Grand Theft Auto V wish list

Now that Grand Theft Auto V has been officially announced, the world’s gone into overdrive with speculation. We jump aboard the bandwagon with few of our ideas, which we hope would make it to the game. Rockstar, are you listening? 

Better economy

How would you like this as your safehouse?

Games like GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption allowed players to earn money through both main and side quests, but with nothing worth really spending your money on, your income felt redundant. Ten hours into GTA IV and I had enough money to buy my own country, but all I could really buy were weapons and ammunition for those weapons. For GTA V it would be nice if I could actually put my money to good use. At least this way, I’m motivated to rake in the moolah.

Improved quest system
GTA IV had way too many “go here and kill this random dude” kind of quests for its own good. It was either that or stupid fetch quests. Rockstar definitely need to add-in a ton of mission variety into GTA V. Adding stealth missions would also be a good change of pace with the inclusion of silenced weapons and the ability to actually plan your missions a la Hitman. Stalk your prey and kill him/her when they enter a dark alley, sabotage the brakes in their car to make it look like an accident or enter their house at night and kill them in their sleep. All effective ways to vanish without a trace. Plus adding in the random encounters from Red Dead Redemption would be a pretty sweet idea, too. 

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Rewarding side quests

Reward people for helping out the law

Side quests should also make sense and should reward the player with something more than money. For example, tackling cop missions should enable players to actually hack into the police database and get the dope on potential future targets. This way if you have to whack someone and know the places he visits regularly, you don’t have to tail him through all the traffic. You could even maybe set up an ambush for him.

Better combat system

Fight Club

The hand to hand combat system in GTA IV was not all that hot. In fact, it was pretty rigid and useless. Implementing the one from L.A. Noire will go a long way in making fist fights more immersive. Similarly, they need to tighten up gunplay, as well, something on the lines of Red Dead Redemption with a smooth and fluid looking cover system to boot.

Verticality

Rooftop attack FTW!

In an urban open world environment, it’s a real pity to restrict all the gun fights to the streets. GTA V should allow players to tackle them anyway they seem fit, so if I feel I’m at an advantage after climbing a roof top, let me do so. I’m not saying make me like Ezio from Assassin’s Creed, but adding a bit of verticality to this series wouldn’t really hurt. After all, that was promised to us for GTA IV.

Customization

Brink may have been a crappy game but it had insane customisation options

The character customisation in GTA IV simply put, sucked. A few shoes, suits and some raggedy pieces of clothing were all players could adorn Niko Bellic with. Even if Rockstar don’t want players to tweak the facial features of their character, they can very well add in a plethora of customisation options like they did in San Andreas.

Customisation in GTA V shouldn’t be limited to the character only. The tuner culture is still a pretty large part of West Coast culture, so they should allow players to deck out their ride any way they see fit, just like in Midnight Club L.A. Similarly a player should be able to deck out his arsenal to a certain extent, as well. I mean who doesn’t like wielding diamond crusted AK 47s.

Maintain the balance between realism and fun

Why can’t we store weapons in the trunk? Why Rockstar?

Rockstar should know when to keep the game realistic and when to let players have a good time. Just because they can indulge in a few goofy activities, doesn’t mean the story is no longer serious. On one hand, Rockstar claims they axed all the fun stuff from San Andreas to make GTA IV more realistic, but magically removing a rocket launcher from your pants isn’t too realistic, right? For GTA V they should bring back some of the fun activities while keeping the game grounded in reality. For example, limit the amount of weapons a player can carry on them at a time just like in real life. Additional firepower can always be stored in your car trunk, a feature, if I remember correctly was promised with GTA IV, as well.

Set pieces

Who doesn’t like set pieces?

I know I’m a bit spoilt by the Uncharted series when it comes to phenomenal set pieces, but if anyone can pull something like this off, it’s Rockstar. With a place like L.A., where earthquakes are a common occurrence, a mission featuring one would be sweet. Imagine having to speed away from an earthquake that’s inches away from swallowing your car up.

That’s about all we can think of right now. If you’ve been working on your own little wish list, feel free to share it with us in the comments below.