8. GTA IV Was Too Serious For Its Own Good
The Awesome: GTA IV surged onto current-gen consoles in style, delivering a visually stunning experience that also put more effort into the narrative than any of the previous games and introduced a thrilling multiplayer component. The result was a tremendous success, selling over 25 million copies and a metric ton of Game of the Year commendations.
The Truth: Few can argue with the integrity of GTA IV's storytelling, but at the same time, it felt like Rockstar were trying a little too hard to make GTA a
serious game that had the water-tight narrative of a great movie or TV show. The result was an experience that, though engrossing, wasn't anywhere near as
fun as the previous games in the series, placing a larger onus on its epic story and less on what has always been the most enjoyable aspect of these games - the mad satire, killing hookers, getting in crazy car chases and, of course, the kill frenzies that were notably absent from GTA IV entirely. Thankfully, GTA V seems to have restored a lot of the peripheral elements that GTA IV omitted in favour of a more streamlined, story-focused effort, so hopefully GTA V is back to the fun that seems more abundant in the Saints Row franchise these days.