I still haven’t played GTA 5 – and I never will

Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of the most successful games in gaming history – and yet Rockstar’s open-world hit still hasn’t provided a good reason why I would ever visit Los Santos.

A column by Gregor Elsholz

The success of GTA 5 is phenomenal, almost like a fairy tale. As if Rockstar had his firstborn for a weak moment back then sells a self-replenishing chamber full of golden straw bales.

But while the Rumpelstiltskin deal turned out to be a hit for the developer afterwards (After all, what firstborn makes $6 billion?)nine years after its release I still don’t see a good reason to install the game.

Grand Theft Auto: Chaos bites for in between

My personal relationship with GTA is primarily hazy memories of youth in GTA 2 & GTA 3 that feel the same except for the perspective: The playable character Pump up to the upper edge of the lower lip with weapon cheats and then, like an over-ambitious bodybuilder intoxicated with anabolic steroids, in the best Hulk manner, let a path of destruction be drawn through the streets – so far, according to GTA.

Those moments were anarchic fast food and nice for in-between times, but never tied me closer to the line. After GTA 3 I have Only again GTA 4 because of the positive reviews given a chance – and couldn’t do anything with the gangster drama about Niko Bellic. The game lasted even shorter than Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 on my PS4.

GTA 5: Not my open world

In the years following the GTA 4 fiasco, I had to admit that GTA 5 simply has nothing to offerWhat I’m looking for: The franchise connection doesn’t exist for me, the gangster genre bores me and I stay away from online multiplayer features as much as possible on principle.

To make matters worse, there is no shortage of competing open-world games, and the time investment in each of these games is gargantuan. Accordingly, my choice mostly falls on worlds that I more interesting than a fictional part of California find – which, on closer reflection, almost all worlds are.

Rockstar has lost the cool factor

In the past I might have played GTA 5 at some point – alone because of the subversive humor and contemporary satirethat are anchored in the row. However, this has changed with Rockstar’s development in recent years.

After decades of success, the developer is no longer one of the alternative game developers, but irrevocably part of the establishment in the gaming industry and underpins this status by GTA 5 grinds from one generation of consoles to the next and also equipped with a purely profit-oriented subscription service.

Sure, we all have to earn a living, but subversive humor and Satire about consumption and capitalism from an industry giant like Rockstar taste about as good as nutrition tips from McDonalds.

GTA 5: Then rather Minecraft

I’m not going to say GTA 5 is a bad game here – after all, I haven’t tried it. Despite its incredible success and the fact that it have sold the second most copies of the game so far could, but it doesn’t fascinate me.

Before that I would probably still bet on the best-selling game of all time, which I haven’t played yet either: Minecraft. If I’ve played through this completely, I might give GTA another chance…

If you are looking for alternatives to GTA, we can recommend these open-world games:

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