Rockstar Games, likely the most popular western game developer today, is known for many things. Dedication to extreme mechanical realism, incredibly long and arduous development times, ridiculous parodies of the United States and perhaps the deepest storytelling in gaming. These are just to name a few, but perhaps the most encompassing and well-known thing on Rockstar’s resume is their obnoxiously profitable cash cow: the Grand Theft Auto Series. Grand Theft Auto Online is a massive part of that popularity, and now that the long awaited Grand Theft Auto VI is on its way this November, it would be an understatement to say that the popularity will not be simmering down anytime soon. But where did this all start? Well, before the Oppressors, the Shark Cards and the online extravaganza there was a “simple” game, a term I use oh, so sarcastically and, of course, lovingly. Grand Theft Auto V was by no means the start of GTA’s rise, but it is certainly a display of its absolute height today, and I’d like to revisit it. Think of it as a “warm up” before we dive into GTA VI in a few weeks. If that game is as insane as its hype has led us to believe, we’re going to need it.
◆ INTRODUCTION ◆
Grand Theft Auto V is the seventh major installment (strange, I know) in the action-adventure series developed and published by Rockstar Games in 2013. Taking place in the same setting as the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, this game was certainly subject to a large amount of hype at its release, a trend that would increase tenfold in the coming years. For me, the game was my first and, as of yet, only step into the GTA Series at… perhaps a little too young an age… but nevertheless, I’ve enjoyed and come back to it every now and again since then to experience its story mode. While I have played the online mode, my review will strictly adhere to the story, as I wasn’t too hooked with the online when I first played, and there are far more experienced players that can give a nuanced critique on the experience. GTA V is very fun and well-made, with a hilarious and entertaining story, impressive design, and a great sandbox of chaos to play with. It’s not perfect, and that does apply to all these things, but it is very fun and impressive. Even with its insane popularity today, the story mode remains as it was: a fun and refined experience to now look back on.
◆ GAMEPLAY ◆
As far as gameplay goes, the experience is not too dissimilar to Rockstar’s other games. The driving, flying, gunplay and customization are all wonderfully refined and exciting, all offering dozens of upgrades and ridiculous purchases to work towards. The wealth of options presented to the player to kill time or… people… is, as usual, impressive. There’s a surprising amount of legitimately fun mini-games like golf, tennis and races, all things other games would make their entire focus. Rockstar usually scoffs in the face of hard focus, and I mean that with love and respect. It is certainly commendable to have created such a massive sandbox with so many things to do.
This huge scale pairs nicely with the game’s unique focus on playing with three protagonists: Franklin, Michael and Trevor. The three play almost identically, and can be upgraded all the same, but they each have a special skill making them more effective than the others in certain scenarios. Franklin is a great driver, and his skill slows down time so the player can weave through traffic with ease. His skill is undoubtedly the most fun to use. Michael is a great shooter, and can slow down time to get precise headshots on swarms of enemies. Trevor is… insane, so his skill makes him practically invulnerable for a time as he runs into a hail of gunfire. The way each skill pairs with certain aspects of gameplay and characterization is relatively simple, but incredibly fun.
Where gameplay begins to falter is its clash with linear mission structure. Story missions are indeed fun and refined experiences with some particularly exciting standouts, but most of them fail to bring the huge wealth of options into it. Just like my Red Dead Redemption II critiques, GTA V has a stark divide between story and exploration, something that comes off as strange when the player is presented with so many potential approaches. At the end of the day, the player will probably not be using many of their purchased weapons and vehicles in the story with many missions even locking the player out of their arsenal. Perhaps if Rockstar approached missions with a more sandbox perspective like they do with the rest of the game, the experience as a whole could feel much more uniform and streamlined. Maybe the inclusion would even make the exploration itself better as the developers become more accustomed to the idea of letting the player choose.
Rockstar usually scoffs in the face of hard focus, and I mean that with love and respect.
A lack of challenge is another gripe of mine with Rockstar’s games. For the most part, GTA V practically plays itself, especially in combat. It’s of course very fun to live out a crazy power fantasy and take on the city alone, but when story missions and combat are so easy to maneuver, it makes the huge array of weapons almost obsolete. That’s not to mention the inclusion of some pretty monotonous mechanics and story moments. There are some missions in this game that make the player drive around the entire massive map or blend in as a construction worker for 10-20 minutes. It’s certainly a weird inclusion in an action game, but if these things were designed to be fun it’d be fine. Instead, it literally is as boring as the real thing would be. The characters and dialogue do pull the game forward, thankfully, but it really treads a line that threatens to exhaust the player. I didn’t feel this boredom nearly as much in Rockstar’s more recent Read Dead Redemption II, so hopefully they have learned their lesson since.
◆ SETTING ◆
A very commendable aspect of this game, and indeed all of Rockstar’s games, is its incredibly detailed world. Taking place in the fictional state of San Andreas, GTA’s version of California, and the city of Los Santos, Los Angeles in our world, the entire sprawling map is an inspired masterpiece of design with a massive city in the south and a sprawling desert in the north. The real highlight here is of course the city, which is a wonderful bustling playground of obnoxious American maniacs. There is so much that goes into making a map like this, so much that players take for granted, so of course it’s important to recognize the likely hundreds of hours Rockstar spent crafting this world and its many intractable components.
A fun aspect of the setting is the air of foreboding mystery that has sprung up from the community. There are many tiny details and creepy signs throughout the map that the game doesn’t call attention to. Many players and… well… obsessive content creators have analyzed every one of these details, creating interesting environmental narratives. While it’s of course up for debate if many of these narratives are even true, it’s not up for debate that Rockstar made such an immersive, detailed world, that such discussion spawned in the first place. It’s clear that Rockstar has leaned into this since the original interest in such mysteries as updates to the game have added in new weird details and even a playable section as Bigfoot. No, that is not a joke!
◆ STORY ◆
As usual, GTA V’s story is my favorite aspect of the game, and for good reason. Rockstar always crafts wonderful narratives, usually lifted up by an impressive commitment to character design. This time around, they had their work cut out for them, focusing on three playable protagonists, all with their own goals, beliefs and relationships to one another. The narrative revolves around the young, aspiring criminal, Franklin Clinton, the professional, retired criminal, turned family man, Michael DeSanta, and the drug dealing, gunrunning lunatic, Trevor Philips. They are certainly a colorful bunch, and it’s their triple-polarizing dynamic that sets the stage for a very entertaining story.
Starting off with Franklin, the closest thing there is to a main protagonist, whose arc revolves around his rise into his professional criminal aspirations. He starts out as a small-time gangbanger of the African American gang, The Families, "repossessing," or more accurately, stealing cars with his friend, Lamar Davis, the absolute best character in the game. Franklin has no interest in the greater gang activities, especially those orchestrated by Stretch, a self-proclaimed leader among the gang, and he hopes to escape what he sees as a “stuck in the mud” life so to speak. An opportunity presents itself when he encounters Michael DeSanta, a former bank robber who clearly has experience and money, something Franklin is drawn to. Soon, Franklin impresses Michael enough to become his protégé and the two begin taking on scores, dragging Franklin into the chaos that is Michael’s life.
Michael is the center of conflict for the story, often being the cause of or reason for the many setbacks the protagonists face. His arc revolves around dealing with the consequences of his reckless past and his rocky relationships with his friends, family and law enforcement. Before the story, he was a professional criminal in the fictional Midwest state of North Yankton working alongside Trevor Philips and Brad Snider. He started a family with his wife, Amanda, leading him to doubt his criminal lifestyle and the danger it surely brought to his family. This is when he made a scheme with the FIB, GTA’s version of the FBI: he would go into a form of witness protection, ratting out his friends and giving himself up, but ensuring his and his family’s safety and relocation to Los Santos. All he had to do was fake his death during a heist with his partners in crime. The idea was to kill one of Michael’s friends, Brad or Trevor, and pretend to get shot himself, placing his friend in a grave marked with his own name while he walks away free. Brad ends up getting killed and Trevor gets away, meaning the plan almost went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, Trevor was no small hitch, and when he discovers years later that Michael lied to him and survived, he comes back to haunt Michael’s life. Now, in the present day, Michael lounges around, depressed and bored with a family that he doesn’t care for and the FIB blackmailing him to do their dirty work. When Franklin comes into his life, he begins to return to his old violent ways, which he didn’t necessarily leave in the first place, and eventually Trevor’s return and the FIB’s blackmailing all come into play at once to create the many moving parts that make up the story.
A wildcard I know, but “wildcard” is probably the best description for Trevor anyway.
Trevor’s part in the story adds the final layer of nuance and complexity that makes the narrative so fun and interesting. His arc revolves around his discovery of Michael’s betrayal and his hope to get his friend back, along with building his self-proclaimed criminal enterprise. He saw Michael as his best friend, which Michael likely didn’t reciprocate given his narcissistic tendencies, so when he finds out Michael is alive, he is understandably furious, going on a mission to track him down and insert himself into his life again. Even after everything, he still wants to be friends with Michael, an incredibly interesting aspect of his character, displaying his need for respect and loyalty to cope with his own loneliness. Don’t feel too bad for him though, because Trevor is an absolute maniac, committing every immoral act and crime under the sun. His missions often consist of chaotic outbursts and destruction, and as a result are usually the most fun ones. Initially living in the deserts of San Andreas, he comes into conflict with America’s more rural lunatics including bikers, rednecks and… the Chinese mob. A wildcard I know, but “wildcard” is probably the best description for Trevor anyway. Once he tracks down Michael in Los Santos, he tries his best to resume criminal operations as normal, but his rocky relationship with him constantly leads to conflict throughout the story.
All of these characters act as splendid foils to one another, and that is the crux of my enjoyment of the game. Contrast is powerful, and that, paired with a slew of unlikable antagonists, brings the narrative into a memorable light. My only critique of the story has to do with its ending, which feels like a rushed series of suddenly solving all the conflicts at once. Every antagonist and issue is resolved in a single final mission, if you choose the good ending that is, which it’s very clear which one that is, so there’s not much debate. Franklin is blackmailed by the FIB to kill Trevor and the late-game antagonist, Devin Weston, an insufferable CEO who… may or may not be inspired by Jeffery Epstein, to kill Michael. He’s presented with the choice between killing either of his now-friends, or to face off against the FIB, Devin’s men and all the other antagonists at once. I chose the third option because… duh. The protagonists band together, kill all their enemies and go on to live happy lives of mayhem. After the long methodical story, this ending was a bit strange, but I admit, I still enjoyed it despite my concerns. A mediocre ending doesn’t detract from the experience as a whole, so while I would’ve done things differently, I can respect Rockstar’s commitment to character dynamics and design overall.
◆ CONCLUSION ◆
GTA V is a monumental game in Rockstar’s success story. With great characters, fun gameplay and a wonderful world to explore, it’s hard not to love it. I may have concerns with Rockstar’s continuous gameplay philosophy, but I can’t ignore the great effort they put into making this game as fun as it is. If you can bear through tens of hours of parody and stupid American lunatics, I highly recommend this hilarious game. May you all read again when we cover GTA VI.
