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As Grand Theft Auto V has been around since 2013 and is still being updated to this day, there have been some mechanics that haven't gone unnoticed and not well received...

  • In an attempt to avert the previous game that left people wondering why you got paid $1000 just to go to a location and talk to a guy, missions in V now give you little to no cash. Where are you expected to get money from, then? The stock market! Which is, if you're not careful, a complete and total money sink that gives nothing back.
  • Properties do not give you a very good return-on-investment. Spend millions for something that gets you thousands, maybe hundreds, an in-game week. Missions do not give you very much money at all. Strangers and Freaks missions typically don't give you anything whatsoever other than a short mission working for a weirdo. Income management is very difficult in this game, and there's not a lot to get excited about for what to spend it on either.
  • The game's tendency to force characters into roles they aren't optimized for, i.e. forcing Trevor or Michael to drive while Franklin shoots.
  • Flying, especially with choppers. Due to very sensitive camera mechanics, flying can be incredibly difficult to get use to. It doesn't help that flight school, which teaches players how to fly, isn't made available until after the first flying mission. Fortunately, flying is easier than in GTA San Andreas, and the flight school is optional (Michael will get pestered by Trevor, but not as much as Mike Toreno pestered CJ).
  • Some content in single player isn't unlocked unless you do specific things outside the game, like signing up to the Rockstar social club, downloading a phone/tablet app or connecting your account to Facebook. It's bad enough that this is the sort of thing GTA usually lampoons in its media, but to make it worse, there's never any indication given on how to unlock this content. Another issue (raised from the speedrunning community but is of note to everyone) is that since the app relies on Rockstar's servers, if they ever get shut down it can result in these features becoming permanently missable, which makes this a rare, bizarre case of an offline-only game that has a time limit on content. Wondering why you can't watch the finals of Fame or Shame? Figure it out yourself. Chop still crapping all over your yard even though you walk him every day? Figure it out yourself. Want some newer hairstyles for the protagonists? Figure it out yourself.
    • This fear has now come to pass: the mobile app for playing with Chop has been pulled from the app store, breaking Chop's walking mini-game in the process. What's worse, the mini-game is required for 100 percent completion. This is alleviated somewhat by some swapping situations for Franklin involving him walking Chop, putting you into the mini-game automatically, but otherwise, Chop is basically no longer a part of the game.
  • The heritage system used to create your online character has its fair share of detractors. Rather than craft your criminals from scratch their features are based on choosing who their parents and grandparents were. Fans looking forward to a deep character creator or making a digital likeness of themselves were left disappointed.
  • There has also been criticism of online play getting things that single player didn't, like the expanded property buying system, a personal mechanic that delivers cars, the ability to take showers, increased customization, vehicle tracker, and just an overwhelming feeling like they packed it with more options than single player mode. The interaction menu has since been patched into the main game.
  • The Wanted Level system:
    • Losing the cops in online play... doesn't actually lose the cops. At least not if you're in a stolen vehicle. Even if you've completely gotten rid of that wanted level, the next patrol car or police station you pass will light up and chase you down. This can be fixed by going to a shop and having the car resprayed. Thankfully, patrol cars are very rarely seen unless you happen to run into another player being chased by the cops.
    • Losing the cops even in single player mode is much more irritating than in past games. Once you get out of their view, you must wait for roughly a minute or two before the manhunt is finally called off. During this entire time, cops will still be searching for the player character and often appear instantaneously on the map right in front of the player, and often you can't turn around to go the other way because other cops will be behind you, which leaves you stuck in a dead end and forced be caught and repeat the process all over again. This can often unintentionally extend some missions by 10-20 minutes and prevent you from getting gold in missions with time limit objectives.
    • And speaking of cops, it's really irritating how easily the cops can be sent after you. You can't even punch one pedestrian without another nearby calling the police on you, all because nearly every NPC has a cellphone. Even if there isn't another pedestrian or police officer in sight, there's still an insanely high chance that you'll get a star on your wanted level. Contrast with earlier games, where you could kill half a dozen pedestrians with a melee weapon and the cops would be none the wiser.
  • In GTA IV, enemy NPCs and cops who are downed (read: not killed by a headshot) will often do nothing but moan in pain with some getting up and attempting to limp to safety. In GTA V and GTA Online, a cop or enemy NPC who's down will moan in pain for a brief moment, then sit up to try to shoot to kill you with a pistol in a last stand mag dump as they bleed out.
  • One of the features in GTA Online is the ability to set bounties on other players for a minimal fee. Whoever kills the target gets $1000-$9000 for themselves. Doesn't sound like a bad idea... until you realize that random NPCs in the game world can set bounties on you without warning if you do so much as steal a car or accidentally front-end someone during a police chase. Have fun trying to deliver that high-value Import/Export vehicle to Simeon in perfect condition while being shot at by every player you see! Oh, and bounties don't go away when joining a new session, either, so you're never safe. And oh, don't bother logging out to wait it out- the counter actually pauses and only counts when you're logged in. On the flipside, seeing out the bounty will award you with the price that was on your head, and due to subsequent inflation many in the community now won't even bother going after you as the money gained is deemed not worth it, so you're probably fine.
  • Catch-up. This feature in GTA Online's Race mode was implemented to artificially ensure that all races are neck-and-neck and exciting by slowing down whoever is in first place. This makes being in first place possibly the worst position until the end of a race. While it can be turned off, rarely do players do that.
  • While we're at it, slipstream is arguably just as bad. This feature causes vehicles driving in the wake of those in front of them to gain an insane amount of speed- making for easy last-second passes for the win. It also makes it much easier for Trolls to come from behind and wreck you. note 
  • The ATM system. When detailed in previews, players were presented with the ever present fear of being robbed of their hard earned income, and to rush to ATM's to deposit this cash, while facing the risk of catching two to the back of the head, leaving a constant vulnerable state. This mechanic was quickly proven to be pointless, as players were able to deposit their cash straight from their cell phones, which nullifies the risk of being robbed since the general player immediately deposits after any mission/activity. Moreover, very few transactions require money on hand, so it's smarter for players to keep their funds in the bank at all times.
  • Passive mode was promised as a means for players to safely explore and interact within GTA Online without the fear of endlessly being killed, at the cost of being unable to shoot at players and NPCs so long as they are in this mode. While a safe idea, in practice the mode is easily circumvented as players within this mode are still vulnerable, removing only ONE form of possible death. Players within vehicles are still able to be shot to death by players, or become the target of hostile NPCs, while players that are on foot can be instead killed by automobiles or environment manipulations. Rockstar eventually rectified this by forcing non-passive players who somehow kill a passive player to pay for their kill's medical fees, much like how players who destroy an insured personal vehicle must pay for the damages. Likewise, passive players who somehow kill another player will also be forced to pay.
    • This was finally fixed entirely in the 8th-gen version. Passive Mode is now basically ghost mode where non-passive players can't touch people in passive mode and vice versa, which is basically what people wanted from day one. Although it still gets complaints since griefers can abuse it (usually jet griefers who crash) and leave the victim unable to retaliate.
  • The unarmed combat system is glitchy as all hell. In single player mode it's just annoying - it's way too easy to let your character get beaten to death by a frail old woman (for example) and your character won't always get a weapon out if you try to select it mid-fight to scare off your opponent. However, at least there, NPCs follow a fairly predictable pattern that can quickly be learned and countered. In online mode, against live opponents, it's purely based on luck. The targeting is faulty, the relationship between when an attack connects and when its animation connects is non-existent, and it's horribly unresponsive, with your character often refusing to attack for no apparent reason. There's also no ability to control what sort of attack your character makes, so you'll often go for a powerful haymaker when you want to jab, leaving yourself open, or a short attack when you want reach. It works marginally better with melee weapons, but not much. Never the less, unarmed and melee weapon only death matches are extremely popular, as they don't involve any costs as regards to ammo.
    • Sometimes, getting a weapon out doesn't help that often, because your character seems to think it's smarter to kick their enemy instead of using the bludgeoning/stabbing instrument in their hand.
  • The heists in Online. What issues are there? Well:
    • The Unexpected Gameplay Change of what is essentially a PvE MMO become a cooperative one - if you don't have any friends then good freaking luck because the missions require skills that surprise, surprise, not many randoms will have because they bought the game to shoot people indiscriminately, not to carefully plan and sneak their way into buildings.
    • The requirement of four players for all parts of the heist; many of the setups (including some that fall under That One Sidequest) are easily doable with less than four players, notably in "The Humane Labs Raid" where one setup involves you literally playing Backseat Driver.
    • Again,the requirement of all of your crew members alive in order to complete a mission. To compound this, you only have one life to share between you. And if one of your team members drops out at ANY point, it's an instant game over regardless of how far along you are in the job.
  • Minor example, but the Player Character fires a sniper rifle roughly half a second after you press the trigger. It's fine if your target is standing still or moving towards/away from you, but it falls into this trope if your target is moving across your field of view, as it forces you to aim at the right place and press the trigger at the right time, lest your shot miss.
    • This example is also why killing helicopter pilots is hard. If you try to do this, one of four things can happen: 1) You shoot, but the bullet bounces off the frame of the helicopter. 2) You shoot, but the bullet misses the pilot entirely. 3) You shoot and the bullet hits him, but does not kill him, so he requires at least one more shot to take down. 4) You shoot and the bullet hits him and kills him. This one is the least likely to happen. Of course, if #4 happens, be ready to run, or you could get killed by the crashing helicopter, thus rendering your efforts useless.
  • Body Armor in Online is very fragile, with even Super Heavy armor being torn apart alarmingly easily. While this is supposedly remedied by players being able to carry multiple vests, the fact that one would absolutely have to retreat into a place they couldn't be shot can disrupt the flow of firefights, and some people tend to panic and forget about their reserve armor. Oh, and ALL enemy NPCs seem to have invisible full-body suits much better than you could ever get, putting some missions into Fake Difficulty.
  • The insurance mechanic is getting some flak with the advent of the Armored Kuruma, a car with armor plating that even covers most of the windows, and the Insurgent, an LAPV that's among the most durable thing a player can drive. The only consistent way to destroy these things (and kill the driver inside, in the case of the Armored Kuruma) are explosives, which force the destroyer to pay for the insurance of the destroyed vehicle. It doesn't matter what the driver did to you, it doesn't matter if they're mentally unstable, it doesn't even matter if they're being pursued by the police (in which case the car would've gotten impounded anyway), if you destroy their car, you're the asshole who deserves to be punished. Many argue that this makes griefers who own the vehicles ultimately victorious through a cruel Morton's Fork; shooting them is ineffective, and blowing them up drains the destroyer's wallet dry. Oh, and the Gunrunning update allows you to completely modify the car, which not only allows for upgraded armory, but replace the .50 cal gun turret with that of a minigun. Have fun surviving a session with one of them in it and being fleeced off your money if you aren't careful enough.
    • Making this somewhat worse, there has been hacks that completely bypass the defence of these vehicles and just aimbot the players inside. If you're being targeted by griefers using these hacks and try to hide in your own Kuruma, you're not going to be successful.
    • Thankfully it appears that Rockstar have addressed this issue and allowed players being killed countless number of times by another to ghost them for a brief time.
  • The mere fact that you can be directly harmed by bullets while in a car (as apposed to the car taking all the damage for you) can lead to some extremely cheap deaths. The enhanced version of the game alleviates this by adding the ability to duck while inside a vehicle, but it is still possible to be hit.
  • Health does regenerate up to 50% by itself. However, it only regenerates once you've been standing still for a few seconds, which under most circumstances is only if you're in cover or in a vehicle. Given that there are some cases in missions where there are wide open areas with neither cover nor vehicles means you may have to rely on snacks, which has an animation (bypassed in cover and vehicles), but, for some bizarre reason, your character has a tendency to only take one bite and throw the rest of the perfectly good snack away, and even if you get past that, it takes some time to get the maximum health gain from them.
  • Characters driving motorcycles or ATVs have a tendency of flying off the vehicle when they collide with something. While this makes sense in some situations for reality's sake, it gets grating when you collide with a small rock at 15 mph and get ejected.
  • Team Lives in online missions, especially heists, has made doing a lot of online content exercises in frustration: all it takes is one bad player to completely ruin a mission. This is doubly true for missions with Checkpoint Starvation, such as the Prison Break heist finale described below in That One Level.
  • First Person Mode on the 8th-gen consoles and PC. At first it seems like an amazing addition and gives a new feeling of immersion to the world, but compared to comparable titles with first-person modes, it falls a bit short:
    • The animations for first-person are sloppy and stiff; hold a pistol while idle and look at your character's shadow, the model is stiff and awkward looking and doesn't move naturally. Rockstar made it so the equipped weapon is held in front of you in first person at eye level, which looks weird and blocks half the view. In addition, while in third person your character will look straight ahead and be in a normal stance, for some strange reason in first-person they turn their body to the right, while still looking straight ahead.
    • Aiming in cars is almost impossible since there's no situational awareness and the controls require multiple buttons to be pressed. Oftentimes trying to aim in such a situation will result in a crash and wasted ammo.
    • Using iron sights doesn't feel natural; the aim assist means it will "snap" to a target instantly, and the aim-down sight happens instantly which can be jarring when compared to other FPSes which do a more natural aim-down sight, and theres no way to switch targets without letting go of the aim and button and pressing it again.
    • Looking around when driving vehicles is frustrating as the view will automatically return back to looking forward the moment the analog stick is released unless you're completely stopped. Flying a helicopter and want to admire the view? Hope you're hovering, otherwise you're going to be fighting the analog stick to hold it in the direction you want to look.
    • This can even apply to when you're not even driving the vehicle such as taking a taxi ride or even riding as a passenger in another player's car. Thankfully, this can be entirely disabled in the options menu note , allowing you to (as mentioned) enjoy the views on your various vehicle rides.
  • Further Adventures in Finance and Felony finally brought about an anti-cheat system for Online. Hurray, right? Except it happens to ban anyone who uses any program that hooks, leaving many players clueless as to why they were just banned.
  • The fact that you cannot insure bicycles. The highest end ones can cost as much as $10000, which is still a lot to lower ranking players. Made worse by a game-breaking bug that prevents a space on the bike rack from being reused if the bike got destroyed and you have a medium-sized garage in earlier versions of the game.
  • The inability to start a invite-only or solo session of Online from the main menu is another one for some players. At the moment, it is only possible to start solo or invite-only sessions by first starting story mode and then selecting to go online from there. Some player argues that this isn't a big deal since the game will load online faster once it gets into story mode, but there are players who don't want to jump through the menu hoops and just want to start a private or solo session from the get-go.
  • The favorite bike mechanic introduced in Bikers update. The game designates the bike you ride the most to be your favorite, boosting health regeneration and damage whenever you're on it...in theory. In reality, the game has an uncanny tendency to set your favorite to the most Awesome, but Impractical bike you have in your garage, which you probably hardly ride. Good luck getting the stat to change to the bike you actually ride the most. You can ride it until the cows come home and the stat still won't budge.
  • Vehicles in the biker delivery missions will wind up destroyed if they happen to become stuck- even if said vehicle is stuck on something as small as a rock in the middle of the desert. The vehicles are considered destroyed when stuck as long as you're in it, but if you get out, it won't count, which will give you time to get another vehicle to ram the mission vehicle out of its stuck position.
  • Warehouse, business, and bunker raids. They tend to happen randomly at inopportune times and force you to drop everything you're doing and defend your business. For the warehouse raids, even if you are Johnny on the spot, you still lose some of your stock. For the bunker and biker raids, failure results in the complete loss of all supplies and product as well as forces players to then complete another setup mission for said raided business.
  • The respawn system in Online is the source of a lot of grumbling, even if it's not hated so much as just disliked. When you kill someone in Online it's not uncommon for them to spawn less than a block away, having lost only $500. If you're trying to defend a slow-moving shipment this means they can immediately engage you again, which can turn two or three pursuing players into an unending Zerg Rush as you kill them and they respawn over and over again. It's also a system that makes spawn-camping extremely easy unless the victim goes into passive mode, which they can't do if registered as a CEO or MC president. It's not unheard of for a player to get sniped, respawn, then get sniped again the instant they reappear because the player who just killed them only has to turn to get line of sight again.
  • Forced public lobbies. To access a lot of the more profitable content in Online or even just manage your CEO/MC/Bunker businesses you must be in a public lobby. Attempting these missions will alert the entire lobby to your presence, mark you on the map so they can chase you down, and encourage them to kill you. This is in addition to whatever NPCs, time limits, or other obstacles the mission itself throws at you. This has become increasingly hated as updates have added more and more ways to rapidly destroy vehicles with little to no warning, making it nearly impossible to defend the often slow-moving delivery vehicle regardless of how large your group is and leading to accusations that R* is relying on the community's numerous trolls and griefers to give their missions challenge instead of designing actual good missions. There's a reason that methods to get a 'solo public lobby' are the most commonly-used glitches in the entire game. This was mitigated with a later update that allowed players to manage their businesses and sell in non-public lobbies, with the public lobbies being more profitable.
  • "Gunrunning" added the research system for unlocking vehicle and weapon upgrades at the bunker. This may be the most widely-despised system to ever be added to Online. You have absolutely no control over which of the 51 different projects gets researched, making it a complete crapshoot as to whether or not you get the one you want. Regardless of which project you are assigned, you cannot start another until that one is complete, which takes either several hours (which you must be online for) or an appropriately obscene amount of money. On top of this, researching uses up supplies, which must be regularly restocked, and while you can research and manufacture at the same time it's the slowest and least-efficient option. Add to this the fact that many of these research options are weapon and vehicle skins or liveries, and you can potentially be assigned research for upgrades for vehicles you don't own before getting the ones for vehicles you do, and a lot of players are left frustrated.
  • Also added with "Gunrunning" were weaponized personal vehicles. Destroying a personal vehicle earns a player 'Bad Sport' points and forces them to pay for the insurance of the destroyed vehicle. Armed personal vehicles mean that it's possible for someone to attack a victim with one and either kill the victim or force the victim to destroy the vehicle, costing the victim money and potentially marking them as a 'bad sport' by the game for the Crime of Self-Defense.
  • Flying through your car's windshield if you get into a head on collision is annoying since it's usually instant death. Said collisions are usually unavoidable when you're in a wild chase from the police. Likewise, if you drive off a cliff or hillside and land on the engine side of the car, the car explodes and kills you. Both mechanics do not appear in the online mode at all, which makes the single player feel more difficult than it needs to be.
  • The car chase and counter mechanics. It's subtle if you don't know about them, but once you do, you can't un-see it. When the player's driving around at high speeds, the game automatically causes nearby traffic to try to turn into your path to force the player to evade. Adds to the hectic chases when you're just going around, absolutely frustrating and unpredictable if you're on a mission, and in many cases it becomes extremely obvious when a nearby semi-truck inexplicably jerks to the side as if trying to road rage you, or a vehicle in the opposite lane suddenly veers into yours as if gunning for you. It's to the point that trying to complete a drive for as long as possible without crashing can result in other drivers trying to crash-snipe you straight off the road, even disobeying the laws of physics to do so.
  • The stealth mechanics in the game are universally despised for being extremely unforgiving, especially when it comes to heists. If you don't kill the person you shot with a perfect headshot, the entire security swarms you with no way of hiding and regaining stealth. Even worst, if you die after blowing cover, you only restart from the last checkpoint with all enemies alerted, forcing you to quit and redo the entire mission again.

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