The Grand
Theft Auto series is showing its age, and I couldn't be happier. With Grand Theft Auto V fixing almost all
of the problems of its predecessors, its moved the series from "guilty
pleasure" to "must play" in my eyes.
The
first hour or so had me fooled. Robbery
goes wrong. Cut to nine years
later. "Michael," who survived
the robbery, is talking about how rotten his life is since going straight. Camera pan to the poor side of town, and I'm
given control of a young man in the 'hood named Frankie trying to make
legitimate money as a repo man. Two repo
jobs later and I'm just about ready to start smashing up the city.
The I
was thrown a curveball: The next repo
job had me going to a posh house. When I
used a decent stealth system (welcome addition) to get the vehicle from inside
the house, Michael's in back! Turns out his good-for-nothing son bought the car
at a horrible price, and Michael wants revenge on the guy who sold it to him...
Frankie's boss.
From
this point, GTAV is anything but typical.
Michael is a complex, brooding man who, through a horrible decision
during a revenge mission, is 2.5 million dollars in debt. He likes Frankie, and decides to help mentor
him into someone who can make some real money.
You
get to play as Frankie or Michael at any time.
Some missions are unique to each:
some can be done by either. Main
missions, however, generally use both.
At one point, I was driving as Michael, with Frankie jumping onto a
truck carrying Michael's yacht on it. I
could switch perspectives at any time, giving me a sense of control new to the
series.
There
is a third character you get to play as, who shows up about a quarter of the
way into the main missions. Trevor, who used to work with Michael, is a former
Pilot-in-training who was too psycho to be given clearance to fly for the
military. By the time we meet him, he's
a raging psychopathic meth head who wants in on whatever Michael has going on.
Having
the ability to play as three different character types, switching between them
at any time, put a whole new perspective on how I played this GTA compared to
earlier installments. As Frankie, I
never felt an urge to go around mindlessly smashing, and his missions reflect a
naivety and reluctance to go too far.
Michael, who is by far the most interesting to play as, is constantly
dealing with his crumbling family. The
interactions with his overweight, pot-smoking, video-game-playing gangsta
wannabe son, Jimmy, are some of the funniest I've played in a while. Jonah Hill was perfectly cast in this role,
and his on-screen likeness is uncanny. Trevor's missions are grizzly and
gruesome.
Everything about the gameplay has been tightened up. Running from the cops, which lost its novelty
to me in 2003, is now an activity you only participate in during missions
unless you really go looking for them.
No more will you have a trail of cops on your tail for bumping the
rear-end of a car sitting at a green light.
Rockstar cleverly flipped their own script for this numbered entry in
the series. In the old games, missions
were obnoxious, repetitve chores with no in-mission checkpoints or solid enemy
tracking, especially in high-speed pursuits.
I'd usually get stuck on a really long, boring mission, then spend hours
cracking myself up by causing mayhem.
With part five, I can't wait to get to the next mission. There's a natural progression to them. The game isn't linear, but side quests are
easy to find, mostly unique, and always fun.
I never felt the urge to go off script and shoot up a building because I
was bored with the main game.
Driving, swimming, and flying have all been greatly improved. The cars have more weight now, and they don't
blow up as easily. The most welcome
change is in the simplicity of Los Santos' (and neighboring cities)
layouts. I never felt lost or stuck; My
intuition on when to go off road or stay on the main path were almost always
right because of the intuitive map design and interaction. The first time I flew an airplane, I
completed a mission and landed it all in one try, and it was very fun.
The
best missions in the game are called "heists," where you have to
scope out an area first, put together a group of experts, and carry out the job
using a number of options presented to you after you've gathered all the
assests needed for the gig. It's so much
more gratifying to steal a massive harbor boat when it's all planned out
instead of just running in with guns blazing.
My
favorite missions were the ones marked by question marks on the map, called
"Strangers and Freaks" missions.
As the moniker implies, you never know what to expect from these
missions. Without spoiling anything, I
recommend you find the guy sitting at a table with a small banner saying
"make weed legal." You won't
be disappointed at the surprising details of this mission.
There's a leveling system of sorts, which is new to the series. The more you shoot/drive/swim/etc., the
better you get at those skills. It's a
simple series of meters showing progression, but it's still better than no
Experience Point system at all.
The
few minor gripes I have with GTA V stem from the things that haven't
changed. Rockstar's never ending
multimedia denouncing of the hypocrisy of our capitalist system is played
out. If they've ever written any
subtlety into these bits, the editors went back and had it taken out. Also, the writers can't seem to let go of
their Tarantino complex when writing for black characters. The constant n-bombs and MF'ers are funny for
a little while, but I wouldn't mind seeing a little more evolution in their
dialogue in future releases.
GTAV
is not the reboot that some were calling for, but I'm okay with that. If you still get off on going around killing
strippers while listening to "Gin and Juice," have at it. But Rockstar has moved the series into a more
mature direction that's appealing to gamers like me who are looking for more.
-Review by Tom McDaniel
-Review by Tom McDaniel