Scripted executions and moral decisions

[TimMiller]

I think it would be great if the player will have the choice again to kill or spare certain targets through the storyline. This was missed in GTA V completely.

I also really liked the scripted executions from GTA 4. They should definetely bring it back for the next GTA and make it available with every weapon.

[Kafonix]

GTA 4 nailed the "f*ck yes, I finally killed that asswipe." feeling, think Vlad.

GTA V was missing this completely. You hardly kill anyone important, and if you actually do, it's not satisfying at all.

[Racecarlock]

Well, sure, as long as it's not black and white. You know "Sparing people good, killing people bad".

 

Maybe someone you spared later shoots up a wedding or something. Maybe someone you killed turns out to be a major cog in an operation to bribe political officials. Just something that makes the whole kill/spare thing a little less "Moral Person/YOU MONSTER".

 

Also, don't mark any decisions as good or evil, since those are usually based on subjective ideas that happened to take hold in society anyways, and because it leaves the decision a lot more ambiguous, thus leading the player to think about it more down the line.

[Osho]

I hated scripted executions in IV because the game already lacked enough freedom over the 3D era and this took away even more control from the players for the sake of bullsh*t cinematic hollywood-like FEELS that will make Niko look like some badass character. f*ck Niko's badassness, when it should be me that should feel badass while executing the way player desires like GTA VC and SA allowed.

The choices available to kill or spare are a nice touch and an improvement, but it didn't really alter the storyline nor offered any interesting twists, which I would like to see as further improvement in future.

[kraftwerkd]

Well, sure, as long as it's not black and white. You know "Sparing people good, killing people bad".

 

Maybe someone you spared later shoots up a wedding or something. Maybe someone you killed turns out to be a major cog in an operation to bribe political officials. Just something that makes the whole kill/spare thing a little less "Moral Person/YOU MONSTER".

 

I love this idea. Add some weight and unpredictability to some of the player's actions, it would make multiple playthroughs much more rewarding. There was a spark of this in IV with Dwayne and the other dude - spare the other dude and he f*cks you, or spare Dwayne and you get a new friend and backup. It was a little shallow, but also the technology back then probably played a part.

 

If R* worked with Team Bondi to implement all the cool interrogative stuff from LA Noire into the next GTA, but from the criminal side, that would be super cool.

[TheHumanIsland]

It wasn't missed, it was there, a lot.

[slimeball supreme]

It wasn't missed, it was there, a lot.

Where?

 

 

I hated scripted executions in IV because the game already lacked enough freedom over the 3D era and this took away even more control from the players for the sake of bullsh*t cinematic hollywood-like FEELS that will make Niko look like some badass character. f*ck Niko's badassness, when it should be me that should feel badass while executing the way player desires like GTA VC and SA allowed.

i just

[Osho]

It was a little shallow, but also the technology back then probably played a part.

Technology?

Nah. It has nothing to do with technology, since old games like Deus Ex 1 ( 2000 ) drawing praise for its pioneering designs in player choice and multiple narrative paths, and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines ( 2004 ) popular for its writing and scale of choice, already showed the brilliance of how choices affect the game on limited budget that literally puts a AAA game like IV to shame.

The reason is quite simple. Dan Houser and his team don't seem to have the balls to handle such a complex system with multiple choices that drive the narrative beyond just "Kill X or Y' - then suddenly appear as a random character"

One can get the impression here, when asked about GTA IV's story-based decisions to return for GTA V to Dan, and this is what he had to say, "We don't have the same choices as we had with Niko, for one very simple structural reason. Just keeping track of three stories as opposed to one story means it's harder to introduce a variable. You put a variable in a certain place and it just made our minds spin. You've got a lot of choices to missions. You have choices as to how you do things, that's a big focus of what you're doing. They can do the robberies in [ V ] different kinds of ways and have a lot of choice over the things they do, but it was hard to implement all these loose ends that fundamentally affected things after. It would be impossible to track them all"

It seems so hard for R* that games prior to IV can handle, eh?

Excuses I guess.

[TheHumanIsland]

 

It wasn't missed, it was there, a lot.

Where?

 

well, for example, you could choose to kill many people or let them live. If you spared the guy in the camper, he was there at the shootout later. You could kill all the lost or let some live. A lot of times the blip blinks for kill or spare in many missions and the random encounters muggers. You could do a lot. Who knows what it effects in the long run?

Edited May 24, 2016 by TheHumanIsland

[Journey_95]

I hated scripted executions in IV because the game already lacked enough freedom over the 3D era and this took away even more control from the players for the sake of bullsh*t cinematic hollywood-like FEELS that will make Niko look like some badass character. f*ck Niko's badassness, when it should be me that should feel badass while executing the way player desires like GTA VC and SA allowed.

The choices available to kill or spare are a nice touch and an improvement, but it didn't really alter the storyline nor offered any interesting twists, which I would like to see as further improvement in future.

lol are you ok? And do you have to repeat the same old bullsh*t in every thread? Jesus. I think everyone gets it already

 

Anyway OP I agree, the executions were great and sorely missed in V but then again they wouldn't really fit in that game.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Journey_95

[Fuzzknuckles]

You mean like the decision to kill or release the people in like, half of the Random events?

[Algonquin Assassin]

I hated scripted executions in IV because the game already lacked enough freedom over the 3D era and this took away even more control from the players for the sake of bullsh*t cinematic hollywood-like FEELS that will make Niko look like some badass character. f*ck Niko's badassness, when it should be me that should feel badass while executing the way player desires like GTA VC and SA allowed.

 

You realise executions don't even need to be engaged right? I've killed Vlad plenty of times without engaging the execution. Usually with a shotgun.

 

In my first few playthroughs I didn't even realise Faustin had his own execution as I always killed him as soon as I fronted him on the roof top. I don't see how they take away "control" from the player.

 

Quite the opposite really and I'm not sure their purpose was ever to promote Niko's "badassness", but more how R* evolved their execution (no pun intended), style and narrative from the 3D era.

 

Anyway as for the question hell yes they should come back. Even though I've done every possible combination in GTA IV I still like playing in different ways.

 

The potential's there for sure.

[Piggsy pls]

GTA V still had some spareable characters, even aside from the random events. The ones I can recall are Ashley, Terry, and Clay (they can all be spared in Mr. Phillips, though Ashley will die later anyway), Ortega (in which case he will appear as an enemy in TP Industries), and U.L. Paper Guy in The Wrap Up.

 

Actually, taking the random events in, I think GTA V had more "kill or spare" characters than IV. Personally I like choice and executions but both IV and V suffer from the fact that most of the choices don't really influence the story, they should fix that next tine around.

[UAL]

I hated scripted executions in IV because the game already lacked enough freedom over the 3D era and this took away even more control from the players for the sake of bullsh*t cinematic hollywood-like FEELS that will make Niko look like some badass character. f*ck Niko's badassness, when it should be me that should feel badass while executing the way player desires like GTA VC and SA allowed.

The choices available to kill or spare are a nice touch and an improvement, but it didn't really alter the storyline nor offered any interesting twists, which I would like to see as further improvement in future.

 

Yeah your wrong.

 

Executions would only take place depending on the weapon you point at them. Cant see how that takes away control from the player.

 

I thought the executions were cool, they weren't a major game changer just a nice touch IF you wanted to do them.

[Pedinhuh]

I hated scripted executions in IV because the game already lacked enough freedom over the 3D era and this took away even more control from the players for the sake of bullsh*t cinematic hollywood-like FEELS that will make Niko look like some badass character. f*ck Niko's badassness, when it should be me that should feel badass while executing the way player desires like GTA VC and SA allowed.

The choices available to kill or spare are a nice touch and an improvement, but it didn't really alter the storyline nor offered any interesting twists, which I would like to see as further improvement in future.

Boy, this fanboy talking again, play the game again(I know it's hard for you now, but make an effort), and when the time to execute anybody comes, kill them with anything but a pistol and have your mind blown away.

I still can't believe you used to hold IV in high regards to defend it with teeth and nails, and now you bash it everywhere, it's actually comical.

 

On topic: YES they should come back, but please no karma system BS like in Fallout, changes to the main story are fine but no reward based on our choices. I want to not be influenced by any outside factors when coming to such kind of choices.

[Tycek]

Don't feed the troll guys and I believe you know who I am talking about, it's not worth it.

 

As for the executions and moral decisions, they should be definitely brought back. Nothing felt more badass than unloading 12 bullets in Darko, each for every member of the squad or hitting Vlad right in the forehead. Executions like these, while completely optional, added grittiness, brutality and movies inspired atmosphere to the game.

 

And as for moral decisions these were great, as we have full control of certain people's destiny in the game. Sure these were usually just small characters, without deeper meaning to the story, but ability to spare them and meet them later in some random encounter was more than good. For the next game I would like more significant decisions, like the one between Playboy X and Dwayne to be added, maybe even allowing branching in the storyline?

Edited May 29, 2016 by Tycek

[ClaudeSpeed1911]

Hell yes.

 

We still had it in GTA5 with Trevor but the whole thing felt stupid, Why would Trevor of all people spare Ortega?

[TwoNumber9s]

I think in the next GTA we should be able to trigger cinematic executions for certains targets like in GTA 4. I always found them pretty badass and satisfying and it also makes the death of boss enemies more memorable.

[burger_mike]

Hell yes.

 

We still had it in GTA5 with Trevor but the whole thing felt stupid, Why would Trevor of all people spare Ortega?

 

yea but there was no special animation

[ClaudeSpeed1911]

 

Hell yes.

 

We still had it in GTA5 with Trevor but the whole thing felt stupid, Why would Trevor of all people spare Ortega?

 

yea but there was no special animation

 

The whole thing felt rushed that they didn't add them. Rockstar really makes me hate them sometimes.