Progressive rewards vs everything from the beginning

[HOW'S ANNIE?]

One issues that's been present in every GTA, with the exception of III, LCS and IV (to a lesser extent) is how much you get/are able to obtain early on in the story. A lot of people around here will argue that the issue is only evident in V, but trust me it's been there since Vice City.

 

Look at III. You start in a dead end part of the city, with no where else you're able to go to without jumping through loops. You have only access to small arms (pistols, uzis and very later on shotguns), the only cars you have access to are pretty generic and/or peices of sh*t and you're house is a small storage unit pretty much. You really did start from the bottom of the ladder. What did you have to do to get more? Actually play through the story.

 

Then we go into Vice City with the next game. You start in the better part of the city where all the beaches and such are, you have the ability to grab a Stinger or a Cheetah the moment you walk out your front door. And with weapons; well the fact that after just four or five missions you're given a Ruger (not the best of assult rifles, but still powerful enough to take out most enemies with ease). It's not until you work your way through that you get to the run down, gang infested part of town. It's a somewhat similar case with San Andreas too.

 

And then V is when it gets to the worst point. You start off and Franklin already has a nice sports car, the ability to buy a hell of a lot of weapons, and then after a few missions you get Michael who has already hit the jackpot. Sure you don't have a lot of money at that point, but still you already feel like the highlife is being lived by your protagonists. Even more so you have the entire map at your disposal, where you can easily grab a plane from a desert airstrip and fly around the whole map with no repercussions (bar a few small areas).

 

Personally I feel that these sorts of things should be awarded through story progression and/or grinding to get those precious dollars. You should start off small, in a tiny flat with no money at all and the ability to only get a nice set of wheels through a story mission, otherwise you've got to advance the story or find a means of making more money. Yes I may be asking for a typical rags to riches GTA story, but hell that progression is what made me feel better about moving from the Portland/Mafia arc in III all the way to working for billionaires in their penthouses like Donald Love. Some of you may not care, but I want to feel like my efforts are being awarded instead of "Hey since you've already got everything you may want, here's absolutely nothing for your time and stress spent on that annoying as hell mission".

 

So personally what would the rest of you want to see happen with the next game, do you want anything and everything from the get-go so that you can jump straight into your typical GTA antics, or actually get something more than a few dollars for time put into the story?

[Algonquin Assassin]

I think this problem is worse with GTA V now with these updates. It's strange starting a new save and listening to Franklin moan about how he needs to make some paper, but has a garage full of unique vehicles, a hangar with jets, marina with boats and a helipad with a helicopter.

 

I definitely prefer getting things as I go instead of being handed a silver platter from the start like GTA V.

[universetwisters]

I'd much rather have progressive rewards, but they shouldn't come too fast like they did in GTA 5. I don't want to hear Michael whine and tell Jimmy he doesn't have any money while he has a bigass mansion and many many millions from past heists.

 

I did like how GTA 3 did it like you said though, felt very true to progression.

Edited September 15, 2014 by universetwisters

[Sawnek]

I have to reiterate your point about GTA III, you start off from the complete bottom with little-to-no money as an escaped convict. I definitely felt like I was progressing as I began working for bigger names such as Donald Love towards the latter part of the story.

One thing I want to see in the next GTA is for money to actually mean something. What I mean by this, is for your character to be struggling with money at the beginning of the game, and for the little jobs the character is doing, you're not making too much money from it. In GTA III you do make a ridiculous amount of money from most missions, you just don't have too many options as to how you spend the money. After doing the first three missions of GTA III, you make a total of $9500, which is a lot of money for simply driving Misty back to the club, beating up a drug dealer and then driving Misty to Joey's.

If I drive a character from point A to point B, I don't want to be paid $100, because nobody would pay you that kind of money for that, if they would even pay you at all. I want to walk into a gun store and think about whether it's worth spending money on that gun. Once you reach the later points of the game and your character is working for people higher up on the ladder, then we make some serious money, because then I would actually feel like my character has made some serious progress, and it would feel rewarding.

[universetwisters]

After doing the first three missions of GTA III, you make a total of $9500, which is a lot of money for simply driving Misty back to the club, beating up a drug dealer and then driving Misty to Joey's.

 

Don't forget that in III, evidently you got money for ramming other cars

[Fuzzknuckles]

Progressive rewards, open map from the start, please.

 

No more map locked down from the start, that felt like a punishment.

[Son of Zeus]

I think Sa was not like this. You start with a bicycle, you have no weapons and very little money; and only after the mission Nines and Ak's you get acess to decent guns. Also, you didn't see any fancy cars right away near Grove St.

 

Coming to V, you are correct. Pretty much have everything at start; it doesn't motivate you to complete the story.

The worst thing: whole map unlocked right from the start. When you go as Trevor(who's stepping into the city for the first time) to LS, you get an odd feeling: 'I've already seen this place'. The same goes for seeing Blaine County earlier and then in the story M/F see it for the first time. The whole thing was a mess.

[Osho]

I'm too with the progressive rewards.

Most of the missions, that are tied up with the story should be designed, in a manner, that wonderfully challenges you, and until you approach with more skill involved, you can't beat them so easily with only arsenal you gather by just exploring the map, rather they should unlocked with the completion of certain parts into the story - making them a lot more satisfying for the rewards that you earn.

Also, something like hidden collectibles should be completely scrapped for more activities' of constantly changing difficulty ( similar to SR 2) of various levels/stages to gain more interesting rewards, than those activities which simply ask you to collect packages, pick the rewards and get over with it.

[PowerKracker]

They do need to bring it to the middle ground. For me, IV felt like it never gave you much throughout the whole game, while V gave you too much from the get go.

Personally, I think SA was the best about it - having a slow and satisfying journey through the state while still allowing you to do as much as you can in the area. Though I guess the fact that you can easily obtain a lot of money early on is just an inherent characteristic of the open world approach - when you can immediately enter a fire truck to start firefighting for a ton of money before starting the first mission, the only way to stop you would be disabling it altogether.

[Payne Killer]

Progress is way better than having it handed to you from the start. IV and VC felt like it was a little of both.

[DS 17]

I like the slow progression. Very well I remember the time of SA. I was so hyped when I finally unlocked the countryside in the South East with Mount Chilliad. Before I always broke into the airport, stole the small plane and flew over the countryside. Even though I got stars, but especially that also made it so special. It felt different. And this whole part of the map felt so different, so big, so amazing. After that SF got unlocked. Well I didnt feel such a big hype about SF, only also about the desert. Before I imagined the desert area I imagined driving these long roads with a truck (my imagination had some very long roads, not like they actually are in SA). So before I tried seeing some stuff by jetpack. Anyway SA never disappointed me.

 

In IV it was different. I felt like well it s gonna be a bit special unlocking Manhattan, but actually I have already seen a city and didnt expect something so different. Maybe that s why the hype for unlocking could not be created. And the 3rd island ... I did not really care about that. It was actually more annoying to drive there the whole time, because if I remember correctly in the beginning the safehouse was only in Manhattan and there was none on the last island.

 

I never played V, but I expect driving around the whole map right in the beginning. I will do that, because I wanna see the map. I wont do missions first. But that s exactly a dangerous thing. As I ve seen everything I also assume I get bored easily right after that and then the hype is completely gone. I prefer unlocking stuff, getting surprises after a while. Seeing something and just looking forward to unlock it. Because then I also put some effort in unlocking that. Now I ll do missions with the attitude ... well, if it s good, then nice, but if not, I dont care. I mean there is in the end no goal of achieving one mission. The only thing is that the storyline will get stuck, but besides there is absolutely no disadvantage. And that s bad.

[Onett]

To be honest, I would like a bit of both, like in VC. I remember playing through III and eventually getting better apartments and better weapons. In V, I had a sh*t ton of weapons, and Micheal had a f*cking mansion. I remember I was halfway through VC before I got a mansion.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Onett

[wiizardii]

It's GTA tradition that you start from nothing, and build up to something, so I like that. Its good that from the start you don't have cash or cars and such. Vehicles and planes and such should be locked from the beginning, you should earn the stuff.

[Dope_0110]

I like when a game throws you out in the world and gives you nothing. As you go along, earning more and more, you get a sense of progression and achievement (f*ck achievements/trophies though, I'm talking about feeling you've achieved something, not getting some stupid badge called ''First Step'' for pressing forward)

[Kampret]

I think this problem is worse with GTA V now with these updates. It's strange starting a new save and listening to Franklin moan about how he needs to make some paper, but has a garage full of unique vehicles, a hangar with jets, marina with boats and a helipad with a helicopter.

 

I definitely prefer getting things as I go instead of being handed a silver platter from the start like GTA V.

 

Which is why when I plan to do another V playthrough, I'll uninstall all the updates, so I can feel what people feel when getting the game back in 9/17/2013.

[Algonquin Assassin]

 

I think this problem is worse with GTA V now with these updates. It's strange starting a new save and listening to Franklin moan about how he needs to make some paper, but has a garage full of unique vehicles, a hangar with jets, marina with boats and a helipad with a helicopter.I definitely prefer getting things as I go instead of being handed a silver platter from the start like GTA V.

 

Which is why when I plan to do another V playthrough, I'll uninstall all the updates, so I can feel what people feel when getting the game back in 9/17/2013.

In some ways I really think they should've added this stuff for purchase in game than just being given to us. What annoys me about getting the hangar, marina and helipad straight away is it takes away from purchasing them like they used to be.

[fefenc]

I think this problem is worse with GTA V now with these updates. It's strange starting a new save and listening to Franklin moan about how he needs to make some paper, but has a garage full of unique vehicles, a hangar with jets, marina with boats and a helipad with a helicopter.

 

I definitely prefer getting things as I go instead of being handed a silver platter from the start like GTA V.

I'm thinking about not preordering the game due to the 1000000 on singleplayer

[Slasher]

I love progressive rewards, getting the jetpack for the first time was amazing.

[PhillBellic]

I prefer progressive rewards. Why? Well it gives you an incentive to play through the story/game. That said I hope there are no more locked maps in the future.

 

Cheers.

[HOW'S ANNIE?]

To be honest thinking that progressive rewards with an open map would work just doesn't make sense to me. Why try to make everything given to you as you play when you're able to get a rocket launcher pick-up from the other side of the map, or a high-end sports cars right from the start.

[PhillBellic]

To be honest thinking that progressive rewards with an open map would work just doesn't make sense to me. Why try to make everything given to you as you play when you're able to get a rocket launcher pick-up from the other side of the map, or a high-end sports cars right from the start.

If the map is one land mass like V's then it would be somewhat difficult to contain the player to one area. If the next game was to return to the setting of multiple islands such as IV's locking parts of the map would be more feasible. Thoughts?

 

Cheers.

[Kampret]

 

To be honest thinking that progressive rewards with an open map would work just doesn't make sense to me. Why try to make everything given to you as you play when you're able to get a rocket launcher pick-up from the other side of the map, or a high-end sports cars right from the start.

If the map is one land mass like V's then it would be somewhat difficult to contain the player to one area. If the next game was to return to the setting of multiple islands such as IV's locking parts of the map would be more feasible. Thoughts?

 

Cheers.

 

 

Even with V's map, locking areas was feasible. Like, what if Blaine County was locked due to some threats, or whatever.

[PhillBellic]

 

 

To be honest thinking that progressive rewards with an open map would work just doesn't make sense to me. Why try to make everything given to you as you play when you're able to get a rocket launcher pick-up from the other side of the map, or a high-end sports cars right from the start.

If the map is one land mass like V's then it would be somewhat difficult to contain the player to one area. If the next game was to return to the setting of multiple islands such as IV's locking parts of the map would be more feasible. Thoughts?

 

Cheers.

 

 

Even with V's map, locking areas was feasible. Like, what if Blaine County was locked due to some threats, or whatever.

 

Since I posted earlier, I have thought about various ways to contain the player. If the player was under house arrest and could only venture out in a few suburbs, do you feel that might work? If you went out of the boundary the police would hunt you down like what happened in SA and IV. Thoughts?

 

Cheers.

[Voit Turyv]

Progressive rewards all the way. Past GTAs and Saints Row do it nicely.