Which GTA games have the best and worst writing?

[Dragos142]

Which GTA games have the best writing or just badly written in general?

[AkshayKumar]

I don't mean this in a rude way but your starting posts in your topics make me laugh for some reason. 

 

Best- GTA IV. A poignant story of betrayal, revenge and trying to fit in a foreign land, trying to make it big. Also very commendable how they weaved in the diamonds subplot and the connections made with TLaD and TBoGT, the IV era story as a while feels 'epic'. 

 

Not just the story but even things like the dialogue in friends/dates was great, the way Niko expands about life and such alongside his partner in such hangouts was always interesting to witness. The combination of humour and seriousness in and out of the story felt well balanced. 

 

Worst- GTA Vice City. Purely considering the story I think GTA III is the worst, not that III story is bad but i think others just improved. But GTA IIIs satire in the radio and ped dialogue felt funny whereas Vice City had it's moments (I liked VCPR a lot)but compared to the rest of the series the writing felt sort of bland in my opinion.

Edited October 16, 2021 by Wayne Kerr

[sabitsuki]

Best: IV and its two DLCs.

 

Worst: A tie between LCS and V.

[Dragos142]

Best: GTA 4.

Worst Advance, LCS and V.

[HeyGta]

Best: IV

Worst: V

Edited October 16, 2021 by HeyGta

[BabaFamilias]

From worst to best:

 

GTA 3 - Very basic story: You got betrayed, work yourself from the bottom to the top, take revenge. The End. All the characters are one dimensional and cliché. Claude doesn't say anything, never feels anything and has no expressions. He doesn't really have backstory and feels more like your avatar than a character in a story. It baffles me, how many people don't rate this as the worst. I guess these basic disposable revenge stories stimulate the right senses of boys, that is why there are sooo many of them. 

 

GTA Vice City - Again basic revenge story, but now the protagonist actually talks and is more than just an avatar. Oh, and your best friend betrays you - adding some spice to the story. Yay. 

 

GTA San Andreas - Best one of the 3D era. Again a revenge story, but this time with multiple story lines and an actual surprising plot twist. CJ has more expressions than just being angry and putting a constant meany face (Vercetti). Most side characters have a back story and their characterization is more detailed than the previous two.

 

GTA V - Best cinematography, character visualization and acting of all of them. My only problem with the story is that it gets rushed towards the second half (when you meet Steve Haines). The antagonist are forgettable and it feels to me that they couldn't finish the story in time or had to change some things because something happened behind the scenes. I would have ranked it as the best, if they had ended it better. 

 

GTA IV with all DLCs - The Draco subplot and especially the diamond subplot with its intertwining storyline of the DLCs is what really sold it for me and why I rank this as the best. Without these two, it's another revenge/betrayal story.

 

 

None of them come even close to RDR 1 and 2. 

 

[Schwartzxz]

I like when people criticize Vice City for having a poor story. shows you how much everything else is more important than the story itself. simple story is all you need.

[Algonquin Assassin]

Best: GTA IV. There’s a reason GTA IV always dominates the discussion when it comes to being the “best” at anything when it comes to the story. It’s sharp, sophisticated and confident with its ability like no other GTA came before or since.

 

First story in a GTA game that felt like it could be meaningful without sacrificing that trademark R* touch.

 

Worst: GTA V. Considering the high bar GTA IV set it just makes it worse IMO. There are glimpses here and there of potential greatness, but it’s consistently let down by poor pacing, poor character development and lack of a clear and concise direction.

 

Granted there are stories like GTA III’s that are fairly simple, but since the 2D era barely had stories to tell GTA III looked/looks like The Godfather. With GTA V it already had elite company even outside of the GTA series and failed. That’s what I judge it by personally.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2021 by MiamiViceCity1986

[AkshayKumar]

12 hours ago, Schwartzxz said:

I like when people criticize Vice City for having a poor story. shows you how much everything else is more important than the story itself. simple story is all you need.

Vice City may not have the best story but it's perhaps the best power fantasy in GTA, the way you take down Diaz and build your empire acquiring all those assets all over the city, and having the feeling of ruling the VC underworld by the end, only Vice City Stories provided a similar feeling.

 

As an aside is interesting how the Vice City based GTAs both focused on building your criminal empire, whereas other GTAs were generally about gang/mob related stories, revenge stories and such. 

[ThatBenGuy1998]

Best: A tie between IV, EFLC, VC, and III. All of these games were organized crime revenge stories at their absolute finest. They also all had very great and memorable characters as well.

 

Worst: A tie between V, Advance, and Online. Advance was literally the GTA that nobody asked for and its storyline was pretty dull. V made poor decision after poor decision. Online just shows the downfall of R* as a whole. Each heist has a terrible storyline that makes V’s look good by comparison.

[Jeansowaty]

Best: GTA IV

Worst: GTA LCS

[Sweepy0]

V is the most lazily written story IMO. I really didn't care about the characters. 

[Jimmy Muffins]

Best is between IV and SA. 

 

Worst is probably III.

 

Sure, VC takes a ton of influence from Scarface but that's one of the coolest things about the game IMO. The whole empire aspect, taking VC piece by piece and protecting what you have worked so hard to obtain.

 

5 doesn't get enough credit for its story. IMO Michael is one of their best-written characters and I enjoyed the whole "past coming back to haunt you" thing they had going on. The weakest part was Franklin's gangbanger missions that had nothing to do with the main story and were just there as a bit of SA fanservice. I thought the rest of the story was decent. Not mind blowing or anything but certainly not bad.

 

III has it's moments but it's incredibly simple and although I don't mind Claude being an emotionless, mute killer I would be lying if I said I didn't think he was the weakest protagonist in the modern games. The villains weren't that interesting either. Especially compared to those in SA and IV. 

[BananaSpud666]

Best: GTA IV, III, and TLAD

 

Worst: GTA V, Online, and the whole 2D Era

Edited November 28, 2021 by BananaSpud666

[Cafrocks]

On 10/17/2021 at 2:14 AM, BabaFamilias said:

From worst to best:

 

GTA 3 - Very basic story: You got betrayed, work yourself from the bottom to the top, take revenge. The End. All the characters are one dimensional and cliché. Claude doesn't say anything, never feels anything and has no expressions. He doesn't really have backstory and feels more like your avatar than a character in a story. It baffles me, how many people don't rate this as the worst. I guess these basic disposable revenge stories stimulate the right senses of boys, that is why there are sooo many of them. 

 

GTA Vice City - Again basic revenge story, but now the protagonist actually talks and is more than just an avatar. Oh, and your best friend betrays you - adding some spice to the story. Yay. 

 

GTA San Andreas - Best one of the 3D era. Again a revenge story, but this time with multiple story lines and an actual surprising plot twist. CJ has more expressions than just being angry and putting a constant meany face (Vercetti). Most side characters have a back story and their characterization is more detailed than the previous two.

 

GTA V - Best cinematography, character visualization and acting of all of them. My only problem with the story is that it gets rushed towards the second half (when you meet Steve Haines). The antagonist are forgettable and it feels to me that they couldn't finish the story in time or had to change some things because something happened behind the scenes. I would have ranked it as the best, if they had ended it better. 

 

GTA IV with all DLCs - The Draco subplot and especially the diamond subplot with its intertwining storyline of the DLCs is what really sold it for me and why I rank this as the best. And the music and the atmosphere of the holiday enhances everything, I have an essay as in examples from https://writix.com/essay-examples/a-christmas-carol about one of those occasions. Without these two, it's another revenge/betrayal story.

 

 

None of them come even close to RDR 1 and 2. 

 

 

It's as if you wrote my opinion. The only thing I probably like is the way the storyline in part 5 goes and I would put it on par with part 4, but otherwise I completely agree with you.

Edited August 31 by Cafrocks

[MiniMadrazo]

Best: IV & The Lost & Dammed 

Worst: V & The Ballad of Gay Tony

 

I don't think the 3D era games have good writing either but they fit with their gameplay so it's easy to overlook.

Overall the games world lore is what makes gta special for me, the story it's just an extra.

[olzhas1one]

I think Chinatown Wars has some geniunely bad writing, more so the dialogues. Some of it is so bad and honestly overly juvenile it feels just barely above Kojima's "exposition dump" writing. I struggle to believe that Dan and Rupert actually wrote those.

[Jeansowaty]

bruh what I commented here already lol.

 

removed.

Edited August 31 by Jeansowaty

[Eugene H. Krabs]

On 8/31/2022 at 2:28 AM, olzhas1one said:

I think Chinatown Wars has some geniunely bad writing, more so the dialogues. Some of it is so bad and honestly overly juvenile it feels just barely above Kojima's "exposition dump" writing. I struggle to believe that Dan and Rupert actually wrote those.

Rupert actually wasn't the co-writer. That was David Bland, who also co-wrote LCS and VCS.

[Cutter De Blanc]

Best was GTAIV without a doubt

 

Worst was probably Liberty City Stories, honestly extremely forgettable except for Donald Love who wasn't nearly as badass as he was in III

[ChubbyB0b]

This is my list:

1.  GTA IV (This one needs no explanation)
2. GTA SA 
3. GTA VC
4. GTA LCS
5. GTA 3
6. GTA V (I never got invested in the story for some reason. I tried but it feels boring to me, not interesting like others)

VCS is not included because I never played that one.

 

Edited September 1 by ChubbyB0b

[Comrade Monke]

Best: Vice City, LCS, IV 

Worst: i wouldn't say any of them has bad writing but I think the least good one was 5

[dgrey387]

1. GTA IV + EFLC

2. GTA SA

3. GTA VCS

4. GTA V

5. GTA VC

6. GTA LCS

7. GTA III

[cant remember]

Worst writing to me is V because it has no flavor. Old games have a specific theme and setting with radio music going with the theme. VC themes on Miami Vice/Scarface, SA on 90's LA hoods, IV on eastern european/russian criminals.

But what is V exactly? It's just present day LA, but none of the characters or activities are really typical LA stuff, except maybe some of the goofy celebrity-related missions. Everything and even the music is generic. IV had Vladivostok FM and indie bands from NYC to fit the setting.

[Akaviri]

Best: IV

Honorable Mention: San Andreas

 

Worst: V

Dishonorable Mention: Chinatown Wars