Surely you remember how you ran the very first GTA on your old, weak computer and spent hours stealing cars in Liberty City. Or remember the queues for the GTA 3 disc in the classroom, when some lucky guy announced that he had this car thief simulator and he was ready to share with friends.
The phenomenal success of the series, including financial success, has not been repeated by any game company in the world for a decade, and Rockstar raises the quality bar in an incredible way with each new game.
Actually, nothing else but another revolution was expected from GTA 5. Rockstar has once again shown the world how to make open world games, how to fix bugs and whatnot, how to make games in general. We were again provided with insanely expensive, incredibly high quality, incredibly interesting and, indeed, I will not be afraid of this word: a perfect product.
Traditionally, each new game of the series presents us with new heroes, new events and a new location: the stone jungle of Liberty City from GTA 4 has been replaced by the sunny state of San Andreas and the city of Los Santos. For the first time in the series, there is not one main character in the game, but three at once: the rather bright young hijacker Franklin, the thief Michael, who is tired of life, and the maniac Trevor, who is sick in the head.
Franklin spins as best he can, realizing, however, that he is marking time and it is clearly time to change everything in his life. Michael literally got sick of everything: his wife, children, a luxurious life on the remnants of stolen money, nonsense on TV, advice from a psychologist, and so on – he has a clear crisis after 40. And the manic Trevor … well, Trevor will build an international criminal corporation with the main office in a godforsaken village of Sandy Shores.
By the will of fate, all three heroes get into trouble and look for a way out of them by joining forces. The plot in GTA 5, as before, amazes with its scale and skillful direction. What is not here: conspiracy theories, working with and against the government, robbing banks, jewelry stores and bulk carriers, destroying the drug business of competitors and much, much more.
Dialogues are incredible pleasure: millions of all kinds of references, parallels, jokes and satire. At the same time, as promised, the game is outrageously not politically correct: any topic raised in the process of passing (racism, drugs, politics, economics, sexual minorities, etc.) is issued, as they say, without cuts – all things are really called by their own names.
Such frankness and honesty towards the player is amazing and incredibly pleasing – perhaps, for me, this is the main advantage of Grand Theft Auto 5. You really believe in the world in which you play and clearly feel the contrasts between the city districts and the social groups that inhabit them. This, in turn, allows you to always discover something new for yourself.
Speaking of scale, it is impossible not to mention the huge game world that lives its own life, and is able to provide the player with a huge amount of entertainment. In GTA 5, you can ride a bike, explore the seabed using scuba gear or a mini-submarine (by the way, such an opportunity appeared for the first time in the series), fly planes and helicopters, get tattoos and buy clothes, practice yoga, play tennis and golf , skydive, go to bars and so on and so on and so on. In fact, it’s easier to say what you can’t do in a game.
At the same time, the number of these features never harms the quality: we know that Rockstar is famous for the fact that it works scrupulously on every, even the smallest and seemingly imperceptible, detail. As a result, no matter what you do in the game, you are guaranteed to be interesting and fun – each activity is turned into a mini-game that can test your attention, perseverance and dexterity.
In the process of passing, one gets the feeling that all the previous games from Rockstar were released only in order for GTA 5 to be born.
The most important and interesting innovation that directly affects the entire gameplay in GTA 5 is the ability to switch between three characters at almost any time, using the special skills of each hero, for the most successful completion of the task.
This is truly a revolutionary formula that sets a new fashion, which, of course, will be picked up by other developers in the future. However, not every mission requires the intervention of Michael, Franklin and Trevor at the same time. The heroes really live their own lives, and, believe me, there is enough trouble in it. Therefore, from time to time unique tasks for everyone appear on the map, both the main ones necessary to complete the game, and additional ones, which are no less interesting to pass.
With the help of individual tasks, we can look at the world of GTA through the prism of the worldview of each hero. That is, playing, for example, for the insane Trevor, the player is required to do some ridiculous crazy things that, under normal conditions, defy description. However, and this is the great merit of Rockstar, managing the same Trevor, what is happening on the screen seems extremely logical and necessary.
At the same time, when we switch to Michael or Franklin, we understand that, oh my God, what crazy things we have been doing for the last half an hour! And we look at the GTA world through the eyes of these heroes, perceiving everything exactly as the characters do, given their character and social status. What is this if not another example of Rockstar North’s craftsmanship?
In the process of passing, one gets the feeling that all previous games from Rockstar were released only in order for Grand Theft Auto 5 to be born. All the successful innovations that little by little could be seen in Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne3, L.A. Noire and previous games in the GTA series are amazingly harmoniously integrated into GTA 5, complementing it and throwing it up to unprecedented heights of quality.
All the points for which previous games were often criticized are smoothed and taken into account as much as possible in the fifth part, and this also applies to graphics, which has grown by an order of magnitude compared to the fourth part, and really squeezes the maximum out of the current generation consoles. And to be honest, she’s really, really attractive.
