Ranking The Best Grand Theft Auto Games
2. Grand Theft Auto V
What struck me most about playing GTA V was about how truly seamless the gameplay was. The mandatory installs upfront helped offset a lot of potential loading screens throughout the game, as you would transition from cruising down the streets of Los Santos to right in the middle of a dynamic cutscene in a matter of seconds.
Grand Theft Auto V set out to accomplish almost every conceivable notion of a real life event and perfected it. Fun outings like Golf, Tennis, Sky Diving, Races, Shooting Ranges etc. didn’t seem like afterthoughts, but well-designed gameplay elements. The RPG elements from previous GTA games (foreshadowing!) makes its return, as protagonists Michael, Trevor and Franklin start out with varying stat layouts that you can improve upon through practice and repetition.
Even more impressive is the idea of three playable anti-heroes, especially interchangeable with the click of a button. It is an integral part, as certain missions with the entire team allowed for multiple vantage points and objectives to accomplish throughout the story. Showing up as one character will produce a different stream of dialogue than if a different character is there early before the rest of his crew.
Speaking of a crew, adding heists in GTA V created one of the more fun repeatable instances of play. While high-stakes robbery is just part of the territory for Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar’s newest game will eventually make its way to ongoing online content in Grand Theft Auto Online. While connectivity problems persist today, when you do manage to play online the development team show a commitment to its multiplayer community. Online crews allow you to quickly gain friends, who can both do fun activities outside missions or help you pull off coordinated heists (at a later update), participate in competitive online battle modes, share custom map creations or just generally hang out.
I can’t help but feel like Grand Theft Auto V will be part of the gaming pantheon for quite some time, perhaps several years into the early life cycle of the Xbox One/PS4. The only qualms that I have that prevent it from being the best GTA game is the repetitive tropes created in some of the dialogue. While the majority of the game’s speeches and dialogue are spot on and help to paint a beautifully twisted world, it seems like passages between Michael and Trevor get tiresome after a while. Yes, I get that Michael is a terrible man, Trevor. Yes, I get that Trevor is a lunatic that you think will kill you once the feds are dealt with, Michael. It is one of the lone dull spots on an otherwise lustrous game.