GTA is Back
Grand Theft Auto III was a transformative game for me. I was obviously too young to play it, my parents knew that, but I was able to obtain a copy and play it in its entirety none the less. I really do believe that the experience of playing that game turned me into the game enthusiast that I am today. That’s the baggage any game carrying the name Grand Theft Auto carries with it: equal parts hype and dread. I’m happy to say GTA V lives up to it’s name entirely. It expands on what you want it to, but still remaining extremely game-y. It doesn’t attempt to be as “realistic” as Call of Duty, or so many other games that have been moving towards realism. It’s perfectly fine to let you have more guns than ever, crazy car crashes that you can usually walk away from, and police that aren’t quite as vindictive as they are in the real world. But outside of that, Rockstar continues to show that they are one of two or three studios active today that understands how to make a character.
Every GTA game takes a lot of inspiration from a particular type of movie, or a specific movie. Anyone who knows anything about V knows that it is taking a lot from Michael Mann’s classic movie Heat. That aspect gives GTA V some of it’s best moments. You get to go on heists, where you get to do all the prep, choose the approach, and feel like a criminal mastermind when you get away with it in the end.
Which brings me to the next new mechanic: multiple characters. From a gameplay perspective, switching between characters makes the multi character missions that much more fun. There’s never a dull moment. When one character’s activities cool down, another heats up, you switch seamlessly and keep going. From a plot perspective, having each character not necessarily be a main character does a few things for you. It gives the sense that each of the three characters is living their own crazy lives. It lets each character have a specialty, bringing them down into reality a little bit more by not having one character who is basically a super hero. Most importantly, you can have the craziness of Trevor because it’s grounded in Michael and Franklin. Thankfully, all three main characters are fantastic in their own ways.
Finally, the last piece of any GTA game is satire. They always satirize American culture, and yes it’s been done before, and starting to feel old and not as funny anymore. But the rest of the game, the main story for the most part, I don’t look at as satire or parody even though there is a good amount of humor. It’s all homage, and I look at it as more of a commentary on the heist genre and political thrillers at points than it is a critique of a American politics and cultures, and it pulls off those story beats as well as you can imagine. It puts together a great story, with very fun characters. It’s not depressing like GTA IV, it is just fun the whole way through.
The mechanics, story and characters come together to form an amazing overall experience. The game is a lot of fun to play, and the GTA controls are better than ever, even though that control scheme comes off as very aged after playing Sleeping Dogs last year, but it works more than well enough to convey its entertaining and mature story.
