I've now played the game for just under 10 hours. Some further impressions:
- The game starts off very slow. The first couple of hours (which basically serve as a tutorial) can be pretty bland. Give it time and things start to pick up a bit. I didn't get my first handgun until what felt like a few hours into the game. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you have a gun. :)
- Speaking of guns, the aiming mechanic is sooo much better than in previous games. Shooting from cover is a bit odd though. When you are in cover, you can hold down the L trigger to aim, but you don't actually pop out of cover until you press the R trigger to shoot, so you have a delay between the time you press the shoot button to when you actually go through the animation of emerging from cover to shoot. It is almost impossible to wait for head shots in this manner because once you let go of the R trigger, you go back into cover, so you can't even fire at a slow pace lining up good shots, it has to be fully automatic or nothing. It seems like the cursor also moves a bit from when you are in cover to when you actually emerge to shoot, so even if you line up a headshot while in cover and you manage to emerge fast enough that your enemy hasn't already moved, your aim will still shift a bit, making the shot you lined up useless. This mechanic can definitely be tweaked.
- I am getting a much better handle on the driving physics. Basically, like in real driving, don't attempt to turn while slamming on the brakes because . . . well, you won't turn. You need to brake well in advance of sharp turns to tackle them properly. Trust me, take the time to brake properly, you'll lose a lot more time if you try to take a corner too fast and end up crashing into something (which you will do). Properly breaking will shave a lot of time in a point to point race.
- The effect of your character getting drunk it hilarious. The camera fluctuates, the controller vibrates and trying to walk around is a riot! Great animations too.
- There are certain missions that have you chase a target in a car. So far, most of these missions have been "scripted" in the sense that no matter how well you drive, you won't be able to catch up to the target until you reach a certain location. I do not like this. GTA is supposed to be an open world game where anything goes. These particular chases really suck the immersion from the game in two ways. A) if you are an excellent driver and you know you have a much faster car than your target you can easily see how the CPU cheats and makes the other car impossibly fast, or B) you are a terrible driver and no matter how much you crash the other car seems to wait for you (unless you are REALLY bad, in which case they get away). I think if the car "legitimately" reaches its target location, the mission should continue as scripted, but if you actually manage to stop it by cutting it off, making it crash, shooting out its tires, or taking out the driver with a well placed shot, then that should end the mission right there.
- I had forgotten how much hand-holding there is in this series. I think it ultimately takes away from some of the fun. If you have a mission in which you need to steal a certain car, or meet someone in a certain place, or find someone that is hanging out around a certain area, the game map shows you exactly where you are supposed to go, complete with an arrow appearing over the object or person. This is a must for certain people, but I think a more natural approach would add a lot to the game. As an example, one of the characters in the game sends you e-mails with pictures of vehicles he wants you to steal for him. Once you accept the mission, your map tells you exactly where that vehicle is. If the vehicle is in use, you get real time updates on its exact location. That is not very realistic. Nor fun. Since all you are doing is going to a set location on the map, getting the vehicle, then driving to another set location. I would have much preferred for the e-mail to tell you a region where the vehicle was last seen. Maybe on the map an entire block will be highlighted. You then have to go to that area and actually locate the vehicle. You have a picture of it after all. If might just be parked there, or maybe the person is driving around. Eitherway, now you have to stake out the location, make a positive id, and then decide the best way to take it, rather than just following a dot on your map. This same concept can be implemented in about 70% of the missions in one form or another to make the player actually "think" as your character, instead of just having your hand held the entire time.
- Overall, this game is distinctly GTA. Watching the first gameplay videos just prior to release, the game appeared vastly different, with the much improved shooting mechanic, the Euphoria physics, etc., it looked to be a whole new ball game. After playing it for a while, the experience feels very much like the previous titles. That can be a good or bad thing. Many people love the previous games. I enjoyed GTA III and Vice City, but never picked up San Andreas because the series was starting to feel a little stale to me. While this game is still a lot of fun, I do not know if that is because I just took an extra long break from the GTA formula. I can actually see it getting a little old by the end. All in all, the game has improved upon the previous titles, but I do not see any new mechanic that would classify it as a major leap forward for the series. I really do not see how this game could have received so many 10's. This game is far from a 10. No final score from me yet, but a 10 it ain't!
I'll write some multiplayer impressions in a few days. I've played a few random matches and they have been a lot of fun. I'm playing with my buddy Sunday night, so I should have a better feel for it next week.
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