Grand Theft Auto V Review

By: Jeffrey McDuff

– This thing is a hard M rating

This review is for the Playstation 3. However I’ll put it on both

Story—

Well, I do not want to give a lot away. So, I will try to make this a spoiler-free as possible.

You follow three different and distinct characters: Micheal, Franklin and Trevor.  Micheal is in the witness protection program but is getting bored, Franklin is a gang-banger looking to get out of the hood, and Trevor… well Trevor is Trevor. As with all GTA games, the goal is to get money through less-than traditional means.

Gameplay—

Well the gameplay is GTA gameplay. However, it is much more refined.

The cars drive according to their characteristics, for example, a front-engine rear-wheel drive car will have oversteer when turning, a front-engine, front-wheel drive car will have understeer, the mid-engine cars are well-balanced and the Porsche-911 version called the Comet is a rear engine car, and, much like the 911 will do everything in its power to kill you going around a corner.

Death Machine

The inclusion of the Strangers & Freaks missions add some levity to, what I consider, a kind of depressing storyline overall. I highly recommend you take the time to do these, they are fun.

I think the biggest addition that they included in this game was the stock market. I invested a lot of my money into the stock market, with a very nice return to my initial investment. They are two different markets for you to invest in (LCN and BAWSAQ). There is a rumor that the BAWSAQ is a dynamic market, with the ability to take what is happening online and update they current prices to reflect world-wide trading trends. I do not know if this is true, however, I can confirm that if you delete the patch, BAWSAQ is always taken down.

Visuals—

This game took 5 years to complete, and the graphics show. They are so polished it sometimes makes my eyes hurt. I know a lot of people say you should do this, but… man the water is freaking awesome looking.

The one hiccup that I have found is when there is a boat or jet-ski on the water. The screen gets sort of fuzzy around it. This was on the PS3 so, maybe the XBOX360 doesn’t have this problem. It did make it easy to find a boat when I needed on though.

Sound—

The sound is very good. Rockstar included a 7.1 mix to the game, which on my 7.1 system, sounded amazing. Especially when there was a thunderstorm. Soooo goood.

I will say that the Radio stations get annoying after a while and I started just to turn them off.

How “M” Is it? —

HOLY CRAP SO M

SOO M

It seemed that this time around they wanted to push the envelope just to push it. I’ve been over 17 for a while now and this game made me rather uncomfortable a few times. Lets address the big one The Torture Scene. It was bad, so bad in fact, that my wife had me turn off the sound in the middle of it because it made her squeamish. Spoiler Alert!: I recommend using the Jerry Can, there isn’t gas in it, it’s for waterboarding. Which although I understand is no walk in the park mentally, physically, it is a lot better than the other methods. I can’t see mental anguish, but I could see the physical pain. End Spoilers. Overall, I really don’t think they needed to include it, I know they were trying to compare it to our current information gathering methods but I think it was too raw for a video game. Heck, it was too raw for a movie.

I would not even think about letting a kid play this game, for the torture scene alone, I didn’t even mention the language and large amount of nudity that is in the game. I’m just going to say it, if you let your kid play this game or watch you play this game YOU ARE A BAD PARENT.

——Isaias’s Take—— 

This game is great. I have heard this phrase and agree with it: If you buy only one game this year, buy this one. I am not saying it is “Game of the Year” or anything… but you would definitely be getting your money’s worth. The world is huge, the characters are 3-dimensional (especially Trevor) and everything in this game is interesting. You can literally do nothing in this game and still feel like you didn’t waste your time. It is a non-stop thrill ride. Seriously though, don’t let your kids near it.

——The Bottom Line——

With all that now said… the game is fun. Ridiculous fun. At end of the day, it’s still a game, and games are meant to be fun.

You can tell that Rockstar put the time and effort into making a game they wanted to make. And while I do not think it is the perfect video game, it is close. Let me take this time to mention the driving mechanics: they’re good, not Forza simulation good but Need For Speed good.

— Jeff’s Random Scoring System

I give it a 5 (out of 5) Police Stars.

Comments or Questions? You can email the author at Jeff@tek-rev.com