Review: Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V is a sandbox shooter for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was primarily developed by Rockstar North.

The story starts in Los Santos County with Michael Townley, a former bank robber who cut a lucrative deal with the Feds and is living in a depressing retirement with his spoiled family. He befriends Franklin Clinton, a kid from the hood who wants more in his life than petty criminal acts. They pull a heist, which brings them to the attention of Trevor Phillips, Michael’s unstable old partner who thought he was dead and was living in the neighboring Blain County.

Michael and Trevor, with Franklin stuck in the middle.

And that is pretty much it for the plot, which is really frustrating. Most of the story is Michael and Franklin getting pushed around by their friends or family or other people, or Trevor getting into trouble and having to be bailed out. There’s no progression, it is just Michael and Franklin being everyone’s errand boys, and not in a “Climbing the criminal social ladder” or “Heading towards some goal” kind of way, but in a “Getting dicked around for no reward” kind of way. The story picks up at the end when the trio decide to pull one final heist and Trevor and Michael’s history comes to a head, but so much of the middle could have been cut without any loss.

On their own, Michael and Franklin are kind of boring, though pleasant, and Trevor is an asshole who is funny until he does something really unlikable and goes back to being an asshole. Michael and Trevor have this constant back-and-forth over how Trevor thought he was dead, which is exciting to watch both when it is funny and dramatic. Franklin though, while the surrogate father-son thing he has with Michael is kind of interesting, especially when Trevor teases them about it, after the catalyst that brings in Trevor, Franklin becomes rather unimportant to the plot.

The rest of the cast is interesting, even if there are no standout characters and a lot of them are just plain annoying. I do not think any of them could carry a story on their own, but they are all memorable.

As for the actual gameplay, GTA V takes place in the huge counties of Los Santos and Blaine. You control Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, and go to icons around San Andreas. These icons activate missions, which for the most part involve cover-based shooting and driving. There are the story missions which advance the game, and the Strangers and Freaks missions, which are optional.

Michael, Trevor, and Franklin each have a special ability that can be activated for a limited time: Michael has bullet time, Franklin has driving bullet time, and Trevor has invincibility. Otherwise they play exactly the same. They start off with different stats, for example Franklin has a higher driving stat and Trevor has a higher flying stat, but you would not notice a difference ingame, and those stats can be increased with activities like driving and flying anyway making the distinction even less important. You can switch between the three at any time, for when you need to get multiple angles on a group of people you are shooting at, or just for plot purposes when they are completing different multiple objectives.

Most of the serious challenging gameplay comes from fighting off swarms of guys while hiding behind cover with, the main differences between missions being where you are and sometimes what gun you are using. Enemies are a little smart, they know to hide behind cover as well and not run around firing at nothing, but also move slowly from cover to cover even when it is not in their best interests. The threat is more in making sure you do not get swarmed or someone sneaks by you while you are not looking, and how everyone is so weak that one ignored guy can kill you in a second. I turned off the auto-aim, even though characters turn real slowly and awkwardly, and even though the game has the gall to grade how you do on each mission on things like time and accuracy, because it was making shootouts too easy; all you had to do was hit the aim button and your character would point at the nearest person precisely, I felt like I did not even need to be there.

Running for cover is achieved with a single button press and works on most places that can be used for cover.

The other big thing is driving, whether it is driving to somewhere, or chasing after someone, or losing the cops. Chases can be pretty exciting when the person you are chasing is not simply leading you to another place, AI knows how to duck in and out of traffic and avoid running into things. Most of the cars you are driving though handle like they have a ton of rocks in the trunk and are driving on ice, you will have more trouble not slamming into every guard rail and flipping out than keeping up with someone. You are also supposed to drive and shoot at other people, and it is impossible to drive and aim your gun at the same time without crashing.

Story missions are the most exciting part of the game, because they usually have something you can only do in mission that you cannot do just running around San Andreas on your own. But the special thing you can only do in each mission is a mixed bag, for every mission where you hijack a moving train or break into a chemical factory there is a mission where you have to practice yoga, or move shipping containers.

There are five missions where you plan a heist, though only three of them give you real control. In these missions you choose one of two ways to go about it, and pick from a couple of NPCs to fill in roles like hacker or additional driver. These are the most exciting parts of the game and should have been what the most of the gameplay centered around.

The Strangers and Freaks missions are less complicated than the story missions and have less unique objectives. You get to meet more characters that are kind of funny, but for the most part I would not have minded if most of the Strangers and Freaks missions were not in the game. I played through most of them, but that is because I am an obsessive nut who wanted things, not because they were really fun.

You do a lot of flying in the game as well, with planes and helicopters.

All the missions have so much time spent driving to somewhere in them. The game tries to make it less tedious by having the characters converse during those drives, but that is only interesting the first time you hear the conversation. That does not make me want to go back and play the missions over, which I know the game wants me to do since it grades your performance. GTA V would have been so much shorter if they cut out the driving and just started you at your destination at the beginning of the missions.

Both kinds of missions need rewards for finishing them, especially the Strangers and Freaks missions. I wanted guns or health or cars or anything for completing them. At most you get a little bit of cash, just enough to buy new clothes.

Speaking of clothes, you can buy a lot of outfits for Michael, Trevor, and Franklin, but if you go to another character and come back the first one later he will be wearing a random outfit in a pointless attempt to make the characters look like they have lives. Also, when you are buying certain clothes the game will switch your character back to a default outfit, because Grand Theft Auto thinks it knows better than you.

While I have complained a lot I do think the missions are, if not fantastic, then at least serviceable way to pass the time. What is really an issue is that outside of the mission there is not a lot to do in this great big sandbox. There are races you can participate in for a little cash, and Trevor can hunt down these four guys and kill people in five Rampages, and there a few abominable “Find 50 things without a guide” time wasters. But that is it, there is little that really takes advantage of the fact that is a sandbox game. The two Trevor activities I mentioned are what I am looking for, but there should have been way more of them, and for every character, and you should get stuff for doing them.

You can also parachute and hunt animals to pass the time.

It makes me wonder why this is a sandbox game at all. Both the story missions and the Strangers and Freaks missions are pretty linear, you drive to place and shoot some people, often in a place you will never go back to afterward. The chases never gp too far either. The only part that really takes advantage of the sandbox is escaping the police, where you are allowed to drive wherever you want to get rid of them.

So what is the point, the joy of driving to the next mission or the clothing store? I got bored of that quickly and used the taxi function to skip to everything.

I should point out that there are a bunch of miscellaneous activities you can do that have no goal, but those are really stupid. If I wanted to smoke, watch TV, go to a bar, go to a strip club, go to a movie, or go to therapy, I would do that in real life.

And it such a waste because Los Santos and Blaine County are absolutely gorgeous. Every neighborhood, every building looks like it was exquisitely crafted to look real and unique. Nothing looks out of place, or just put in to have more buildings. There are signs and posters everywhere with their own little stories and details. Los Santos looks like a real city with real communities. This sandbox is a bonafide work of art, Rockstar should get awards for this world with all the effort they put into it. I wanted to go to every town and area and interact with some weird local there and run around and do things for them. If only Rockstar had put as much effort into the rest of the game it would have been perfect.

Even if it based on Los Angeles.

Grand Theft Auto V is an okay third-person shooter with serviceable mechanics and not much of a plot but good characters. But as a sandbox game it is underwhelming, and a waste. As one of the games in the series that defined the genre, it should have been so much more than its contemporaries, not a sign that it’s time might be over.

PS: Grand Theft Auto Online is coming out soon. I think what I will do is add update as I play through that here, instead of writing another whole review for it, because I do not know if as an online game it can be completed.