Grand Theft Auto V: My Opinion On a Three Character Narrative

When I think of Grand Theft Auto, I am (oddly)�usually reminded of my childhood. I used to watch my older brothers play "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" almost every day after school. While the story was the last thing I was actually paying attention to, I revisited the game recently�and found the story quite appealing. It was a playable version of the classic film "Scarface", with a completely badass protagonist named Tommy Vercetti. The story made you care about an antihero who is the spitting image of hell on earth for society. The idea of being a criminal and having to start at the very bottom of the "food chain" to climb to the top provided an epic story the likes of which Rockstar Games�is known for.

Rockstar Games has decided to tell not one, but three unique stories, with three unique characters. This change in narrative can make or break the game for every player. Every character has to be different, they cannot be the same character with a different "skin", and they all have to be fleshed out characters with backgrounds and resolutions to all of their stories. On top of all of that, the same amount of care must go into each character otherwise what we, as players, are left with are one or two really cool characters and that other�character that you can play as but he really doesn't matter as much because he is boring. While just about everybody will say that the Trevor character stole the show, the remaining characters were also fleshed out and had good backstories.

The remastered release of GTA V on the newest consoles will remind us of this new evolution and narrative, and impress us even more with its amazing visuals. A better looking environment will push us as players further into immersion. Giving us more realistic visuals will prevent that disconnect and stop us from having that "I am not actually experiencing this" moment. The story is absolutely solid, updating the visuals makes this perfect package even more perfect. I think that is Rockstar's goal, they already created a world that felt inhabited, it breathed, it flowed. Even though they don't need to put it on PS4 and Xbox One, doing so sets a bar and precedent for other developers. People are already forgetting about the last generation of consoles, when GTA V releases again this year, the bar gets raised again. Every developer looking to push out a great game has to look back at GTA V as the "measuring stick". Releasing a game near it is a bad idea, no matter what people will compare the titles and for a lot of people GTA V is their favorite game ever.

The fact of the matter is that Rockstar Games has been constantly pumping out successful narratives for a long time. They challenged themselves to see if they could put three characters together that we control and still create a good consistent narrative. Not only have they done that, they have given us the opportunity to etch our own stories in GTA Online. Finally, we can put ourselves into one of the best video game worlds ever made.