GTA V Map...Soooooo, is this really all there is?

[RJ 17]

Got the game, loving it, still don't see why Greg didn't like the characters since they seem to be "Standard GTA Characters with Standard GTA Motivations" if you ask me, but meh, I don't begrudge the guy for having an opinion that he admits has changed from 12 years ago when he first got into GTA. And besides, that's not why I'm making this topic, just wanted to get the formalities out of the way.

Anywho, what's the deal with the map? I know it's been advertised as being the biggest map in any Rockstar game ever but......it just really doesn't seem like that to me. The big city seems tiny compared to Liberty City. Hell, I'd say it's on par with Vice City, actually. I admit there is a LOT of contryside out there but....that's all just wide open/blank space. I'm about half way through the game right now (on the mission where I have to pull a heist to get funding for an FIB mission that requires a 2 million dollar helicopter) and I find myself asking "....is this really all there's going to be to the map? One city, a number of small towns, and a metric shit-ton of wide open countryside?

Where's the Las Vegas and San Francisco parody from San Andres? Do they get unlocked later at the very end of the game or is this REALLY all that this game has to offer?

Even if it is, I still like the game, but I'd find it to be pretty disappointing. Like I said, they advertised it as being the biggest map in any Rockstar game but it just really doesn't feel that way seeing as how you can get from the city to the countryside with a 5 minute drive north or south on the highway.

So I'm asking: is there more to this game than just Los Santos and Buchanan County? Or is that really all we've got to play with? For the sake of discussion (in case simply answering my question isn't enough), what are your thoughts on the size of the map? Does it really feel to you like this is "THE BIGGEST GTA EVAR!!!"? As I've said, it seems pretty damn small - relatively speaking - if you ask me.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

San Andreas still exists, and still holds that honor for biggest map.

 

[TheScottishMexican42]

San Andreas still exists, and still holds that honor for biggest map.

I'm pretty sure GTAV has the biggest map.

 

[RJ 17]

San Andreas still exists, and still holds that honor for biggest map.

San Andreas still exists, and still holds that honor for biggest map.

I'm pretty sure GTAV has the biggest map.

I think ScottishMexican is correct. In terms of "square mileage", for lack of a better term, I think this is supposed to be the biggest map they've ever made...I'm just saying that the vast majority of it seems to be a whole lot of nothing.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

San Andreas still exists, and still holds that honor for biggest map.

I'm pretty sure GTAV has the biggest map.

Even if it is, it sure doesn't feel like the biggest map. The suburbs of San Andreas and the huge countryside make it feel larger.

 

[RJ 17]

San Andreas still exists, and still holds that honor for biggest map.

I'm pretty sure GTAV has the biggest map.

Even if it is, it sure doesn't feel like the biggest map. The suburbs of San Andreas and the huge countryside make it feel larger.

And that's what I'm getting at: GTA V might technically have more area, but without the San Francisco parody and the Las Vegas parody it almost seems like the smallest GTA map. That's why I was asking if this is really all there is to it.

 

[Genocidicles]

I think ScottishMexican is correct. In terms of "square mileage", for lack of a better term, I think this is supposed to be the biggest map they've ever made...I'm just saying that the vast majority of it seems to be a whole lot of nothing.

Yep. GTA V's map is bigger than San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption's maps put together.

http://www.gamesradar.com/grand-theft-auto-v-larger-gta-iv-san-andreas-red-dead-redemption-together/

 

[GundamSentinel]

As others have said, this is indeed the biggest map in any Rockstar game by quite a bit. Still, I'll agree it feels a bit empty without any other large cities, or even a sizable town.

I've not felt Los Santos itself was small, but a large part of it is boring, difficult to access industrial area (I rarely go to east or south Los Santos). The countryside is a lot richer than San Andreas' was, though a lot of the things that fill it are never used in any missions (at least not during the main story, haven't done all the side stuff yet).

It's a good map to explore and find stuff on your own, and it's very beautiful and varied, but it could do with another large built-up area.

 

[omega 616]

Yeah, the actual map is large (no means huge) but like 90% of it is just blank hills.

Just as I thought when the map was leaked/released. 95% of the game takes place in 10% of the map... The only notable mission outside the main city, is a bank heist in buttfuck nowhere.

I wish they would have put another equally large city in the north 'cos it's one thing to have a large map, it's another to have an engaging/interesting large map.

 

[RJ 17]

Yeah, the actual map is large (no means huge) but like 90% of it is just blank hills.

Just as I thought when the map was leaked/released. 95% of the game takes place in 10% of the map... The only notable mission outside the main city, is a bank heist in buttfuck nowhere.

I wish they would have put another equally large city in the north 'cos it's one thing to have a large map, it's another to have an engaging/interesting large map.

And that has turned into what my biggest gripe about the game is. You put it perfectly when you said that 95% of the game takes place on 10% of the map. The rest is absolutely nothing but rolling hills, mountains, and desert. Gotta say I was REALLY surprised to find - through the answers in this topic and through some digging online of my own - that indeed there are no other cities besides Los Santos. When I heard that this game was taking place in Los Santos I fully expected them to take the San Andres map and blow it up even bigger, giving us all 3 of the major cities that were featured in that game.

But no, we've got an ocean floor, a city, and a LOT of empty countryside. Really is disappointing.

 

[ThriKreen]

Yeap, fun fact is, Saints Row, Minecraft, any UE3 based game, Oblivion, Skyrim - all those other games and their game engines can also make areas on par or larger than GTAV's. Heck, I've been mucking with Unity3D and I can pull off designing a similar world.

Any decent streaming game engine can do it, but then you have to factor in game design. Why do that when a vast majority of it ends up being empty and barren? You have the problem of getting enough meaningful content to fill it all up, as well as testing it out and such.

I have to chuckle whenever I hear people criticize SR3+4 over why was Steelport made SMALLER than Stilwater (dev hint: it was on purpose too), while boasting that GTA's has larger maps. Then the inevitable letdown and complaints over how GTA's large map for the sake of large is so empty.

Sure you can fly a plane. But fly to where?

 

[fix-the-spade]

Sure you can fly a plane. But fly to where?

DLC, it's coming, you'll see.

I have to admit it's disappointing how little stuff happen out side the city compared to San Andreas. It's too huge a map not to use, so I'm think GTA: Online and whatever expansions are planned will make heavy use of it.

 

[Racecarlock]

I have movies, base jumping, planes, cable cars, and large mountains in the same game. I really like it.

 

[karloss01]

Yeah, the actual map is large (no means huge) but like 90% of it is just blank hills.

Just as I thought when the map was leaked/released. 95% of the game takes place in 10% of the map... The only notable mission outside the main city, is a bank heist in buttfuck nowhere.

I wish they would have put another equally large city in the north 'cos it's one thing to have a large map, it's another to have an engaging/interesting large map.

And that has turned into what my biggest gripe about the game is. You put it perfectly when you said that 95% of the game takes place on 10% of the map. The rest is absolutely nothing but rolling hills, mountains, and desert. Gotta say I was REALLY surprised to find - through the answers in this topic and through some digging online of my own - that indeed there are no other cities besides Los Santos. When I heard that this game was taking place in Los Santos I fully expected them to take the San Andres map and blow it up even bigger, giving us all 3 of the major cities that were featured in that game.

But no, we've got an ocean floor, a city, and a LOT of empty countryside. Really is disappointing.

You've both opened my eyes, I'll wait till its cheap if they didn't bother doing the whole of San Andreas.

 

[GiantRaven]

I think ScottishMexican is correct. In terms of "square mileage", for lack of a better term, I think this is supposed to be the biggest map they've ever made...I'm just saying that the vast majority of it seems to be a whole lot of nothing.

Yep. GTA V's map is bigger than San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption's maps put together.

http://www.gamesradar.com/grand-theft-auto-v-larger-gta-iv-san-andreas-red-dead-redemption-together/

I don't know about that. GTA V's Los Santos doesn't look as big as all three San Andreas cities put together? Nor does the countryside appear anywhere near as big. There were way more small towns in SA as well. I think that's a big fat stonking lie to be honest.

Also, V's GPS clocks Los Santos as being about 2 miles wide at it's mid point, which isn't really that big considering it's supposed to be a massive city.

These aren't complaints though. A map as big as they say would get dull fast. Imagine having a 15/20 minute drive to get to Sandy Shores. It would be awful.

 

[Murderiser]

Personally, I think everyone's forgetting how tiny San Andreas's cities really were. Seriously, they were titchy! I swear that Los Santos and San Fierro were only a few streets wide. Having driven a lot in GTA5, I'm fairly certain that R*'s claims of it being larger than RDR's and SA's maps put together ring true- bear in mind that on RDR you only had horses so you couldn't travel faster than 20/30 MpH, making it appear larger than it actually was.

 

[GiantRaven]

Personally, I think everyone's forgetting how tiny San Andreas's cities really were. Seriously, they were titchy! I swear that Los Santos and San Fierro were only a few streets wide. Having driven a lot in GTA5, I'm fairly certain that R*'s claims of it being larger than RDR's and SA's maps put together ring true- bear in mind that on RDR you only had horses so you couldn't travel faster than 20/30 MpH, making it appear larger than it actually was.

I guess the real way of checking would be to walk across the entire map and see how long it takes.

San Fierro was pretty narrow but Los Santos was pretty bulky (as was Las Venturas). They weren't tiny by any stretch of the imagination, especially not to the degree of V's Los Santos being bigger than all three.

I hope there's someone out there doing some proper investigating around this. It would be interesting to see it worked out accurately.

 

[Kanova]

Jesus Christ, the OP is arguing that it is a SMALL map, he is saying it feels empty. There is a goddamn difference but some people can't seem to grasp that.

And yes, when I first saw the map before the game came out, it was a big map, but most of it was just country side. I think city is a lot more interesting than country. Sure, some here some there is fine. But just one city and a few towns and the rest country...It seems they really just wanted to claim "Biggest Dick Map" so they just made a whole bunch of country and put useless stuff in it.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Honestly, the reason I stopped playing San Andreas was because the map was too freaking big and full of stuff. I couldn't stand to play it when I went on a mission to drive a semi somewhere in a certain amount of time and ended up failing and having to drive ALLLLLLLL the way back to the mission point to try again, which was halfway across the map.

Vice City's map is still my favorite, it has enough stuff to be interesting but isn't so big that it becomes a chore to get anywhere if you're in a hurry.

 

[shootthebandit]

I think its about right. As everyone has said so far if it was any bigger then travelling would get boring fast. I think theres so much going on and if you just want to drive around, the countryside is fantastic

I think the fact that we could go anywhere from day 1 doesnt help. Its bound to feel bigger when you physically cant get to 2 thirds of it