Review: Grand Theft Auto V

There are tons of annoying missions in the Grand Theft Auto series that force you to drive a slow truck or some other vehicle of the sort that — adding to this already boring premise — also happens to be dragging something behind it which is crucial to said mission. In Pulling Favors, you control Franklin as you use a tow truck in order to slowly impound vehicles since apparently that's exactly what people want to do when they play a game like Grand Theft Auto

Another benefit to the multi-protagonist setup and also one of the biggest new features to mission portion of the game are heists. While the majority of missions are either driven by a single character or are like the aforementioned one, there’s a handful of heists sprinkled throughout. Heists are basically multi-tiered missions that contain multiple small missions to set them up and require an higher level of planning to correctly execute. The first heist in the game, for instance, concerns knocking off a high-end jewelry store. There are two methods available to tackle the job: quiet or loud (smart or dumb). Going in loud is what you’d imagine, simply rushing into the store with heavy artillery and running out with the merchandise. Going in quiet, however, requires more planning and stealth tactics. In a jewel heist, for instance, chemicals and an exterminator truck must be stolen. Using the exterminator gig as cover, you head up on the roof with a gas mask and uniform and drop some gas into the vents of the store. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew bursts into the store with similar outfits and cleans it out while the customers and clerks are unconscious. One great feature of these heists is that the crew itself must be individually selected. You’ll generally need a gunner, driver and hacker, who are selected via a pool of known associates and characters encountered throughout missions. These criminals vary in expertise, with those highly experienced demanding more of the cut. Going with a low experienced crew member means that more could go wrong (for example, having a bad driver could mean they get captured and lose whatever loot they were carrying), but the more they are used, the better they get with the same cut. Heists add a fantastic dynamic to the game and make the scope of the universe seem larger than ever.

Combat itself has been overhauled in GTAV. Instead of blindly cycling through weapons, there’s now a weapons wheel that is brought up by holding the left bumper, allowing available weapons to be seen and selected easier. Additionally, getting busted or killed no longer forfeits your weapons, which makes spending money on weapons upgrades much more realistic. Actual combat is more customizable, allowing players to choose how much they want to be assisted with automatic locking. By default, it’s a bit of a mix between free-aim and full-lock, with targets in clear view automatically locked on and those hidden or at weird angles left to free-aiming. The cover system has also been improved, allowing smoother transitions. On the driving side of things, vehicle handling has been updated, with vehicles feeling better than ever before. While this is still the sort of game that lets you bounce around after landing a jump, handling feels more realistic and tailored to specific vehicles, instead of cars simply being "fast" or "slow." Even supercars feel distinct from one another. Realism has also been visually improved, with cars mirroring their real-life counterparts like never before. It’s clear what’s a Mustang or what’s an Audi and even though the brands can’t be used, it's better than simply looking for a "fast" car.


As we’ve said, and as you already know, there’s a bunch of cool stuff to do in GTA 5 mods V when you’re either done with the story or just feel like talking some breathers in between. When a game is riddled with mini-games, it usually hints and the overall product being of questionable quality. But Rockstar got it right once more with GTA V. Rather than being there as compensation, these mini-games, and tasks that you can immerse yourself in throughout the game help make it all seem that much more real. But man, Tennis, Golf, Stock trading – this does kind of seem a little bit like a retirement simulator on the side, doesn’t

Of course, one of the aspects this series is most renowned for is its music. Vice City sparked a minor resurgence in New Wave, while Grand Theft Auto IV perfectly captured the burgeoning indie scene in Brooklyn at the time. Building off of the presentation and quality of the latter’s soundtrack, V boasts one of the series’ best collections of music. For indie lovers, Radio Broker is replaced by Radio Mirror Park, which features tracks from Twin Shadow, Yeasayer, Health, Neon Indian, The Chain Gang of 1974 and more. The incredible thing is that all of the aforementioned artists are contributing new music to the game and the fact that there’s so many critically revered artists with new music on one channel is astounding. For electronic lovers, there’s Soulwax FM, named after and featuring many remixes from electronic band Soulwax. On the pop side of things, there’s Non-Stop Pop FM which features an excellent blend between current top ten artists like Rhianna, lesser-known ones like Robyn and classic acts like Hall & Oats. Of course, there’s something for everyone with other stations focusing on rap, country, classic rock and more. The amount of care put into curating this soundtrack that could have simply been a collection of random songs is more evidence of how much work goes into even the smallest features of the game.