Yeah, the whole game kinda just missed the mark for me.
The satire just feels so in your face and outrageous; totally devoid of the subtle wit of GTA IV. Lazlow, one of my favorite characters from other games was just totally unlikeable and pathetic.
It's a shame, because the driving and gunplay feels smoother, it's more visually impressive than GTA IV, but it lacks all of the charm. Liberty City felt like a living, breathing city. It had this grey, glum feel that I couldn't get enough of. GTA V feels like a cartoon.
I was so disappointed with the story direction in V. Franklin was just totally forgotten about halfway through. Like, "oh hey Franklin, I know you wanted to get out of the hood and all that, so here's an awesome mansion. For the rest of the game, you're just going to be a plot device to get Michael and Trevor out of situations, okay?" I hated Trevor; it felt like random rage and insanity for it's own sake.
I abhorred Michael. He's meant to be caught in the conflict of doing the only thing he's good at, and his family, but when he loses his family, they just come back because Jimmy needs money and Amanda is bored of her boytoy. What the fuck?
That's why the ending felt so hollow to me. I'm meant to choose between killing characters I don't care about, because forgettable, milquetoast villains told me to? OR, I can wipe out all of the Chinese, FBI, SWAT, Merryweather, Stretch (lol) in a blur and watch the characters stare off at the game's "chief antagonist" float away in a car. Says it all.
It's such a far cry from GTA IV. I remember when Niko confronts Darko, and finds he sold out the boys for $1000 and Darko asks "how much money do you charge to kill someone?". Earlier, Niko had to decide between killing Dwayne and Playboy, and it was clear Niko favored killing Playboy, but then Playboy offers to pay, and Niko's head kinda inclines towards him like that's totally changed his mind. You have the option of just unloading your gun into Darko in a rage.
I played GTA IV's story a lot, I couldn't sit through GTA V more than once.