Grand Theft Auto V (GTAV) from Rockstar Games is a game set up to blow its competition out of the water. But does this return to the fictional land of San Andreas live up to the hype?
GTAV takes place in Los Santos, a Los Angeles-themed city set in San Andreas, a fictional state representing Southern California. After a brief prologue setting up the main character and his background, the game throws you 10 years into the future.
Michael is a retired master thief in witness protection, after snitching on his last job a decade ago. Sharing a mansion and millions of dollars with his family, Michael has grown dissatisfied with his life.
A coincidental meeting with an old friend and a new protégée lays the groundwork for a return to heists, violence, debauchery and a web of plotlines, leaving the main characters embroiled in a surprising number of conspiracies.
The story does a good job keeping you moving along from quest to quest. Despite its whacky nature, GTAV has something to say about contentious modern topics, such as social networking, chemical dependency and the use of torture.
For all the good in it, the story carries some flaws. Michael and the other two main characters, Franklin and Trevor, are interesting and begging to be dynamic, but none of them really change over the course of the story.
As much as a good tale helps, stories in video games often take a back seat to gameplay; this game is no different. GTAV has hours of well-designed gameplay to try, one of the best features being the ability to explore the open world environment you have been dropped into. The landscape is gorgeous and almost painfully expansive.
A handy way to quickly hop around the map involves one of the game’s newest features in its three protagonists. Unlike previous titles, GTAV has three playable characters you can teleport between with a push of a button. Each character has its own stories, and all of them connect in several places. It’s a well-done aspect of the game.
Once you have a handle on getting around, you’ll discover Los Santos and the surrounding San Andreas area has a massive number of activities for you to participate in. If you can think of it, you can probably do it.
Unfortunately, while there are plenty of things to do in the world, most of them are boring. They were well put together, but most weren’t any fun.
It’s nice that the option was there, but it would have been better if more of the development time had been spent on making more heists, which is the best aspect of the game.
GTAV is a massive game with tons to do in a painstakingly well-crafted world with an interesting story. The game will take you a long time to play. This is without considering Grand Theft Auto Online, the equally expansive open world multiplayer semi-RPG style version of the game that comes with it. Small quibbles hold it back, but all told, there is too much here for this game to be less than stellar.
