Grand Theft Auto V ROM Description

Grand Theft Auto 3 brought Liberty City and the entire GTA series into the mainstream media guns blazing. Later during the same console generation, Rockstar Games refined and expanded their formula for open-world crime in the western state of San Andreas. Almost a decade later history has repeated itself. Following GTA 4’s return to Liberty City in 2008, Rockstar’s once again left the East Coast for the West with truly impressive results.

Setting

Grand Theft Auto 5 takes place in Los Santos, GTA’s version of Los Angeles. GTA 5 sticks to LA County and the mountains and deserts of Southern California. Rockstar claims the map to be bigger than San Andreas, Red Dead Redemption, and GTA 4’s Liberty City put together and as it takes about 12 minutes for a car to circumnavigate the whole thing we’re inclined to believe them.

Characters

Surface area is just one reason GTA 5 feels bigger than anything Rockstar has ever done. This time we get three characters – retired bank robber Michael De Santa, repo man and street hustler Franklin Clinton, and pilot and all-around psychopath Trevor Phillips. Each has his own life, wardrobe, bank account, and personal arsenal. When an essential new weapon unlocks, be ready to buy it three times! All three men have particular strengths like gun accuracy or stealth. At the start of the game you can level everyone’s stats any way you like, but character-specific special abilities like Trevor’s rage mode or Franklin’s slo-mo driving help make the individuals feel unique.

The game takes a few hours to introduce the trio to each other in clever ways. Once the gang is all together, you’re able to switch characters freely and pursue your goals. You can expect to spend 30 to 40 hours getting through all 69 single-player missions.

You can choose who’s shoes you spend the most time in, but Michael is definitely the story’s anchor. Retired from a life of thieving, Michael ends up re-entering the workforce after making Franklin’s acquaintance, finding himself in debt to very dangerous people, and eventually reuniting with his old friend Trevor. GTA 5’s story lacks the focus of GTA 4’s mainline manhunt and Michael’s plight isn’t quite as dramatic as Nico’s pursuit of the American dream, but the story makes up for its lack of direction by allowing you to absorb the events through three very different personalities.

Some missions can only be launched by a particular member of the gang. Others can be started and completed with whomever you choose. Objectives sometimes seem to naturally pop up – one sequence of events started when we casually switched to Franklin and found him already tailing his next objective. When you’re on a mission, the game will dictate who you can be and when. Some of GTA 5’s most thrilling moments come when you’re thrown into the shoes of a character trying to finish a completely different activity.

Outside missions, all three characters are always present and accounted for on the map, and sometimes, you’ll naturally bump into each other when you’re not on the job. If one of you disables or injures another they’ll simply show up at a local hospital, griping at the offending party via text message and billing the perpetrator for hospital fees.

Gameplay

It’s often of a violent nature, but there’s still a remarkable amount of variety to your work. Michael does a lot of shooting, Franklin does a lot of driving, and Trevor does a lot of flying, but the weapons and vehicles are constantly changing. Several guns and other equipment can only be used during certain missions, so it’s great that they can be replayed.

Similar to the Ballad of Gay Tony, your performance is always ranked and many achievements revealed after the mission might challenge you to do better or introduce you to something you may have skipped along the way. The only time the game really drags is when you have to cover the gargantuan map during long missions, alleviated by the 16 radio stations and beautiful scenery.

Off mission, GTA 5 is a tantalizing menu of activities you can track down on the map or through your phone. These include making it rain at a strip club, base jumping off skyscrapers, acing flight school, competing in a triathlon, towing cars, hunting, hitting armored trucks, scuba diving, playing darts, practicing yoga, and just sitting around watching classic films or modern television shows. A lot of these can be done with friends if you call them, but it’s your call – nobody’s gonna pester you to go bowling.

You’ll also make friends just by driving around the city. Like Red Dead Redemption, GTA 5’s mini-map will sometimes highlight a random event that you can watch or participate in. This might get you pocket change and a pat on the back or a new contact who might aid you in later missions. Whenever the guys are working a big job they can choose who to take along, and these partners have various salary demands and skill levels. Completing jobs with them improves their skills, so if you want an elite crew, you should probably stick to the same people.

The heists are definitely among the game’s greatest moments, serving as perfect set pieces for the story. The only disappointment is that the game is practically begging for one or two more. Every Big Score has several prep missions where you scout the location and plan the best way to do the job. Most of these can be done by any of the main characters, and sometimes you can add your own flavor like choosing a customized getaway car and placing it at a specific point on the map.

Heists also sometimes offer two different approaches, teasing you to revisit them for another shot at glory. With so much space and so much to do, it’s nice to see that GTA 5 tries to avoid wasting your time. Character swapping helps keep the story momentum by quickly whisking you to the next destination. Missions that previously stalled until you returned at a later time now speed up the clock so you don’t have to wait.

Better map functionality means that if you want to play tennis you can quickly find the eight available courts and see which one is closest to you. Virtual smartphones mean you can buy stocks, cars, and property or check your Life Invader page anywhere, anytime. Best of all, missions often start with the cinematic zoom-in on the characters already ready for action or begin seamlessly when entering certain rooms or buildings.

Open World

For the anarchist, GTA 5 is quite a playground. The entire map is available once you get through an hour or so of the story, and the tools of destruction are numerous and hugely enjoyable, although some of them might need to be unlocked first. The Gatling gun returns and a gas canister spills a solid line of flammable justice waiting to be set off. Guns can be painted up and modded with flashlights, grips, scopes, and suppressors.

Cops no longer hound you relentlessly and each officer now is a cone of vision that can be seen and avoided via the mini-map. So if you can hop in a different car or find the right cover, you can be right next to the fuzz and still get away. New vehicles include jet skis and a yellow submarine along with various construction rigs and more.

Various dog breeds can be found in the metropolitan areas, and Franklin eventually adopts his friend Lamar’s dog Chop, who will follow him along for a walk, find hidden packages, fend off attackers, and chase a ball down the street.

Any mountain you see from the sidewalk of the big city can be hiked up or crashed into. When you see the lights of Vinewood at night flickering in the distance, you’ll really appreciate the size of the map. On a smaller scale, there’s an impressive level of detail and human interaction. Safe houses now have actual people living in them. Franklin starts out staying with his aerobics-obsessed aunt and Michael has to put up with his own family while trying to relax at home.

Combined with the sudden cries for help that pop up on the map, these touches make Los Santos feel like a place where things actually happen. The radio has always spoken of your exploits on certain missions but now it works both ways. If you hear financial news, you can put it to good use in the stock market immediately thanks to your ever-useful phone.

The map of Los Santos is an interesting patchwork of Los Angeles landmarks from the Getty Center to the Third Street Promenade. The flavor of Southern California is evident in the music, the weather, the missions from odd strangers, and the near-endless chatter of irate pedestrians. Characters can wear shorts, put the top down in a convertible, and swim beneath the rolling ocean waves. From talk radio to drivers with road rage, Grand Theft Auto 5 is full of voice and personality.

Conclusion

There’s more to GTA 5 than just what’s on the disk. Rockstar Social Club returns on their website to track your progress with and against friends, and there’s a mobile app called iFruit that can train Chop to do tricks, among other extended diversions. And then there’s Grand Theft Auto Online which we can’t say much about because we haven’t actually played it.