I already did all this back in 2017. Played the story and online on PC with friends. We grinded through everything that was out during those 2017-2018 updates. Then I got my PS5 Pro in January and picked this up on a whim a few months later thinking I could transfer my PC character over.
Nope. No cross progression. Had to start completely fresh.
But they have this quick start option now where they give you some starter money and let you pick a business to kick things off. So I wasn’t totally broke this time. Thought I’d just mess around for a bit but ended up getting completely re-addicted. 197 hours later and here we are.
The core loop is still the same. Run heists with whoever you can find. Build up your criminal empire through nightclubs and bunkers and warehouses. Watch the passive income roll in while you’re doing other stuff. Free roam is still chaos. One minute you’re helping someone with a delivery and the next some kid on an Oppressor MK2 is blowing you up for no reason.
Starting over wasn’t as painful as I thought it would be. That quick start money helps you skip the worst part where you’re grinding contact missions for scraps. Once you get a couple businesses running the money starts flowing again. Then you’re back to buying stupid expensive cars and properties because what else are you gonna do with it?
Since I was playing solo this time I stuck to invite only lobbies. No dealing with randoms. No Oppressor griefers. Just me running my businesses in peace. Didn’t touch heists since you need a decent crew for those and I wasn’t about to deal with matchmaking.
The PS5 version loads so much faster than I remember on PC. No more sitting there for five minutes waiting to get into a session. Looks better too and runs smooth even when the lobby gets crazy with 30 people all doing their own thing.
It’s that same addictive time sink it always was. You log on to do one thing and suddenly it’s 2am and you’re telling yourself just one more business sale. Then one more car upgrade. The whole game is designed to make you want to skip the grind and buy Shark Cards. Everything costs millions and the payouts are designed to frustrate you into spending real money. I didn’t pay for any of that but you can feel how predatory the whole economy is.
Even though I’d already done most of this content years ago I still burned through almost 200 hours. Los Santos just pulls you back in. The grind gets repetitive but something about building up that empire again from nothing was weirdly satisfying. Plus they’ve added so much since 2018 that there was plenty of new stuff to check out.
197 hours later and I’m done with it again. Great game underneath all the grind and microtransaction garbage. Just wish Rockstar wasn’t so aggressive about pushing those Shark Cards on you.