Will we ever get as much freedom as in SA ever again

[13dubs13]

SA is a lot of peoples favourite game by the looks of things on the forum - yet a lot of people love other protagonists more like Niko, and Tommy Vercetti, followed up perhaps by Trevor in that order. I reckon that the reason why was due to the sheer amount of freedom we got with the game.

 

Think about it, going from GTA 3 and Vice city where we had very little choice of activities apart from driving cars and killing people and finding hidden items, we suddenly had an immense array of things that I can't even categorise. We had an enormous variety of cars, literally any car you can type was in the game - Combine Harvesters, tractors, concept of trailers - we had planes as well for the first time, as well as the possibility of driving trains.

 

They additionally gave us an array of miscellaneous items that I don't even know how to categorise - Remember we could use cranes with huge wrecking balls and magnets. You could get a wanted level, and pick up cops from your crane and drop them to the ground or simply just smash the lot of them out of the way with your wrecking ball. They also innovated and gave us bicycles, parachutes, robbery missions - not to mention the fact we could eat (a range of meals), personalise our character with tattoes, gym work or a huge range of clothes for the very first time. It also introduced the concept of stats that could effect how you play - shooting with guns more often would reduce recoil and increase accuracy, as would running a lot increase stamina.

 

Ever since then the game has regressed big time, perhaps for the price of realism. GTA SA kind of marked the end of cartoony GTA with a mass amount of cheats etc and blood from cartoons, to an almost rebuilding of the entire game in IV where they made the game so realistic that even going back today it is top notch. From graphics to handing of cars. I believe IV was the starting point of a bigger plan for the game to become more realistic (perhaps some people call it boring now as they miss the freedom of the older platforms).

 

Either way, do you think we will ever see the freedom we seen in SA again, will R* gradually give us back privileges of items such as cranes, trains and more as the game series goes on? Or will they remain in the past forever?

[universetwisters]

Either way, do you think we will ever see the freedom we seen in SA again, will R* gradually give us back privileges of items such as cranes, trains and more as the game series goes on? Or will they remain in the past forever?

 

We might, but the key word is "might". To me, "freedom" is expressed by the gameplay itself, such as the fact you can go anywhere, do anything, etc. Not to mention that one of your points, stats, returned in GTA 5. If anything, most of your points you bring up seem to focus more on individual features, many of which don't have much relevance in the game. I can't recall having to operate a crane for a main story mission or drive a train. Are they neat features? Yes, why not? Are they completely necessary? Not really, seeing as you can't control where a train goes since it's fixed on a track and the cranes in SA literally cannot go anywhere.

[Drunken Cowboy]

Saints Row

[XxX19Dude95XxX]

Saints Row

and ???

Edited May 20, 2014 by bikerman3

[HOW'S ANNIE?]

I like some of these features you have mentioned, but I couldn't give two f*cks whether they returned or not. None of it is necessary for GTA to be GTA. IV proved this better than anything else.

[Vercetti42]

Niko Vercetti hit the nail on the head. Who wants cranes or quarry missions in a GTA game? SA was/still is an amazing game (It is in my top 5 games of all time) but it had some stupid features like valet or courier missions which were not only unnecessary but horribly done. It just felt like some features were thrown into the game for the sake of content.

 

SA had a lot of cool features like gang wars mind you but honestly their absence never affected me in GTA IV. I'm the type of guy who looks forward to utilizing the new features not bitching about the missing old ones.

[Algonquin Assassin]

Niko Vercetti hit the nail on the head. Who wants cranes or quarry missions in a GTA game? SA was/still is an amazing game (It is in my top 5 games of all time) but it had some stupid features like valet or courier missions which were not only unnecessary but horribly done. It just felt like some features were thrown into the game for the sake of content.

 

SA had a lot of cool features like gang wars mind you but honestly their absence never affected me in GTA IV. I'm the type of guy who looks forward to utilizing the new features not bitching about the missing old ones.

Have you been taking note of my SA criticisms Ace?

[Vercetti42]

Of course!

[Spadge]

Niko Vercetti hit the nail on the head. Who wants cranes or quarry missions in a GTA game? SA was/still is an amazing game (It is in my top 5 games of all time) but it had some stupid features like valet or courier missions which were not only unnecessary but horribly done. It just felt like some features were thrown into the game for the sake of content.

 

SA had a lot of cool features like gang wars mind you but honestly their absence never affected me in GTA IV. I'm the type of guy who looks forward to utilizing the new features not bitching about the missing old ones.

 

Agree, however I'd like to nuance here, some features were so beneficial for gameplay and the game itself that they should re-appear. I'm talking about the role-play aspects of SA, like clothing, maybe working out, but also side activities like gambling etc. On the other hand, if such game features might distort the characters essence (always depending from character and the aimed atmosphere in the game) R* should leave them out.

 

For example working out fitted with SA's atmosphere, the existence of the feature was even explained in the game itself by one of Sweet's phonecalls, it fitted to the gangsta atmosphere, gaining muscles because that's what thugs did. Another example is, if we ever get to play a gta character were we get through the story of a young criminal working his way to the top, starting from petty crimes to major ones, we might see a possibility to pick pocket or something, but this is a feature which wouldn't fit with characters which are mafia dons or drug lords, such kind of people don't do that.

 

It's important to understand that minigames are not just a part of gameplay, they somehow need to fit with the characters motivations, their way of thinking, their social postition etc. I mean could you imagine a "kid-throat-cut" minigame for Niko ?

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2014 by Spadge007

[Lock n' Stock]

Umm, most of that stuff you mentioned like tractors, planes, bicycles, parachutes, robbery missions, tattoos, clothes and stats are actually in GTA V. Even "magnets" were there in the form of helicopters with hooks. I'd say that V has the most freedom in any installment since SA, even though it still misses out things like drivable trains and gang warfare.