Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 shooter video game made by Rockstar North and Take-Two Interactive.
Rockstar built Los Santos first and the story second, and that order shows in the best way. The city is a sun-bleached restaging of Los Angeles during a stretch of cheap reality television and thin money, sprawling from a stock exchange down to the ocean floor and up into a mountain range you can lose an afternoon on.
Three criminals share it. Michael is a retired armed robber going soft inside witness protection, bored of the house and the therapist. Franklin is a repo man looking for a bigger score than the one he keeps being handed. Trevor is the friend nobody wants, a wreck who blows up whatever plan he is given. The game lets you switch between them on the fly, including in the middle of a heist, so a robbery becomes an editing job as much as a shootout: cut from the man on the roof to the man in the van and back.
Between jobs it is satire with the safety off, aimed at reality television, easy money and the people selling both, and it is often nastier than it is funny. The driving and the shooting hold up. The writing swings between sharp and sour. Mostly you are moving through a city that has an opinion about everything and does most of the talking.
Quick answers
What is Grand Theft Auto V about?
Rockstar built Los Santos first and the story second, and that order shows in the best way. The city is a sun-bleached restaging of Los Angeles during a stretch of cheap reality television and thin money, sprawling from a stock exchange down to the ocean floor and up into a mountain range you can lose an afternoon on. Three criminals share it. Michael is a retired armed robber going soft inside witness protection, bored of the house and the therapist. Franklin is a repo man looking for a bigger score than the one he keeps being handed. Trevor is the friend nobody wants, a wreck who blows up whatever plan he is given. The game lets you switch between them on the fly, including in the middle of a heist, so a robbery becomes an editing job as much as a shootout: cut from the man on the roof to the man in the van and back. Between jobs it is satire with the safety off, aimed at reality television, easy money and the people selling both, and it is often nastier than it is funny. The driving and the shooting hold up. The writing swings between sharp and sour. Mostly you are moving through a city that has an opinion about everything and does most of the talking.
When was Grand Theft Auto V released?
Grand Theft Auto V was released on 17 September 2013.
Who made Grand Theft Auto V?
Grand Theft Auto V was made by Rockstar North, Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games.
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A few thoughts on Grand Theft Auto V
Rockstar Games has always cared more about the world than the mission, which is why the closest company for this game is television rather than other games. The Wire has the same patience for one corrupt city seen from every floor of it, corner to mayor's office. The Sopranos gets the domestic half right: a middle-aged criminal, bored, medicated and much worse at retirement than at crime, which is Michael in a sentence. GoodFellas is the bloodline all the swagger comes from.
And The Music of Grand Theft Auto V is worth an hour on its own, because the radio is half the reason the driving works.
The Grand Theft Auto series across games and screen
GTA V is the peak of Rockstar's Los Santos, and its story stretches beyond this one game. Revisit earlier eras of the series in San Andreas and Vice City, then trace the crime-movie DNA in a couple of screen spin-offs about street racers and San Andreas' own animated prologue.
Dense open worlds that react to how you play
Switching between three criminals in one living city was GTA V's trick, and these open worlds share its density and freedom. Reactive frontiers, island playgrounds and post-apocalyptic wastes that respond to how you play. Big maps that reward wandering off the mission marker.
Movie-scale action-adventures with big set pieces
GTA V plays like a heist blockbuster you steer, and these deliver the same movie-grade momentum. Treasure-hunter cliffhangers, noir gunfights and one grueling road across a broken country. Set-piece-driven action for players who want the spectacle GTA's mission design chases.
Story-driven shooters and RPGs like GTA V
Under the mayhem, GTA V is sharp about story and character, and these shooters and RPGs put narrative first. Choices that matter, worlds with a point of view and combat with real weight. For players who stayed for Michael, Franklin and Trevor as much as the chaos.