Skipping Through GTA V

My enjoyment of GTA IV was often hampered by its lousy checkpoint system. If you've ever played it you know that you have to complete an entire mission to reach a checkpoint. If you fail halfway through, or somewhere near the end, you are taken back not to the start of the mission, but to the person who gave you the mission. This gave me so much grief that I just ended up using a cheat that gave me all weapons, full ammo, full armour, and full health. After that, the game was a breeze. I played through it, and actually managed to reach the end. With GTA V, Rockstar has made a couple of improvements, or changes, if you will, that eliminate the need for cheats and make the game fun through and through.





First, there are now mission checkpoints. If, at first, I fail, I am not taken back to the other side of town to accept the mission, gather up my equipment, find a car, and drive all the way to the objective. I actually remain at the objective in the mission; I just continue from where I left off. What a novelty.

Second, and this is, by far, my favourite feature of the game, there is the inclusion of the 'skip' button. If I fail a mission once or twice, the game gives me the option either to exit or to retry. But, if I fail a mission a third time, the game gives me the option to "skip this section". I love that, and I've used it three times already. Suffering multiple deaths or failures at a mission is not my idea of fun. I just want to play the mission and move the game forward. And there's no mystery as to how the missions are going to play out. The character is going to be successful, the story will move forward, and the game will end. Don't talk to me about missing out on character development, plot, and story because nobody plays a GTA game for these. They are weak and minor considerations compared to the fun of exploration, driving, open-world gameplay, and creating chaos.

I also skip through cut scenes. I have very little patience for them because I just want to get back to the game. After all this isn't literature or film, this is Grand Theft Auto.