Prove me wrong?
I dunno what you remember, but speaking as someone who completed a dozen playthroughs through every mainline GTA game since San Andreas, that hand-holding didn't disappear in an expansion or even the next entry, for that matter.
I am sorry but did we play the same game? GTA4 had some scripted missions but over all it was a game that let you use the open world to your benefits. There is a whole thread in GTA4 where it shows plenty of alternative ways to do the missions.
No, I don't. In fact, I didn't even define "gamey", which was clearly a mistake as you have taken it to mean unrealistic. SA, and previous GTAs, to me just felt like a world, for better or worse. It was sometimes monotonous, often cumbersome to interact with the world, but you sort of believed in it. In the same way I think Morrowind presents a more believable world than Skyrim. GTAV was the first game in the series where I was very much aware I was playing a game. All these measures to make it so the player is never bored. Switching characters (if character A is lost in the woods just switch to B who might be engaged in something more fun), mission checkpoints, reduced vehicle damage, controlling cars mid-flight and even flipping them if you land upside down, character abilities, "easier" physics. It's all just bullets that "objectively" make for a better game, but to me it really made me disconnect with the world. That's what I mean with "gamey". It has nothing to do with realistic missions or whatever
I am aware. I'm not arguing facts. Its success makes it even more baffling why I just can't get into it. But reading some of the replies in this thread, it's clear some people feel the same way.
Maybe you've "grown up" or your tastes have changed over time?
I found that the opposite was the case. Instead of IV with its enemies in god mode until certain points in the mission, etc., in V there were clear 'shortcuts' you could take to complete the missions by exploiting the sandbox nature of the game.
I replayed GTA4 a couple of months ago and it had almost none of that (apart from a couple of chases). Most of the time you could climb a building and snipe people or go through the back door or even use the phone to your advantage.
It's a combination of input latency and reliance on animation-based 'root motion' for basically everything, with an emphasis on "realism" over good control feel.
Here's the most ridiculous part - GTAO has been introducing increasingly unrealistic elements. I mean, for pete's sake, the more recent updates have included flying cars, jetpacks and a heist plotline about some silicon valley nutjob trying to take over the world with an AI. And it's a prequel to the GTAV storyline.
This is my biggest complaint about it. I love the game to death, but compared to IV's Euphoria, V's is quite the downgrade.
I hate to be that guy, but GTAO's caught up to the current year at least since the Gunrunning update.
I agree with this. Every GTA since GTA3 had a clear identity and rich atmosphere. GTA5 just lacks the soul other GTAs had.
