Game Review: GTA V

By Lim Yufan

The wait is over.

Five years after the release of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV in 2008, the latest title in the controversial GTA franchise finally hits shores as one of the last few games to be released on the current generation of consoles. And GTA V certainly lives up to the hype and anticipation since its development was announced a year ago.

Set in the fictional city of Los Santos, modeled after Los Angeles, the game’s narrative is driven by three playable main protagonists – Michael, Trevor, and Franklin – giving you the ability to alternate among them anytime during the game. In typical GTA style, these characters are criminals who try to make it big in the city by any means necessary. While exploring the city in this open-world game, you will find Los Santos breathtakingly beautiful — its environment is so detailed with some parts bearing an uncanny resemblance to L.A that it feels like you are actually touring the city.

Common everyday objects like mailboxes, street lights, electricity cables, and fire hydrants might be easy to miss as you zoom past them in your cars. Even the pavements in Los Santos are not uniformly smooth and clean like in many other games, and at times show cracks with weeds growing out of them. But it is such detail that highlights the amount of work the game’s creators put into designing the game’s environment.

The voice actors have done a good job infusing personality into the characters and much hilarity into the dialogues. Though the cutscenes can be skipped, it wouldn’t be advised as watching the characters interact is pure fun — one of my favourites is Franklin arguing with his friend Lamar after Franklin was named employee of the month in a small-time car dealership in which they are the only two employees.

“Franklin, I told you to clear the trash two days ago!”

Developer Rockstar has taken a huge step forward from GTA IV by expanding the variety of missions you can take on. There are basic ones such as towing vehicles away with a tow truck, stealing cars, and escaping from cops. More intense missions require you to don full-body ballistic armour and rob a bank, then fight off a squad of cops firing at you from helicopters and armoured trucks, and eventually shield yourself from the shelling of an army tank. Then there are the large-scale and hugely insane operations where you are tasked to hijack a plane in midair, or steal a cargo plane from a military air base.

But after a hard day’s work, there is always time to play a game of tennis, golf, or even watch a movie. In fact, there is a whole lot to do than just committing crime in Los Santos, and this adds immense replay value to the game.

Besides the diversity of missions, GTA V also features other improvements in gameplay as compared to its predecessor. Most noticeably, gently sideswiping a patrol car or knocking down a pedestrian does not automatically lead to a police chase. In Los Santos, patrol cars are not as commonly seen on the road as GTA IV‘s Liberty City, which makes more sense because a city with so many cops on patrol logically would not have such a rampant slew of criminal activities. The cops are also much less trigger-happy as compared to previous GTA titles, thus making the game more realistic. This certainly improves gameplay during missions as you can concentrate on pursuing a target without worrying too much that cops are hot on your heels.

Still, cops remain a key element in the game as many heist missions — such as breaking into a police station or jewelry store — involve having to shake off cops.

Cops will still chase you after you’ve done a heist, and they’re much more realistic this time.

Another improvement to the game is the updated auto-save feature. The game automatically saves at certain checkpoints within a mission, not just before or after it, so you no longer have to restart the entire mission whenever you fail.

Also, the arsenal of drivable vehicles, which makes this series so well-loved, has increased significantly in GTA V, with there being at least a hundred unique models for cars alone. This time, instead of the previously limited selection of generic-looking sports cars, real-world licensed cars such as the Audi R8 and Nissan GT-R are featured. Being able to drive the car of your dreams in the game makes it even more enjoyable.

That said, all cars in the game are given different names — for example, the Lamborghini Gallardo is called the Vacca, and the Toyota Prius, the Dilettante. In addition to four-wheeled vehicles, you also get to control motorcycles, helicopters and even blimps.

Perhaps the most unique and useful feature of GTA V is the ability to switch among the three playable characters. This aids in exploring the city, because you no longer have to worry about travelling to the fringes of the city and then driving all the way back to the city centre for missions. Now, you can simply use one of the characters to explore the outskirts of the city, leave him there, and switch to another character who is closer to where the main action is. And during missions, having all three controllable characters certainly adds the element of strategy in movement and eliminating your enemies. But as the game progresses, you will find the characters’ personalities inconsistent. For example, they take the moral high ground at times, but delve into unscrupulous behaviour the next moment.

Another flaw of GTA V is Rockstar’s notoriously tiny in-game texts. Most of the time, you have to squint to make out the words on the screen. And the only way to read the text messages on the in-game mobile phone is to walk right up to the television screen. But with such thrilling gameplay, it is easy to overlook these faults.

As it is, GTA V is thoroughly entertaining, and because it isn’t a plot-driven game that causes players to become too attached, it’s not addictive to the extent of making you forgo food, sleep or school over it.

GTA V (Rated M)
Open-world action-adventure
Available on PS3 and Xbox 360

4.5 out of 5 stars

The good: Incredibly detailed environments; thrilling missions; smooth transitions between cutscenes and gameplay; funny voice acting in cutscenes; high replay value.

The bad: In-game text is too small; story picks up slowly at the beginning; inconsistent personalities of characters.