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Which Grand Theft Auto has the best Single Player/Story Mode?

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  • Grand Theft Auto

    Votes: 3 1.0%
  • Grand Theft Auto 2

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Grand Theft Auto 3

    Votes: 11 3.5%
  • Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Grand Theft Auto Vice City

    Votes: 83 26.8%
  • Grand Theft Auto 4

    Votes: 63 20.3%
  • Grand Theft Auto 5

    Votes: 54 17.4%
  • Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Grand Theft Auto San Andreas

    Votes: 91 29.4%

  • Total voters
    310
Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold an incredible amount of copies for some reason, but most people believe it's story mode was among the weakest for the series.

Do you agree? If so which Grand Theft Auto do you think had the best single player story mode?
 

Excess

Member
I love IV, but V's characters and their chemistry was great, albeit it was the first time they did a multi-character protagonist. And while I loved Trevor as a character, Michael's story was probably the best, watching a middle-aged man faded from his glory days with a spoiled and disrespectful family to have a mid-life crisis and return to a life of high crime. What's not to love about that?
 

coffinbirth

Member
It was a toss up between Vice City and IV for me, but I ultimately went with Vice City because I can still remember it quite well despite having played it years prior to IV. I have the feeling if I replayed them now IV might be the one though. San Andreas fell apart for me about halfway through.

GTA V story is straight garbage beyond the first few hours and I honestly wonder if the people voting for it have played any other GTA games.
 
It was a toss up between Vice City and IV for me, but I ultimately went with Vice City because I can still remember it quite well despite having played it years prior to IV. I have the feeling if I replayed them now IV might be the one though. San Andreas fell apart for me about halfway through.

GTA V story is straight garbage beyond the first few hours and I honestly wonder if the people voting for it have played any other GTA games.
You would hope so on a gaming forum people played other games. Not to mention the top 3 best selling PS2 games are 3 of the games on the list. Some were rereleased too.
 
San Andreas is the best story and game

i dont like 5. barely played Vice. 3's story is barely there. GTA 4 sucks. Niko Bellic sucks. But it at least has some kinda coherent story. And the DLCs make it better. So 4 is number 2 i guess
 

YCoCg

Member
Depends on what you want to do in the single player. I guess GTAV is the most modern and has the most content if you play GTA Online. GTA IV/EFLC easily has the best story that connects multiple characters. San Andreas for the vast amount of actual Single Player focused content. Vice City and III for the nostalgia.
 

Bluecondor

Member
GTA III was such an incredible single player experience. Just playing through the single player campaign in GTA III made me a lifetime fan of the series.

I am hoping that Rockstar does a next-gen remaster of GTA III. I would happily replay that again.
 

coffinbirth

Member
You would hope so on a gaming forum people played other games. Not to mention the top 3 best selling PS2 games are 3 of the games on the list. Some were rereleased too.
You WOULD hope so...but those games are nearly 20 years old, which also supports my theory.
EDIT; apparently the poll was horribly borked when I posted that and had GTA V sitting at 50% of the votes. It seems sorted now.
 
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You WOULD hope so...but those games are nearly 20 years old, which also supports my theory.
EDIT; apparently the poll was horribly borked when I posted that and had GTA V sitting at 50% of the votes. It seems sorted now.

Like I said, several were rereleased so 20 years doesn't really apply outside GTA3.
 

Excess

Member
GTA V story is straight garbage beyond the first few hours and I honestly wonder if the people voting for it have played any other GTA games.
I mean, you could generalize the opposite as an opinion premised merely on nostalgia.

I actually went back to III and Vice City a few months ago. Much of the writing and dialogue is just borrowed tropes and archetypes from gangster movies that the Houser's grew up on. San Andreas began drifting away from that, but I feel that Niko in IV was the first time the writing really started to mature, where I actually felt empathy for the protagonist. Maybe it was the backstory or the choices that have to be made. I just felt more invested in the newer characters.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
I liked the simple mafia story of 3 the most. Disliked vice city and 4 equally, enjoyed SA and feel 5’s story took wayyyyy to long to get going. I hate doing new playthroughs of 5 because of how loooooonnnng it’s prologue basically is.
 
Oh, so you're just trying to argue.
Funny you didn't reply to me calling out your Halo E3 nonsense. Passive-aggressive much?
Me mentioning facts isn't arguing. But you seem to want to have a mental breakdown though, have fun.

Also Halo E3 thread was just one question, there's nothing to call out. Get help.
 
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GTA 4 for me as well.

There was some really good storybeats from being a migrant new in the country.

Speaking of which, is the steam version of GTAIV trash still?

I have nostalgia hitting me hard and I feel like giving the game a whirl for the first time since the year it was released.
 

coffinbirth

Member
I mean, you could generalize the opposite as an opinion premised merely on nostalgia.

I actually went back to III and Vice City a few months ago. Much of the writing and dialogue is just borrowed tropes and archetypes from gangster movies that the Houser's grew up on. San Andreas began drifting away from that, but I feel that Niko in IV was the first time the writing really started to mature, where I actually felt empathy for the protagonist. Maybe it was the backstory or the choices that have to be made. I just felt more invested in the newer characters.
I pretty much said as much for Vice City vs. IV, but I am of the opinion that V is not so great story-wise beyond the first few hours. The characters I liked well enough, but the story itself seemed like a step back in quality from IV.
Also, a large part of that reaction was because the poll was borked and showed V having 51% of the vote.
 

Killer8

Member
Although Vice City is my favourite, it's basically Scarface. San Andreas has the best rags to riches story in the whole series and feels more original.

GTA4 was good, Niko was a great lead character, but that game has way too much padding and drags in the last third towards an unsatisfying ending.

GTAV had a fairly unfocused story. Felt more like a collection of interesting heists and scenarios lifted from movies Rockstar thought were cool. The villains were very under-cooked and it seemed like it didn't know how it wanted to end so had to give the player a choice.
 

Hugare

Member
People praising GTA V will give me a fucking aneurysm

That game writting/story was some of the worst that Ive seen in an open world game

Anyone here really remembers anything about the story? Michael fakes his death, Trevor gets pissed at him for 90% of the game, FBI makes them their bitch, some Madrazzo guy try to manipulate them ...
And then they go "why the fuck are we doing this?" and kill everyone at the end.

The story spills a bunch of random events as excuses for diferent missions, but makes no sense storywise. Gameplay wise, it was fun, but I totaly turned off my brain in cutscenes.

Trevor is fun, but one note. Franklin is terrible. No development at all, bland personality. Michael is the only one with some character development, but he is such a piece of shit that you dont give a damn.

The dialogue is horrible. Well acted tho. Lamar was great.

R* writting after RDR went downhill

Play RDR again. Bonnie and John's relationship is interesting from the get go. Every character is interesting, and the story has a strong direction during its whole duration.

GTA VC, SA and IV were all well written
 
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raduque

Member
SA, VC and 5, in that order. 3 was forgettable and the less said about the "bowling with cousin Roman" simulator the better.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
1 - San Andreas
2 - Vice City Stories
3 - Vice City
4 - GTA III
5 - GTA IV
6 - Liberty City Stories
7 - GTA V
8 - The Ballad of Gay Tony (I'm only including this entry because of pride month)
 
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Tschumi

Member
That'll do forum, that'll do.

babe pig GIF


San andreas --> vice city --> who cares
 
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