We’re a mere month away from the release of arguably the biggest game of this entire generation, Grand Theft Auto V. As you no doubt have just seen, Rockstar has revealed the multiplayer component for the open world crime adventure.
As Rockstar North’s President Leslie Benzies explains to CVG, Grand Theft Auto Online isn’t part of GTAV. GTA Online is “a different entity, a separate thing, and it’ll grow on its own,” according to Benzies. The trailer clocks in at around three minutes in length so we’re going to have to wait until the October 1st launch date before we can sink our teeth into it but from what we saw, it looks absolutely crazy.
The grassroots of GTAIV’s multiplayer return here. GTA Online is open world and it will let players do whatever they please. It’s an online Grand Theft Auto game pure and simple. Players will be dropped into Los Santos, given a slight push from behind and be told to just “go”.
Not only does GTA Online come with what we saw in GTAIV, it also comes with more common multiplayer modes such as team deathmatch. Rockstar announced last year the Crews component from Max Payne 3′s multiplayer would return for Grand Theft Auto V. Crews acts essentially as Rockstar’s version of a Clan. Players will be able to play with a select group of their friends and engage in conventional multiplayer matches like team deathmatch and as we saw in the trailer, races of various kinds. Races by land, sea and air are now part of the online experience.
Rockstar also showed how players can now engage in cooperative missions such as heists. A noticeable new addition to the franchise is the inclusion of a content creator for the game. The example shown in the trailer was the ability to place guns, vehicles and checkpoints in online matches. It’s very reminiscent of Far Cry 3′s content creator with players being able to set up matches however they like. Once you have a game created, you’ll be able to share it with other people and vice versa.
However, as Benzie’s points out in the CVG interview, the content creator won’t all be there at launch. Players will have a basic mode but it’ll come “when we feel comfortable that people are ready to get the new creators, they will be released. So it’ll be a trickle, but it’ll be a constant release of new creators and new content. We don’t want to overdo it. It’s a complex system.”
Players will also be able to completely customise their experience in GTA Online. You’ll start out with a base character who you can give clothes to, change their hair and appearance as well as weapons and the like. You can also buy an apartment for example to allow your friends to congregate and hang out. The more you play the game, the more you’ll level up so you’ll be able to get more stuff to add to your customisations. GTA Online features a lot of progression so the more you play, the more you reap the rewards.
There are also smaller things added to the experience such as the freedom to store cash in banks. We all know the pain of dying in GTAIV’s online mode and having someone scoop up all of our cash. To also combat rogue players, Rockstar also confirmed it has anticipated foul play by preparing “some cheater management, to make sure everyone’s behaving.” If you’re a bad sport online, you’ll be displayed as one which is a lot like the Xbox One’s reputation system.
So with a constantly evolving, dynamic and customisable world, it’s safe to say Rockstar has made an impression with Grand Theft Auto Online. So is this the perfect way to end this generation of consoles before we jump over to the next-gen?
