For the second time in less than four years, Rockstar has launched a GTA remaster with major, oftentimes ruinous issues. Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced, the developer’s new version of GTA 5 and GTA Online for the PC, currently sits at a Mixed user rating on Steam, with more than 19,000 reviews at time of writing, just 54 percent of which are positive.
Upgrades That Aren’t
Fans have a laundry list of complaints. The remaster promised that players could transfer both Story Mode and GTA Online progress over to the new version, but many players are getting an error message that flags their account as “not eligible for migration at this time”.
GTA 5 Enhanced Edition has been a long time coming on PC, intending to catch up the platform to visual enhancements console players have been enjoying for years now.
Those players are, understandably, unwilling to lose their many hours of progress. Thankfully, the upgrade is free for existing owners, but new players will be spending $15 (soon $30, when the promotional window ends on March 30) for what many consider a worse version of the game.
The remaster also promised faster load times, which doesn’t seem to be the case in many circumstances. It promised upgraded visuals, but after watching a few comparison videos, the only real change I can see is that the lighting seems slightly warmer in the Enhanced edition. Some Steam reviewers are complaining that it actively looks worse, and stuttering also seems to be a widespread complaint. Overall, it isn’t living up to the “Enhanced” in its name, and players are mad.
Grand Theft Auto: The Bad Remaster – The Definitive Edition
If this sounds familiar, it’s because in 2021, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition, which was also universally panned by fans and critics alike. The reworked graphics were roundly criticized, the rain effects made the games difficult to play, the increased draw distances made everything feel smaller, there were major technical issues, while soundtracks were missing songs that for years now have been considered iconic. The addition of mid-mission checkpoints wasn’t enough to make this collection worth the $60 price of admission.
Granted, this package has been improved over time, with patches that fixed tons of bugs and oversights, improved the trilogy’s stability, and added a toggle for Classic Lighting.
But a first impression is a first impression, and for the many players who stopped paying attention soon after release, the disastrous launches are what these remasters will be remembered for.
In between these two trainwrecks, Rockstar did manage to successfully launch Red Dead Redemption on PC, but that was a straightforward port of the Game of the Year edition. It cost near-full price at $50, but, hey, at least it worked.
All Hands On Deck
So are these bad remasters indicative of broader problems at Rockstar? Should fans be worried about GTA 6 not living up to the company’s usual standards? Will it launch with similar issues? I don’t think so. In fact, it may actually indicate the opposite.
The Trilogy was developed by an external company called Grove Street Games who, before this project, was primarily known for porting Rockstar games to iOS and Android. Those mobile versions were fine, but perhaps this more thorough remastering of its beloved PS2 games was something Rockstar should have received more care and attention. Except Enhanced is solely credited to Rockstar North, and has similar issues.
So, what gives? Well, these projects are attempting to fill the same gap as Naughty Dog’s remakes and remasters, bringing in additional revenue during the long wait between new flagship releases. But Naughty Dog seems to be giving those teams the resources they need, while making games that can go wrong in fewer ways.
Naughty Dog is developing linear games for a single family of consoles, while Rockstar’s GTA games are systems-heavy open-world games launching on PC, which brings in many more variables as every player’s set-up is slightly different. These can’t be quick projects with small teams because there are too many potential problems that can crop up.
Rockstar makes gigantic games that, despite their size, feel authored. It makes systemic open-world games that somehow launch without the jank we expect from big, mechanics-heavy titles. But it’s becoming clear that its remasters don’t get the same care.
Rockstar’s new releases are all-hands-on-deck projects that require the work of every team inside the sprawling studio. They can’t replicate their success launching games that are big and polished without devoting a large number of developers. GTA 5 Enhanced is the latest evidence that it seems Rockstar isn’t willing to do that. I doubt GTA 6 will have similar problems. It’s getting the lion’s share of Rockstar’s attention, and the success of GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 have allowed it to take a great deal of time getting it right. But if you’re among the developer’s legion of fans, it isn’t encouraging to see releases that should be receiving more care seemingly slipping through the cracks.
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