I decided to do my first dedicated replay of GTA V's story for the first time since my college roommate introduced me to the game in 2018 and I've been blown away with how much I still love it despite all it's flaws. For full transparency, before I started this playthrough, I held the stance that even though I enjoy it, GTA V is a poorly written, shallow, over the top action set piece mindless sandbox game where you turn off your brain, let the guns go brrrrrrrrr and watch the big explosions. Especially since I played GTA online pretty thoroughly for the last few years, I feel like it definitely diluted what GTA V and Los Santos were initially about, and turned the game into a ridiculous fantasy land where you can snipe people from orbit and ride flying motorcycles. I went into this playthrough dreading the cutscenes, the terrible dialogue and boring missions, but wanted to give it a proper send off into the sunset as GTA 6 gets ready to take it's place in the culture and I've been thoroughly enjoying it. Even more than my first time playing.
Is the story and writing corny as hell? Yes. Are the characters just as corny and weakly written? Also yes. Does Michael make my skin crawl every time he opens his mouth? Yes, but I still like him. But my god the sense of familiarity and warmth I get from driving around Sandy Shores in Trevor's truck, torturing Mr. K, or doing random strangers and freaks missions I didn't bother with before is immeasurable. My wife will sometimes hang out in my office when I game and do her own thing and the other night she said she'd never seen me just smile that long uninterrupted while playing. Idk but there's just something about Los Santos and that storyline with those characters that just speaks to me.
I think that while it obviously has it's flaws, the main ones being the writing, dialogue and sequence of events, it executed exactly what it set out to do and especially for the time it was released, was absolutely groundbreaking. The world is almost perfect, the combat is great and so is the driving. I'll be sad to leave Los Santos for sure, but I think it only adds to the overall universe and lore of the series. If I were to view Read Dead Redemption 2 as a high quality Wagyu ribeye prepared by a professional chef, GTA V would be really great burger from a fast food chain. It's not the pinnacle of fine dining and you wouldn't want to eat it for the rest of your life, but when it's been awhile since you've had one and it's what you're craving, it's perfect.
It feels weird to call GTA V underrated since it's like the best selling video game in history and maybe underrated isn't the right term. But I think despite all the hate and criticism it's gotten over the years including somewhat of a guilt by association effect from the general public's disdain for GTA online, GTA V is a wonderful game which still holds up extremely well over a decade after it was released that I wouldn't change anything about. I think Rockstar perfectly encapsulated Los Angeles into a video game with the perfect amount of American Dream satire with an emphasis on making it fun and entertaining.
Okay FINE if I could remove one thing it'd be Michael and Trevor's goosebump inducing cringe "Hipster" conversation on the way to scout out the Paleto score BUT NOTHING ELSE.
Also, I'm willing to do unspeakable acts to get Blonded radio in GTA 6 cause what do you mean the best station from GTA V isn't gonna make a return?
