Developer: Rockstar North
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Release Date: 17 September 2013
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best Grand Theft Auto game to be released this console generation. There is much more exciting crazy fun adventures in this open world adventure this time around. If you loved Grand Theft Auto games and you are the few people that didn’t get this already then go out right now and get this game.You can also check for Gaming Rig 1080p 144hz monitor reviews for better clarity while playing Grand Theft Auto games.
Story
The story follows three characters, Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. Michael is a retired robber who life is currently miserable. Franklin a gangster born in the ghetto trying desperately to better his life. Then there is Trevor, a psychotic violent drug dealer who random impulses lead to random adventures.
Playing three characters lets you explore the city from different perspectives. How the characters cross paths leads to some interesting missions but to not ruin anything you have to play it yourself. This isn’t some epic thriller that will try to grab you by your seat but I can assure you though these three have a very fun exciting journey in Los Santos.
The game is set in Los Santos a city based off of Los Angeles. As with any Grand Theft Auto game the city sets the tone and theme of how the story will be played. Los Santos is very much like Los Angeles with movies, beaches, and of course violence. And in addition, casinos are also present, but there is a real casino that you can play online that lets you play real money? Visit 666casino to find out and experience the real feel of online casino.
The story as you play these three characters paces itself to never bore you but also has a bunch of distractions to interest you. These side missions add to the story by having the characters put in fun situations. While they might not add much to the storyline they display more of the characters personality.
The story of Grand Theft Auto 5 is like a story from Pulp Fiction. There are just a bunch of separate interesting stories that have a small connection to each other. The overall theme of robbery plays a big part but the story offers much more than that which is a great thing.
Gameplay
Grand Theft Auto 5 is a massive open world where you have so many tools to do so many things as you see fit. Filled with action and fun distractions you can get distracted easily to find that you have been playing for hours and it is already midnight.
Grand Theft Auto has many changes to series but they still have a core storyline of missions you can go through. These missions are creative and can have a lot of outrageous action. They never feel too old and repetitive something past series had trouble with. In fact if there anything to say about missions are that there aren’t enough storyline missions.
That is fine though since there are many other things to do throughout the game. From participating in car races, riding a bike to the top of a mountain, buying businesses, and robbing liquor stores. You can also find people to give you these missions that aren’t part of the storyline if you want to try something a little different.
What help makes this world so alive is sometimes it randomly throws random events at you. The map will sometimes flash and you see someone being robbed. You can just go on with your day, help the victim in need or you can kill the robber and take the money for yourself.
Control for most part is improved and better than it has been in previous games. Being an open world game and having so much to do has always been understandable a problem with so much to make work together. It is not perfect but still has the best controls in the series has seemed to over.
Driving a car now is a lot more accessible. I get that cars need to have different feel to them but if the realism of their control means I have to drive as careful as I do in the real world they are missing the point. This time they do a really good job of making controls more fun and focused.
Since you play three characters you are able to switch between each. This makes exploring the world a lot easier since you have no idea what the other characters will end up doing when you decide to play them. You also can switch between characters during missions which add to some amazing sequences like where you have pilot a helicopter, provide sniper fire and rappel down a building all in the same mission.
Michael, Franklin and Trevor all have unique abilities and strengths. This adds to character dynamic and fun game play. Michael can go into bullet time, Franklin can slow time down when driving and Trevor can go into a rampage mode to take and dish out more damage. Each characters have other attributes like stamina and strength that can be improved by doing fun activities like tennis and triathlons.
One of the best new features are pulling off heists. These are missions where you get to do preplanning, recruit additional members, and decide on different approaches to obtain the loot. Every decision you make has an effect on the outcome of the heist. These play out exactly like you could imagine in the movies but with you in control. They are by far the most fun I had in the game.
Grand Theft Auto also features a robust online experience. It could be just for the PSN but my experience has been extremely buggy. Too many technical issues have been hindered my time. Also I never found my friends online so playing with strangers was not that great since it was mostly mayhem. Many times I couldn’t even log on into the world or I would disconnect quickly.
The online feature has a lot of potential bringing what you enjoy about the single player to an experience you enjoy with your friends. I could see this game being very fun if I could play with close friends doing robberies, car races, random mayhems, and of course stealing cars. Since I don’t it is not fair enough for me to judge the online experience other than if I had more friends to play with I could see it being extremely fun.
While the multiplayer might have technical issues they hopefully can be fixed but until than you have a amazing single player experience at your disposal. You will enjoy playing in this open world for a long time with the variety and polished fun available to you.
Ride a bicycle, play tennis, practice yoga and much more
Audio
The voice actors for all the characters are amazing. Trevor especially plays a convincing psychopath which leads to many funny times. You will love the dialogues that they have with each other and other characters throughout the story. The amount of unique dialogue that is in this game is breathtaking considering how big the world is.
Radio stations are back with much more variety making in the game so enjoyable. While some stations and genres have more love than others the amount of good artists chosen do a great job of reflecting modern day Los Santos. While I wish Electric stations had as much Rockstar details as the others it is more of a personal opinion than gripe. Still loved hearing Rick James as I was driving along the coast.
Music in this game creates the atmosphere of this world. Rockstar originals score are just as amazing as the songs they enlisted. A game that prides itself in presenting such a artistic world does an amazing job with the audio fitting in the world they are showcasing.
With stunning graphics the game looks simply amazing!
Graphics
Grand Theft Auto 5 has amazing graphics and it is no surprise this console generation lasted this long Character models, lighting, details in explosions, skyscrapers of Los Santos all look amazing. This is extra impressive given the size and scope of this massive game.
As always unique art style used adds much to the atmosphere for the game. Driving through Los Santos looks like how it would be driving through Los Angeles. Even little details like how one neighborhood is different from the block next over. Parts of the world feels like it was for movie stars and other for gun loving country folk.
Having grown up in Los Angeles I can say Los Santos feels like Southern California. From the valley to the beaches it is like the city I grew up in. Walking along the strand in Vespucci Beach reminded me of the cheap pizza and many souvenirs being sold in Venice Beach. Los Santos I was reminded of my old home straight down to the graffiti.
Downsides
The controls are still not as perfect as I want them to be. It is extremely hard to have them right considering the amount of things to do but it still did bother me. Many times I would fall off a ladder or edge when the weight of the character moved just a bit too much. This would happen to me during missions to.
There are also quite a few of technical issues in the single player campaign. While they don’t ruin the experience they can be bothersome. One time I was running away from the cops and needed a fast car. Everyone was driving jeeps all around the city even near the rich Vinewood. I could never escape the cops in my slow vehicle and got wasted.
The heists in the game are extremely fun but about only 3 of them actually gave me the choices to actually pick how I wanted to run them. In a game with so much choice I was disappointed something so important to the storyline was only visited two to three times. I only got to use a member I recruited at the beginning of the game twice.
None of these problems are enough to ruin the experience of the entire game. They were just small annoyances or opinions to what would arguably be one of the best Grand Theft Auto games out there.
Conclusions
If you liked playing Grand Theft Auto games before and currently do not own this game than go out and get it right now. This review doesn’t do the game justice since I could not possibly talk about everything amazing about the game in this review because there is just so much in this game. You will enjoy this game if you loved previous Grand Theft Auto games. If you never played them before this is a great time to get into the series.
9.5 out of 10
Ride a bicycle, play tennis, practice yoga and much more
