Character switching is a good feature, but could be improved...

[leo3487]

I like how we have 3 characters at GTA V and we can switch between they, also speaking specifically in missions like three are crowd

 

But also I think a good idea would be the ability to change to other important character at specific misions. To say an example, switch to Beverly at the mission Paparazzo

 

I mean, than at a future GTA if well we have our 3 or 4 characters, when only one of ours is at a mission, the exchange keys be used to change to other characters working with us

[LeBron.]

We are able to switch to Chop in missions "Chop" and "Predator", what else do you want?

[Queen Elizabeth II]

Is a bad feature.

[The Dedito Gae]

Is a bad feature.

Not really, is actually pretty cool, the problem with V is that neither protag is that good.

[Cheatz/Trickz]

It should be available at all times, it's totally inconsistent in V.

 

It was touted as a main feature to show the action from different perspectives and introduce variety and different gameplay styles to missions, but there's only like 10 (or less) missions where you can switch between all three, and that includes ones that only allow limited switching, which is disabled and enabled when the game sees fit. Then there's auto-switches and some missions where it's disabled altogether.

 

And what is the point of it? Each character does the exact same things. The most useful thing about it is to avoid death. It's biggest flaw is that you can't switch during friend activities which makes absolutely no f*cking sense. It's such a pillar of the game yet it can't be used in free roam. So, if they can rectify all those issues, that'd be a start.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Cheatz_N_Trickz

[bennagle109]

Why would you want to switch to Berverly? Or any other minor character? Changing to chop in that mission traumatised me...I really like the feature, but as mentioned above none of the protagonists were well developed. Franklin- From South Los Sontos- Used to be in the Hood, Micheal- Middle Aged retried Bank Robber with a crappy family, Tervor- Sicopath\Used to be Freinds with Micheal before Mciheal "Died".

While Nicko on the other hand- Lived in Eastern Europe, involved in a war in which he made enemies. Moves to LC in search of a new life with his cousin Roman, who had told him that he lived in a mansion with girls and fast cars.

Edited July 15, 2016 by dakkajet

[The Dedito Gae]

..Changing to chop in that mission traumatised me...

Lol @ dat fookin mission, you can't even control Chop, no f*cking reason to play as him.

(Not dissing Chop, he's pretty cool, i would just would had like to play as him instead)

Edited July 15, 2016 by Midnight Hitman

[RogerWho]

The whole system wasn't thought out well from the beginning. I'm still saying that if you can play as multiple characters, it's best if they are independent and ideally antagonistic to each other so you actually have multiple connected stories that form one big one instead of just one to begin with.

 

GTA IV+EFLC, Half-Life+OF+BS+Decay, Heavy Rain and some others managed this well. Or does anyone remember that mission pack for No One lives forever where you played as just another agent? Didn't think so.

 

And yea, I agree, if they did go this route where character is the same except of their psychopath stats, they might as well just allow switching into other people whenever it makes sense.

[Luddite]

I just want to be able to switch when I choose, not simply when scripted.

 

Most importantly I would like to switch when 'hanging out.'

[Algonquin Assassin]

I don't think I'd miss it if GTA VI went back to a singular protagonist game. To me it was one of those things (Like others in GTA V) that sounded awesome on paper, but in game it wasn't executed as well as it should've been.

 

Like others have said its biggest flaw is not being able to utilise it in free roam with the protagonists together. If I'm honest it feels immersion breaking feeling like some spirit possessing one person and then the next and so on.

 

It's annoying switching to Trevor (If he's required for a mission) and either have to sit through a forced cop chase or have to cloth him if he's ended up somewhere in his underwear.

[Osho]

I disliked switching between the protagonists, though the idea itself isn't bad. Its Rockstar's execution which was not entirely satisfying. Based on their interviews talking about character switching and how complicated it can be from mission design to storytelling and the open world gameplay, I don't think Rockstar can do full justice with this idea the way I desire and want it to be improved.

[Pedinhuh]

It's a gimmicky that was more annoying than useful, I hated how we were forced to switch characters in most missions, we should be able to play with whatever character we want and progress with the story.

 

That way I could play as Franklin in peace and forget that the other two assholes were main characters, maybe that could even be a better opportunity to develop him more.

[Mikeol1987]

I liked the 3 character idea but in the end it made the story a bit mad. I think returning to 1 protagonist is the right way to go for the next game, simply because the story can be more concentrated and interesting.

[zuckmeslow]

I think it should either return to the single protagonist or just have 2 protagonists. 3 would have been good if the game was much longer with a bigger and better layed out map. Besides the short story lacking in character developement, the map also hurt the switching when you would see the camera zoom out of michael or franklin and pan over to trevor out in the desert and still be able to see the los santos skyline in the background. There was just not enough room to spread out, these 3 felt like they were constantly several blocks away from each other.

[Maibatsu545]

it needs to happen faster. it feels so slow as it is right now.

[Official General]

 

Is a bad feature.

Not really, is actually pretty cool, the problem with V is that neither protag is that good.Perfectly summed up, I felt the same way. It was actually a cool feature indeed, but the boring and uncharismatic protagonists ruined it for me.

 

I don't mind a return to multiple protagonists, but I'd rather it be like before with IV+EFLC with one main protagonist and two lesser protagonists, each with their own story arc, but intervwoven with each other. But I'd keep the character switching feature too.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Official General

[Jammsbro]

Multi character was the best thing in GTA, probably ever. It allowed you to change areas, pace, looks, abilities, use you r favourite more and so on.

Did anyone really like being stuck with mopey Niko or bitch ass CJ for the entire game? I LOVED being able to change characters. In play and especially in missions.

 

What I would inclue this time is mini screen showing what the other characters are doing while they are in mission with you. Doing things like "Lamar down" and switching to a character and having no idea where you are or where enemies are was really frustrating.

[RogerWho]

I was thinking of other games that did well with multiple protagonists other than IV/EFLC and I remembered COD4. It feels funny, citing a COD game as a good example on a GTA forum. More interesting in this context is how they went overboard with the next games, just like GTA V did.

 

Did anyone really like being stuck with mopey Niko or bitch ass CJ for the entire game? I LOVED being able to change characters. In play and especially in missions.

No, but still ten times better than the trio of GTA V psychopaths. Hell, they are are so lame and disgusting I rather freeroam with my mute online character than suffer any of those 3.

[Algonquin Assassin]

Did anyone really like being stuck with mopey Niko...

Yes. 1 great protagonist beats 3 average ones.

[PhillBellic]

I was thinking of other games that did well with multiple protagonists other than IV/EFLC and I remembered COD4. It feels funny, citing a COD game as a good example on a GTA forum. More interesting in this context is how they went overboard with the next games, just like GTA V did.

 

Did anyone really like being stuck with mopey Niko or bitch ass CJ for the entire game? I LOVED being able to change characters. In play and especially in missions.

No, but still ten times better than the trio of GTA V psychopaths. Hell, they are are so lame and disgusting I rather freeroam with my mute online character than suffer any of those 3.

Hello, fellow kindred spirit.

[Xiled]

Well knowing how you can have multiple characters in online. They could have there own life and you can switch between them in different parts of the map. Or let them meet up and go bowling or something.

[Not A Nice Person]

I rather a 2 character system, 1 character lacks variety and 3 characters distort the story as seen in V, and as the result waters-down the characters stories.

[RogerWho]

Fun fact. When I played EFLC for the first time back in the day, I was also replaying IV at the same time. Instead of playing the games in order like I should have, I played a bit of one, then switched to the other and so forth as I saw fit. Of course I had a mess of the story but it really was cool to have 3 characters in in the same environment and in what's essentially one story. Freeroaming was also nice, doing Jacob's mission in one moment, hanging out in the clubhouse afterwards and then managing the night club.

 

Of course it was a bit of a pain to have to shut down one game and start another (though I think one can load a save of the other game within EFLC? Not sure now).

 

You can have a somewhat similar experience to a lesser extent by playing Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift and Decay at the same time, which I've also done ages ago.

 

And hey doesn't Game of Thrones do something similar? You also follow multiple different characters instead of one central protag or group of protags like in most shows.

 

It's one of those things that make the world feel big.

 

In any case, when it was announced that V will have 3 protags to freely switch among and play mission from whichever point of view, I was excited. The thing with 1 story split among IV+EFLC was cool and felt almost experimental and I believed that it would be perfected in V. I hoped that'd keep the format where the 3 protags are somewhat antagonistic to each other. Which would mean that we could replay the game 3 times and get 3 sides of the story (which is basically what IV+EFLC did).

 

Instead, the devs not only didn't use the full mechanical potential of the feature (freely switch between characters within a mission) but they even bogged it down by having all 3 characters being friends most of the time, and then still restricting the missions usually to just one character and switching forcefully.

 

My point and TL;DR - multiple protags are a nice idea. Especially in open world games it makes sense to have an experience from an alternative POV (also in Mafia II and Watch Dogs DLCs) since the world is so vast and there are so many stories to tell and besides, why not use the assets that already exist? But V completely blew it. I hope someone will pick up the idea and run off to make something great out of it.

Edited August 2, 2016 by RogerWho

[Piggsy pls]

 

I was thinking of other games that did well with multiple protagonists other than IV/EFLC and I remembered COD4. It feels funny, citing a COD game as a good example on a GTA forum. More interesting in this context is how they went overboard with the next games, just like GTA V did.

 

Did anyone really like being stuck with mopey Niko or bitch ass CJ for the entire game? I LOVED being able to change characters. In play and especially in missions.

No, but still ten times better than the trio of GTA V psychopaths. Hell, they are are so lame and disgusting I rather freeroam with my mute online character than suffer any of those 3.

Hello, fellow kindred spirit. Make that three, I prefer playing as a ped in the save editor.

[izXenon]

What? No. Wanna play as nearby pedestrians and animals too maybe?

[RogerWho]

We should be able to play as disembodied vehicles. At least those peds would have the reason to scream their lungs out when a car or bike without a driver zooms by them. And if a car would get a wanted level, no problem, just switch to another car and let the stupid cops chase after the previous one, preferably into the dam.

 

And Icantthinkofanew could become one with a helicopter.

Edited August 2, 2016 by RogerWho

[ClaudeSpeed1911]

IF and only IF they bring it back then they should let the player decide who to play as and it should be like EFLC story wise.

 

Unlike 5, IV had much more epic story that had "oh sh*t" moments. Remember the diamonds? In IV they get lost in a truck and no one find out what happened to them. A few months later, TBOGT dropped and we got to know what happened to them. Even some character has been expanded on and got developed from a different point of view that made them better and filled any plot hole the player experinced in the main game.

 

My point is that rather than make a storyline with all the character in it, they shold make them all have different points of view and different story that somehow connects with each other.

[Cheatz/Trickz]

If there's multiple characters there needs to be exclusives for them to incentivise playing as them, and also to change the gameplay style. IV and the episodes have differences between them; new weapons and vehicles, parachutes, nitro etc, so each game is that much different.

 

There was zero point in V having different characters because they all had access to the same things.

[Pedinhuh]

 

I was thinking of other games that did well with multiple protagonists other than IV/EFLC and I remembered COD4. It feels funny, citing a COD game as a good example on a GTA forum. More interesting in this context is how they went overboard with the next games, just like GTA V did.

 

Did anyone really like being stuck with mopey Niko or bitch ass CJ for the entire game? I LOVED being able to change characters. In play and especially in missions.

No, but still ten times better than the trio of GTA V psychopaths. Hell, they are are so lame and disgusting I rather freeroam with my mute online character than suffer any of those 3.

Hello, fellow kindred spirit.

 

My Online character has better development than all three characters combined, and that is saying a lot.

[gtafan26]

I am over having three protagonist, and really do hope that we go back to having one main protagonist