Grand Theft Auto V

With the outstanding release of Grand Theft Auto V on the 7^th generation console (PS3, Xbox 360) , generating 1 billion dollars’ worth of sales in the first three days, Rockstar Games was setting their new goal to release the already popular game to the 8^thgeneration game system and PC release in late 2014 and early 2015. Receiving a copy for my PS4, I finally decided to see what the whole buzz was about surrounding this game and I was going to finally experience this game everybody was so satisfied with. 

Concept

 As a long devoted fan to open world games, GTA V satisfies with its great location of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles. You can switch between 3 characters, Michael Townly, Franklin Clinton and Trevor Philips. All of them are amazing to play, as they all have different abilities such as Franklin’s ability to slow his driving allowing for those short turns you might need, Michael’s ability to slow down time and Trevors rampage which allows him to deal extra damage as well as receive less damage. All of them are great and are very useful in certain situations. In terms of characters, these are far my favorite trio in such a long time. From Franklin’s cool and smooth tone, to Trevor’s psychopathic rampage and Michael’s weird but settle approach to situations. All of them are great characters, but the most exciting part I hadn’t felt in a while was the wide arrange of people you will met in side missions, core mission and even just wondering around. From people who want to legalize marijuana who will get you purposely high so you can hallucinate, to adrenaline junkies, they are all great to meet. The story roughly took me about 30 hours, without counting the side mission, side activities and quest. Any possible thing you want to do, you can do in this game. Want to waste time racing in ATV’s? Do it. Want to play tennis? Do it. Want to cause chaos and get chased by 5 star level police? Do it! And that is just the icing on the cake. 

Gameplay

The original GTA V on the 7^th gen system was a gorgeous looking game, but even more stunning in the 8^th gen systems. I played my game on the PS4 and the most noticeable addition is that you could play the game in first person mode, something the PS3 and Xbox 360 didn’t have. This is a great way to play the game, as you can notice the visual different with far more details than ever before. The main way to play the stories for GTA is simple. You can play as any character and they all have different stories, but the great attractions is the addition to the excellent heist missions. In order to play the heist missions, you must first decide on how you will approach it. For example, I had two choices to rob a jewelry store. Option one was to go in guns blazing but I would have to first get a getaway car, then get the right crew members and finally be able to see what ways to escape. The second option is going more stealthfully, surveying the area, hiring a crew that can hack into the security cameras, steal sleeping gas and get drivers to drive away with the money. It’s all a wild roller-coaster which encourages replay ability, I had to stop my progression just to try out the other idea.

GTA Online is the multiplayer aspect in which up to 30 players can join your world, 16 on 7^th gen, and it is a game of its own. With constant challenges and missions and soon to be added Online Heist, online looks like a promising game mode that I will surely invest more and more time.

Conclusion

Grand Theft Auto is one of those games where you must experiment no matter what, even though the violence producing, the sexualize themes it produces, it’s still delivers one great story, gameplay that is simply incomparable and the sheer content that this game has to offer. With Online being the next option that lets you continue after finishing its story, GTA V will surely make you want to revisit Los Santos time and time again.