5. A Consistent Morality
In her stellar review, Ms Petit noted a flaw in the writing that during some main missions or side quests, the protagonist/s would undertake work that they nominally opposed on ethical grounds because the plot demanded they do so. The most obvious offender is Franklin during the paparazzi missions: after commendably voicing at least an apathetic toleration for peoples' personal lives, he then proceeds to do the conniving Beverly's dirty work without question, humiliating a series of celebrities via grievous violations of privacy for money. The segregation of gameplay and storytelling has always been part of the franchise, sometimes with dubious and troubling results: how are we supposed to believe that Carl Johnson or Niko Bellic are genuinely good people just trying to get by when, under the player's control, they can gleefully massacre half a city with nary a complaint? Niko half-heartedly apologising when a pedestrian flies over his bonnet doesn't count. Maybe in their computer-generated heads they're shrieking in horror at the violence, but the players aren't.
V got around this issue by giving the zanier missions and Rampages to Trevor, an unrepentant sociopath whose writing and portrayal is so brilliant he's won over just about everyone, which leads to its own disturbing implications that it's okay to support clearly violently unstable people as long as they give us a pithy one-liner or astute observation every so often. In fact, Trevor's retort to his redneck accomplices about respecting women during his first mission was so absurd and brazenly insincere on the writers' part that I actually had to pause the game and laugh out loud. It's even more excruciating considering what he later does to Debra. Doubtlessly, mass murder, thievery and carjacking are the series' bread and butter throughout the main campaign, but at least have a choice for the side missions. At the midpoint or end of an obligatory cutscene, perhaps there could a BioWare-style dialogue wheel with which to respond to the task bequeathed to us. It doesn't have to be anything complex, merely something like:
A. Sure, I'll do it; money is God.B. I'll do it, but I'll feel guilty later.C. Get lost, you soulless scumbag. For picking the latter option, maybe we can be treated to a further scene of our heroine deliciously righteously chewing up and spitting out the heinous cad for even daring to suggest such a thing. And whilst she's vigorously disallowing awful things...