Prior to release, it was said that Grand Theft Auto V would be bigger in scale to the worlds of GTA San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption combined. And though there was plenty to see and do in GTA V, the open world element of the game felt empty and lonely, with far too many buildings merely there for show. Head over to Vespucci Beach and you can ride the roller coaster while back at your safe house you can huff on a bong and watch trashy television, but excepting these two building interactions, there's very little else you can do. Row upon row upon row of houses pass as you drive down the road in a stolen sports car, and you can enter precisely none of them. Even businesses, that you've just spent $500,000 on, cannot be entered, while hospitals, that strangely enough were accessible in predecessor GTA IV, also cannot be entered this time around. This all leads to a very static and claustrophobic environment and it is one that gets very tedious, very quickly. You can't help but wonder if Rockstar intended to give us more immersion when it comes to buildings had they been able to, but perhaps we will never know. We can only hope the publishers build on this with their upcoming DLC.
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
