Never said it should be. However, it failed both as a "masterful, compelling narrative" and as a fun crime romp since each chapter ended with "lol u guys suck so hard u so dumb" rather than feeling as though you, you know, actually pulled off a crime. If I wanted the first (well "masterful" per the low bar of video games), I'd play Mafia II. If I wanted a fun crime romp that felt fulfilling, I'd play Saints Row the Third. GTAV failed to hit either of those marks or even fit in a comfortable intersection.
I suppose it has the "open world" thing going on but I'm not especially interesting in playing video golf or video yoga or video rollercoaster.
I don't think
GTA5 had the best narrative, characters, and whatnot of the GTA series - but it might be the best overall game to me. A lot of this game's elements, it ticks the boxes of what players want out of GTA. Big sandbox to do stuff in? Yup, major check. A good lead? Heck, you have three different leads here - just find one that speaks best to you. Michael's another version of Tommy Vecetti, but he has issues with his family; Franklin's another CJ and has his own issues; and Trevor's just every GTA player that wants to do insane, crazy, and off-the-wall stuff in the game-world...but Trevor's insane madness happens in missions too.
I dunno, but for me...best narrative and story probably goes to
GTA4 (base). Niko, Roman, and Dimitri - man, was all that stuff good. But, for most people - they didn't like that it really didn't have the fun factor that other GTA's had; GTA4 base was meant to be more realistic. The "fun" stuff felt like they got bolted onto each GTA4 DLC more and more - as fans wanted more "fun". TLATD was more fun than GTA4 base; and Tony went hog-wild with crazy over-the-top missions with just the first mission alone, setting the tone...and continuing on that route for the rest of the game.
GTA5 took the "kitchen sink" approach and felt like a greatest hits of many GTA's. It also had a lot of the complaints of "long missions" w/ autosaves in the midst of them - so if and when you failed, you didn't have to go back and start over from scratch. My Gosh, seemed like each GTA had a crazy mission that would drive you nuts until you got it right - i.e. VC with the RC Mission; SA with the train mission & one of the Chinatown missions. Pretty much, GTA4 solved this - but GTA5 kept on w/ this.
About Mafia - Mafia series, both
Mafia 1 and 2, are great; especially w/ the story & character stuff.
I wish I could finish up
Mafia III, as that game is also great at story, presentation, and narrative - but eh, it's got issues. A bunch of them.
Mafia 3 ain't the best running game; it has too much repetitive main and side missions; and a lot of the side stuff can get in the way of doing the main stuff. Mafia 3, for better and worst, got turned into an open-world UbiSoft-style Mafia title - and Mafia series was at it best, being linear and story-focused.
around in the open world (which, say what you want about the story, the world is expertly crafted). Hell, the whole idea of the "open world sandbox" was spawned by the GTA franchise. It's even more fun playing in that sandbox with friends online, which is easy to do with an invite only session.
