GTA V review: a brilliant, addictive, cohesive open-world game

Grand Theft Auto V review: Grand design

You can take a breath. It’s been worth the wait. Grand Theft Auto V is brilliant.

Just how brilliant is a matter of subjective opinion, of course, but I’d go as far as to say it’s as good as anyone could ever have imagined and every bit as good as the trailers painted it to be — no wait, that’s wrong. It’s better than the trailers had us believe because we can finally play it.

You see, this is a game you need to experience first-hand. Only when you sit down with the disc whirring in the tray are you able to absorb what a marvel it is. Los Santos is a vast virtual playground with all the socioeconomic diversity of a real city. You have great swathes of land falling prey to urban decay, high-rise skyscrapers in the centre of the metropolis and the leafy villas of rich movie types tucked away in Rockford Hills, overlooked by a mock Hollywood sign dubbed “Vinewood.” It feels real. It feels lived in.

Moving out of the city, you enter rolling hills and chalk red desert and a vast ocean that can be explored from the sanctity of a submarine if you wish. This is a game that pushes ageing console tech to its breaking point — not that you’d know it. I’ve spent over 30 hours in Los Santos and the surrounding countryside and it hasn’t let me down once. It runs more smoothly than Grand Theft Auto IV did, and it’s bursting at the seams with so much more to see and do. In short, Rockstar has produced a miracle.

But the city is only half the story. The real miracle is the use of a narrative device that has been employed by novelists for centuries, and which is sure to become a staple of these open-world games in the future: multiple protagonists. For all the city’s artistic and technical marvels, the real question is how Rockstar ever managed to make switching characters on-the-fly a breezy reality. No matter, Houser and co. have managed to cram it onto two DVDs.

And while Grand Theft Auto V is still a game for boys living their fantasies, this one feels different. This new, shining beast from the storied Rockstar production line feels like the culmination of a vision. A vision to make the best game possible. The result is something more streamlined, grander and above all else, more fun to play.

Simply put, it’s the game Rockstar has always wanted to make.

Three’s company

The saying goes that two’s company and three’s a crowd. Not so here. Say hello to Franklin, Trevor and Michael, the three protagonists who co-exist alongside one another within this sprawling world.

If you’ve followed the pre-release chatter prior to the game’s release their names will be familiar. But who is who? Once you’ve spent time with Grand Theft Auto V you’ll know exactly which is which, right down to their predilections and past indiscretions.

Rockstar cleverly gives you the chance to get to know each man individually, in a vacuum, before their paths align and their lives intersect. Soon you’re switching between the trio at will and the effect this has on the very essence of the experience is impossible to undersell. It’s a crucial reason why V is so much more fun to play than other open-world games.

Here’s an example: you decide to go for a late night cruise in Franklin’s muscle car, exploring the city and discovering its nooks and crannies at your leisure. But as the sun rises, the fun’s up, and you’re baulking at the idea of driving all the way back to your safe house. No matter. Switch to Michael and within seconds — literally seconds — you’re in the shoes of a new character, back in the heart of the city and with a dozen new diversions to explore. Fancy a game of morning tennis? What about visiting a strip club? Michael won’t say no, and when you re-enter Franklin’s life later you’ll find him safely back at home, just as you’d hoped, perhaps puffing on a spliff.

Rockstar expertly maintains the illusion that these men are doing stuff while you’re not with them, but crucially it’s never significant stuff – you’re there for all the big moments in their lives and that’s key. They’re your characters — all three of them.

Their personalities start to affect whom you turn to, and when. While prepping a big heist, you might be required to steal a get-away car, for instance. You’ll inevitably switch to Franklin to get the job done because Franklin steals cars – it’s just what he does. But what if you feel like aimlessly roaming the city and wreaking havoc? Franklin is too civil, Michael too normal. You plumb for Trevor of course. Viciousness is Trevor’s game. You could just as easily choose Michael or Franklin. But you choose Trevor. It’s then that it hits you with childlike glee: you’re role-playing.

That’s not to say they’re all likeable. Not by a stretch. Franklin is the least bad-tempered and the most idealistic, though that’s not saying much. He could hardly be more caustic than Michael, who, when arriving home to his family, cheerily shouts: “Dad’s home!” before muttering, “not that anyone gives a shit.” Nor could Franklin be more violent than Trevor, who comes across as the bastard lovechild of the Joker and Harley Quinn.

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Yes, Trevor is an odd beast. While both Franklin and Michael fit a fairly traditional archetype (Franklin is CJ from San Andreas reborn, while Michael is a tribute to the personable bad guys from cops and robbers films — it’s no coincidence he is enamoured with Hollywood movies), Trevor is harder to pin down. He’s not a character from the real world at all, but rather a character we’ve all embodied in GTA games of the past when, in a fit of anarchic glee, we decided to wreak havoc just to see what would happen.

More than anything, though, I sense V is a story about men and their mid-life crises. The story is penned by Dan Houser, the writer who turned Max Payne into a bristling symbol of masculine rage. Houser goes down the same route here, portraying Michael and Trevor as men on the wrong side of 40 who are watching their lives disintegrate. There’s a certain comic fatality about it all, but it also means they’re at each other’s throats all the time, slinging barbs and showering one another in profanity. It becomes tiring, fast, and it got to the point where even I – of a generation where “fuck” is merely a colourful adjective — tuned out to their crass exchanges.

This unrelenting war of testosterone would be mitigated by an interesting female character to offset the male angst, but V reduces its female cast to the sort of money-hungry airheads who are prepared to offer sexual favours for their next boobjob. Then again, this isn’t surprising. The series has never been interested in tackling interesting women, and it isn’t prepared to start now.

There are occasionally sweet moments, however. Franklin looks after a Rottweiler named Chop, and between playing fetch and watching him scratch his testes, Chop’s company is strangely relaxing. When you take him for a drive, Franklin opens the passenger door of the car he’s driving, considerately steps aside, and beckons Chop to jump in. It’s here the camera pulls in for a close-up of Chop’s cute, panting face.

Or there’s the scene where Michael meets the movie producer of his dreams and can’t repress a childlike whoop in the parking lot afterwards. These are small touches, but they’ll make you smile, and they’re exactly the sort of moments V benefits from. It’s not that the story takes itself seriously — it doesn’t — rather Rockstar seems to stray too readily into puerile territory, like a gang of boys who have discovered the word “fuck” for the first time.

Score big

But even puerile humour can’t detract from this huge, sprawling game which, at its best, feels like a blockbuster Hollywood never made. This is never more evident than during the spectacular heist missions, which are in short supply, but intentionally so. In between heists, Trevor, Franklin and Michael all have their own separate missions that tie into their respective lives, but when they come together to pull off a daring score a swirling pool of excitement builds in your stomach and a context-sensitive soundtrack kicks in to ramp up the tension.

You can tackle each heist the “smart” way or the “loud” way, with greatly different results. In the midst of a messy shootout, you might curse yourself for not opting to go in stealthily, and there’s always the sense that your decision makes a difference. Furthermore, Rockstar lets you switch between all three men instantly during missions, which keeps the pace up and the excitement high.

There’s also a decision to be made about who you bring along for the ride. Do you opt for the best crew possible but sacrifice more of your cut, or do you go with an inexperienced team but risk losing money in the scramble to safety? The game never makes you sweat your decisions, but you are made to feel like the orchestrator of these daring robberies and it’s a wonderfully empowering feeling.

The heists are made all the more fun by the fact that GTA V’s core mechanics are so beautifully honed. Fist-fighting, driving, shooting and even the mini-map have been carefully tended to and improved upon, and having learnt a thing or two from Max Payne 3, Rockstar has overhauled the sensation of shooting gun, serving up shootouts that wouldn’t look out of place in a first-class action game.

The fact that it could pass off as a good driving game too, or a good adventure game, or a people simulator or a twisted incarnation of Sims is the reason Grand Theft Auto V is so irresistible. It’s a jack of all trades, but it nails all its disparate elements for one juicy, cohesive whole.

And that’s just the thing. You’re never told what to do or where to go. You’re free to explore this weird and wonderful place. For the price of a copy of Grand Theft Auto V, you’re entered into a world of endless entertainment. There are so many side-quests and diversions to explore that you might forget the main story for a few hours. Grand Theft Auto IV was criticized for sporting a big city with very little to do in it. Its sequel redresses that problem with aplomb. Its the best game Rockstar has ever made and a fitting conclusion to a console generation. It’s simple: if you don’t like Grand Theft Auto V, you don’t like games.

Verdict: If you have a pulse, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. Though its puerile humour can wear thin at times, Grand Theft Auto V is peerless.

Score: 10/10

GTA V was reviewed on an Xbox 360