Genre: Third Person Shooter / Action Adventure / Driving / Flight / Sports Sim

Platform: PS4

Available On: PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, PC

Released: Sept 17, 2013 (PS3, Xbox 360), November 18, 2014 (PS4, Xbox One), April 14, 2015 (PC)

I remember playing Sleeping Dogs before the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, thinking, holy shit, how is GTA going to top this. The combat is so good, and so deeply rooted in a real life fighting style, beautifully animated – leagues ahead of Niko’s hilarious punch, kick, ragdoll shitshow of melee combat. The old school Hong Kong crime drama is executed with a deft and capable hand. The driving is ludicrous, fast, and over-the-top arcade action. And – as always, with the best of these games – the city, the digital recreation of Hong Kong is just amazing. “A man who never eats pork bun is never a whole man.”

Then GTA V came out.

Full disclaimer. I fucking love this game. It’s huge. It’s ridiculously, outrageously, inappropriately fun on so many levels, in so many ways, and clearly stands on a fucking mountain above its peers. Even the iconic Hideo Kojima is humbled by its awesomeness, himself aspiring to reach such heights, and beyond. This is the masterful brilliance of Rockstar Games, and this is the colossal achievement of Grand Theft Auto V, perhaps the greatest social satire ever created. Where do I even start…

Let’s get into it.

Graphics/Presentation: 10/10

By 10/10, I don’t mean perfect. I mean fucking brilliant, holy fucking impressive technical marvel. Sure, on the PlayStation 4 copy I play, there’s plenty of foliage pop in, out in the wilderness, and weird glitches, and occasional areas that don’t maintain the highest level of polish, but for the most part, the game is absolutely gorgeous and runs smooth, keeping a mostly steady framerate. It’s also possibly the most impressive remaster/port/upgrade in the large crowd of remasters of nearly brand new games. The shocking amount of minute detail is unparalleled in any open world game on the market, even today, three years after its initial release.

Grand Theft Auto V was next gen before next gen arrived.

The team’s attention to detail is staggering and exhausting, with the map spreading across a diverse city – reflecting real, unique neighbourhoods – to vast desert areas and small towns and lakes and mountain ranges, even to an expansive section of beautiful underwater ocean surrounding the entire map. That’s just the big picture in a nutshell.

The minutiae is fucking mind boggling – sweat forming on characters as they run, every car having a unique licence plate, the way NPCs react to you when you cause a crime (calling 911, flipping you off, trying to fight you, and, most often, running from your psychotic ass), the buildings reflecting off your car as you drive, the impressive amount of organically changing dialogue, how dialogue changes when repeating missions, the water pooling realistically when it rains, or the realistic bullet holes in cars when shooting them, fucking moon phases that dynamically change the night lighting, and so on. Goggle 100 things in GTA V that will blow your mind and you get an incredibly impressive list.

Rockstar is considered an industry leader for a reason.

The sound design is equally amazing, bringing the vast digital world alive. The calibre of voice acting is excellent and endlessly entertaining, from the random moments and encounters with NPCs to the brilliant radio stations, and of course, the expertly cast main characters- everything just oozes that quality of competent execution and creative brilliance. The acoustics are great, the guns sound great, cars sound great and even go so far as to have heat clicks when you shut them off sometimes, old cars have squeaking brakes, can backfire and even stall. Everything was considered, right down to the crunching of glass under your feet after breaking a window – just miniscule samples of the dynamic range at work here. The attention to the smallest of details is just as astounding as the visual details of this vibrantly crafted world.

Gameplay: 10/10

Again, not perfect, but deserving of a score suited to a masterpiece – so many impressive systems at work here. To prepare for the initial release of this game on PlayStation 3, I played through The Lost and the Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony, the GTA 4 expansions with my girlfriend – since she had never played them (She loved Johnny. Haha. Fuck…).

Upon firing up Grand Theft Auto 5 almost directly afterward, it was immediately apparent how much of a giant leap forward the series had taken – and the PlayStation 4 version has been even further improved since, as well as adding the first-time-ever-in-the-series feature, first person view (which I have only sparingly toyed with, and have yet to attempt the necessary calibrations I’ve heard are necessary to get a good feel out of it – from what I played, it was really cool, but a little jarring and not quite comfortable).

The driving in the previous game, GTA 4, was notoriously floaty and difficult to control, and the shooting was serviceable but wasn’t exactly fluid and smooth. For anyone who’s been playing the GTA series since its early days, you know how much of a challenge the controls have been, and how difficult and frustrating it made playing a lot of missions. That’s all been improved drastically in GTA 5.

Another interesting addition, especially with a name like Grand Theft Auto, is the new ownership of cars, and garages. Each character starts with their own personal vehicle, that they own. Don’t kid yourself, though – you’ll still be stealing cars.

The driving hits that almost perfect balance of realism and arcade to create one of the most enjoyable, fun-to-play racers on the market. If you need Gran Turismo realism to enjoy driving, you’re in the wrong place, but for the rest of us, strap in and have a blast flying through the city streets, or bouncing through the mountain wilds and open desert in a dune buggy, or dirt bike, or tractor, or whatever vehicle you choose to pluck from the bustling streets.

Flying has also greatly improved from previous entries in the series, and the game doesn’t suffer from any overly difficult, dreaded missions in that area, like we found in San Andreas way back on PlayStation 2. (ahhh, shivers…)

Shooting in GTA 5 has obviously reaped the benefits of what was accomplished with Red Dead Redemption and more recently, Max Payne 3, which has some of the best third person shooting mechanics of any game I’ve ever played. The guns are varied and feel great, aiming is fluid and easy to switch between targets, and while playing as Michael, you get a bullet time effect, very similar to Max Payne. Seriously. This shit only sucks if you do.

Speaking of character-specific gameplay, the single biggest evolution of gameplay in the series is the introduction of three different protagonists you can freely switch between at almost all times, save those scripted scenarios, of course. It’s an amazing feature, and for one, completely obliterates the long running “problem” from previous entries of being stranded in the middle of nowhere after your vehicle (accidentally) blows up.

Now you can just switch to another character and the previous character will find his way back to civilization and new transportation on his own, as they continue on with their daily lives when you’re not controlling them. With a bit of work, even, you can lead all three of them to run into each other and hang out. It works beautifully and can quite often lead to awesome moments, or being dropped into unexpected scenarios such as police chases, stumbling drunk out of a bar, masturbating in a bathroom, waking up in a dumpster, or on a beach, surrounded by beer bottles and dead bodies, or on top of the mountain wearing a pink tutu.

Each character has his own unique style and flair, and reacts differently to the world; Michael, evoking reminiscent feelings of Vice City, retired – with a bullet time mode special “power”; Franklin, San Andreas – with a “bullet time” driving mode (and a pet dog, Chop, you can train and bring along with you!); and Trevor…ahem, uhhh, could very well be Rockstar mocking us all with the mad personification of the players’ own sociopathic desire for murder and mayhem – with invincible rage mode special power, of course. Regardless, he is hilariously monstrous and a testament to Rockstar’s ability create such wildly entertaining characters.

One thing I’ve always appreciated about the Grand Theft Auto series, is how many various “games” are built into the overall world. It covers quite a vast collection of genres, and does all of them quite well. It’s a racing game, with lots of great races and tracks. It’s a shooter, with lots of great battles and explosions. It’s a flying game. It’s a golf game. A pool game, a darts game, a hunting game, a tennis game, a triathlon game, a dancing sim, arm wrestling sim, skydiving sim, stock market sim – and that’s not even mentioning all the movies and TV shows you can watch, sightseeing you can do, hookers to pick up, private lap dances to buy, an underwater ocean world to explore in and out of a submarine, and an impressive amount of random encounters to stumble onto. The sheer number and variety of activities available is daunting, to say the least.

Of course, there’s still the main campaign and all of the side missions, which, in themselves, offer up a great variety of styles and pace in the gameplay, and finally have forgiving checkpoints in larger missions. The main campaign is huge, with more content than most games standing on its own, and kept me engaged and entertained the entire way through, never falling victim to the all-too-common repetitive feeling so many games like this suffer from, when the mission structures don’t vary enough and aren’t paced properly. Fundamentally, you can break all games down as repetitive, but the important factor is whether or not they feel repetitive, and of course, how much you enjoy the style of gameplay presented.

Overall, the variety of gameplay options in GTA V is just incredible and will appeal to a huge number of people, which can easily explain why it’s one of the highest grossing pieces of media ever made (one of the most expensive, as well, with a staggering budget of $265 million), and still in the top five for best selling games, even as recent as this May 2016, alongside the juggernaut release of the very highly anticipated Uncharted 4. Why am I even writing this fucking review – the game speaks for itself.

Story: 9/10

The general broad strokes of the story can be summed up as an homage to the classic heist movies, in the vein of Heat, or Ocean’s Eleven, inspired initially by the bank heist mission in GTA 4 with Packie and his brothers, but it really stands out on its own in its little moments. There are so many disturbing, surprising, and downright shocking moments littered throughout the campaign that it easily sits among the greatest achievements in the genre in any media format.

The way each of the three main characters have their own stories slowly unfolding and simultaneously intertwining with each other is smartly woven and a great way of using different aspects and areas of the open world from different perspectives. It’s similar to how the GTA 4 trilogy played out all in the same city, from different perspectives – only this time it’s all within one game and one story and seamlessly interconnected.

This is a sprawling, epic crime drama at its finest, sprinkled with heavy doses of absurd comedy. The amount of content in the main campaign story alone puts many AAA games to shame. Tons of missions, a huge cast of crazy, entertaining characters, and a vibrant, functioning city bursting with its own stories; all comes together to create a hilarious, vulgar satire on pop culture, violence, greed, crime, friendship and total fucking madness – and then there’s the absolutely fantastic Strangers and Freaks side missions. Of course, as with any story that tackles comedy, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and with subject matter like this it’s just going to rub some people wrong. That being said, if you’re a sensitive, easily offended person, this game shouldn’t even be on your radar.

All scripted stories aside, the beautifully realized open world tells its own stories, independent of the game’s main narrative, through player interaction and simple exploration. I have made many great memories playing GTA with friends, just passing the controller back and forth, seeing who could cause the most mayhem and last the longest, rampaging around the game world creating our own epic adventures, for countless hours, without ever touching a single mission. Rockstar have proven themselves, repeatedly, to be master world builders, and the simple joy of just cruising around unscripted is a testament to their success.

Games like Sleeping Dogs – which blew me away – seem barren in comparison. No other team really even comes close, based on the games I’ve played. Saints Row is a cheap arcade mockery of stolen ideas – of the most over-the-top, ridiculous moments of the GTA franchise (easy now, I still liked the game), right down to that purple rubber dildo from GTA San Andreas (they didn’t even bother changing the colour). Shadow of Mordor, Mad Max, Dragon Age Inquisition, Metal Gear Solid 5, Assassin’s Creed series, Fallout 4 – none of these worlds hold the same appeal once I’m done with all the missions and story content, and I really enjoyed all of these games. The Witcher 3 is one of the only recent games that comes to mind that has a world that is dynamic enough to stand on its own as pure entertainment, outside missions and story beats – but even still, once you’ve explored every nook and cranny and fought every monster multiple times, the drive to return to the game world becomes much less appealing. GTA 5, on the other hand, never seems to get old, which is perhaps why the online portion of the game works so well.

And on that note…

Multiplayer: 10/10

GTA Online is essentially another full game on its own, and could be justifiably sold at full price in the current market climate and still have a ton more meat on its bones than the shamefully sparse content of other recent, big AAA online only games, such as Star Wars Battlefront, Overwatch, Destiny and Titanfall. I’m not saying it should be, but if Rockstar or Take-Two wanted to adopt shitty, anti-consumer business strategies, they could, and we would buy it up crying all the way to the bank.

GTA Online launched with severe technical issues, leaving the early adopters with a frustrating, broken mess, and a sour taste, but those were smoothed out in a few short weeks, and the wailing children of the internet had to go off on a different crusade to find something new to complain about. Considering the scale and ambition of what Rockstar was aiming to achieve here, it should have been expected, but what can you do – people really love to scream and cry about what they think they deserve.

As of this writing, those technical issues are long gone, and what we’re left with is really quite staggering. Seemingly endless missions, both competitive and co-op, a fully open world you can freely roam with up to 30 friends, and heists have finally been added, along with a horde of free content updates that keep rolling in, even three years later. The story elements are thin, serving as a sort of prequel to the single player story, starting your custom designed character as a new citizen to the city at the lowest rungs of the criminal ladder, much like the basic setup of the old classic GTA games. You can even play through a large part of the content solo on a closed server if you wanted, but why would you.

One of the most common complaints I hear about GTA Online is getting grief from some random player who thinks it’s fun or funny to torment you and kill you repeatedly where you respawn. Yea, there’s some really shitty people out there who actively try to ruin the fun of others and get their juvenile, misguided pleasure out of it, but this can be solved in an instant by simply changing servers. I’ve been the victim of this situation and it’s never taken me more than a couple minutes to resolve. After all, this is a game that’s centered around being a psychotic criminal in the sun-splashed city of angels. People are going to try to kill you and steal your shit.

Every encounter with an unknown live player is tense and exhilarating – you never know what will happen. Are they friend or foe? Will they try to kill you, or join you in robbing stores or attempting to steal jets from the military base? I’ve murdered plenty of people by accident in a twitch moment as we approach each other, wondering who will shoot first. I’ve landed a helicopter to pick up a stranger, only to have them shoot at me, so I zipped back up into the air and dropped the helicopter on their head. I’ve played with a stranger for an hour, only to have them suddenly turn around and shoot me, or push me off a building. I’ve accidently shot a friend through their car windshield because they were racing toward me and I didn’t read the text that begged “don’t kill me!” until it was too late. I’ve had strangers pick me up and take me for joy rides. I’ve been standing on the sidewalk when a car races past me followed by a mess of police cars and helicopters in hot pursuit. If I get bored of free roam, I can jump into a variety of missions and make some money, with or without friends. I played a heist with some random folks with heavy southern accents, who were hilariously perfect stereotypes of a jolly fat black guy and his no-nonsense, tough-as-nails lady – and it escalated into one of those play sessions that I really should have fucking recorded.

GTA Online really deserves a separate review on its own, to adequately cover all the aspects and details available. There are races, and the newly released stunt tracks, deathmatch battles, objective based co-op missions, similar to single player story based missions – though simplified in the story department – capture the flag, survival, waved based missions, skydiving, flight school missions, sports and activities, freemode events, you can join crews, become a CEO of a crime organization, create new missions yourself with the content creator tool, and, of course, there’s the five multi-part heist missions to undertake in four player co-op. Your character earns money from jobs, has a leveling reputation system, and an incredible amount of cosmetics to customize your character, vehicles, weapons and apartments – with new content releasing still. The amount of content available and still coming is almost overwhelming, and it’s all free to everyone who owns the game.

It’s really nothing short of criminal that other companies are releasing games like Star Wars Battlefront at full AAA pricing and offering only a pathetic amount of content in comparison. There seems to be no standard in pricing models anymore. Don’t get me wrong, Battlefront is a great game, at a $20-30[CAD] price point, with its small handful of modes and 12 meager maps to play on – anything beyond that, though, is just anti-consumer, unethical business practices, and we have the money hats and shareholders and their small-minded, short-term thinking to thank for it – not the fucking teams putting all their blood, sweat and tears into building all this awesomeness for us.

Unfortunately, we keep buying these games and proving such practices will still lead to commercial success, so don’t go holding your breath for any sort of revolution to happen. It will likely only get worse. Luckily, GTA only seems to be getting better. It’s truly a masterpiece of interactive media and a lofty example of what games can be. Game developers of the world take note – or perhaps, more accurately, shareholders with short-term goals….this is how it’s done.

In Summary:

Pros: greatly improved driving and shooting, 3 protagonists, beautiful world, vibrant, dynamic city, incredible attention to detail, entertaining characters, so many “games” within the game, brilliant radio stations, meaty campaign, great side missions, Chop, GTA Online.

Cons: no jet pack, single player expansions assumed to be cancelled after no news 3 years in.

11/10

Maybe 20% through the trophies, it’s ridiculous – these games are never easy.

*Reverend Horton Heat