171 replies to this topic

[The Odyssey]

Alright guys, let's face it.
The San Andreas story was bad. Seriously. Was it about trying to find your brother or working for a hippie or robbing a casino with a blind guy? The game shot so many pointless sub-stories at us that it turned into a mess of space fillers and plot holes.

Yeah, ok, I have to rob a casino. What about my brother?
The Los Santos part of the game is pretty well done. Carl comes back to Los Santos to mourn his mum but after his childhood friends betray him and forms an alliance with some corrupt cops his brother is arrested. But then he is dropped off in the countryside and then what happens? He befriends a hippie, robs banks with a psychotic bitch and then for some reason has to go to San Fierro?

Oh boy! San Fierro! I can't wait to go to Las Venturas because some blind guy who has no affiliation with my brother told me too!
I'm not saying I didn't like the random sub-plots idea, but it could of been executed in a better way. For example GTA IV had subplots but they all we're linked to each other. Niko has to Kill Vlad and results in him getting caught up with Russian mobsters. The leads to Dimitri betraying you and then continues the plot with Niko trying to avoid Russian mobsters while trying to survive NYC in an immigrants POV.
I understand the message at the end where Carl is successful and he forgets about the hood and all Sweet cares about is the hood, blah blah blah. But couldn't of he story focused more on finding Sweet, than other missions used to occupy room?

picture related
I hope that GTA V focuses on one main plot. I aint expecting no The Last Of Us, but it would be great if it didn't wander off and not turn into "Steal a military jet because an undercover agent told you too'' I'm also expecting some subplots, but ones that link to each other and tie into the main plot. Side missions are fine. Use all your creativity in pointless missions and put them into a side missions. Make a side mission where you cut heads off hobos with a dildo while riding a unicorn, idgaf. By the looks of it, GTA V looks like a Heat inpired film that will work using a basic concept. And I'm happy with that.

[Innovention]

IV's story was garbage. More garbage than SA. I felt like I needed an IV to finish IV. That or a white russian.

[wwinterj]

Good post. I doubt R* will take a step back in there storytelling. After GTA IV R* seems to have got better at telling a story and I don't think V will be any different.

[Jacob-B]

The story of San Andreas was pretty easy to understand, CJ returns home, eventually finds out he was betrayed and unravels the whole conspiracy surrounding his mom's death and while he was exiled from Los Santos he made big moves and made a lot of money.

[redx165]

At least SA had good missions and wasn't the same boring repetitive missions IV had.

You do know the story was about trying to get his brother back. He got side tracked with money ( Which robbing the casino is a side mission )

[Monty Mantis]

I agree on so many levels. San Andreas was a disjointed mess filled with various B-Movie plots to keep 13 year old us occupied, but now V has a very focused goal on heists.

It won't feel like SA.

[TheFoxRiverFugitive]

QUOTE (Innovention @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 00:16)

IV's story was garbage. More garbage than SA. I felt like I needed an IV to finish IV. That or a white russian.

I hope you mean that subjectively because the story definitely had some of the most memorable characters in franchise history. San Andreas had a very un-focused and disjointed story and I'm speaking objectively.

[Gedmundo]

Good luck getting one main plot out of three protagonists. It's likely to be more convoluted than ever.

[mulatto awsomeness]

Every City Had A Different Plot. He Didnt Remember Sweet Til The End Of The Game.

[cbiscuit93]

The thing is, you're complaining about how SA had random sub-stories, and then you say IV had them too but they made sense, and then you list how they're connected. You're problem is you didn't take the time to remember & write down how SA's sub-stories connect as well. There are reasons why Carl does what he does in SA. And you keep saying he should have spent more time 'finding' his brother? He knew where his brother was, he didn't have to find him. He was in jail. The game was about getting him out of jail. But the whole time you had Tenpenny breathing down your neck.
I'm not saying the game doesn't have flaws, but I don't believe the story was bad at all.

[Enchilada]

for a sec i thought you were talking about the game not the story cus i was about to kick your ass

[omer19992010]

QUOTE (Innovention @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:16)

IV's story was garbage. More garbage than SA. I felt like I needed an IV to finish IV. That or a white russian.

IV's Story's was the best in the GTA Series IMO.

[Lone_Spirit]

QUOTE (Innovention @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:16)

IV's story was garbage. More garbage than SA. I felt like I needed an IV to finish IV. That or a white russian.

You can sit there with a straight face & tell me that IV story was worse than SA? Are you confused with mission variety & repetition or do you generally believe that an immigrants story is worse than the clusterf*ck that was SA, sorry for the lack of a better word.

[NostalgiaIsABitch]

QUOTE (Monty Mantis @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:18)

I agree on so many levels. San Andreas was a disjointed mess filled with various B-Movie plots to keep 13 year old us occupied, but now V has a very focused goal on heists. It won't feel like SA.

Re: your sig. Actually, Trevor says that line.

..Unless you're trying to pull off some sort of trick.

OT: Honestly SA and IV had completely different methods of storytelling that suited their games. V will be totally different too. I loved VC's story but I don't want another incarnation of that in any shape or form. Bring on the novelty.

[The Odyssey]

QUOTE (cbiscuit93 @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:19)

The thing is, you're complaining about how SA had random sub-stories, and then you say IV had them too but they made sense, and then you list how they're connected. You're problem is you didn't take the time to remember & write down how SA's sub-stories connect as well. There are reasons why Carl does what he does in SA. And you keep saying he should have spent more time 'finding' his brother? He knew where his brother was, he didn't have to find him. He was in jail. The game was about getting him out of jail. But the whole time you had Tenpenny breathing down your neck. I'm not saying the game doesn't have flaws, but I don't believe the story was bad at all.

But Carl could have easily got his brother out of prison by the time he met Toreno. For some reason he decided to keep working with Woozie (note that this was before he became rich, so you can't tell me he didnt try and find his brother because he was caught up in money)
I'd also like to note that I love fun missions, but when they're just space occupiers than it creates a bad story.

[Innovention]

QUOTE (Lone_Spirit @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:21)

QUOTE (Innovention @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:16) IV's story was garbage. More garbage than SA. I felt like I needed an IV to finish IV. That or a white russian. You can sit there with a straight face & tell me that IV story was worse than SA?

Uhh, shyea.

[Monty Mantis]

QUOTE (NostalgiaIsABitch @ Saturday, Jul 27 2013, 21:22)

QUOTE (Monty Mantis @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:18) I agree on so many levels. San Andreas was a disjointed mess filled with various B-Movie plots to keep 13 year old us occupied, but now V has a very focused goal on heists. It won't feel like SA. Re: your sig. Actually, Trevor says that line. ..Unless you're trying to pull off some sort of trick. OT: Honestly SA and IV had completely different methods of storytelling that suited their games. V will be totally different too. I loved VC's story but I don't want another incarnation of that in any shape or form. Bring on the novelty.

HOW COULD ANYONE BELIEVE THAT'S TREVOR, IT SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE MICH-
*Starts foaming at mouth*

But I think you have a point. SA and VC were very silly and, dare I say, arcadey games that focused on comical violence.

V will be much more serious, but not quite as serious as IV.

[mulatto awsomeness]

QUOTE (NostalgiaIsABitch @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:22)

QUOTE (Monty Mantis @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:18) I agree on so many levels. San Andreas was a disjointed mess filled with various B-Movie plots to keep 13 year old us occupied, but now V has a very focused goal on heists. It won't feel like SA. Re: your sig. Actually, Trevor says that line. ..Unless you're trying to pull off some sort of trick. OT: Honestly SA and IV had completely different methods of storytelling that suited their games. V will be totally different too. I loved VC's story but I don't want another incarnation of that in any shape or form. Bring on the novelty.

Micheal Says That Line. Its Obviously His Voice. Trevor Sounds WAAY Different. i Know Your Trying To Be Clever But Thats Just Not Gonna Cut it.

[NostalgiaIsABitch]

QUOTE (mulatto awsomeness @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:27)

QUOTE (NostalgiaIsABitch @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:22) QUOTE (Monty Mantis @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:18) I agree on so many levels. San Andreas was a disjointed mess filled with various B-Movie plots to keep 13 year old us occupied, but now V has a very focused goal on heists. It won't feel like SA. Re: your sig. Actually, Trevor says that line. ..Unless you're trying to pull off some sort of trick. OT: Honestly SA and IV had completely different methods of storytelling that suited their games. V will be totally different too. I loved VC's story but I don't want another incarnation of that in any shape or form. Bring on the novelty. Micheal Says That Line. Its Obviously His Voice. Trevor Sounds WAAY Different. i Know Your Trying To Be Clever But Thats Just Not Gonna Cut it.

You are just asking me to end up on your disrespect list, aren't ya?

[theNGclan]

QUOTE (mulatto awsomeness @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:27)

QUOTE (NostalgiaIsABitch @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:22) QUOTE (Monty Mantis @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:18) I agree on so many levels. San Andreas was a disjointed mess filled with various B-Movie plots to keep 13 year old us occupied, but now V has a very focused goal on heists. It won't feel like SA. Re: your sig. Actually, Trevor says that line. ..Unless you're trying to pull off some sort of trick. OT: Honestly SA and IV had completely different methods of storytelling that suited their games. V will be totally different too. I loved VC's story but I don't want another incarnation of that in any shape or form. Bring on the novelty. Micheal Says That Line. Its Obviously His Voice. Trevor Sounds WAAY Different. i Know Your Trying To Be Clever But Thats Just Not Gonna Cut it.

Let's stay on topic, shall we? And please stop capitalizing every word.

[no_snacks]

GTA SA was & still is my favourite GTA, but I will admit the story was a bit messy. Maybe not as messy as the OP is making out though.
I believe the story in IV was put together better, but if I had to choose only one game to play, I would rather play SA over IV.
Basically, I would choose a messy story with more fun & variety over a good story that felt a bit repetitive & boring (even though IV had a few good missions along the way).
Most of the things IV gave us were an improvement over SA, but all the things it lacked made it a less enjoyable game overall. Just my opinion though.
Regarding GTA V, with 3 protags, R* can make the story branch out for each character but still have a central, core story that still makes sense. It should keep both the V & SA fans happy. I hope so anyway.

[Nem_Wan]

Multiple protagonists fixes the issue of there being too much story to believe with one protagonist.

[SeaFoam]

QUOTE (thegtaman531 @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:25)

QUOTE (cbiscuit93 @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:19) The thing is, you're complaining about how SA had random sub-stories, and then you say IV had them too but they made sense, and then you list how they're connected. You're problem is you didn't take the time to remember & write down how SA's sub-stories connect as well. There are reasons why Carl does what he does in SA. And you keep saying he should have spent more time 'finding' his brother? He knew where his brother was, he didn't have to find him. He was in jail. The game was about getting him out of jail. But the whole time you had Tenpenny breathing down your neck. I'm not saying the game doesn't have flaws, but I don't believe the story was bad at all. But Carl could have easily got his brother out of prison by the time he met Toreno. For some reason he decided to keep working with Woozie (note that this was before he became rich, so you can't tell me he didnt try and find his brother because he was caught up in money) I'd also like to note that I love fun missions, but when they're just space occupiers than it creates a bad story.

Right. It's much easier to break into a heavily guarded military base than it is to break your brother out of jail lol.

As much as I love San Andreas (and in fact have been replaying it as a digital download on my 360) the story just gets lost and completely silly. Don't get me wrong, the missions were fun and very memorable. It's just the story seems to fall off once you hit San Fierro in my opinion.

[simonp92]

I agree. GTA IV's story was interesting, especially with EFLC and the different PoVs of the events. I never thought about little sense actual story of SA was, I guess the bad protagonist took the spotlight there for me.

[Josh410]

Oh what the f*ck. You spoiled the story for me. I was just getting ready to get to the part. f*cker.

[AllenKS]

OP reads like a Cracked(.com) article.

Yeah SA's story was really bloated, and weird, and disjointed, but I think it's because of how big the map was and how seperated everything was from each other they found it hard to explain why CJ would leave the hood and go to the desert for no reason at all.

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they're trying to avoid this time with the 3 characters who live on opposite sides of the map and with different personalities in GTA V. Now they don't have to worry about how they'll get you to randomly go to the desert part of the map, because Trevor lives out there. Also the character switching adds greater variety on a mission to mission basis as well. Now the missions won't be so claustrophobic with chasing you around a specific part of the map and staying there, like in past games.

With 3 characters you could be in Blaine County one second, then in the bay south of LS in the next without having to drive for 40 minutes.

[zainzombie]

MAJOR SPOILERS for San Andreas:




Idk... I didn't really find the story of same disjointed. Cj always remembered sweet, he just did not know what to do.. when he got the opportunity he did all those undercover agent missions to get sweet out of the jail. The guy was thrown out of his hood and his city and had to start from the scratch while taking care of his sister the only family left. He needed money so he needed to acquire new businesses, he needed people he could trust so he befriended a Chinese mob and
a wasted rapper.

He starts meeting new people makes money, makes new friends who he could trust, it was kina like he had to Make a new crew to get his home in GS and get his hood back.

He wasn't vengeful at all but he did kill ryder and smoke for what they did, CJ was a f'n smart character. Apart from the jetpack mission, everything made sense to me.

[Aronius_M]

QUOTE (theNGclan @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:32)

QUOTE (mulatto awsomeness @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:27) QUOTE (NostalgiaIsABitch @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:22) QUOTE (Monty Mantis @ Sunday, Jul 28 2013, 04:18) I agree on so many levels. San Andreas was a disjointed mess filled with various B-Movie plots to keep 13 year old us occupied, but now V has a very focused goal on heists. It won't feel like SA. Re: your sig. Actually, Trevor says that line. ..Unless you're trying to pull off some sort of trick. OT: Honestly SA and IV had completely different methods of storytelling that suited their games. V will be totally different too. I loved VC's story but I don't want another incarnation of that in any shape or form. Bring on the novelty. Micheal Says That Line. Its Obviously His Voice. Trevor Sounds WAAY Different. i Know Your Trying To Be Clever But Thats Just Not Gonna Cut it. Let's stay on topic, shall we? And please stop capitalizing every word.

He has a lower case i! Its a miracle.

[Gtaman_92]

I played San Andreas storyline earlier this year and I will admit that after Los Santos the story got a lot silly and dumb. It wasn't until the end where CJ got back to the hood and reclaim grove street that the story got good again. I hope GTA V story is not off the wall like San Andreas.

[JOSEPH X]

I think if R* designed GTA IV the same way as they did San Andreas, then Niko would have become the leader of the Lost and been the personal bodyguard of Gay Tony. That would have made it very long and very messy.

The way they did it by splitting their ideas between three characters, made Niko's story more focused than CJ's, and it was better for it.

I still think R* has a problem in their open world games, where every story idea they come up with has to be included in the main story line. That makes their stories too long and a lot of the missions feel like filler or out of place.

I would enjoy their main stories a lot more, and replay them more times, if they made a lot of what is in them optional side missions. Instead of one long 40+ hour campaign, they had a 20 hour campaign with 4x 5 hour meaty side quests that are optional.