Grand Theft Auto V Review

Rockstar, indeed, does it again...here is my full review.

 

GTA V, by Rockstar Games

Grand theft Auto 5 manages to bolster Rockstar's ...rock-star-status; So, yes, if all you need is an affirmation of the greatness that is GTA V, then, again--YES--it is a smorgasbord of fun; a buffet of polish; and a feast of ambitious preparation and scope. Game developer Rockstar has managed to transcend their previous works in many ways with this latest entry in their long running series and they should be commended for it. The technical fidelity, as I mentioned in my review-in-progress, is staggering, if only for the fact that the hardware of the PS3 and the Xbox 360 are--from my perspective--being pushed to their respective limits. This release follows Max Payne 3, published last year, which looked stellar in it's depiction of Brazil, but for it's graphical and detailed achievements was mostly linear. Now, we have GTA V and it captures the level of detail and graphical fineness of Max Payne 3 and it infuses it into an open-world, crime drama.

---"You're a hipster."

---"I hate hipsters."

---"Classic hipsters denial."

In Grand Theft Auto V, you play as Michael, a retire with a shady past and family issues; Franklin, a repo-man who seeks to better his situation by removing himself from a life of petty crime and gang affiliation; and, finally, Trevor, who isn't  quite stable, but is the sort of protagonist that can help to explain away the players in-world transgressions. The three protagonist are drawn together by circumstance and, though some would rather forget others, they share memorable screen-time together. Trevor is a zany character, he sets himself apart as far and away the most insane and off-the-wall character I've experienced in this game and video games in general, recently--next to Vaas from Far Cry 3, that is. Michael typically spends his time watching movies--as he is a huge movie buff--and finding it difficult to relate to his kids or his wife Amanda. Franklin is the youngest of the trio and spends his time repossessing sports cars and the like for a local car dealer. Franklin dreams big, but just needs the right opportunity to present itself. The story in GTA V is a mishmash of narrative threads--which isn't foreign to a GTA title--but, this mash-up has fresh legs that are all due to the dynamics of a three character arc. While the use of three characters didn't move me as much as I thought it would, they still provide a certain je ne sais quoi, a certain revivification ensues. No single piece of the cast is allowed to stagnate because there is always a new overlapping situation or piece of the narrative puzzle to engage with. The overarching story is, granted, nothing special, three criminals plunged further under by their self-less actions lacks a certain redeemable quality, but how we are perfused through the stories body releases a flood of endorphins and a joy-ride brimming with scope and scale, but more importantly a narrative pacing that is trimmed of excess drudgery.  The story isn't perfect, but I believe it is HOW it is told that will captivate and motivate you to see-it-through. 

The world of Grand Theft Auto V is on a scale almost unseen. The landscape of San Andreas is supposed to be Rockstar Games largest open-world ever made. I can confirm that it is large but more importantly it is detailed. I kept reiterating this in my review-in-progress because it is key to the very nature of this latest entry. I see GTA V as a culmination of all of Rockstar's current-Gen offerings; from Red Dead Redemption to Max Payne to GTA IV, Rockstar has learned, progressed and applied several advancements to each new release; Thus, I must say that Grand Theft Auto V, in terms of scale and the tiny details that draw you into it's reality, is the most impressive open-world I have seen in a game. Hyperbole? Maybe it is. But I am willing to bet that the first few hours of that you spend with GTA V will make most gamers believe otherwise. The streets brim and bustle with passersby, who have random conversations that I have, thus far, neglected to hear twice. The street signs and shop adornments are believable and, though ancillary, revealing. The roads and pavement are uniquely textured, sporting cracks and crevices. The underpasses, abandoned lots, highways, intersections, mountain tops, lakes, woods and townships are worn and lived in; unsettled places are few and far in between, the architecture and layout of the most specific set of back-roads, corner stores or parking lots seem intentional and purposeful. Rockstar, thus, not only trimmed the fat and raised the ante on the narrative but also initiated and invigorated such changes into the main character to end all main characters the open-world of San Andreas. Rain drenches the streets and fog sets-in and rolls on in a believable fashion; lighting  illuminates the night sky, and thunder claps and cuts through the somber night air.  Though you can start to unravel the illusion the longer you play, a quick break will cast it once more.  From military bases, farmland, underwater, lakes, downtown urban areas, beaches riversides, mountains, desert, air bases, Vinewood hills, etc. there is a lot to explore--A LOT...my map isn't all revealed, and the map opens up the more you play. 

Visually the illusion GTA V sets up is phenomenal, given its scale. There are noticeable jagged edges and some weak textures here and there, but, for the most part, the game looks flat out good. The draw distance, as I have said, Is vastly better than in GTA IV and it remains quite stable. Even when speeding down the boulevard you can generally anticipate the space in front of you. There is a huge decrease in the use of blurring and bloom, this means a cleaner looking game with less disorientation when moving the camera about or when driving at top speed. The shimmer of water and the underwater reefs and sunken barges present an almost magical departure from the concrete jungle of Los Santos or the dry-desert of Blaine county. There are some nice water physics and miner effects that give a sense of place when gliding through the surf.  Underwater is a hazy, colorful, ultra-pastoral city itself and you are free to explore its breath and depth at your leisure--all the while increasing your lung capacity stat. Along with the visual fidelity, I will mention the ease of transitions between cut-scenes--story missions or random events--, from the moment you step-into the open-world things transition with nary a load-time making the world seem seamless from open-world to cut-scene and vice versa. When you switch between characters it's as if you are using a Google-map. You are transferred from a third-person perspective to a first-person view of the land-scape, and then you are--within at most 20 seconds--  sent crashing from the sky into a scene of leisure, with the character you selected going about their business, and you preparing to take seamless control of them. Michael may be lounging by the pool or enjoying a bit of cinema on his projector screen. Franklin could be washing his car or exiting a store-front. Trevor, well, Trevor could be asleep in a dumpster or chasing after a random NPC in his pick-up truck.  This transition from walking to one mission area or marker to watching a short cut-scene to reacquiring control of your character is well-executed. Moving between characters during missions is smooth and even faster than when roaming about the open-world; this movement allows for differing tactile possibilities, like as Trevor shooting down a helicopter arriving for back-up, while the computer-controlled Micheal and Franklin clear the streets bellow of guards.     

As vibrant and comprehensive a world as Rockstar has built, I will be honest, the missions are what drew me in the most-- and unexpectedly so. The heist missions  in particular had me beaming from ear to ear as I reenacted classic movie set-ups--such as in The Getaways and Inceptions of the world. It was the feeling of empowerment granted by the seemingly dynamic and arrangeable elements of each heist mission that had me pushing on to the next one. Though the missions aren't as dynamic and open-ended as they first seemed, they do hold stead fast to the feeling that it brings. The missions are exciting and come in a variety of flavors. There are the smaller heists, such as stealing an armored car or robbing a gas station; the strangers and freaks missions sprinkled and unlocked through the world as you progress through the main narrative thread; there are gold medals and rankings to achieve by completing street races, triathlons, tennis matches, gun range shooting, darts, etc.; there are also, if all that wasn't enough, random street events, which occur...at random, and offer up scenarios that have you making quick--brief-- decisions that may offer up larger returns on the time you invested to get involve. This is all not to mention the players ability, as any of the three protagonists, to buy property--and complete missions to keep said property running smoothly--, to buy new clothes, cars, stocks, tattoos, haircuts, weapon mods, etc. The in game stock markets, of which there are two, are the LCN and the BAWSAQ, the later being effected by the actions of players across the globe playing GTA V online--through Roctstars social club and the former being affected by in-game market fluctuations due to missions taken or other, more ancillary, actions that the player may take in the game world. 

So, what can be said is that the game offers up a hard-hitting collage of socially caustic criticism, in the form of constantly enjoyable missions from the very beginning of the game. The GTA V is long, ranging in the 40 plus-hour territory, but it constantly offers up fresh missions with new ambitions and motivations. One moment you may be indebted to one set of characters doing anything but two-bit work in restitution, and the next thing you know your battling it out on a nose diving jet-liner or casing a joint for the next take. The missions, much like the world itself, offers up a feeling of balance, there are less self-indulgent moments by the creative teams at Rockstar and more open mission structures--forgoing the rigid mission structure of some GTA IV missions; engaging characters like Trevor and his relationship with Micheal and with Franklin, and there is constant reinvention of what this game does and does well. The mechanics are all there, the third-person shooting is as polished as I have experienced in a Rockstar game, getting to cover or from cover is less frustrating and more rewarding and efficient with a simple tap of the R1 button on the PS3. Stealth is new, in that it is a general mechanic and not restricted to a specific mission, but is a mechanic that can see a fair amount of use, it also has its own stat that can be increased by sneaking up and knocking out enemies. The stealth is fairly simple, requiring only a press on the L3 button and an awareness of the the red enemy markers on the new GPS-like mini-map. Stealth is thus neither the greatest nor the worst implementation of the tip-toeing arts, but it's--for the most part--proficiently implemented. Fighting is nothing special, but is just another detail that has seen a working level of improvement from previous entries to the series, you dodge with square and can then proceed to counter with either circle or (x) on the PS3 controller. Besides the mechanics, I must mention that the physics of the driving and the other real-world reproductions are quite impressive. Rockstar has managed to cram in even air turbulence while flying. Walking, running, jogging appear more life like than ever, thanks in-part to the improved RAGE engine and Euphoria physics implemented in the game. Driving is less stilted and heavy than in IV,  cars do handle differently--just try hopping into a trash compactor after darting through downtown Los Santos in a Banshee, cars in general have tighter handling all the better to race through the winding streets of LA re-envisioned.  Car customization feels well implemented and drastically effects the performance of your car, trust me, after souping-up my Buffalo sports car I was leaving the competition in the dust. 

Mission variety, gameplay that is much improved--both in responsiveness and implementation, good visuals,  an exhaustively detailed world--where cops chase random pedestrians and robberies are not the sole doing of one deranged player-character, refreshing narrative threads that reach into each protagonists life and splays a tiny, yet substantive, sampling out for the player to indulge in at their own pace, GTA V is all these things and more. Checkpoints do NOT reek of poor execution. The player is not punished by any poor game design, if you fail a mission most likely you know why and the checkpoint system is by far the best checkpoint system ever executed in an open-world of this magnitude. The game is very forgiving, but the challenge is tailored to the players liking, shooting too easy?then simply turn off aim-assist and switch to free-aim. There are also challenges to be beaten or surmounted for every mission and those who want a challenge...well, good luck to you, as some of the gold ranking challenge requirements are particularly tough to achieve. The game is not perfect, what game is. The controls, while greatly improved, can be brefet of finesse, for example, in tight corners and spaces controls can prove disastrous--yes, disastrous to enjoyment; this means in most heavily packed and well furnished interiors, one has to be careful of spacing and obstructions and how much pressure is applied to the analog sticks. 


 As a social satire, GTA is well needed and much like Saints Row, this time GTA doesn't take itself all-too-seriously, not that I had a problem with the overall ethos of GTA 4, I greatly enjoyed it, as a matter of fact. But, in  its attempt to reflect the mirror back on an overindulgent, unequal, hypocritical, greedy, violent, ethnically/racially/sexually charged society GTA 5 may--to some-- have gone too far, at times. I enjoyed most of what( from what I could see) was witty, controlled, humorous commentary; from big banks to gender roles; from government incompetence/lack of execution to gun policies; from social class to ethnic stigmas and prejudice, etc. you name it and some part of Grand Theft Auto 5 ran a comb through it and gagged/spoofed it. But I can agree with some other critics that things do ,in certain respects, go too far without a reasonable amount of reproach. Misogyny, sure, the argument can be made that Rockstar is only working with the realities it is given and the artistic license that it has a right to, but without a proper counter-balance to the overly-sexualized/overly-subordinate and/or overly-uptight-pseudo-feminist-stereotype ( representative of a women of power), it can be reasoned that there is some  insensitivity or lack of care on Rockstar's part, but if this is all meant to be a kaleidoscope of contemporary ideology-- of mainstream demons-- then I'd say it could be justified with  some sort of overt-rejection of this outmoded way of viewing, and relating to a video game audience--which is not solely straight, gay, Latin@, Afro-American, Black, White,male, female, Middle-Eastern, Asian, etc., but are all these things and more. There is also an interrogation mission that did manage to make me uncomfortable, it was unsettling in its player/ induced/protagonist/ pleasuring conflation. Well, one might say that it's a GTA game and you can run a pile-o-polygon person over in a simulated car, so what if you have to torture one face-to-face and with the reality of confronting their all-too-human screams and jerks as you do your thing. I say, while uncomfortable, this mission is a highly symbolic/highly concentrated portion of what I find intriguing in GTA as a series (not the violence for violence sake), it manages to make you an interactive player in the deconstruction of the many naturalized and illegitimate social realities in which we sleep-walk through and never question or challenge. GTA V in its controversy, its ambition, its grand-scale mileage Is at it's heart a work of art--maybe a masterpiece-- to each player/ on looker the message derived, decoded, and assimilated may be different, but there is no doubt a message present. The nail-on-the-head cartoons that can be viewed from ones virtual couch, in ones virtual mansion, are the essence of a  vision and the ability to follow-through on that vision. Rockstar seamlessly draws you into the reality plastered on your TV/monitor, and has you be the agent of their vision, while they lead you to construct-- in their own subtle way-- a cynical view of your part in their world and what that means about you and the larger culture in actuality. 

Overall:   

Grand Theft Auto V is an expensive artistic endeavor. It is brimming with content, racing, random missions, character customization and leveling of stats, challenges, sports, heists--I almost neglected to mention the Internet and your phone they are hubs to make military grade vehicle purchases--or high-end luxury vehicle purchases, buy stocks, quick save, invite characters to hang-out(some may be too busy to) and explore the wonders of a cult among other things, like getting mission details. Its thoroughly fleshed out world is informed by a scathing satire and is itself the focal mockery. Grand Theft Auto V is less brooding and more off-the-wall and I know some really wanted to hear this. Trevor is rambunctious, often waking up in the middle of nowhere missing his shirt and vomiting profusely, he is a Psychopath--he is insane, but then so are the things that the player enables him to do are. Trevor is truly smart and enthralling, but can grate the nerves at times. Micheal is the cliche expert, but I found him refreshing because of his family and his demons. Franklin plays the line between a good guy at heart and a socially frustrated criminal who sees no other opportunities. But, to me, Franklin still proves engaging as do all the other characters, more so when they share screen-time and doubly so when the supporting cast--which feels diverse, track-able, and full of substance--( including Franklin's partner in crime and friend Lamar), takes part in the fun. There are some small graphical hitches; some occasions--especially when indoors--where the controls lack...control/proficiency; also, some uncomfortable story moments as well.I have barely scratched the surface of what this game harbors beneath its digital layers, but overall Grand Theft Auto V from the driving to the shooting to the story to the missions to the open-world has set the bar for this generation of crime-drama games:

I give Grand Theft Auto V a :     9.6/10                             

 A PS3 retail copy of Grand Theft Auto 5 was provided by Rockstar Games for this review. This does not impact the integrity of my final assessment.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more. Any comments, questions, concerns, etc. let me know in the comments below or by contacting me on Twitter:@TheVauntedGamer or through E-mail: meech268@gmail.com