OSCAR COOPER
"Open worlds dont get much better than this, fact."
Well Christ alive, its GTA5, it finally came, GTA4 left us wanting so much more (no more rhyming sorry). I say GTA4 left us wanting more, but I don’t think this is quite true, I was watching some ‘know it all’ on IGN’s Scope show the other day and the guy swung round and said it was the most overrated game of that year. This stunned me, GTA4 delivered on the 7th gen systems amazingly, not only was it the best looking open world game available on console, it featured some great multiplayer (a first for the series and the servers worked) and a mind boggling city that behaved like a living breathing animal. I loved the TV channels, the radio stations (Juliet Lewis on Broker) the bikes, new guns, great helicopters and totally groundbreaking DLC. A revamped in car shooting mechanic that allowed you to swing round and pop a cap into pursuing vehicle, this took some skill and balls because you had to wrestle with the car moving and drive without facing the road, a truly brilliant set up, I just couldn’t believe what this IGN presenter was coming out with. I think it’s a personal thing, GTA has a very particular audience, sure it appeals to the 12yr old because he can live out his dream of being a star in his own gangster B movie and he might even see a bit of fanny (you don’t, they learnt from Hot Coffee), but it also appeals to people who are into good modern music and cultural satire mixed in with antigovernment/American humor.
So on to GTA5, we waited a god dam life time, Rockstar in true fashion had us on a drip feed of PR, one screenshot here, one there, then a short in-game intro. The 360 and PS4 at the time hadn’t completely become redundant and the graphics looked very impressive on the footage. Planes flew into sunsets, awesome looking cars stopped at lights and folded down their hoods, pedestrians jogged past on a beautiful beach promenade. It was all looking bloody spectacular to be honest and everyone I know was drooling at the mouth for this game and so came the launch. I didn’t do a midnight queue for this one, the reason being, I live in Dubai, which is in the Middle East and the game is not officially released here, I am not going to harp on about that as it may be detrimental to my residency, so I’ll move on.
I got a copy however that week, cancelled everything I had organised for the next month and settled in for the long run. I am nervous for Rockstar and for the series because of the hype and how impressive GTA4 was, I didn’t need to be, the game kicks some serious arse and on some different levels to its previous installments. First off it’s a brighter more colourful in-game pallet, the sun and the sky really look like something from an actual photo, the buildings and cars sparkle in the sunlight on an almost cartoonish level but it doesn’t detract from the immersion. Then we have the map size, its massive and varied in terrain type, I missed this from 4, San Andreas had this in droves, a forest a mountain etc, GTA5 has about 4 mountains and a desert and a forest region, completely mind blowing in size. Then the detail on vehicle damage and windows or buildings, gorgeous delicate scratches feature on the side of car door panel from that clang you had with a bollard. Glass intricately shatters when shot or kicked. Blood also features some great splatter physics when hitting people or animals with vehicles. Yes there are loads of Deer, Wild cats, dogs running around in the desert and forest, even the wheel spin marks in different soil types had me gleaming with joy. I played a lot of Sleeping Dogs before this game and always thought GTA5 would be great with a slowdown mechanic and wow, we got one! Your three characters have a different skill each, one has bullet time in combat another in-car slow-down and well… Trevor just goes mental. That brings me to the characters, you have 3 to work with and can switch between them at will, this was done well in an old tactical FPS called Desert Storm on PS2 and I always liked the idea of a gun fight from different angles but in the same scenario. The radio stations are pretty cool, not as strong as GT4 or the TV either but this can be forgiven as so much is happening in the main map, Golf, Tennis, Yoga, flight school and loads of side missions, Rampage is also back from Vice City.
Cover in combat is sharper, you can roll also if needing to dodge, the weapon wheel from Red Dead is here, so it’s a snitch switching mid combat. The story is OK, better than most, the main campaign isn’t too hard and had some great set pieces in the form of huge bank heists, a no brainer considering GTA4’s finest movement was the Heat style bank job at the end. I often catch myself just staring at the sea of flying a helicopter over some landmark and just marveling in the games looks, I can’t stress it enough, it such a great looking game, Rockstar are now god like developers in the industry. They must have whipped the crap out of thier team to get this game looking and playing the way it does. An absolute triumph, brushing aside the multiplayer issues with the servers, I can’t fault the game in any way shape or form, I will be mucking around with this one for a long time to come and if you haven’t done so already, I suggest you do ASAP.
Many thanks in advance
Oscar