Let's start with the world and the gameplay. To put it simply, it is awesome. The world is huge and beautiful. If you've never been to Los Angeles, CA, then you can rest easy knowing that this is indeed an incredibly accurate analogue to the California city. One of the most striking things about the world is the lighting. Sure the rest of the game looks incredible, but remove the shadows and bloom and it looks like something from 2007. Recently, I've actually had some trouble distinguishing real-life shots from GTA V shots at first glance. The controls are, for the most part, great. I love being able to switch between keyboard and gamepad on the fly, even use them at the same time if I please. The only thing that really stuck out was the combat mechanics, especially taking cover. Too often I found I couldn't get a clear shot while in cover, so I would gently tap a key to inch over to the edge of a wall, only to have my character stand up, run out and immediately be pelted with bullets, and don't even get me started on doing it in first person. Another thing is that unless I have perfect framerate, I can't aim properly at all. I have no idea if it's just me, but if the game starts lagging it just becomes unplayable during a firefight. Another problem is the GUI. It's nice that it's off to the edges and unobtrusive....until you're shot 900 times and don't even realize that your health is at 1 because the bar is so damn tiny.
Now then, on to the characters and story. The characters are fun. Between the 3 characters there should be something that everyone will like, but one thing I noticed is that the characters were sometimes inconsistent. It's difficult to describe, but the best I can do is say that they weren't always quite in proper character, but they were still enjoyable overall. The character models were excellent. Facial expressions look really nice. Now...the story. There are lots and lots and lots of small story arcs here, but there really isn't any big arc connecting them. The whole game just felt like it was just people doing things, and I think that they could have cut out the beginning, from after the failed robbery in North Yankton to where the player was introduced to Trevor, and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. The ending also left a lot to be answered. What was to become of Franklin after he chose who to kill? What about Devon Weston? What about Merryweather security, the relationship with the FIB? I decided to kill Trevor at the end, but then that leaves the question of what Devon would do? He wanted you to kill Micheal, but the FIB wanted you to kill trevor, so you would be disobeying at least one of them. What would they do? If Trevor was left alive what would Merryweather do if they found him, and what about that device they stol from the bottom of the ocean? The game never, ever mentioned what it was. All we had to go on was that it was a "super weapon" according to Lester.
Well, I suppose we on't know about these things, or maybe I was just not thinking enough while playing to predict these things. Who knows.