Grand Theft Auto 5

I'll be honest. I was not initially excited for this game.

I loved GTA 4 and loved that storyline. I loved the character of Nikko Bellic and I loved the setting of Liberty City. I had heard about how beautiful the game was and how fun the gameplay was but I hadn't heard anything about the story. As you know, that's the most important part for me.

I also saw 3 characters that didn't look overly exciting. On first look, the three characters aren't that exciting. A middle aged man, a black guy, and a hillbilly.

Now granted on face value, Niko Bellic isn't exciting himself but based off the trailer, he was a mercenary from the East, said he had a history of crime and wanted to make a new life of his own in America, the land of opportunity. He wanted to forget his past and achieve the American dream. But the theme was, the American dream isn't all its cracked up to be. Niko is tossed right back into it and he's forced to do what he is unfortunately very good at.

 The amount of story they put into one character was phenomenal and I was worried that with three characters, they there wouldn't be as careful development with the story.

I was very very wrong.

I'm sad I ever doubted them but the characters of GTA 5 are some of the best characters I've ever seen in a video game.

Michael De Santa is one of the most complex and conflicted characters I've ever seen and his internal conflict is done so well. There are too many video games where the player is able to go on the streets and just shoot people. In Grand Theft Auto, if you do that, Michael feels it. He is still a psychopath in the psychological sense of the word, he has to be, Grand Theft Auto allows you to do whatever you want to, almost literally. But with Michael, you see the desire to live a normal life, you see the conflict he has with killing people and living the criminal lifestyle. You also see the relationship he wants with his family. Now at first I wasn't sure how they were going to pull this off because his family is really really annoying. But it works out in the end and only adds to Michael as a character.  It's all pulled off quite brilliantly.

The other characters are great, Trevor especially. But Michael is the most relatable, at least for me. Rockstar did a great job at putting these psychopath characters in a psychopath world and still managed to make the player care for them.

So what's the story?

The story begins with Michael and Trevor pulling off a robbery that goes horribly wrong. Their partner is shot, as well as Michael and Trevor runs off into the distance. 9 years later, Michael is living in Los Santos, a GTA version of Los Angeles under Witness protection through a slightly crooked FIB (like

FBI, see what they did there?) agent. He's unhappy with his life, his wife is cheating on him and his kids are dumbasses. He runs into Franklin, a resident of the same neighborhood that was featured in GTA San Andreas. Franklin, wanting to make money and a name of himself pulls Michael out of retirement and into the life of crime and robbery again.

Through a series of events, Trevor Phillips, Michael's old partner, realizes Michael is not dead like he believed he was. Soon he finds Michael and the three begin working together.

Now that's a broad synopsis for a story that has a bunch of twists and turns that make it such a great story.

Another thing to mention among all the great things that happen in this game are the random events. You'll be driving down the street and see someone get robbed. You can go after that robber and return the cash or keep it, its all up to you. There are several other situations that can happen. I once pulled up to a guy who looked like he needed a ride, he then pulls out a gun and he tries to carjack me. I laughed out loud and said, "I'm getting Grand Theft Auto'd in Grand Theft Auto."

The only slight complaint I have with the game is the lack of tension and concern for the characters. This is not I have throughout the game, there are just a few instances where the story could have been shaped better to make the player worry if these characters are going to get out or not.

The biggest example is the ending. Franklin is given a choice, kill Trevor, or kill Michael. Now this

sounds like quite the dilemma, you're basically asked to kill off one of the three characters you've come to love in this game. But no fear, there is another option called the Deathwish option. It essentially is all three of them teaming up to fight the people going after them... and they win.

Sorry to spoil the ending but they win. Their plan goes off without a hitch, nobody the player truly cares about dies. Everybody lives.

Now at first, I said alright, that was a good ending, I didn't want to see one of the three main characters die, it was a good ending. But then I thought about it. There wasn't much of a payoff in the end. There wasn't anything lost in the end. These characters had a lot to lose but they didn't lose any of it.

A similar thing happened in Mass Effect 2.

Now Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games on the 360. Fantastic gameplay, story is phenomenal, etc. At the end of the game you and your team goes on a suicide mission. One that has been mentioned throughout the entire game. They keep saying, not all of us may come back from this one. And the first time I played it, not everyone did. I missed some upgrades, I didn't have all the relationships maxed, and I paid the price for it. A lot of my people died. I was devastated. But it was a solid ending in my book. Sad but solid.

But then I played it again. I got all the upgrades, I maxed all my relationships and I got the suicide mission. And nobody died. To this day, I prefer the ending of my first game. Seeing all my people die, and seeing all the coffins on my ship at the end of the game, it really gave the ending some real impact and made what we did on the suicide mission all the more powerful.

Another example is GTA 4.

The truth is, you can't win the end of GTA 4. Either Roman dies or Kate dies. There's no getting around it. Niko is the victor in the end, but its a bittersweet ending.

(I personally always choose the ending where Kate dies. I thought she was a great character but nobody fucking kills Roman, fuck that shit.)

I don't think that GTA 5 necessarily needed to kill off one of the three main characters but I do think they needed to have someone die at the end in order to make it worth wild.


This is a very small complaint. I loved the ending, more so I loved the game. I just think that they gave a powerful swing with not the greatest followthrough. It still hit it out of the park but not as far as I expected.

But again, this is my only complaint. I'm still playing the game even though I've beaten it. I'm just getting into the online, and there are still challenges and side quests I haven't touched yet. One last thing worth mentioning are the movie references that are in this game. Since the game is mainly based on heists and robbery, they took influences from different crime thrillers like Heat and others. (A movie I will be reviewing, hopefully soon.)

So that's my review of GTA 5. Overall I would give it a 99.9 out of a 100 only because of the slightly lack luster ending.

What do you think? Do you think people need to die to make it a good movie or video game? Let me know what you think.

I'm still in my crime segment, one I don't think I started properly, mainly because of GTA 5. If you have any suggestions, I'm open to them. Hope you enjoyed this one.