Disappointing to say the least. The gameplay hasn't really changed that much since the previous instalment. For 2013 the gameplay was fantastic but I felt it was at best routine and at worst felt bored. I still like the crafting mechanics but felt it could have been improved seeing as a similar AAA title 'Days Gone' had done this element better in their game last year. I discovered that I had a lot of glitches in my playtrue. I ran into instances when fighting enemies where I fell through walls into nothingness repeatedly. Other times, my character became stuck on invisible ladders while climbing walls. If it happened once or twice, I would let it slide but it felt like the game was made with a first day patch in mind. From a graphics standpoint, I expected much more. The graphics are improved since the last game circa 2013, which is expected, yet are not as groundbreaking as I have heard from friends. They are quite similar if not slightly worse than the graphics from 'RDR2' and 'GOW' which came out more than two years ago. That being said, the graphics were one of the things I enjoyed about the game. The story was difficult to get through. I was able to understand characters motivations but felt that the execution was lacking. I enjoyed Ellies relationship with Dina but could not connect with any of the other new characters in the same way. I felt that Jesse's character in particular could have been fleshed out more given the games running time, which ran longer than the first. It made me hard to sympathise with these new characters when the revenge plot kicks in. I think the game lacks the ambiguity of its predecessor. The first game made characters organically feel grey. Joel, Marlene, Bill and Ellie all had their own intentions that you could understand even if you disagreed with it. Most of the characters in the first seemed to show human emotion towards their actions, both the good and the bad yet the sequel strays from this. Even the worst characters in the first showed a glimpse of humanity in their actions yet the sequel takes all of the humanity out of the characters. Overall, in a story driven game if you find yourself at times bored and at others wishing to play other excellent story driven games such as 'Life is Strange' or 'Telltales TWD' then you know the story has issues.