GTA 4 was shit too.
GTA 1 - Really fun game. Actiony and fast and good controls, plays more like Noita or something than what people today would think. The missions and 'storyline' was a total afterthought. Go collect a whore and take her to big daddy. Look out bad guys. But the gameplay itself was the selling point, the whizzing around in the little micromachines car and squishing anyone and anything that gets in the way, all while being chased by cops or pimps. It was fun, and in multiplayer it was amazing. But most people couldn't even try that unless they went to other peoples homes with their PC.
GTA 2 - Same again but slicker, graphics improving. Single player more important.
GTA 3 - It goes 3D and they do a good job of it. The driving feels like other 3d driving games from that time (especially 'Driver') only you could get out the car and run around shooting! It was a big step. And the story had improved into bad gangster movie territory which was cool. But now it's not 2D and cartoony and silly, and now when you get in a police chase and then drive straight into a spray shop and all the cops stop... it just seems retarded. They ignore you driving red lights, they ignore you smashing other cars and driving through city property, etc. It's hard to complain when they made such a giant leap, but if you actually care about the gameplay then these things are super important and they just get ignored game after game.
Vice City - Everyone loved this but I say it's only because they are the first internet generation and this is the first GTA they played, and all went online to talk about how orsum it was bro. To me the whole thing was feeling stale already and there was no innovation. It was just more GTA 3 and the only real change was making it 80s themed. Which itself was arguably a hack choice. 80s nostalgia was always strong so it wasn't as omg totes random as the younger players thought. I also thought about 80s GTA as early as the first GTA 3D because I noticed how slow the driving was. You couldn't (and still can't!) drive fast in the game. It cons people with sound effects and tricks. Drive 70mph in real life and see how fast things move, it's entirely different to anything in any GTA. So going back to 80s was predictable because cool cars and iconic yet they were relatively slow and heavy.
San Andreas - Good game. The world felt more alive and interactive, things were improving tech wise and it really needed to.. Driving had more physics to it, still crappy but it was improving. And they had flying now which was a big deal. Some better missions. Larger world didn't feel so boxed in. Also this had the Hood Wars thing which was finally some kind of direction for the game. But it got no effort so it was just a gimmick they dropped and it was never seen again. Shitlords. Also money is still retarded and my patience is gone by this point. You get infinite money and can steal infinite cars and sell them at the crane. But just playing the game and doing missions you have millions. And buying the houses in game is terrible. Boys should not play with doll houses.
GTA 4 - Shit. Some minor tech improvements but no gameplay improvements. Stupid shit like having everything driven by the phone, boring missions. Bad game. One of the DLCs had fun missions though but that could have been in GTA4 and instead was sold extra because decline. Also the PC port gets treated like a red headed stepchild after being the platform that spawned the series. Shitlords.
GTA 5 - The worst one yet. Driving is still slow and stupid. Feels like a stupid barely interactive arcade game whenever it goes into a 'set piece' like the boat chase. Stupid characters, stupid mini game gimmicks, boring missions. Pretends like it can do heists but they are retarded. Pretends like it has a big world to explore but the world is completely empty minus unsimulated pedestrians. Most buildings just empty boxes. An open world as interactive as non open world games from the 90s. When people wanted game worlds to become more realistic and interactive, that didn't mean adding meaningless mini games. It meant adding things like an economy that interacts with the player, character factions that change based on your actions, or being able to change something within the world physically, etc. None of this shit ever got done. They are still making GTA 3 but with updated graphics each time, they spend all their money on gimmick shit instead of developing some gameplay directions for the game. The series is dead to me, and so is any 'open world' game that doesn't try to have simulation in the world.
