REVIEW: Grand Theft Auto V

After a full week of newly released games, some of you will tell me that I drew the short straw by choosing GTA for a second play through, I’m going to tell you why that’s not the case.

GTA 5 is back, and it’s here to stay this time! Rockstar have had a full year to polish the already perfect open world game, and they’ve got me hooked all over again. Damn you Rockstar!

It’s the same thing again, and I love it. You control 3 characters:

– Franklin, a gangbanger trying to make money,
– Michael, an ex bank robber trying to stop himself going insane, and
– Trevor, well Trevor is Trevor.

Three complete opposites, messed up in their own way. You play their individual missions separately (and can switch between them as you like), like assassinations for Franklin or saving your kids and/or wife from whatever trouble they have got themselves into as Michael. This doesn’t include all the strangers and freak missions which will keep you just as busy with each character, and of course they all come together for the usual GTA madness as well.

I don’t want to spoil it for anybody that hasn’t played it, but you can expect explosions, car chases and fire fights for pretty much 99% of the game. When you’re not shooting you will be laughing at whatever you catch Trevor doing, and it’s awesome! But as this game is a re-release I am going to review the updated version for the Xbox One.

So what can you expect from GTA on current gen? Well i’ll start by talking about one of the biggest additions to the game which is the new first person mode. This looked cool on the trailer, but it was hard to believe that even a great third person game like this could successfully include the option to play it as a first person shooter …but that is SO wrong.

Once I had figured out the sensitivity and the field of view I liked (Yeah that’s a thing), the game played out like the FPS games that I am familiar with, which is fantastic. Rockstar have given you options to customise how you play in first person that aren’t given to you in any other first person shooter (Not on console anyway). What’s even better is that you don’t have to play first person all the time, you can change the settings to automatically put you into third person when you are behind cover or when you get into a car. This is the second time i’ve played this game, and i’ve still been more impressed with it than most of the games this year.

Next is the Graphics, which already looked gorgeous on last gen (Can I call it last gen yet?)
They obviously couldn’t change it too much, but the detail that they have added in (even just the little things) will impress you, especially when you’re in first person. They have improved the draw distance massively so you can see over the whole map when you’re in a plane or a chopper. More importantly they have fixed the popping cars onto screen that was slightly annoying at times first time round.

The Music, which they already did well (okay I’m sorry, that’s the last time I say that) has been ramped up too. They have added even more epic music, that will have your character literally bopping his head to. Updated music is always a great addition to games, and I love it. If you would like to see the full track list we have a separate article with all the new songs and artists HERE

They have put the (already decent) animal count on steroids as you will now bump into over 30 new animal types. This includes killer whales, hammer head sharks and many breeds of dogs and also cats …unless you’re playing with Unabanzie in which case the cats won’t be there for very long.

All these improvements (and many more) are a nice addition, and a good reason for you to talk yourself into buying this game again. But stop kidding yourself! They could release this game without anything new, just a next gen version and you would still buy it without hesitation, because GTA has always been a shit load of fun.The only reason we didn’t keep playing it last time was because we got a new console and “shinier” games. Also, if you return you get exclusive single player content which contains new guns and cars, and if you pre-order you get $1,000,000 which is split between your offline and online account.

I am assuming everybody has played this game, but for anybody that hasn’t you are probably better off, and you get to play this game with a blank sheet. This “remastered version” is truly how the game should be played and part of me regrets not waiting. Having said that, even though i’ve played it, i’m still loving playing even the single player all over again, which is really how video games should be.

Is this game worth the money for a second time? I will never tell you that you need to buy a game, (I’m sorry that’s such a lie, BUY IT!) but I have played GTA since GTA 2 on the PC and this by far was my favourite game last year. I’m still not sure how they released it again only a year later and it still competes as one of my favourites, hat’s off to you Rockstar.

GTA online: eugh. No matter how many kids tell me they shagged my mum, I still never get bored of running them down and then finishing them off with my firework launcher. GTA online has been improved massively, not just with the first person mode, which does help, but it actually works. It feels so much better in every way and is a massive improvement from last year. Your character is downloaded by what seems to be some sort of prison release where you can change your character’s looks with a more detailed tool than we got on the 360. You can also download everything from your stats to your cars and everything else …or you can start over.

You can also play with 30 players now, Great. *Eye roll*. You won’t have to wait for all the updates either as they are all downloaded automatically ready for you to use as soon as you boot up the game, there will also be heists added later on (We hope). But GTA online isn’t what’s great about GTA and didn’t contribute to me purchasing it again.

Just a bit of an overview, this game is exactly the same as the 360 version, but seriously ironed over with next to no issues or complaints. Looking after a game a year after release is an example that others game developers should follow, and it’s an utter pleasure to jump into Los Santos all over again.

I picked up the game again because I liked what they did on the 360, and from from I saw and heard, Rockstar made some pretty great changes to a game that was short of problems in the first place. The first person mode gave me a new way to play the game and the graphics and new draw distance made it very hard for me to say no. If some of you are on the fence about buying this game again, it’s definitely worth trying out, as this game is something special and keeps surprising me every time I play it.

For any GTA fan, and for the amount offline and online game time that it gives you, this game is a must pick up, even if you have already played it. If you haven’t played it, stop reading now, and go and grab it.

^Bezz Jr