Grand Theft Auto V

When Ready Up reviewed Grand Theft Auto IV, all the way back in 2008, we did it as a two parter – with me highlighting the positives and Kirsten highlighting the negatives. As harsh as I felt she was at the time, I couldn’t really argue with her negative points, despite my deep love of the game. I recently went back and played GTA IV from start to finish to reacquaint myself with it, in preparation for this review.

GTA V feels like Rockstar went out and read every single negative comment they could find about GTA IV, made a massive checklist and then set about righting all the wrongs. Building on the solid base of GTA IV, Rockstar have built a world far more incredible than I genuinely would have believed possible for this console generation. The graphics are so good that many people, upon seeing the gameplay trailer, didn’t actually believe it was running on a console, instead thinking it must be a high end PC. The screenshots below truly don’t do the game justice, you really have to see it move to see how incredible it really is.

Of course, graphics alone don’t make a game.

What about the other problems Kirsten highlighted all those years ago? Unwieldy character? Sorted. Duff camera angle when driving? Sorted. Driving too heavy and realistic? Sorted – GTA V’s handling is far more fun than realistic now, allowing for crazy high speed chases without too much realism getting in the way. World too brown and drab? Sorted – Los Santos is vibrant and drips with colour, even in its grubbiest neighbourhoods. Depressing main character? Have three to choose from! Awful gun combat? Sorted – GTA V features Max Payne style shooting, and it really works beautifully. Terrible, terrible checkpoints? Sorted, GTA V now features checkpoints in all the right places, which does have the effect of making the game significantly easier, but also a lot more fun.

Rockstar have built a world far more incredible than I genuinely would have believed possible for this console generation

I mentioned Max Payne before, and it’s just one of the many Rockstar games that you can see the influence of in GTA V. The mass of wildlife-filled countryside surrounding the enormous city of Los Santos is so beautiful, it brings the lonely landscapes of Red Dead Redemption to mind. Red Dead style random events also make an appearance, and often stopping street robberies or being robbed yourself leads to some of the most vibrant and exciting moments in the game. That’s not to say the missions in GTA V are boring – in fact, some missions in GTA V that occur less than one hour into the game are more exciting and fun than many of the missions that were the final set pieces in previous GTA games. What GTA V has done is taken the fun and madness that was missing from GTA IV, turned it up to 11 and let it rip.

I finished the game in about thirty hours, and that was playing straight down the middle, and not getting distracted by the many, many side missions that the enormous game world offers up. Now I’ve “finished” it, I’ve started exploring the world, and like GTA IV, if you only play the story you’ll probably only see 30% of the map. It’s an epic map, as impressive for its detail as it is for its size, with every part of the world dripping with beautiful touches.

As for negatives, well, there’s a mission that forces the player to pick an implement and torture a man for information, which didn’t sit at all well with me and didn’t fit the otherwise fun tone of the game. It was nasty and didn’t need to be there. It is possible to skip it, like all the missions in GTA V, which is what I think Rockstar should have done. Also, a side effect of the way the game doesn’t hold your hand as much as GTA IV is that you can get through half the game without realising a few simple things that would have come in handy.

I should add that this review obviously doesn’t cover GTA Online (which doesn’t start until October 1), which looks to be a massive part of the game, with many more missions to play online with friends. However, that said, if the game had no online mode at all it would still be worth the score I’ve given it.