GTA 6: 10 Things It Must Do BETTER Than 5
7. Not One Gimmick Mission
The go-to example for just how... weird some of Rockstar's design choices were in GTA V, Scouting the Port (literally where the game becomes Dockwork Simulator 3000) remains one of the worst missions in GTA history.
I'll refer to these as "gimmick missions", as with the rise of GTA as a cultural touchstone, we've seen Rockstar embrace its "memeability" - the decision to create entire missions that are more like interactive comedy sketches.
Michael's Life Invader infiltration where you spend a good 20 minutes just wandering through offices, seeing Rockstar poke fun at the Apple-worshipping tech nerd elite? It was fine, but could've also been done in the background of something far more gameplay intensive (like Watch Dogs 2's Google-lampooning "Limp Nudle" mission, for example).
No one is playing GTA FOR the comedy - it's a side-effect (and a brilliant one) of awesome gameplay systems and tone. This balance needs to be addressed going forward, as GTA V occasionally had the scales tipped way too far in the wrong direction.