My Grand Theft Auto Curse
I hope someone else shares this problem. That I’m not the only one with such lofty goals for my experience with each new GTA game. I tear off the plastic, slide it into the console, and start playing. The game is amazing and I imagine playing the entire thing over and over so I can find every nook and cranny of the entire city and try out a hundred different tactics for each of the missions.
And then I reach a point in the game where I just don’t care anymore.
I thought for sure Grand Theft Auto 4 would be the first GTA game I’ve ever completed, but it doesn’t look like I can break the curse. The graphics were impressive, the new combat tweaks took much of the annoyance out of the game, and finally I had a character worth caring about. But I always reach a point in the game where the narrative disappears and I fail over and over on a mission that requires me to drive for fifteen minutes before the actual action starts. And I don’t seem to ever actually die, instead the vehicle required for the mission flips on a curb, or my friend runs over to a car that’s on fire and then stands there until it explodes, or I find out that I wasn’t suppose to kill that guy, but I missed the mission text because my television is too small.
I know not everyone feels this way. My younger brother is already on his second play through of the story and he never seems to fail missions. I’ll admit that I’m not the best GTA player, but the frustrating missions are only part of why I quit. The other reason is the gap in the storyline. In GTA4 it comes after you rescue your cousin and move to a new part of the city. I know you meet Bernie at some point, but there’s nothing to push me past my frustration. Russians are supposedly hunting Nico down, but I wouldn’t know unless I’m playing a mission. I’ve already seen all the non-essential stuff, like the comedy shows, etc., so the only thing left is to slog through enough missions to unlock the final sequence.
This has happened to me with every GTA. The one I got closest to completing was Vice City. I think I got stuck on the last mission and realized seeing the end wasn’t worth repeating the same sequence over and over. In San Andreas, the game seemed to change completed after I left Los Santos, abandoning everything I went through in the first part of the game, but I managed to make it all the way to the final city before realizing I didn’t really care who betrayed Carl and killed his mother. And I actually like these games!
I tried to force myself through a few missions of GTA4 today, but I grew bored quickly and flipped over to Castle Crashers. If anyone has any words of encourage I’d appreciate them, but at this point I’m pretty sure I’ll never see the end of GTA4 and will probably end up looking up all the bits that haven’t already been spoiled for me online.
-
Twitter Updates
This happened to me with every Grand Theft Auto game post III; which I actually finished and still feel is the more consistent game.
I feel the fundamental nature of the GTA games means the narrative and gameplay are disconnected, and the storyline is over extended. In order to try and encourage you to spent as much time exploring each new island as possible there are far to many missions that don’t need to be there.
I think what you get from GTA depends on what you are looking for. As a narrative experience they start off strong but quickly lose themselves with too many missions designed to teach gameplay mechanics that don’t serve the storyline. However if you approach the games as sandbox titles primarily the wealth of content leads you to keep playing regardless of how often you get stuck, as failing a mission a few times just becomes an excuse to go off on a killing spree or stunt driving rampage for an hour or so.
I still prefer GTA III as it seemed to have the right balance of narrative and gameplay, with a lot of freedom in how you completed your missions. With each new title the narrative has become stronger which has led to more restrictions on how you complete each mission and thus the potential for more frustration.
Reply to Justin KeverneUnfortunately for me, I get caught up in trying to complete the storyline and become so frustrated that enjoying any of the sandbox aspects is impossible. I’m already moving on to something else. Maybe next time I’ll pick it up I will promise myself not to even attempt a mission, and just enjoy the world.
Thanks for posting my blog’s first comment Justin! You’ve gained +1 karma.
Reply to Travis MegillI’ve never found myself caring about the characters in any of the GTA games, mainly due to something Justin alluded to – the narrative and the gameplay often seem like two different games. The missions and cutscenes are designed to build the story of your character and to develop his relationship with the game world, whilst the gameplay rarely cares for the narrative situation and is constantly encouraging you to forget about it and do your own thing.
There are a few exceptions – the ‘mission’ in GTA4 where Roman’s apartment and taxi business are burnt down, for example, gave me the impression that the game world and my actions therein were actually impacting the narrative. Of course, this impact is dismissed almost instantly, as the game resets itself (with Roman and Nico in a new apartment), the world once again oblivious to it.
How else could it be done though? The freedom a sandbox title offers and the restriction a good narrative requires seem at odds with one another. Perhaps a more branching, multiple-ending storyline would help? Maybe GTA III works best because it doesn’t rely on a ‘strong’ central character, and can therefore forego many of the obstructive narrative elements in favour of very gameplay-led missions.
PS: Best of luck with the blog, you’re off to a good start.
Reply to DuncanF