Now that world has had time to soak in the nearly five minutes of Grand Theft Auto V gameplay Rockstar Games has unleashed in video form, it is time to put it through the paces. Several contributors here at Worlds Factory sent the GTA V trailer through the gauntlet to see if Rockstar really gave us more content than hype.
We have stripped the video down to its skivvies and held its flesh to light. Some found supple curves and others found warts. Here’s what went down:
JD “Old Milwaukee” Brewer
While every game is open world these days, the GTA V video made me excited for the genre again. The dynamics of the three characters adds an interesting dimension to the formula in the way it allows you to zoom from character to character, no matter where they are on the world map. The idea that these characters could be doing anything, whether it’s off on a bike ride or being chased by cops, is exciting — it seems like you’ll never know what to expect when you switch to another character. I also like that skills seem to be back in some form. I’m curious to see how they approach min/maxing, like if you max out everyone’s skills, will they all play exactly the same?
It goes without saying that the world looks beautiful. So much variety, and I want to explore all of it! Especially the underwater stuff, as that’s a fairly unique contribution to the genre. Hopefully there will be a lot of sunken ships to plunder. As long as there are no sea monsters, because that sounds terrifying. A Cthulhu reference would be nice! Along with locations, the sheer variety of side stuff sounds impressive without being “feature creepy”. Car customization, buying stocks and property, golf, tennis, cycling … I can already imagine putting a hundred hours into the game; and if Rockstar makes good on their promise that everything will feel fun and responsive, it sounds like the game will have a lot to deliver. Lastly, I’m pumped to see what PC players do with mods — I’d love to Hulk smash around Los Santos.
Chris Kingsley
After all is said and done, for me, the main thing Rockstar needs to worked on to make this game even better is the combat system and driving. In previous GTA games, you just locked on to someone and started mashing buttons to wildly swing at people. I want combat to be more along the lines of Sleeping Dogs as that title focused more on countering attacks and using combinations instead of just wildly swinging. As for driving, well, it felt like you had no control over the vehicles. You didn’t see much of either discussed in the video. Their loss.
Like Old Milwaukee over there, I’m glad GTA V will give you the ability to cycle through multiple characters while playing through missions. This will avoid the monotonous nature of previous GTA missions — go here, kill this person, go back, go here, kill this person, go back, etc. The activities outside of missions such as being able to play a round of golf, go skydiving etc. look like they will also help make the world more real. These are pluses.
Julissa Jansen
I’m not interested in this video. I’m interested in the next one, when they show multiplayer. Multiplayer looks to be totally revamped in GTA V. One of my favorite things about GTA IV was playing on such a huge map. Considering GTA V was developed with the current generation of consoles in mind, I doubt we will be able to access the entire map of the game in multiplayer. Maybe we’ll be able to access only cities or neighborhoods at a time — either way, with new weapons and vehicles the fun will last for a very long time.
Francisco “Disney Fanatic” Salanga III
First time I went through this trailer, I chuckled the entire way through. I couldn’t get over the subtle 80′s tune and monotone female narrator. It felt like I was being sold on a wonder drug in the world of Total Recall. Eyes squinted a little, I kept thinking this entire video was duplicitous.
I just wound up arguing with the woman. “There’s also been a huge focus on mechanics in the game.” No, lady. It looks to be the same as the previous GTA and Red Dead Redemption. All you had to do was copy and paste. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily. There’s a reason I nominated RDR as my game of the year.
It took another viewing for me to see beyond this defensive wall that often comes up when I feel like someone is trying to dig in my pockets. I can see how the vantage changes between the characters will serve as tension builders during missions, juxtaposed with the fun and leisure they produce during free exploration. That, at least for me, will be a welcome time suck. That, and planning heists. Deliberately altering the game’s story, even by the smallest degree, just because I chose to gas the people in the store rather than busting in guns blazing is the type of malleable narrative I look for.
Again, I have to be cautious. Just because they promised something, doesn’t mean it will be as advertised. Here’s that wall coming up again. BTW, did anyone else catch the smiling jab they took at Halo?
