Differently from any other game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V tells the story of three protagonists. Michael De Santa is an ex-criminal who, after taking advantage of a botched job, fakes his death to get out of his life of crime and enter into witness protection. Michael struggles with "normal" life in the city of Los Santos as he deals with raising teenagers and a failing marriage. He soon realizes that he is unhappy in his "perfect" life, and falls back into his old ways of crime. Meanwhile, just outside of Los Santos in the Blaine County wilderness, Trevor Philips works to expand his "company" T.P. Enterprises, an illegal gun and drug running ring consisting of Trevor and two of his...interesting...friends. Trevor eventually sees news of Michael's re-entry into crime on TV, which is a shock to the man, as he was a member of Michael's heist team when the man was supposedly killed. Confused, and angry about being lied to, Trevor hightails it into Los Santos to confront his old "friend".
The third protagonist in GTA V is Franklin Clinton, a young man living in a gang-filled section of Los Santos. During the day, Franklin works as a repo man for a high-end car dealership that runs high-interest scams. At night, Franklin rides along with his friend and co-worker Lamar on gang-related activities. Franklin is extremely loyal to his friends, but feels as though gangs are a waste of time and desires to find something bigger in life. Franklin's chance finally comes when he is sent to repossess Michael De Santa's son's car, only to find that Michael was more than ready for him.
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| The Three Stooges |
The three protagonists end up working together, sometimes against their better judgement, towards making it big in the Los Santos area. Just as in previous Grand Theft Auto games, GTA V takes place in an open-world that can be freely explored. In order to progress the game's story, players can drive to mission markers in the city and take part in various jobs. GTA V does, however, make some interesting changes to the normal story mission setup in the form of heists. Heists are special missions which all three protagonists take part in and require a little extra planning. The group works with an old friend to plan these jobs, which usually offer more than one way of completing them. In addition to choosing the method used to complete the heist, the player also chooses other crew members to support them throughout the job. The choice of crew members can change how missions play out, as lesser skilled members take a much smaller cut of the profits than the more highly skilled, but present a real risk to the team due to their inexperience. In my time playing I took a chance twice on one of these lower tier members. The first time, the member was a hacker and completed his job extremely well, justifying my belief in him. The second time I took a risk, it was on a driver. This time, however, the inexperienced member freaked out when the cops took up chase of the group and wrecked his motorcycle. We were forced to leave him, and the bag full of money he was carrying, behind to be picked up by the police, so there is a definite risk to taking a chance on the lower costing members.
Once the player has planned out the approach for the heists, a list of requirements are given to the protagonists of materials and possibly vehicles needed to successfully pull off the mission. In one job, it was necessary to steal an exterminator's van in order to go into a shop without raising suspicion. In another, I was asked to prepare several getaway vehicles for our egress from the target. Once these needs are all collected, the heist can take place. It may seem like a lot of work to get ready for these missions, but believe me, they are worth it. The heists in GTA V were by far my favorite missions of any game ever. The jobs have a cinematic quality to them that brings to mind the best of Hollywood's heist movies.
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| Those must be some REALLY big bugs! |
In between these heists, the protagonists take part in their own separate storyline missions which tell the characters' backgrounds and personal stories. While these missions aren't as exciting as the heists, they are still extremely fun.
There are many, many more things to do in GTA V than just doing missions. Spread throughout the area are activities such as: street races, golf, stunt jumps, off-road races, water races, tennis, and much more. Each of these activities are of such a high quality that it seems as though they could easily be their own game, if a bit short for a full release. Add in the collectables, challenges, side-missions, and random events, and you've got a game that will last for a long, long time! I had just as much fun exploring the San Andreas area and driving/flying/boating around like a crazy person as I did playing the structured levels. There's just not much as thrilling as driving a motorcycle at full speed up and over mountains when you have no idea what's going to be on the other side. Will it be a tree? Will you drop hundreds of feet to your character's death? Who knows!
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| Or maybe someone's pool? Oops... |
Gameplay-wise, GTA V has improved on IV in almost every way. Cars handle much differently than the more real-life physics driven vehicles of IV. Rockstar has struck a balance between the arcade style driving of the older GTA games, and the more realistic handling of IV. Additionally, on-foot combat has been much improved with better auto-targeting and cover mechanics. All three main characters now have skill bars for thing such as their driving, stamina, strength, and flying abilities. These skill can be improved by practicing them, adding an RPG-like aspect to the game The three protagonists also each have their own special ability that can be activated once ready to improve their trademark skill.
Another huge difference, that you've likely already caught onto, is the fact that there are three protagonists in the game. Players have the ability to switch between characters on the fly. Rockstar has nailed seamless transitions between characters. When a switch is made, the camera zooms out from your current character to an overhead view of the city, then moves to the location of the character you are switching to and zooms in on them going about their daily life. You never know what you're going to interrupt when switching characters, especially when switching to the likely insane Trevor. These transitions can also happen during missions, which again, happen extremely smoothly. This can add a new level of strategy to jobs as you can have one character on overwatch with a rifle while another works his way into a building. If the character in the building gets into trouble, you can switch to the other protagonist and take out enemies from a distance. When not being actively controlled by the player, the other characters are taken over by the AI and cover you as well.
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| I knew I shouldn't have hidden behind the obviously-not-bulletproof car! |
As you can likely tell from the screenshots, GTA V looks great. There are times that you can tell the game pushes the Xbox 360 to its limits though, as textures can get extremely blurry at high speeds. I was continuously impressed by little details put into the game by Rockstar. I know it may sound stupid, but just tiny little things such as your shirt showing a bit of sweat after running for a while, footsteps becoming slower as you slog through wet mug, clothing becoming visibly wet after swimming, cuts and bruises appear on characters as they are injured, puddles slowly form as it rains and make roads more treacherous, and much more. The care that Rockstar took in designing the Los Santos area is almost mind blowing. There are hundreds of intricately detailed locations and building, most of which are never even highlighted by in-game missions, but are just there for players to find on their own and enjoy. People inhabit the city and countryside and go about their daily business, making the game area feel like a living, breathing location.
There are so many activities to take part in, fun locations to find, and types of vehicles to drive/fly/sail that I daresay you could have hours upon hours of fun with GTA V without even doing any of the game's story missions. My playthrough of the game's story (admittedly with more than a few side-ventures) clocked in at around 40 hours. I am continuing to play the game in pursuit of the 100% completion mark, and suspect going well over 50 hours by the time I'm finished. Add in all the customization that the game makes possible (custom cars, wardrobes, tattoos, haircuts, etc) and you could be enjoying the game for an extremely long time!
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| I hope I can get those little blades that come out of the tires and pop other car's tires! |
Oh yeah, then there's that little thing called GTA: Online that makes up the multiplayer for GTA V. GTA: Online is basically the entirety of the single-player game minus the story missions. Players can create their own protagonist and take part in all the same activities offered by single player together over Xbox Live with their friends and other gamers. Players can buy their own cars, apartments, and garages, as well as customize their character with clothes, tattoos and everything in the game. Additional multiplayer-focused game types are available in GTA: Online as well as missions that are similar to story missions in the single player game, but can be completed with others online. Players can also form "Crews" which are like clans/guilds of friends that work together as a team in game modes and unlock group benefits as the Crew levels up. Suddenly, all those hours possible to spend exploring the Los Santos area alone could turn into hundreds of hours spent messing around in the open world with others online.
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| Why do I have the feeling that I'm about to be seriously injured? |
Even after the 50 odd hours I have put into GTA V, I can see myself continuing to enjoy the game. I wouldn't be surprised if my time spent in Los Santos topped out at over one hundred hours. It's rare that I enjoy a game this much. I can easily say that GTA V has been my favorite game in the series, and that GTA V ranks among my favorite games in recent memory. If I had to choose one game to keep while I got rid of every other game I own and never buy another, I would choose this one. The sheer number of things to do in the game make it more like many games combined than just one. I highly recommend the game and will take personal responsibility if you find you get zero enjoyment from it!
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