Grand Theft Auto V Review

GTA has long been heralded as one of the best franchises in gaming but was not always considered as such starting off as a simple top down 2d game with a pseudo open world that was all about stealing cars. But became something more with the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 which revolutionized what people thought was possible in a video game, with a massive (at the time) open world where it seemed that you could do anything. Then Rockstar pushed it farther with the release of GTA IV which was the first time an open world game felt like it was full of life. Now Rockstar is pushing the boundaries by expanding on what GTA IV had to offer but also by including three protagonists

Michael a former bank robber who left the life for his family is now miserable and fed up with his family, but through some rather unfortunate circumstances is brought back into the life. Once back in he meets Franklin a small time hood trying to make it big. Then is reunited with old partner Trevor who has been spending his time recently cooking meth and running guns as well as being an all around psychopath.

The story is centered around these big heists with an early example of one being a jewelry store robbery part of what makes these heists work is that they allow one to have choice in how the heists are executed. Such as procuring and storing a getaway vehicle that can be placed in multiple locations around the city or by picking what crew comes with you on the job but be mindful cheaper crew means less experienced so they're more likely to screw up.   But while the story of these characters focuses on the bigger heists each of them has their own set of individual story and side missions.    

The three protagonists can be switched between at any time off mission by holding down the left bumper and selecting which of the characters you want to switch to with a short load when off mission that happens when the camera pulls out to a top down view and pans over to the character you're switching to but on mission the switch is instantaneous. Rockstar uses this switching mechanic in a lot of interesting ways chief among them is now you always feel like you're always in the middle of the action. Also when you switch between the characters off mission you will be treated to these characters doing something such as Michael having an argument with his family or Franklin hanging out with his friend Lamar, this helps give the illusion that these characters have lives independent of when you aren't controlling them.

but the heists really shines with the only chance that you have to impact the way missions play out, which is kind of the problem going from this masterfully created open world but then being thrust into this mission structure that for the most part doesn't allow you to deviate from the way that Rockstar wants you to play them. But with the heists you feel like you can do want you want that you have some meaningful input it's a shame that they just don't have enough of them.

But one thing that GTA V gets absolutely right is the shooting, flying, and driving mechanics. Shooting actually feels responsive which is incredible seeing as how without lock on GTA IV was unplayable, and now you could conceivably play this game without lock on. but with the driving is where it really becomes apparent that Rockstar when to great lengths to fix the problems from GTA IV. In GTA V the roads no longer feel like they are made of ice, yes that is correct the cars no longer swing wildly around when going around corners and even though I did actually like the driving in GTA IV I do appreciate the changes. But one thing I didn't like at all in GTA IV was the flying of helicopters anytime I got into one I felt like I was constantly fighting to keep the thing from crashing into a building, but with GTA V this is no longer the case. But not just helicopters are in this game no GTA V has the triumphant return of planes and this is where I find I had the most fun just flying over Los Santos and just looking out across the sky, this is where the scale of the game really became apparent.

But that is the thing about GTA V the world and scale of the game is the most impressive thing about the game just wandering around Los Santos was by far my favorite thing about this game and that is on top of a fantastic story with wonderful and unique characters that actually change the way you play. So the thing that was incredibly weird is that after I finished I just couldn't figure out how this game ran on my Playstation 3 which just shows that life still exists in this current generation of consoles.

10/10