Maybe the last great game of this console generation. Everything you want from the franchise and more. Believe the hype.
Being that the last x-rated offering came 5 years ago now, this will be the first time many younger gamers have experienced the series first hand but it's fair to assume that the majority will have set foot in one of the fabulous locales in Rockstar's canon at some point in the past and, for those players this will feel like more of the same. More of the same only better.
As in any universe Grand Theft Auto has its rules and its laws of physics and anybody familiar with previous installments in the franchise will be able to pick up and play, feeling at home immediately. That said the early stage "tutorial" missions will ease anybody new into the complex gameplay smoothly and without loss of immersion. Depending on whether you're a newcomer or making a welcome return to Los Santos, GTA V is a game which at turns offers the player startling new possibilities, sensations of the refreshingly familiar and - at moments like hearing series favourite Lazlow's voice on the radio - pangs of genuine nostalgia.
An obviously familiar aspect of GTA V is the story mode. Players will follow the routine procedure of turning up at various marked points on the map to receive missions and carry them out in scenarios of increasing difficulty and oftentimes decreasing realism. The big twist this time around is that the player controls three main characters with the ability to switch between the three. The blurb on the GTA V case promises three very different protagonists and it duly delivers. Franklin, the street wise hood. Michael, the rich, retired crook and Trevor. The psychotic ghost of Michael's troubles past. These, too, feel familiar but are no less compelling as a result. Indeed, the pop-culture character that the psychotic Trevor conjures up memories of is Beetlejuice. Once you accept this it becomes very difficult to stop imagining it during the game.
The ability to alternate between the three main characters throws up some truly exciting prospects and sequences. Switching to Franklin and sniping enemies from a nearby chopper as Michael rappels down a building is really remarkable stuff. While it might be the kind of thing we have seen in video games before we have never seen it in a video game of this type.
The story mode missions themselves are a mixed bag at times. One of the largest criticisms that can be levelled at Grand Theft Auto V is that while it recreates modern day American life more accurately than any of its peers, that also counts for the crushingly mundane aspects. Missions which force you to do yoga and install anti-virus software on a computer hardly scream high octane action and it's no surprise they didn't make the game's trailers. The game's predecessor distracted you from the activities you actually wanted to take part in with all sorts of arbitrary nonsense ("Nico! My cousin!" still sends shivers down the spine even now) and the ability to call other in-game characters and hang out returns, though the necessity to do so in order to forge relationships is happily left at home.
You see, even the critiques are familiar ground for old GTA hands. Another problem which has dogged the franchise is the thematic inconsistencies that the games throw up. It was difficult to relate to Nico Bellick's struggle to find a better life as he mowed down innocent bystanders with gleeful abandon and this game falls into the same trap. Michael and Franklin both appear as sympathetic characters but the illusion is damaged more and more with each shattered corpse that lies in their wake.
Without giving too much away, one particularly jarring scene features some rather gruesome torture which is honestly quite hard to watch - the fact it's your character dishing out the punishment only renders the scene more harrowing. Juxtaposing that searing, intense violence with devil-may-care hit and runs makes for a very uneasy experience. Later, that same character laments the use of torture as pointless and the game raises some very serious issues about the torture of prisoners by the US government. It's impossible for any game to create an atmosphere where that scene can sit happily alongside a moment where the same character fires an RPG into a crowd of hapless civilians.
These niggles are well worth dredging through to get to the heists, however. These are GTA V's big show piece moments and they are some of the most rewarding moments I've ever experienced on a games console. Thrilling action sequences combine with slick Ocean's Eleven-style operations to create some gaming masterpieces. This is where the multiple user character system really comes into its own, with play shifting from man to man as the missions progresses to carry out vital tasks. Escaping through the LS sewer systems on dirt bikes, switching to Michael knocking out pursuing cop cars in a huge truck, was massively satisfying experience that had me smiling at the TV like a brain damaged farm hand.
The player is given a real sense of control over the jobs. Furnished with the ability to choose various crew members, collect equipment for the mission such as vehicles or disguises and choose between alternative methods for actually carrying out the heist, the player feels like part of the planning process rather than someone who has simply been given an in-game task. A big step forward from the routine of a cut-scene to set up the mission and on-screen instructions while the player carries it out.
Still, these aspects are almost secondary to the experience. The important part of GTA has always been what the player can get up to outside of the story. The Insane Stunts, Rampages, easter eggs, the huge manhunts through the countryside with the military and the radio stations. Ah yes the radio stations. All of these things are present and accounted for and it's no exaggeration to say I was sure this game was going to give me exactly what I was looking for, when the first song I found on the radio was C.W McAll's Convoy. Alongside classic tracks from Queen, Dr. Dre and Hollywood star Danny McBride lending his voice to a chat show, this is a soundtrack to rival that of Vice City.
On the subject of going off the track and dicking around, the game is powered by an updated version of the Euphoria engine. The physics when on foot now provide some truly hilarious and spectacular pratfalls. Simply finding tall things to fall off provides endless fun. The downside to the new physics is that car surfing is now a thing of the past with the player simply falling off like the video game version of Buster Keaton.
All of this, of course, takes place in the sprawling confines of San Andreas and it really is a thing to behold. A lovingly accurate recreation of LA and the surrounding area, packed with hilarious satire and a brilliant pastiche of the superficial celebrity culture we've come to know through the media, the city of Los Santos really is something that stands as a monument to what is possible in modern gaming. That we will soon be released into this environment en masse in GTA Online is a mouthwatering prospect.
Grand Theft Auto V may not be perfect but with it Rockstar have once more raised the bar for open world, sandbox gameplay. What little there is here to rub players the wrong way is far outweighed by the compelling characters, Hollywood-style bank jobs, lush visuals and - above all - the unbridled fun which awaits.