The most wasted opportunities in each GTA game.....

[watersgta3 478]

So I've been analyzing all the GTA games, from GTA 3 all the way to GTA 5, and I've been thinking about the opportunities in each of the games that were missed/wasted. So here's mine:

 

GTA 3

Okay, so this is a revenge storyline, right? And considering that the main character was betrayed by his ex-girlfriend, who was involved in the SPANK Cartel, it would've been much better to put the focus more on that to learn more, what would especially help give more relevance to the main character's revenge plot.

 

GTA Vice City

We could've had a mission where Tommy decides to build his own empire to have enough of the cash and drugs to send to Sonny. I mean what good is being the kingpin when you can't even make your own empire?

 

GTA Advance

Mike has little to no personality. Even Claude has more of a personality than he does.

 

GTA San Andreas

Well aside from the......obvious missed opportunity (you should know what I mean by that), there's also the fact that we don't get any missions after the riot where we get the chance to have characters such as B-Dup and Big Bear play a bigger role on this part of the storyline, not to mention that we never get to see Seville and Temple Drive call it truce after beefing and getting along better to help end the riot. That would've been far more interesting than just taking over gang territories.

 

GTA Liberty City Stories

Vincenzo could've been more of the Big Bad since his high rank of the Leone family would mean that he would've been far more of a threat by making him betray the family for the other gangs Toni had beef with.

 

GTA Vice City Stories

Considering that Louise is Vic's love interest, it's pretty jarring to not have her develop more as a character by making Vic help improve her life. I mean she IS one of the main characters of the plot after all.

 

GTA 4

I think we could ALL agree in this one. I was very disappointed to see Bulgarin disappear halfway in the storyline considering he had a far more connection to Niko than Dimitri did.

 

GTA The Lost & Damned

Not sure.

 

GTA The Ballad Of Gay Tony

Considering that Luis tells his mother to stay away from the loan shark after paying off her debts, there could've been a mission where Luis should try to save his mother from the loan shark.

 

GTA Chinatown Wars

Ling Shan would've made an interesting love interest for Huang. But they had to kill her off after her second appearance.

 

GTA 5

So many missed opportunities in this game, but if I had to choose one of them, it would be the part with the conspiracy theorists.

Edited September 16 by watersgta3

[GrudgefromSanAndreas 748]

Wasted opportunities and gripes not about story:

• GTA: nothing to say
• London 69/61: -
• GTA2: inconvenient way to save the game
• GTA3: no whole map view on pause menu, no bikes, no helis, no solid rooftops, no nu metal radio station
• VC: no swimming, no climbing, small map, turned into islands, can't fly to the highest rooftop, no volleyball nets on beach, no metromover knockoff and more...
• Advance: -
• SA: can't climb ladders, outdated vehicle flipping physics, inaccessible SF trams, and a lot more...
• LCS: no proper properties, lacking rooftops (again!), atmosphere not gloomy enough, and more...
• VCS: atmosphere too colourful, empire building being more of a chore, hardest game to get to other island early (afaik theres only one way on both platforms yet apparently 3 or 4 on ps2 and theyre all tricky ofc)
• GTAIV: no stealth mechanics, island locking and getting wanted when crossing is outdated and very unrealistic (afair nyc wasnt that paranoid that you couldnt go from brooklyn to manhattan for instance without having the entire law enforcement on you in 2008), some bad details that make V look better, lack of stuff to purchase, weird and outdated wanted level evasion system (basically the wanted radius), lack of car (and maybe ped) variety
• TLAD: TOO many bikes in contrast/comparison to cars
• TBOGT: good things removed from vanilla iv
• CTW: way too low-poly car models
• GTAV: everything good removed from iv and eflc, i cant even count how many faults this game has, let alone the online component

[universetwisters 33,321]

III - Making Shoreside Vale into an actual suburb instead of Portland Lite with a few mansions

VC - They should've made the map a lot better, and replaced the strip club with another asset you could do missions with, as opposed to making it a money pit

SA - They should've done more gangbanging sh*t!!!! Damn!

LCS - Why the f*ck didn't Luigi and Joey show up ingame? They were Leones and they would've been better mission givers than the Asian chick who hates her husband and the crooked cop etc etc etc

VCS - They wasted the opportunity to make Vic not a whiner

IV - They should've made the last 1/3 of the game a lot more unique, as opposed to Niko being a generic errand boy for the mob. You can tell the writers were getting worn out by this point.

TLAD - Johnny should've been a more antagonistic protagonist. If he was willing to rip off Ray for the diamonds, what would stop him from getting Billy set up to be arrested so he could become the president? 

TBOGT - More Armando + Henrique missions because you just kinda forgot about them after their missions.

V - Consistent antagonists. 

[TheSantader25 7,059]

IV: sh*tty representation of New Jersey and No Atlantic City. 

 

V: Restrictions of the Multiple Protagonists system. 

Edited September 15 by TheSantader25

[Willman249 122]

III: where to start

VC: Limited in aviation and height of flying vehicles, also lack of mini games, also would’ve been cool to have gone more in depth with the drug trading
SA: Better physics, better driver AI, also would’ve been cool if the gang operations and running would’ve been more detailed and in depth 

LCS: adding the improvements of VC and SA also too much construction feels like a city that was built in half a century

IV: Too limited in items for sale, side missions and mini games, also physics engine too ambitious 
V: can’t drive the trains, more antagonist character exploration

[GTA-Biker 5,980]

GTA 3-as already mentioned,making a proper suburb in Shoreside Vale

GTA VC-maybe add some countryside with swamps

GTA Advance-never played it

GTA SA-they could gave us ability to climb ladders, ability to ride SF tram, give Italian and Russian mob turfs, program those cobra bikers as an actual gang, and make a few more missions for Families (getting more guns from Emmet, revealing what happened to OG Loc and B Dup, showing Big Bear after rehab, etc.)

GTA LCS-there should have been more mob stuff,instead of Toni wasting his time with Donald Love and a bunch of other characters

GTA VCS-character customization should have been more complex like in GTA SA at least when it comes to outfits,maybe they could have returned car customization

GTA 4-they should have added vehicle customization,maybe have some more eastern European weapons like Tokarev pistol and Škorpion SMG since the protagonist is a thug from the Balkans and a fairly large part of the story is focused on the Russian mob

GTA TLAD-they should have added bike customization,as well as some character customization (Johnny could have had a variety of different motorcycle gear and biker-style clothes and accessories instead of only one outfit),and maybe have some more bikes (some touring bike based on HD Electra Glide or Honda Goldwing, some European and Japanese cruisers, maybe something like a classic HD Knucklehead or Indian Chief)

GTA TBOGT-haven't played it much,so I don't remember

GTA CTW-never played it

GTA 5-too much to list

Edited September 15 by GTA-Biker

[RenegadeAngel 1,722]

III - make the protagonist able to speak

VC - develop Sonny properly. Make us work for Pastor Richards

SA - idk, a perfect game as far as I'm concerned. Gotta be honest though, the way they dealt with Ryder is ridiculous.

LCS - feels a bit forced and bland. needed more side content and distinctive features

VCS -  idk, a very good game for a portable console, great story.

IV - more open world content, customization options and something to spend money on. The game is practically dead once you beat the story.

TLAD - more customization and distinctive features like the nightclub in Gay Tony(The Lost mc clubhouse does not suffice)

TBOGT - pretty much perfect for a DLC

V - given the length of the story, the writers put themselves in too many complicated situations and couldn't find their way out of most of them. It should have been longer.

 

[DownInThePMs 1,985]

41 minutes ago, RenegadeAngel said:

feels a bit forced and bland. needed more side content and distinctive features

Tbh it had more than enough side activities

 

The problem was just the story. Toni was just so unlikeable that i didnt really gave a sh*t about the game

[Algonquin Assassin 49,089]

GTA V: The properties should’ve been more integrated into the story as opposed to feeling like tack ons for something to spend money on.

San Andreas: The Doherty garage should’ve been more unique.

 

I thought it was cool how CJ obtained the deed to it and it sounded like it was going to get fixed up over time, but it just stays as a run down garage with nothing useful/unique you can’t find with other safehouses.

 

It should’ve had its own mod shop IMO.

 

Vice City: Diaz gets killed way too soon. Granted Vice City was a step up from GTA III in regards to writing, but this is probably the most disappointing part of the story for me since it feels like the rest of the story stalls out until Sonny arrives.

 

GTA IV: For something different other than the usual “there nothing to do after after the story”, “there’s nothing to spend money on” kind of complaints I thought it was a missed opportunity how characters like Florian/Bernie, Hossan etc weren’t utilised as friends.

 

Now simply because it would’ve probably been too much I can understand why R* wouldn’t have wanted to overwhelm the player with too many friends, but I think I would’ve sacrificed Brucie and maybe Dwayne for Florian/Florian and Hossan.

 

Besides Roman no one else knew Niko before he arrived in America so it would’ve been nice if these guys were friends to contrast the new friends he made.

 

Edited September 16 by Algonquin Assassin

[Gyarados 15]

TLaD should have had underground cage fighting, it fits this games aesthetic more imo

Also Johnny should have been able to recruit Lost members once becoming president rather than just having Terry and Clay as backup. I can't resist making this comparison sorry but CJ not even being the gangs proper leader and being able to recruit GST members while the chapter president of the Lost can't recruit members in free roam is kind of a fail

 

In general Trevor Phillips Industries could have been so much more, when T enters Los Santos it doesn't feature that much after that iirc which is kind of a shame

[B Dawg 10,121]

IV: No Demolition Derby arena. You got the best crash physics (and overall vehicle physics) in an open world game but not an activity/mode to really take advantage of it.

Edited September 17 by B Dawg