It was still massively overhyped. After beating the story mode I am just not that impressed with GTA V. Don't get me wrong I think its a good game and its a big improvement on 4 but a lot of what was being hyped turned out to not be half as good as it seemed.
*possible spoilers ahead.*
First off... the map is actually not that big. Yes, maybe its technically the biggest map Rockstar has ever done but most of it is filler. There is one city that is about the same size as liberty city from 4 and the rest is empty woodland mountain areas. That wouldn't be that bad if those mountain areas were even half as engaging as the ones in red dead redemption... but they are not. The wildlife is minimal and you won't really come across many other people there. San Andreas felt bigger and more diverse than GTA V. There were three fully fleshed out cities. GTA V only has one.
# 2. The heists are underwhelming. This was one of the most hyped aspects of the game and it fell flat for me. When I first heard about heists I thought the game was going to give us freedom to really plan the heists on our own and execute it as we see fit. It turns out the heists were really just heavily scripted linear missions with slight deviations based on certain choices you make. They were fun and all but at the end of the day they were just missions like any other missions. In San Andreas there were home invasions. Sure those weren't intricate and sophisticated heists but they weren't heavily scripted either and imo they were more fun.
#3. Three protagonists actually hurts the game. It seemed like a good idea at first but in practice having three protagonists actually takes away some of the magic that I felt in previous gta's, particularly San Andreas. There was an RPG aspect to San Andreas that really gave that game a lot of longevity for me. There is also RPG aspects in this game but with three protagonists I never really felt like I got invested in just one of them. On a side note the skills didn't seem to mean much. Unlike in GTA:SA I never actually felt like my skills were improving. My driving stat would go up for characters but it never actually felt like there was much of a difference in my actual driving ability.
#4. The story wasn't up to Rockstar standards. This relates to #3 because I think three protagonists contributed to this. You definitely do lose out on a lot of the interesting side characters GTA games usually have and overall the story just lacked the gravitas of Red Dead or atleast the interesting escalation and progression of GTA:SA. Half of the story just ended up being Michael and Trevor bickering like an old married couple and that got really tired after a while. Oh and the ending was WEAK!!! Super anti-climatic. I was actually shocked when the credits rolled... it was the worst ending of any gta game. There was no twist or epic showdown, just a mission that played out like a dozen missions before it. Compare that ending to the end of GTA:SA. That was an epic ending with the entire city delving into chaos, stunt jumps, action set pieces and an epic showdown of "good" vs "evil". GTA V on the other hand was just tying up loose ends.
#5. Limited side activities. Another heavily hyped aspect of the game was how much there was to do in the world. There are a lot of things to do in the world, but the problem is most of those things are just not very compelling. Instead of focusing on crap like Tennis, golf and yoga, rockstar should have focused more on the empire building activities that are more likely to hold peoples interest for longer. In GTA:SA I spent hours just grabbing homies to roll on some ballas until I turned all of los santos green. Then I would ride up to San Fiero and perform another hostile takeover, all the while trying to keep the territories I had already grabbed. That was fun, a lot more fun than virtual yoga. And before GTA IV ruined it, going on dates was actually a pretty fun diversion in GTA: SA as well. Side activities in Red Dead were also far more compelling. I could literally spend hours playing the card games or hunting. Being able to clear out gang hideouts was also very satisfying. Another open world game with brilliant empire building was The Godfather II.
#6. Online is trying to do too much. Let me just say that the GTA V character creation for online is the worst I have ever seen bar none. How on earth did they ever think that was a good idea? But besides that (not even taking into account all the technical issues) I just don't see the point to all the overly ambitious nonsense they have thrown into online. I finally got online today and instead of jumping into a sandbox to have fun I get a pointless cutscene and a forced race tutorial. I guarantee the most fun anyone is going to have in GTA online is just going to be playing in the sandbox and wreaking havoc with friends. So why do we need cutscenes and story missions? Waste of time and resources if you ask me. They'd be better off using those resources to give us more tools and toys in the sandbox.
Sorry for the long posts. These are just my opinions. I'll probably get flamed for stating that GTA V is less than perfect but I don't hate this game (Unlike GTA IV which I genuinely despise) I just don't think its the best GTA game ever and its not nearly as good as the hype would have you believe.
