Grand Theft Auto V: GTA 5 - PS4

ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Release Date: 11-18-2014
Moby Score (1-10): 9
Player Score (1-5): 4.3
Genre(s): Action

Grand Theft Auto V is an open-world action game set in the fictional state of San Andreas, primarily in the city of Los Santos and the surrounding countryside of Blaine County. The setting satirizes modern Southern California, mixing crime fiction with parodies of celebrity culture, social media, politics, finance, law enforcement, and the entertainment industry. The story follows three playable protagonists: Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, and Trevor Philips. Unlike earlier entries in the series, the player can switch between the three characters during much of the game, both in free roam and during certain missions. Each character has his own home life, contacts, personality, missions, and special ability, while their stories increasingly intersect through robberies, criminal schemes, and conflicts with powerful enemies.

The game’s missions combine driving, shooting, stealth, pursuit sequences, and scripted set pieces. A major addition is the heist system, in which large robberies must be prepared and executed through multiple stages. For some heists, the player chooses an approach, hires crew members, and completes setup missions before carrying out the main operation. Crew choices can affect the difficulty, cost, and outcome of the job. Some missions use character switching as part of their structure, placing each protagonist in a different role, such as driving, sniping, flying, or entering a target location directly.

As in previous Grand Theft Auto games, much of the experience takes place in a large open world that can be explored by car, motorcycle, bicycle, boat, aircraft, or on foot. The player may complete story missions, take part in optional activities, purchase properties and vehicles, customize weapons and clothing, trade stocks through the in-game Internet, and engage in various criminal acts. Illegal behavior can draw police attention, represented by a wanted level of up to five stars. As the wanted level increases, the police response becomes more aggressive. The player can escape by avoiding police line of sight and remaining hidden until the search ends.

Michael is a retired criminal living in Los Santos under a new identity after a failed robbery years earlier. Franklin is a young repo man and street-level hustler looking for better opportunities. Their paths cross when Franklin is sent to repossess a car from Michael’s son, leading to an uneasy friendship and eventually a return to high-stakes crime. After Michael and Franklin destroy a mansion belonging to drug lord Martin Madrazo, they are forced to raise money through a jewelry store robbery. The job attracts the attention of Trevor, Michael’s former partner, whose return pulls all three men into a volatile series of conflicts involving criminals, corrupt officials, and their own personal histories.

The three protagonists have different skills and special abilities. Michael can slow time during shootouts, Franklin can slow time while driving, and Trevor can enter a rage-like state that increases his damage output and reduces incoming damage. Their abilities, weapon skills, driving, flying, stamina, and other statistics improve through use. During missions, the player may be required to switch between characters to complete different objectives, while outside missions character switching can reveal what each protagonist is doing elsewhere in the world.

Outside the main story, Los Santos and Blaine County offer numerous side activities and distractions. These include street races, flight challenges, shooting ranges, hunting, tennis, golf, triathlons, parachuting, scuba diving, towing, taxi work, random encounters, collectible hunts, and other optional events. The in-game smartphone and Internet are used for communication, mission access, stock trading, property management, browsing websites, and other activities.

The game’s multiplayer component, Grand Theft Auto: Online, is set shortly before the single-player story and uses the same general world as the main game. Players create their own characters and can freely explore Los Santos and Blaine County while completing cooperative missions, competitive modes, races, deathmatches, robberies, business activities, and other jobs. Players can also join crews and participate in user-created races, deathmatches, and other activities through the game’s creator and social systems. The original PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions supported up to 16 players online, while the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows versions expanded this to 30 players. Over time, GTA Online expanded with additional heists, businesses, properties, vehicles, weapons, races, adversary modes, and cooperative mission chains, making it a long-running service alongside the single-player game.

The PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows versions introduced numerous enhancements over the original PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 releases, including higher-resolution visuals, increased draw distance, denser traffic, additional wildlife, improved weather and damage effects, new vehicles, new weapons, additional activities, more radio music, and other content. One of the most distinctive additions in these versions is an optional first-person perspective for both the story mode and Grand Theft Auto Online, allowing the player to walk, shoot, drive, and fly from that viewpoint with new animations and detailed vehicle interiors. Some later releases also include tools such as the Rockstar Editor, allowing players to record, edit, and share videos using in-game footage. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions added further technical improvements, including improved performance, faster loading, and additional visual modes.

*** Data by MobyGames.com ***

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