This game is a massive achievement, but Rockstar has got to figure out where the series is going in terms of character durability, health systems, and combat in general. In my opinion, what they use in V simply does not fit the design of combat, nor the situations you find yourself in frequently.
Your health bar, for example, only regenerates to 50% and you need food or a health pack to get it back up to 100, neither of which are marked in any way through the HUD or map. Combine that with a super punishing physics system, at times extremely precise enemies, one hit kills from animals and explosions, and lack of damage feedback barring some superficial bullet holes.... They're still wrestling with where to draw the line between "more realistic" vs "gamey" and I don't think they found the balance. You take damage from EVERY bump, police and enemies are quick to raise arms, you can die from relatively short drops, you can die from being flung through the windshield, you can die from being hit by traffic ; these characters are ridiculously fragile for the kinds of situations you find yourself in all the time in GTAV, and I have to wonder what Rockstar was thinking.
Combat, too, doesn't feel designed for this kind of health system. You're bombarded by enemies from all angles in missions after Trevor enters the picture, and along with the still awkward combat mechanics, it's impossible to ever feel comfortable in combat. You WILL be hit, you WILL struggle with cover, you might trip for no reason, you might be caught unaware and killed before you can even draw you weapon, you WILL die questioning where the shot came from, etc. etc. This is probably why they still rely on hard lock solutions to make it easier instead of properly balancing enemy numbers, sight lines, or changing the health system. Wearing armor barely matters because before you know it, a few crashes and tumbles later, you've wasted the whole thing before being shot at.
It's no surprise that RDR, which did away with this health meter, was much more manageable and freeing in its open world, while MP3 was properly balanced as a pure linear shooter and worked better with a health meter. GTAV is sitting awkwardly in the middle with a TON more going on all around the player that the game asks you to do or that can happen randomly, all of which can kill you, and it doesn't mesh. The game's not difficult, it's just punishing for no reason.
For as much as GTAV excels in world building, tons of unique animations, and tons of unique situations for even the smallest of missions, I can't help but feel like Rockstar (North, at least) is still behind the curve in playability and combat design. Some of these decisions man, IDK.
