Nearly 7 years after GTA V was released, no game comes close to matching the contemporary world that is GTA V. GTA V brings the open world genre to another level and raises the bar from its predecessors. What sets it apart from previous GTA is that for the first time you can switch between the 3 protagonists. There’s Franklin, a guy who is trying to get out of the hood and set his life for the better. Michael a middle aged man who is going through a mid-life crisis who has a wife who cheats on him, and two bratty spoiled teenagers and there is Trevor who is arguably the crazier of the three characters who lives outside in a trailer park in rural California outside of the city Los Santos (the fictional city based on LA) who runs a meth lab and who has a penchant for going into rages. Their lives are intertwined early in the game which unfolds as you do the early missions. GTA V does a good job of providing stinging commentary of American culture and life that is both amusing to watch and hilarious at the same time. I found talk radio on the commentary of modern day topics regarding immigration, show biz, politicians absolutely hilarious. GTA V does a good job of making fun of such American contemporary culture that no other games matches on the market right now. What makes in my opinion GTA V great compared to other GTAs is that it not only you have core missions but you also have strangers missions (yes we saw something similar to it in GTA IV expansion Ballad of Gay Tony) but here the mission are varied and more entertaining. There is also the random optional missions that you can partake in such as saving a victim from armed robbery. While randomly driving from Los Santos to rural America where Trevor lives all of a sudden a bride in distress comes out of the woods wanting to leave the wedding ceremony because she decided to not go through with the marriage. You pick her up and take her to her destination while her groom follows you and rams into your car. This kind or randomness and surprises is what makes GTA V great. The story itself is not bad, I would argue better than GTA IV and the missions are varied and entertaining, I would argue much better than GTA IV, where you would do similar mission doing hit jobs for mob bosses which kind of get repetitive. I took my sweet time to over the course of several months to really complete the missions and savior GTA V and it was worth it as there hasn’t been any expansions over the past 7 years.
Graphically, the game looks amazing on the PC. I played it on my PC maxed out at 1080P with 4X MSAA and it looked great pushing 60 FPS, textures look sharper, there is DX 11 tessellation on the ground, the nighttime lighting looks great, there’s much more vegetation compared to consoles, having seen the PS3 version, I can definitely say that the PC version is night and day better than the console version and is certainly the definitive version to get. What’s more striking is the level of detail that Rockstar put in creating the world. Having been to LA and Southern California, Rockstar putting in stunning details in re-creating significant portions of LA and it’s famous landmarks, from the Griffith Observatory to Rodeo drive, to Venice Beach, the scenic drive to Malibu, the Hollywood Hills, the attention to detail is stunning and Rockstar should be commended for creating the digital version of LA and Southern California. On a side note, the PC version seems a lot less buggy (at least the Single Player) compared to the GTA IV and a lot more optimized and for that Rockstar definitely deserves credit.
The sound and music is top notch in this game, where you can listen to contemporary pop, rap and rock music. Not to mention talk radio, which is essentially making fun of American political talking points. The voice acting is top notch in this game and the dialogue really brings the characters to life.
I don’t normally give 10/10 for games but GTA V raised the bar when it comes to open world games, with it’s diverse missions, attention to detail in re-creating LA and Southern California and with it’s great story line. For that it fully deserves all its’ praises.