I never had the "pleasure" of playing GTAV in its prime back in 2013/2014. I eventually got to play it a bit on my Xbox 360 for a bit but the loading times and the torture mission completely put me off of it as a 13/14 year old. Years later after it was given away for free on Epic, I finally started a new playthrough without having played any other Rockstar game except Max Payne 3, so my judgment on the game isn't clouded by its predecessors.

The 2013 cynicism that fills this game is one of the most poorly aged facets of the overall experience. Nearly every single character in the game hates the world and everyone in it which makes meeting new characters completely uninteresting. On the other hand this makes the few positive or opportunistic characters a breath of fresh air, like the old couple Trevor meets, the daredevil Franklin hangs out with, Solomon the movie director, and Franklin himself. Other than when those characters are present, it feels like most dialog exchanges are simply characters espousing how much the world sucks and how everyone in it should die, them included. The trope is so played out at this point that it makes the main plot nearly unbearable to me. Characters in the side content are overall more bearable due to their eccentricities but they have another issue going for them.

Most of the content in this game just involves you driving for several minutes to sit and watch a cutscene for a few more minutes, to then drive for a few more minutes until something might happen, or maybe you'll just end up seeing another cutscene and driving some more. This is the one reservation I have towards the side content, as the lengthy drives combined with lack of rewards don't make going out of your way to do them fulfilling. I didn't find any of the minigames particularly enjoyable either which I feel is mildly inexcusable due to other contemporaries such as the Yakuza series having such engaging side content despite their tiny budget when compared to GTAV. There is one thing this game does quite well though.

The sandbox that is the open world has some of the highest potential for chaos and comedy. This is where the 1.5 stars for my rating comes from. I have had such a good time just causing chaos while driving around, my personal favorite thing to do being hitting motorcyclists as fast as I can. Just being able to cause mayhem at a moment's notice is one of GTAV's biggest strengths. Honestly I don't really have anything to say about this facet other than it's just fun compared to everything else in the game.

It feels odd to not have enjoyed the second highest selling game of all time. You'd think it'd be near flawless with the fact it's still making as much profit for Rockstar as it is, but when it comes to the singleplayer content there's very little I can give praise toward. Maybe there's something about the multiplayer that makes up for the missing 3.5 stars in my rating but I feel I'm about eight years too late to play it and I'm not willing to drop the real world money required to get fully invested into the game. I'm glad I played this game though, as an adult it's interesting to me since it's a time capsule of 2013 culture in terms of how vapid and worthless celebrity culture and media could be. I can't recommend it if you're looking for an interesting story or fun characters due to both being simplistic and cynical, but if you just wanna smack a car going 110MPH into an innocent person on a moped, I can't think of many better options.