We've all had issues with the GTA Online
servers, bugs and crashes. That’s been hashed and rehashed over and over
again since the game’s launch. Moving beyond that, the true beauty of the game still shines through.
The open world sessions can accommodate up to 16
players all running, biking, driving around, gunning, running people down or
even blowing them up. GTA Online is a vision of what an apocalypse would be if
16 immortal Humans used a quasi-life-like Los Angeles as their playground. Be
it flying planes into gas stations to create over-the-top explosions or gunning
down a seemingly infinite amount of police officers while camped out on a pier,
GTA Online presents players with the option to be Gods among men with an
added bonus; their friends can be there too.
Any GTA player can attest to all the crazy,
over-the-top stunts they've pulled but nothing beats doing it with your best
friend in the passenger seat and the two of you whooping and hollering as your
car does a quadruple-360-spin-flip bouncing down a mountain.
Too many reviews and discussions have focused on the
negatives this game has. Forget the still wonky auto-aim functioning, I don’t want to play Call
of Duty in my GTA game and I really don’t mind that it helps me aim. When I am
bev’d up and running around with three or four friends I am not there to
carefully and precisely aim so I can get that perfect shot. If the game wants
to auto-aim for me and let me spray and pray I’ll take it.
I have one complaint about the game which goes back to
the 16 immortal human theory. All too often while shopping for clothes or
buying a candy bar to get some health back, some random guy
will pull up in his tricked out Prius and mow me down with a few hundred bullets.
The worst part isn't losing my $100 dollars in cash or some ammunition. Spawning 100 yards from where I died in any
direction and having to trek back to my car and hope the guy isn't driving
around searching to kill me again. The solution Rockstar has is their "Passive
mode" which can be bought for $100 and it lasts until you die. Except that it doesn't work. All too often do I still get run over by another player and lose
both my $100 I paid for passive and the $100 to $200 dollars for dying. While
this is a pretty minor issue and really becomes less often of an occurrence at
higher levels, it made getting into the game at early levels
pretty difficult.
A lot of complaints address that GTA Online and
GTA V have simplified many features, specifically the
driving. The design team has admitted that they simplified the driving, expressing concern that they thought GTA IV took its driving too serious and it didn't create a fun enough experience. I am happy with the GTA V/Online driving
mechanics because once again I am not looking for an Urban City Simulation
game. I want a game that lets me be a gun-crazed lunatic murderer in one of the
United States most iconic cities. GTA V let me do that and GTA Online lets me
do that with friends. With that, I think Rockstar has hit the gold mine, oil
reserve, priceless unobtanium deposit and I hope they mine it for all it is
worth.
