Journey_95 Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 (edited) So a big complaint from many is the big focus on the corrupt government in GTA V and I overall agree (just too many missions revolving around the FIB and their conflict with the IAA, I think Merryweater was even worse though). But which other organizations should they have used? LC had the Italian mafia and we know it has a big presence in NY (even if they aren't as important as they used to be). Then there was also a good amount of focus on the Russian mob. Both fitted very well. There was the Madrazzo cartel in V which had the potential to take over a similiar role and was wasted completely. But are cartels even that prominent in Los Angeles (like the mob is in NY). Using the Ballas too much would make it feel like GTA SA and only really affect Franklin Edited July 24, 2017 by Journey_95 BilalKurd, iiCriminnaaL, Zello and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cutter De Blanc Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Madrazo's gang should have been more heavily focused on. They dropped the ball big time with Martin and his gang that only guards his house. Copcaller, kobeni, BenMitchell90 and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algonquin Assassin Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Mexican drug cartels definitely should've been more prominent. Even though it's been said countless times, but Madrazo and his cartel has to be one of the biggest wastes of time and potential wasted in the entire series. I expected a ruthless and unnerving cartel boss to be a thorn in the side. Not some f*cking pussy for Trevor to play with. Overall I missed the exposure to gangs and various other criminal organisations on such a large scale. That's why I still play through GTA IV. No stone of Liberty City's/Alderney's underbelly is left un-turned and I feel like I'm in a world full of criminals and scum bags from low level street thugs to high ranking mafiaoso. GTA V on the other hand feels like 20% of what we traditionally know of as gangs and 80% of mercenary idiots and FIB/IAA tools. Of course the mafia would've been out of place as it's not relevant, but the cartels should've been to GTA V what the mafia (Italian, Irish, Russian) was to GTA IV. The Time Ranger, Tycek, kobeni and 8 others 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tycek Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 (edited) Is there a single criminal organization that has what we may call proper screen time? Maybe The Lost, who to be honest shouldn't really be in the game in the first place. Other organizations like Madrazo's Mexican Cartel are turned into a joke, while other like Vagos are turned into cannon fodder for the protagonist to kill. I am fully aware that game was too short for all of them to appear, but I wouldn't mind cutting half screen time of the IAA and FIB bullsh*t and give it back to the gangs, like Aztecas or Marabunta Grande. Edited July 24, 2017 by Tycek BilalKurd, gooeyhole, Patrizio and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Nashton Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Well you said it yourself, op, Madrazo's Cartel. To to be fair to the game, it wasn't intended to be a gang/mob focused GTA like the ones before, where a gang is either the primary antagonist or you're building up and expanding your own... or both. That was part of the reason why the heist theme for V was so appealing to me, where you play as thieves being thieves and the gangsters and mobsters are the background characters for once. We sort of got that, but the 'thieves being thieves' part was pretty insubstantial, so there wasn't really a trade off and the game ended up leaving everyone with blue balls. gunziness, Cutter De Blanc and kobeni 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journey_95 Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 (edited) Well you said it yourself, op, Madrazo's Cartel. To to be fair to the game, it wasn't intended to be a gang/mob focused GTA like the ones before, where a gang is either the primary antagonist or you're building up and expanding your own... or both. That was part of the reason why the heist theme for V was so appealing to me, where you play as thieves being thieves and the gangsters and mobsters are the background characters for once. We sort of got that, but the 'thieves being thieves' part was pretty insubstantial, so there wasn't really a trade off and the game ended up leaving everyone with blue balls. I think the heist theme was certainly an interesting idea but they didn't know how to use it well. You can't have a whole game revolve around that, it would fit in a movie but not in a long game like V, then we already have Michael being rich as hell and even if he wasn't how many heists would they have to pull for themselves to have enough money? Not that many, unless they keep f*cking up somehow. So they invented the whole FIB angle and had you do most of the heists for them which was awful and the definition of blue balls. The protags feel like bitches of the FIB and barely get any money.. They should have gone with focus on real criminal organizations again and just have 2-3 heists in the game, that would be better. Apart from the first heist, there wasn't one that came close to GTA IV heist for me, they just felt more like over the top missions. Edited July 24, 2017 by Journey_95 iiCriminnaaL and kobeni 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good Hombre Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 (edited) The Armenian Mob, they are still present in LA and it'd be awesome to rob the Armenian Money Train in one of the game's main heists. Edited July 24, 2017 by Good Hombre iiCriminnaaL, Copcaller, slimeball supreme and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piggsy pls Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 Remove the O'neils and replace them with more Lost MC presence, they should've Trevor's main antagonists instead of being forgotten once he goes to LS. More involvememt from the Vagos and Marabunta. The Marabunta's role in the game was particularly disappointing, a gang based on one of the most feared gangs in the world and they only appear in one mission in the story, where they're not even mentioned by name. GTA-Biker, BilalKurd, Patrizio and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Nashton Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 (edited) I think the heist theme was certainly an interesting idea but they didn't know how to use it well. You can't have a whole game revolve around that, it would fit in a movie but not in a long game like V, then we already have Michael being rich as hell and even if he wasn't how many heists would they have to pull for themselves to have enough money? Not that many, unless they keep f*cking up somehow. So they invented the whole FIB angle and had you do most of the heists for them which was awful and the definition of blue balls. The protags feel like bitches of the FIB and barely get any money.. They should have gone with focus on real criminal organizations again and just have 2-3 heists in the game, that would be better. Apart from the first heist, there wasn't one that came close to GTA IV heist for me, they just felt more like over the top missions. I agree that the FIB was misused and the IAA shouldn't have even been in the game aside from a little cameo. But they could have easily done a game purely focused on thievery: they start off small (the jewelry heist was too much to start off with) and gradually work their way up to bigger heists, the missions in between could revolve around them building a criminal network of money launderers, hackers, lawyers, people to run their business fronts etc. who will also take a cut from your heists so you're not making too much money. More properties to purchase, maybe have a few tussles with the gangs but later on be able to hire some as muscle or as diversions during police chases and such. And just have the story be a classic cops and robbers sort of thing with the LSPD and the FIB as the primary antagonists. I could go on forever with this fantasy version of GTA V I've made up in my head, but I'll just cite a recent open world game the did gangs well and way better than GTA V but was not a gang focused game: Love it or hate it, Watchdogs 2 had gangs, they made their presence felt within the game world, but they never served as a vital part of the story aside from being included in a few story missions as secondary antagonists and as enemies or obstacles for side activities. You interact with them waaay more than you do with the gangs in V, and this is game about hipster hackers sticking it to corporations. Edited July 24, 2017 by Edward Nashton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niko'sCousin11 Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 Vagos, Aztecas, Madrazo's Crew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemoyne outlaw Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 the armenians. i thought they were an interesting gang. but they werent even used. they are found at the scrapyard and they protect simeon. thats it. i also think the kkangpae should have been used too. they are the koreans. they are found in little seoul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cp1dell Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 Madrazo's gang should have been more heavily focused on. They dropped the ball big time with Martin and his gang that only guards his house. This. Honestly, during "The Big One" when you lose as guards, when you arrived and the camera panned up behind the vault guy in the suit, for some reason just the way they set it up I thought when the camera panned it was going to reveal the guy was Madrazo and that everything from there was going to go to sh*t somehow when he recognized Trevor and Michael. iiCriminnaaL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cutter De Blanc Posted July 28, 2017 Share Posted July 28, 2017 I guess they're just never going to explain what happened to his ear. Did someone shoot it off in an unrelated drug deal? Did Trevor eat it? We'll never know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journey_95 Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 I guess they're just never going to explain what happened to his ear. Did someone shoot it off in an unrelated drug deal? Did Trevor eat it? We'll never know! In a way I'm glad we didn't see the scene because it would have just been Madrazzo suddenly acting like a pussy and just not being able to handle Trevor's "badass" style. I hate how they wasted such a promising antagonist. iiCriminnaaL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightwing 0613 Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 Had we gotten some proper single player expansions, I wouldve liked to have seen Martin Madrazzo & his Mexican cartel become the main antagonists in one of the DLCs. This one would add all the business related stuff into single player. Also would like to have seen a Grove Street expansion that puts Lamar as a new protagonist for us to use that takes place after the events of 5s story where the Ballas & Vagos are the main antagonists. This Grove Street expansion will give us single player fans the Lowrider stuff plus more. Then theres a 3rd expansion where we get Agent 14 & the federal stuff mixed with the alien conspiracy stuff. A 4th expansion could add all 4 protagonists with new adventures. BurnettVice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zello Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 (edited) Madrazzo's Cartel definitely along with the Marabunta Grande, Varios Los Aztecas, and the Vagos. Madrazzo could have been supplying the Vagos and The Aztecas with drugs especially after the Aztecas lost Ortega while the Marabunta Grande are supplied by a rival cartel that's at war with Madrazzo. I also wanted to see what exactly was the situation with the Ballas and Families they weren't really at war but there was a truce and whatever the f*ck Stretch was trying to do... Edited February 12, 2018 by Zello Patrizio, Official General and iiCriminnaaL 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Official General Posted February 12, 2018 Share Posted February 12, 2018 (edited) The Mexican drug cartels and Hispanic gangs without a doubt. I wanted to see all kinds of explosively violent conflict between rival Hispanic criminal groups previously mentioned, over the drug trade. That shootout Trevor had in the desert with the Aztecas was a promising sign of that, but it was completely cut off after that for bullsh*t, no-sense making, boring FIB stuff. Edited February 12, 2018 by Official General iiCriminnaaL and Zello 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrizio Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 (edited) Pretty much all of them. I cannot believe the effort Rockstar put into gangs such as Marabunta Grande (GTA's version of MS) and then virtually never used them. Along with the Madrazzo Cartel, it was such a waste. The Triads were again shown as comical. The Ballas, Vagos and Families might as well have not existed. I would have liked to have seen the gang tension between the old African-Americans gangs and the rising hispanic ones as once African-American areas like Ganton became more hispanic, like Compton of today. California is also famous for its prison gangs - none were parodied in V. I'm sorry to be so scathing, but GTA V completely wasted some of the more famous gangs in the US. Edited March 1, 2018 by PaddsterG2k3 Official General and iiCriminnaaL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTA-Biker Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 (edited) They should have used more criminal organisations in general,I'd prefer if there was more focus on gangs,and less on government agencies.Franklin should have been more involved in Families and their rivalry with Ballas and Vagos,Trevor should have been more involved in his rivalry with O'Neill gang and The Lost MC (or better yet the Angels Of Death,since TLMC feels out of place in GTA 5 to pretty much everyone who played TLAD),and all three protagonists should have been more involved with Madrazo cartel (Madrazo could have been a formidable main antagonist in the end). Edited March 1, 2018 by GTA-Biker Zello and iiCriminnaaL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ondr4H Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Angry mothers?Social justice warriors gangs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenMitchell90 Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 (edited) The Mexican cartels, for sure. They're full of some of the most terrifying, ruthless guys you'd ever hope to NOT meet, and a big focus on them in GTA would have been amazing and brought a real sense of danger to the story, and Madrazo could have been an amazing villain. He'll either treat you to dinner at his mansion, or he'll videotape himself chopping off your head. Just imagine, having a character like Gus Fring, Tony Montana (or Alejandro Sosa, for that matter), Franz Sanchez (from the Bond movie Licence to Kill) or even Tommy Vercetti as the main antagonist. But instead, we get this guy who seems promising and threatening at first, but ends up becoming Trevor's bitch while a corrupt rich asshole and a crooked FIB agent act as the main antagonists. And while I actually like both Devin Weston and Steve Haines a lot as the antagonists, I'd give up one or both of them for a truly intimidating and badass cartel boss in a heartbeat. And on a similar note, the Triads. They had the perfect setup in the story, and they did end up playing a big role in a mission or two, but the game still didn't really use them that well, and Wei Cheng might as well be Sir Not Appearing In This Game. Hell, IMO f*ckin' STRETCH made more of an impression than he did Edited March 3, 2018 by Wu-Tang Forever iiCriminnaaL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schokoladeka Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 International Affairs Agency Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Robotnik Posted March 4, 2018 Share Posted March 4, 2018 (edited) I liked the government intrigue angle, but if I had to pick, I'd say the Lost MC, the O'Neils, or any of the various redneck gangs that sometimes show up in Trevor's gun-running minigames. Being in a shoot-out in a wide-open, rural area was a very unique experience, and "Mr. Philips", "Crystal Maze", and "Friends Reunited" are some of my favorite missions in the game. I never liked Madrazo, to be honest. He was just one more smug turd in a fancy suit who had his grunts do all the dirty work; man to man, he had way, way, more reason to be afraid of Michael than Michael had to be afraid of him, especially after Michael went up against the damn army in the Paleto Bay Heist. Steve Haines earned more bad guy cred in his first scene when he throttled Michael hard enough to shut him up. So in an area like Blaine County, odds are you'd have poorer gangs with more hands-on leaders who could hold their own physically; you almost saw a little of that with Elwood O'Neil. It'd be fun to meet someone who could give Trevor an even fight. Edited March 4, 2018 by Dr. Robotnik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATP2555 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Lots of the gangs were underused in the main story. Each of the Hispanic gangs only appear once. A few of the gangs are not even used in the story at all, and those are Kkangpae, the Armenian Mob, and the Altruist Cult. iiCriminnaaL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hmmm nice bike Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Every single one of them. The cartels were especially underutilized, as were the Armenian mob (which I didn't even realize was a thing until messing around in Director Mode and there's loads of Albanian gangster NPCs as playable characters), the Korean mob, the Ballas and Families, Marabunta Grande, etc. There's even an Italian mob family that basically gets wiped out after 1 mission that I completely forgot about, the Bonelli Mob. So much potential with the criminal organizations, only for them to focus on government corruption, false flag terrorist attacks and rival agencies fighting for more government funding. It almost felt like they were forcing this because they knew Agent was never gonna come out but they still wanted a story about being a government agent, so they made that the side-gig for V's main characters instead. Algonquin Assassin, Tycek and iiCriminnaaL 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iiCriminnaaL Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Apart from The Lost MC (even though it could've been used far more appropriately), not a single gang had a fair screen-time in my opinion. Especially the Madrazo cartel, which should've been the main antagonistic group, rather than the FIB and Merryweather. Official General and billiejoearmstrong8 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiejoearmstrong8 Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 21 minutes ago, iiCriminnaaL 49 said: Apart from The Lost MC (even though it could've been used far more appropriately), not a single gang had a fair screen-time in my opinion. Especially the Madrazo cartel, which should've been the main antagonistic group, rather than the FIB and Merryweather. Agreed. There was a decent amount of The Lost and rednecks/the O'Neills but they're not even proper organised crime. Definitely would've liked to see more of Madrazo/Mexican cartels. Would've been cool to see some stuff with the Armenian gang (could've tied in with Simeon) and Korean gang (since there's a large Korean area in the city that isn't utilised) as well. And the Ballas/Families/Vagos should've been in it more in the form of more "hood" missions for Franklin. Like, with so many opportunities with the various side missions (strangers and freaks, random encounters and all the other many side missions in the game) you'd think they could've got some more gang stuff in even with such a shockingly low number of main missions to fit it into. A few more missions and better side mission themes could've made a big difference. iiCriminnaaL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Billy Russo Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 Honestly the Ballas should have had more screentime though. Franklin gets barely any development, and he doesn't get anything in the story at all, it's all Michael & Trevor. Definitely agree on seeing more Cartel. I thought Madrazo was a great character, but loses steam pretty quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATP2555 Posted November 14, 2019 Share Posted November 14, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, Billy Russo said: Honestly the Ballas should have had more screentime though. They have the most screentime out of all the gangs, but I agree. Here's the number of mission appearances for each gang: Ballas: 5 Los Santos Vagos: 1 Lost MC: 4 (including the cameo in I Fought The Law...) Varrios Los Aztecas: 1 Marabunta Grande: 1 O'Neil Brothers: 2 Los Santos Triads: 3 Madrazo Cartel: 1 Edited November 14, 2019 by ATP2555 billiejoearmstrong8 and iiCriminnaaL 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max.pain Posted November 14, 2019 Share Posted November 14, 2019 would be nice to see trevor doing business with wei cheng. i don’t like T but i’d take his drug business over the fib any day iiCriminnaaL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
