For the past year or two, there has been a particular hypothesis circulating that “box set” TV has supplanted cinema as the primary medium for widely consumed, culturally significant entertainment. Hollywood’s simple three-act confections are not telling us about modern life these days; instead, shows like Homeland, The Wire, and Breaking Bad are. However, Grand Theft Auto V suggests a future in which video games assume that role, or at the very least aggressively pursue it. In contrast to the wide range of amazing entertainment that the video game industry creates, non-players cannot properly categorize or disregard this series. Over the past ten years, Rockstar has exerted significant influence over the public’s perceptions of video games and what they can be.
A sweeping story of criminal maniacs self-destructing on a blood-splattered career trajectory to hell, Grand Theft Auto V is mostly set in the glitzily superficial city of Los Santos, a twisted reflection of Los Angeles. Michael is the middle-aged criminal who has a movie obsession and made a witness protection agreement with the government following an unsuccessful crime many years ago. Trevor, his former partner and a sociopath who bakes meth in the desert, shows up in town. The two team up with Franklin, a young black boy who is determined to leave his neighborhood riddled with gangs. The goal is to land a few last high-paying positions, but Trev and Michael have a long-standing animosity that is a ticking time bomb that will never go out.
With only three characters, the story is liberated from the embarrassing need for one protagonist to see and experience everything in this huge globe. While off-mission, switching between the three characters is possible at any time. Each character has a small side project to work on, which adds variety and a few funny surprises. For example, switching to Trevor typically involves handling a strange violent episode or bodily function, while switching to Michael involves managing his dysfunctional family. A massive scheme involving rival government agencies and dishonest billionaires is superimposed upon all of this.
The end result is a wild ride through genre literature and film, complete with psychopathic mafia bosses, crazy motorcycle gangs, xenophobic triads, corrupt secret agents, and cynical movie producers whose stories weave in and out of the lives of our main characters. It’s at times disorienting but also absurdly captivating, and it’s clear where multi-strand dramas like The Wire had an influence.
On a mission
GTA veterans will still recognise how the game underneath it all works. Beyond the core narrative missions that players must finish to advance, there is an extensive array of dynamic encounters, side-quests, and lucrative endeavors. These range from purchasing real estate to running clubs and trading stocks (which nimbly responds to in-game events, enabling you to earn extra money by purchasing the right shares at the right time). Like all video game feedback loops, the majority of plot objectives are variations on a single theme: drive someplace, shoot something, drive back. However, the fun lies in how well the system is executed. And GTA V delivers, man.
Saying much more would be spoiling the excitement of discovery, but you can be sure that there will be crazy stunts, enormous amounts of destruction, military-grade weapons, and plane jumps. and chopper planes. These adventures combine the outstanding physics engine with the sheer size of the terrain, throwing everything at you from jet ski chases to rural bank heists to handling massive industrial gear. The larger heists involve little preliminary tasks (such as hiding getaway automobiles and selecting novelty masks), which increase the suspense and obliquely reinforce the impression that we are all performing in our own adaptation of Michael Mann’s movie Heat. Even when some concepts are repeatedly refuted and challenged, you are guided towards.
Satirical scope
In fact, Rockstar North has created a remarkable universe that serves as both a pulverizing, nihilistic satire on western culture and an intriguing, diversified setting. The popular psychological books, celebrity magazines, social media, plastic surgery, reality TV, and other media are all disparaged by the frequently humorous ads on the game’s numerous radio and TV stations. A commercial for Righteous Slaughter 7 boasts of “the realistic art of contemporary killing,” proving that even video games can be successful.
As a matter of fact, Rockstar North has produced an amazing universe that functions as a fascinating, varied backdrop as well as a pulverizing, nihilistic satire on western culture. The often hilarious advertisements on the game’s many radio and TV stations mock popular psychology books, celebrity magazines, social media, plastic surgery, reality TV, and other media. Righteous Slaughter 7’s commercial extols “the realistic art of contemporary killing,” demonstrating that video games can be profitable as well.
Conversely, gunfights are intense, visceral ballets that are fueled by frequent trips to the well-stocked Ammu-Nation stores. While Red Dead Redemption taught GTA a lot about organic settings (the rural parts of San Andreas are teeming with wildlife), Max Payne taught it about game systems. The best complement you can give this concept is that the fighting is incredibly seamless, with a good range of useful aiming options and a cover feature that functions nearly imperceptibly. Aiming primarily at the player’s creativity rather than skill, the majority of set-piece battles are stunning rather than extremely difficult, and that’s precisely the goal. It’s important to realize that, despite its best efforts, Grand Theft Auto V is not primarily a story or mechanics game.
Forgivable flaws
This is crucial because it enables us to overlook the shortcomings of the game. You’re required to drive a lot. Every task requires traveling across highways to reach the trigger location; certainly, there are moments when you think, “Ugh, not another car ride.” Another somewhat annoying narrative device that Rockstar North has created is what I’ll refer to as “the exposition expedition”: a lot of lengthy journeys that appear to be included solely to allow the main characters to discuss backstories or have meandering, profanity-filled discussions about pop culture and psychology. Tarantino is probably to blame for this.Moreover, the designers don’t always clearly state what the system’s rules are. Certain missions require you to complete the required action only after receiving a particular prompt; other missions don’t provide you any prompts at all and will fail you if you miss the required sweet spot. Additionally, the game has a tendency to give mission instructions through both in-game dialogue and an on-screen text prompt at the same time. This can lead to a situation where you miss important plot details or are left wondering what the hell to do next because you were distracted by something else. Alternatively, that’s my personal experience; some people might be more adept at ludological multitasking.
Once more, women are cast in secondary parts as weirdos, whores, and unfaithful spouses. It is suspected that the story’s one successful female character is only out to get even with her boss. It would have been amazing to see Rockstar defy the notion that GTA is essentially an interactive gangster movie, as the genre has a long history of exploring straight male machismo at the expense of all other views. It’s acceptable to mock the naive misogyny of aggressive males, but why not counter it with its opposite? The all-male writing staff at Rockstar North appears to be too enamored with Tarantino and Brett Easton Ellis to give this any thought.
Seductive vision
Yes, but… The visual allure of Grand Theft Auto V is what makes it so brilliant. Simply said, the images are astounding. Pushing this aging technology to its absolute maximum, we obtain the congested metropolis, complete with tall skyscrapers and dim, trash-filled back alleys. However, when we venture further into the countryside, we encounter undulating meadows and expanses of desert, where coyotes roam free and eagle shadows soar overhead.
Everything pulls you in. It invites you to investigate, and when you do, it pays off. It seems as though every square centimeter of the terrain has been painstakingly created by hand with the inquisitive gamer in mind. This seems like a strange complement considering how well-made every video game landscape is, right? But open worlds are often constructed from architectural filler, with cardboard box tenements and monotonous, never-ending vistas. San Andreas is a state of contrasts and remarkable detail; there’s always a fresh and intriguing corner to discover or a spectacular view that you’ve never seen before that stretches across the hills toward the downtown skyscrapers. While designers talk a good game when they encourage exploration, they typically do it with easy-to-find Easter eggs tucked away in uninteresting corners.
Like Fallout and Skyrim before it, Grand Theft Auto V is a type of virtual tourism, with its stunning modernist architecture nestled in the Vinewood hills and rushing rivers winding through mountain wilderness areas.
The emergent moments produced by the system are also where the genius lies. Drive to a violent heist while Don Johnson’s Heartbeat is playing on the radio, the freeway unobstructed ahead of you; pilot a crop-dusting plane up Mount Chiliad’s contour, reaching the summit just before dusk, sending rainbow-colored lens flare through your cockpit screen; clip a police car during a pursuit, sending your own vehicle spinning off the overpass onto a liquor store roof. Fun and all about you for everything
Complicity and culpability
Furthermore, the GTA setup remains effective despite its familiarity. Some may find the story’s unrelenting, smoldering darkness and blatant amorality offensive, but others may like seeing you blast your way out of impossible confrontations with private armies and speeding through urban streets in a brand-new automobile. [Disclaimer] An interactive torture scene that forces the player to inflict cruelties on a helpless victim will horrify a lot of people as well [spoiler ends]. But since GTA revolves around guilt and involvement, what level of commitment is the player willing to make in this world? To what extent are they accountable? Michael visits a therapist multiple times during the game, claiming that he is being controlled by someone else. At the very least, Rockstar wants to snicker about the relationship between the user and the game.
Yes, GTA V will be hated by some. Some others, like myself, will love it a lot yet recognize that it’s a complex story adventure with some flaws. In five minutes, The Last of Us conveys more human insight than Grand Theft Auto V’s seventy-plus missions do. Five stars for a proposal this problematic? I’m sure that will enrage and confound a few folks. However, nobody creates worlds like Rockstar, and it’s well worth spending countless hours exploring. It’s hilarious, crazy, and incredibly entertaining. It is visually stunning, full of ideas, and when Grand Theft Auto Online, a free add-on, launches in October, it will provide an engaging multiplayer experience where users can team up and engage in massive territorial conflicts.
Furthermore, GTA V is a horrifying caricature of contemporary society, depicting our erupting vortex of celebrity obsession, political indifference, and depressing self-obsession. I kind of thought the scene would end with the Houser brothers, dressed as League of Gentlemen’s Papa Lazarou, muttering sultrily into the camera, “You all live in Los Santos now.” Of course, they don’t have to. This masterwork of misanthropy speaks volumes for them.