Worst Side Missions in the whole series

[NileshKumar]

Pick any (I literally mean any except the storyline)

 

I hate the following:

 

-Paramedic (real pain)

-Hidden Packages in GTA III & VC

-Gang Tags in SA (like seriously, 100 tags in a city to be sprayed)

 

UNHONORABLE MENTION

 

>>Exterminating flying rats was just time consuming sh*t, 200 of them<<

[Tacymist]

Flying rats sucks and there's no incentive to get them all. All you get is an Annihilator which was already readily available to the player. Lame.

 

I always found "The yay leaving San Fierro" side mission annoying in San Andreas, I think I tried it once and failed and never bothered with it again.

 

And finally those side missions in V where you get called or text by the manager or whatever of your businesses saying they need you to deliver something, or do this or that for your businesses. You're supposed to be the boss, why are you the one doing all the grunt work? You should have had the option to tell them to do the job instead if you're busy. Very rarely do I bother with those side missions, I usually hang up or delete the text.

[gtafaninwest]

I cosign the OP.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

- Paramedic/firefighter/any vehicle based side mission in III due to horribly easy to damage vehicles and becoming impossible after a certain point because of hostile gangs instantly blowing you up with shotguns

- Also paramedic and firefighter missions in SA, VC and especially VCS where there's fifteen levels and additional helicopter paramedic and helicoper firefighter missions, just for how tedious they are. Terrible

- NRG 500 challenge in SA

- The final quarry mission in SA

- A whole bunch of the driving school missions in SA

- Shooting range in SA

- Everything about "empire building" in VCS

- 200 pigeons in IV. I actually enjoy most collecting missions (hidden packages etc), they're a good way to explore the map, but with the additional hassle of the police constantly coming after you for shooting no thanks. Worthless reward is the icing on the cake

- Collecting nuclear waste in a submarine in V (could they not have at least put a damn radio in the thing)

- Pointless "business management" in V

 

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Algonquin Assassin]

-Basically any occupational related side mission. Taxi, paramedic, firefighting, valet and so on. Not only do they become incredibly tedious and repetitive they're just stupid and have almost no context to exist. When I play a GTA game I want to be a CRIMINAL. These kind of side missions still exist in the HD era, but thankfully there's usually some kind of justification behind them. For example Niko takes fares for Roman early on in GTA IV to help him out with the business, Luis helps manage Maisonette 9 etc.

 

I don't see anything wrong with some legitimate kind of side missions, but they need to have a reason instead of just jumping into any ambulance, firetruck out of the blue otherwise it's just context/immersion breaking to me.

 

-The business missions in GTA V. I can give a free pass to the business missions associated with Trevor since those are actually pretty good, but for the rest of the businesses missions they're awful. The worst part is there's no control over them. They show up at random intervals so you kind of have to do them or you'll get an angry text from the manager. 

 

-The races in San Andreas. I hate that we can't choose our own cars like every other GTA game. What's the point of customising? The races themselves aren't bad, but I remember modifying a car specifically so I could race it, but then I found out I had to use whatever the game gave me.

 

One of my favourite things to do in every GTA is try the races using different cars as a point of comparison, seeing where I can improve lap times etc, but this is non-existent in San Andreas since I can only do the same races with the same cars for so long before it becomes boring.

[Tacymist]

17 minutes ago, Algonquin Assassin said:

-The races in San Andreas. I hate that we can't choose our own cars like every other GTA game. What's the point of customising?

Wow I forgot all about these. But yeah now that I remember it did bother me that we had car customization, and yet we couldn't take our custom cars to these races. I used to roleplay as a street racer in SA and it always annoyed me I had to ditch my tricked out Elegy for whatever boring car the game forced on me.

[NileshKumar]

I will also include the last trucking mission in SA. It is sheer luck to get less police cars banging into you leading to disconnection of the trailer

[Evil empire]

Definitely the paramedic.

[Smash Bandicoot]

All of them.

[Shadowfennekin]

Zero. Bastard can rot in hell

[KingAJ032304]

3 hours ago, Shadowfennekin said:

Zero. Bastard can rot in hell

And Avery too?

[GhettoJesus]

Paramedic probably. It takes way too long. In GTA III it's the worst because the ambulance is prone to flipping and you barely have any time because the game calculates it differently.

[ThatBenGuy1998]

Any side mission involving my character being a firefighter or paramedic. I think R* should just make a game about it instead of having it in an organized crime game like GTA. That honestly would be pretty interesting IMO. Sorry if I’m going off on a tangent but I think it would be better fit to work with the paramedics or firemen in a game like LA Noire or Max Payne where you play as a law enforcement official. It would make more sense for someone like them to work with firemen or paramedics. To me at least..

[skc_2srk]

- Driving school in san andreas, specially that driving in two wheels and the 360 in the air ones omfg

- Quarry missions, very annoying

- Graffitis were so meh level

- Millie Perkins trying to get Casino keycard was so lame to do

 

and the paramedic/firefighter/taxi/vigilante actually gives you some more stuff to do and players do like them to do tho so i give them a pass

 

and the zero missions, not hard for me tbh (i must be a weirdo)

[billiejoearmstrong8]

I like taxi missions because you can give the radio a good listen while doing them, I always use them as a chance to listen to the talk stations uninterrupted and also to drive around/explore early on in the game. And vigilante can be fun since you're doing fun stuff ie shooting/blowing stuff up. But paramedic and firefighter have nothing going for them. Glad they realised that by HD era.

Edited June 23, 2020 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Lock n' Stock]

Car Salesman from LCS (the one where you have to drive in certain manners to impress customers), I nearly broke my PSP out of frustration because of it. You make so much as one-little screw-up on a high level (like not driving fast enough) then you have to start all over again. Awful, awful mission.

 

I never cared much for the vehicle based side-missions either (minus Vigilante). Aside from the fact that there's no reason for the protagonist to be doing them, they're tedious as hell (especially when you're trying to reach Level 10 or something). Taxi missions aren't quite as bad since you have radio to listen to, but Firefighter and Paramedic can f*ck off for good. Tbh, I was annoyed that they brought Taxi missions back in GTA V only to completely axe Vigilante (and replace it with sh*tty Bail Bonds, which barely lasts 4 missions before it's over), didn't really make any sense. In general, I'd like to see Rockstar focus more on actual crime and action-related side-missions like Gang Wars and Trafficking, not boring leisure trash like Golf and Yoga. They're okay side-distractions at best, but illegal activities should be put first and foremost as far as I'm concerned.

 

Who else is majorly dissapointed that GTA V had this large arena but it wasn't even used to bring back Hotring/Derby? Aside from Online of course, beause that's the only thing that matters now.

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Lock n' Stock

[Fusky89]

I hated paramedic, vigilante, firetruck but taxi mission is the worst. Boring and infinite.

[Carbonox]

Paramedic in GTA 3 and Vice City. You have a pretty terrible health pool to contend with for the entire mission with only a small amount of regeneration allotted for each completed level, and there are far too many ways to insta-fail the whole thing, the idiotic patient AI getting themselves killed being the most frustrating one.

[Eugene H. Krabs]

Flying rats. They aren't just the worst collectible in any GTA, but also any game I've ever played in general. They are one of the very few things I dislike about IV, because good god where do I begin?

 

To start off with, there are 200 scattered across the map. It wouldn't have killed R* to reduce that number to 100, or maybe even 75. Given their size and the sheer amount of them, you're screwed if you miss one. f*cking Chinatown Wars of all GTAs fixed this mistake by marking security cameras on the map in case you forgot which ones you've blown up and which ones you didn't. Also, since silenced weapons were cut out (even though they would've made sense in a game where you're, oh I don't know, a hitman), there is no way you're gonna avoid getting the cops or gangs on your tail every so often.

 

The worst part, however, is the reward. You'd think maybe, after that entire sh*tshow, you would get something cool, like the Rhino, perhaps? After all, it would make sense given Niko's military background, right? Or what about weapons spawning in any your safehouses for each 20 pigeons killed? Lol no, you just get an achievement and the weak ass Annihilator, which you can always get from the East Holland police HQ or the airport anyway. But that's not all, the Annihilator will ONLY spawn if you're coming in from a Maverick, and not from the window cleaning platform.

 

At least stuff like taxi missions or Pizza Boy (sure does make sense for the criminal kingpin of Vice City to deliver pizzas) have radio stations to keep you occupied. Flying rats on the other hand are torture. Normally I'm a completionist, but the pigeons just aren't worth it. After all it's not like there's a pot of gold sitting on the top of your TV or something.

Edited June 28, 2020 by Eugene H. Krabs

[sabitsuki]

Paramedic, especially before vcs

 

Its tedious mindnumbing work even though can make lots of money from it, and you cant even fix your ambulance without failing the mission

Edited June 28, 2020 by DownInTheHole

[Lancerator]

Taxi missions and flying rats by far. 

[VenusianDream]

As a kid, I hated the flight school in SA

 

The rampages in III were the hardest for me

 

And Noodle Run from CTW was a real pain in the ass too.

[Ondr4H]

Collectibles are real pain .

Collect sometimes over 250+ collectibles without any ingame hint. Like for real? 

GTA V is last game that i collect everything, Im quitting this nonsense.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

4 hours ago, Ondr4H said:

Collectibles are real pain .

Collect sometimes over 250+ collectibles without any ingame hint. Like for real? 

GTA V is last game that i collect everything, Im quitting this nonsense.

Yeah I do think they should be realistically findable by yourself without having to google stuff/follow a youtube video. At the absolute minimum there should be an easy way to check exactly what you've already collected so that you can at least get some as you go before looking up the rest. As it stands you really can't just randomly collect stuff as you go through the game because then you run the risk of never knowing which ones you've missed and having to go to every single location again. I can't believe any more than a tiny, fractional percentage of lucky people would be capable of finding, for example, every stunt jump in V or every San Fierro photo location in SA or every pigeon in IV by themselves in a million years. And that isn't good game design.

 

I played RDR recently and I love how collectable type stuff is handled in that game. Hidden treasure with maps to it that you can actually figure out yourself, collecting certain numbers of plants and hunting certain numbers of animals but instead of a specific set where you have to find each one they're infinite/random so you just have to go to the right areas of the map to find some.You still get the exploring the map experience and the satisfaction of finding what you need but no tedious looking things up or stress of missing something and not knowing what you missed or having to do everything in one go to avoid that. I don't know if it's similar in RDR2 or not but they should take a leaf out of that book with GTA.

Edited June 29, 2020 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Americana]

Yeah, but... what's the point of having collectibles when they are visible on your map?

 

Don't get me wrong, I hate collectibles, and I've never collected any in Grand Theft Auto IV / Grand Theft Auto V. Such a tedious task...

 

---

[billiejoearmstrong8]

12 hours ago, Americana said:

Yeah, but... what's the point of having collectibles when they are visible on your map?

 

Don't get me wrong, I hate collectibles, and I've never collected any in Grand Theft Auto IV / Grand Theft Auto V. Such a tedious task...

 

 

---

There should just be a realistic way to find them all and keep track of what you've already found. Same applies to things like stunt jumps/flying under bridges. If there isn't realistically a way to do it by yourself without following a guide it shouldn't be in the game. If they really want them to be straight up collectables with no clues they should be easy to naturally run across and see (ie not a pigeon hidden in an awkward corner far away under a bridge that's only visible with a sniper scope) and marked off on a map once you've collected each one. 

 

They've achieved this in various ways in GTA and other Rockstar games before, for example the things I described in RDR, an easy to access map of what you've already found in Bully, the bridges you still need to fly under appearing on the map for just a moment after you fly under one of them in IV, sonar for finding underwater things in V. Should just always be the standard.

Edited June 30, 2020 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Mrtree_lover]

tonya's first mission,you can't just ignore that mission and you have to complete her to keep the story going

[Sunglasses]

I find Taxi to be really boring but for some reason I can stand Paramedic.

[Americana]

1 hour ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

There should just be a realistic way to find them all and keep track of what you've already found. Same applies to things like stunt jumps/flying under bridges. If there isn't realistically a way to do it by yourself without following a guide it shouldn't be in the game. If they really want them to be straight up collectables with no clues they should be easy to naturally run across and see (ie not a pigeon hidden in an awkward corner far away under a bridge that's only visible with a sniper scope) and marked off on a map once you've collected each one. 

 

They've achieved this in various ways in GTA and other Rockstar games before, for example the things I described in RDR, an easy to access map of what you've already found in Bully, the bridges you still need to fly under appearing on the map for just a moment after you fly under one of them in IV, sonar for finding underwater things in V. Should just always be the standard.

 

Or maybe there shouldn't be any collectables at all, because that's just pointless. Just like in Ubisoft games - you can just buy the map and you have all collectibles visible on your map... but what's the point?

 

Anyways, if they really have to implement them, then yes - collectables should be visible on some kind of a map, like in Grand Theft Auto V when Trevor has to destroy all these signs,

 

1 hour ago, Mrtree_lover said:

Tonya's first mission,you can't just ignore that mission and you have to complete her to keep the story going

 

Yeah, it's a very easy mission, but... it breaks the flow of other missions. 

 

---

Edited June 30, 2020 by Americana

[billiejoearmstrong8]

On 6/30/2020 at 11:13 AM, Americana said:

 

Or maybe there shouldn't be any collectables at all, because that's just pointless. Just like in Ubisoft games - you can just buy the map and you have all collectibles visible on your map... but what's the point?

 

Anyways, if they really have to implement them, then yes - collectables should be visible on some kind of a map, like in Grand Theft Auto V when Trevor has to destroy all these signs,

 

 

Yeah, it's a very easy mission, but... it breaks the flow of other missions. 

 

---

That's kind of what I mean, there should be an element of fun to them and not just a chore/annoyance. There can be fun in searching around for and finding stuff, from the satisfaction of completing the task and the experience of hunting around/exploring the map, and hopefully getting a good reward. Like personally I love following the treasure maps and tracking down plants and animals in RDR, because it's satisfying and I know I can do it without looking up a guide or being stuck missing something, and there's extra challenge to it like deciphering the maps, avoiding getting killed by dangerous animals, and working out the best places to find each thing, and you're rewarded well. That should be the template for collectable missions imo.

 

Tonya missions are awful lmao. You've just started the game and you're playing as a gang member in the 'hood, ready for action after that prologue and into mission. What would be the best choice of side mission to kick things off? A) Some action packed gang warfare and criminal actitivies or B) Working as a tow truck driver for no pay. Inexplicably terrible side mission choice.

Edited July 6, 2020 by billiejoearmstrong8