The Grand Theft Auto series (if the $1 billion profit in just three days is anything to go by) is perhaps the biggest and most popular video game franchise of all time. With each new release from one generation to the next, Rockstar has consistently outdone itself. Grand Theft Auto 5 returns the series to the west coast rendition of Los Angeles and it is, by all accounts the best game ever put out by the company.
The city in question, Los Santos in the present day, plays host to not one but three tales of Michael, Franklin and Trevor; very different men who come together to solve each other’s problems in the crime business and ultimately pull off a collection of high risk, high reward heists that could set them up for life. Michael is a retired bank robber who has in a sense, reached the American Dream, owning a top-of-the-line property and having started a family; but Michael doesn’t feel like he reached anything, with his family hating him and his trips to therapy resulting in little success. Young street-hustler Franklin is on the other side of the coin, starting off in a similar position to CJ from 2005’s GTA San Andreas on Grove Street; he seeks to make a luxury life for himself and in a chance meeting, finds himself taken in by Michael. Then there’s Trevor; a “friend” from Michael’s past who eventually hears word of the former’s exploits and comes looking for a piece of the action. Trevor is a complete nutcase, endlessly engaging in felonies of the worst kind; he’s such a loathsome piece of work yet ironically he’s the embodiment of the players who just want to go on an all-out rampage against the law at every opportunity. The plot proceeds just like any GTA would, with the characters crossing paths with a range of colourful characters and the criminal schemes gradually escalating into full-blown capers along the way. Grand Theft Auto 5’s story is much more light-hearted than its predecessor, piling on the satire and controversy in greater amounts. Rather than placing a primary focus on one man’s claim to the American Dream, the game tackles some heavy topics in an attempt to push the boundaries of what is accepted in the medium. Some of this will no doubt offend some including mistreatment of women, economic crisis, corruption in government and the use of torture. The latter is personified in a very graphic mission featuring Trevor which was quite uncomfortable to play through. The light-hearted tone also gives way to more humour, culminating in an entertaining story which will definitely satisfy those who just want to play and forget about the thread tying it together. But if you compare it with GTA 4, it’s definitely a step back from one of the best stories in the medium; the trio’s hunt for wealth isn’t memorable as Niko’s quest for revenge and the three characters aren’t really as likeable because of their confined archetypes and reduced realism.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is simply the biggest open world game ever created; the state of Los Santos is bigger than Grand Theft 4’s Liberty City, and Red Dead Redemption’s valley put together and at every turn the landscape is like a giant piñata just bursting with things to do. 69 story missions comprise the game’s story but completing all of these only amounts to around fifty percent of the experience. GTA 5’s three playable characters are let loose in the entirety of Los Santos from the get-go to take on missions, search for items and participate in far too many side activities to count. Each of the character has their own money balance, wardrobe, property, vehicles and weapons, meaning that you’ll have to raise funds and buy items for each character separately. With the realism of Grand Theft Auto 4 gone, the customisation elements from past games have made a welcome return; guns (which range from pistols to a massive mini-gun) can be customised with sights, scopes, colours and other attachments. Likewise cars can be fitted with engines for increased speed, tyres for better handling and even armour for brushes with the law. Planes and the Rhino Tank are also back along with a submarine, allowing players to freely venture beneath the waves for the first time. The characters also have their own special abilities; Michael can slow down time to rack up headshots, Franklin can slow down time whilst in a vehicle to make turns silky smooth and Trevor can fly into rage mode where he takes less damage and dishes out more to enemies. The special abilities are just one of many aspects that feed into the returning RPG elements. The more shooting, sneaking, driving, athletics and flying the characters do, the better they will get at each skill; this goes hand-in-hand with the side activities which offer endless opportunities to boost skills. Michael can take part in tennis or triathlons to boost his stamina, Franklin might go to the shooting ranges and flying schools to raise shooting and flying or Trevor could go around getting into random fist fights to prop up his strength.
All of these additions really add to the game’s depth which is complimented by the improvements to gameplay and that’s before we get to the missions themselves, which are by far the best they’ve ever been in the series. Each character gets their moments of glory with Trevor’s mid-flight assault and hijack of a cargo jet, Michael chasing a target across airport runways and many more will leave a brilliant impression over the course of the game. But the heists are where the game really pushes the open world game over the top; building on the success of GTA 4’s Bank of Liberty Robbery, the heists are multi-staged missions which involve choosing a method and crew, making preparations and then executing with all three characters working together. Depending on the crew and approach you select, the heist may not go according to plan but at the same time you also have to consider how much of the money each crew member will take home. It’s a new highly unpredictable kind of mission design which offers full replayability, along with every other mission thanks to the mission replay option in the pause menu. Each major mission and side mission has a bronze, silver and gold rank which will continue to bring players back for months to come.
If that isn’t enough then the fully fledged multiplayer mode, GTA Online will more than suffice. Rockstar has really gone all-out to improve the online aspects of its crime simulator. You start by creating your own character with some extensive options (who is also selectable from the single-player mode), and choose their lifestyle, which will determine your starting skills and from there you can jump straight into either standard matches, or just free roam around the Los Santos with 15 other players, ranking up as you go and raising money to buy properties that cannot be found in the main game. While this is a bit of a disappointing number, considering the size of the map, this is redeemed by the new mission editor. From the multiplayer menu, players can enter any part of the map and conjure up any kind of mission they fancy from new variants on standard modes to outright ridiculous race courses and everything in between. If your mission is a solid fit, Rockstar may potentially add it to the playlists for all players to see. More customisation options are being put out in the months to come with even brand new heists making their way into the mode. There are still a few technical problems with lag, particularly when taking the passenger seat in another player’s car but less than a year from release, GTA Online still has heaps of potential and is only set to get better with time.
Grand Theft Auto 5’s gameplay picks up where its predecessor left off, continuing to refine and polish to a fine sheen. The cover system introduced in the previous game is now much more responsive, resulting in less sticking to the wrong piece of the environment in gunfights. A weapon wheel is now available, slowing down time to make choosing the right armament much easier and engaging a character’s special ability is as simple as clicking the two analog sticks together. Driving has received a much needed boost with the vehicles with the car handling being much more accessible this time around, although it can still be quite fiddly trying to aim weapons while driving at the same time. Planes and helicopters are fairly challenging to drive until the characters visit flight school. The numerous mini-games players can take part in have all sorts of control schemes tied to them, but the game is very helpful with its tutorials, ensuring that players can get into the side-activities easily without fumbling around with the controls. The law enforcement of Los Santos has also undergone a slight change; players can still evade the police by escaping the immediate area but that puts you at risk of running into other patrolling officers; if players pay attention to the police sight cones and stay out of them, they can be right next to the authorities and still escape just fine. Enemy AI has never really been a major strength of the series but in GTA 5, enemies will do their best to find cover and you’ll often face many at once. Thankfully the game has (finally!) added mid-mission checkpoints, drastically reducing the frustration levels in every mission. As the most refined game in the series to date, Grand Theft Auto 5 is an immensely enjoyable game to play and a testament to Rockstar’s undeniable ability to fly higher with every new release.
Just like the gameplay, Grand Theft Auto 5 boasts the series best graphic look to date. Los Santos, as I mentioned before is a big place, packed with a great variety of different environments including deserts, mountains and lakes in addition to the main city. The character models have also received an uplift with better facial expressions and more believable animations. The weather effects also look great, with stunning sunsets and detailed weather effects consistently rolling in to immerse the player. The soundtrack is once again stellar with a huge amount of memorable tracks from the 80s, 90s and modern times. With all that said, the game isn’t the greatest looking game out there; a couple of mild glitches here and there such as characters clipping into objects, and disappearing objects can be a little distracting. Despite these issues, the game still runs well and the voice acting is top-notch, brilliantly putting across the humour and satire in the story.
Grand Theft Auto 5 may not have the best narrative in a video game, nor does it push current hardware to the limit but the vast majority of places where this game delivers are simply off the charts, delivering the all-time best standards in mission design and open world gameplay. The game will undoubtedly go down as Rockstar’s crowning achievement in their prestigious and downright unstoppable career in the industry.