Grand Theft Auto V Righting The Wrongs Of Grand Theft Auto IV

Variety of Missions
I remember playing through Grand Theft Auto IV and was disappointed with the missions in the main game. Most of the missions were similar in structure and the entire game felt repetitive overall. Most of the missions resulted in endless chases either on foot or with vehicles. The missions usually ended with simple gunfights too. There weren’t any wacky and humorous missions like the ones in San Andreas, Vice City or even Grand Theft Auto III. Anyone remember the mission where you had to steal a jetpack in San Andreas? What about the mission in the third game where you blew up vehicles with a remote controlled car rigged with a bomb? None of these types of missions were ever featured in the fourth game.

Although the gameplay trailer was brief, Grand Theft Auto V showed more variety in the missions. Not only can you orchestrate your own bank robberies, but you can change who you want to be during each missions too. I’m sure all of you saw the trailer where Trevor was sniping dudes from afar while Michael was abseiling down a building. These elaborate and creative missions were absent in Grand Theft Auto IV. I’m pretty sure even more explosive missions will be featured in the full game too.

More Fun Side Activities
Again, Grand Theft Auto IV scaled back on the side activities that you could do in previous games. You couldn’t do the firefighter type missions nor was there a casino for you to visit like in San Andreas. Street racing in the game was also very boring too. I remember street racing in GTA III and killing my opponents with a tank to win the race. In GTA IV however, the race ends if you “kill” any of your opponents. What kind of GTA game doesn’t let you sabotage the competition? Not to mention the main side activities in GTA IV were only pool and bowling…

Grand Theft Auto V is shaping up to one game that will allow you to partake in tons of side activities. You can play tennis, ride a bike, go diving, go hunting and probably tons more. It also brings back the ability for you to customize the look of your own cars. This was a feature that was in San Andreas, but was removed for some dumb reason in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Conclusion
Obviously Grand Theft Auto V isn’t out yet and I don’t know all of the details about it, however the trailers show me that there are tons more features in the game that fans will love. The trailers were so impressive that they even made Hideo Kojima feel “depressed” by how much content Rockstar is packing into the game. If you felt that Grand Theft Auto IV was a step back in the series, Grand Theft Auto V is looking like it will rejuvenate the franchise the same way the PS2 games did.