Grand Theft Auto V - Review

I am not one to judge my games quickly, and after a week of playing 'Grand Theft Auto V' by Rockstar, I have come to my conclusions. The Grand Theft Auto games are always surrounded by a bit of controversy, and GTA V was no exception. I will cover all the aspects of the game in the following review.

GTA V is different to the other GTA games, you play as 3 different characters, all with their specialities and perks. Franklin, a 'hood thug' meets Michael, a retired bank robber, and soon, Michael gets the taste of blood, and is redrawn into the world of crime. The game is all about heists, you can plan, and execute your own heists, each one being more epic then the one before. After the first heist, the game skips to the desert of Sandy Shores, were you meet the great psychopath, Trevor. Trevor is no doubt, a character which will never be forgotten.

Trevor is out of control, and a chaos machine. After the heist, Trevor sees the details about it on the news, and realizes that the person who had done this, must be Michael, his old partner, who had been allegedly dead for years.

In an unfortunate turn of events, these characters get thrown together, and all hell breaks loose.
The characters find themselves in situations where they must work with and under various people, in order to get what they want.

The next few paragraphs will have spoilers.

The game is inexplicably hilarious. The characters have stunning one liners, and the storyline takes twists that no-one could imagine. Trevor even goes as far as falling in with the wife of a mob boss ( who is around 60), and proceeds to kidnap her and proceeds to use her as his 'mother'.

The games heists are one of the best features, they all turn out differently, and all require preparation. No mission in this game is tedious, with 69 main missions, and hundreds of things to do in this game, it is well worth your pennies.

Right before the game ends, the trio go for 'the big one', a robbery of the Union Bank, never been successfully hit before. After the heist, each character ends with 20-25 Million dollars. I was surprised to find how quickly you can use up your money, I found that I spend 5 million in a few seconds, and would have blown away all my money, if I hadn't stopped to think about what I was doing. You can spend your money on everything from cars, property and stocks, to tattoos, clothes and women.

The game has three endings, all in the eyes of Franklin. He has the choice to kill Michael or Trevor, or choose 'death-wish'. Naturally, nobody wants to kill any of the main characters, they are all so special and fun, especially Trevor with his psychopathic off-the-hook junkie attitude.

Now onto the gameplay. Everyone was sceptical about having three main characters, but I have to say it has been executed perfectly. During missions, you can switch between different characters, as they are all doing something else to contribute to the objective. In one kidnapping mission, I had Michael rappel down a building, while Trevor kept a steady helicopter and Franklin provided sniper cover. I was smoothly switching between the three, especially if I got tired of doing the one action, which I didn't.

If you switch between the characters while free roaming, you get a glimpse of what they were doing before-hand. I could switch to Michael, and he is riding a bike with his son. I could switch to Franklin, and he's feeding his dog. I could switch to Trevor, and he is lying on the ground in a bikini, passed out, with a hundred dead bodies around him. Each time you switch, the thing you see will be unlike before, if switching to Trevor, you will have something hilarious coming up, whether its him tying someone down, and throwing tacos at them, or whether he is escaping from a high speed chase from the police.

Now to the controversy surrounding the game. This game has been said to be misogynistic, brutal and it has said to encourage people to do crimes. One of the most controversial missions, is where you have to torture a middle-eastern man, for a government official. Your character does it willingly, with a lot of enjoyment. The middle eastern man is happily giving up his information, and begging for you to stop, though you continue to pull out his teeth, electrocute him, break his legs, drown him and more.

The game might be slightly misogynistic, but all is meant in good humour. The women are all displayed as worthless, annoying and ungrateful. They do not contribute to the game in anyway (except for a few selected women).

I disagree that the game is a cause of violence. It possible could be, but it is rated R18+ for a reason, it is not intended for anyone under the age.
It is rated with:
High Impact Drug Use.
Strong Violence.
Strong Coarse Language.
Strong Sexual References.
Nudity.
Strong Sex scenes.
Strong Themes.

For people to purchase this game, they require identification, so children can not easily get there hands on it.

I give this game a 10/10. It is easily one of the best games I have ever played, it is the second most expensive form of media to be created, costing 265 Million dollars to make. It is also the most sold video game in history, it made 1 Billion dollars in the first 3 days.

I recommend this game to all players, the online function has not been released yet, and will be up for free to all the owners of the game October 1st.