As the seventh generation of consoles begins to wind down, Grand Theft Auto V stands as one of the last high-profile releases for current systems. This latest edition of Rockstar’s cornerstone franchise is a fitting swansong for our beloved PS3s and 360s, for Grand Theft Auto has become a seminal series for gamers with an affinity for exploration and mayhem. Indeed, the mayhem of Grand Theft Auto has time and time again drawn scorn from anti-videogame groups and activists claiming that the games’ explicit content is corrupting the minds of the youth. Whether or not this claim holds any weight, the sad truth is that this controversy has obscured a key detail from mainstream knowledge: Grand Theft Auto is one of the best written game series out there.
Does GTA V uphold this reputation? Well … More about the series’ writing, first.
Ever since GTA III first allowed you to perform drive-bys in Liberty City, the writers of the series have inserted puns, sight gags and witty (and crude) one-liners into every nook and cranny of the game. The radio, the billboards, the bystanders – everything in the game is a wealth of comedic value. What elevates Grand Theft Auto, though, is the games’ continuous critique on American society. The satirical barbs that have been not-so-subtly peppered into the games’ dialogue indicate that Rockstar’s writing staff thinks that there’s a lot more wrong with America than just violent videogames. Everything from celebrity culture to the Rodney King riots have been committed to caricature in the Grand Theft Auto series.
The degree and tone of this social commentary, though, sets Grand Theft Auto V (and to the same extent, Grand Theft Auto IV) apart from the older entries in the series. While Vice City and San Andreas had plenty to say about the cultural and societal issues of their settings (the '80s and '90s, respectively), the general atmosphere of the games was cartoonish and exaggerated. These games were far more in the Horatian category of satire, playfully riffing on norms of the times (Celebs doing blow! Gangsta rap!).
Grand Theft Auto IV changed this. The first Grand Theft Auto game set after 9/11, the tale of an Eastern European immigrant out for revenge is a bitter, sardonic skewering of the American Dream. There were still plenty of laughs to be had, but there was a hitherto unfelt sense of meanness and contempt. Grand Theft Auto had moved past jumping onto planes via pickup trucks and other such outlandish acts of tomfoolery. You have to look for Saints Row for that kind of silliness these days.
So where does that leave us with Grand Theft Auto V? Well, the short answer is the middle ground; GTA V contains elements of both the (comparatively) lighter days of Vice City with the dour philosophizing of GTA IV. This however, implies that there is a consistent tone in GTA V, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
GTA V starts out in a small town in North Yankton (which I guess is like North Dakota, but edgier), with three bank robbers holding up a bank. One robber, Michael, fakes his death and cuts a deal with the FIB (get it?) to go into hiding with his family. Flash forward 10 years and Michael has transformed into Tony Soprano: an aging, therapy-attending psycho whose family is driving him crazy. Best part: he’s one of the three playable characters.
We’re also introduced to Franklin, a car thief and ex-gangbanger who just wants to get out of the hood. While Franklin is certainly less boring than the last thug players got to control in Los Santos (CJ from San Andreas), he’s still not very interesting, which makes controlling him a bit of a chore.
With a washed-up ex-con and a dull gangbanger to control, you’d think that the game would be an endless slog. Surprisingly, though, once Franklin and Michael team up in an extremely convoluted manner, the game hits its high point. Utilizing both characters to plan the heist of a jewelry store is fast-paced, caper-like action that feels like a sleazier version of Ocean’s Eleven. It’s this first quarter of the game where, a few moments of brooding about the hollowness of the American Dream aside, the game actually feels like a game: fun, fresh and exciting.
After the heist, though, things get problematic. Trevor, the surviving heist partner from the beginning of the game, finds out that Michael is still alive and goes to seek him out, thus becoming the third player character.
Trevor is a problematic character for several reasons. For one, he is one of the more grotesque characters in fiction this side of a Flannery O’Connor short story. Psychotic, greedy, amoral, lecherous, cruel, manipulative, ignorant – if Michael and Franklin represent the failure and power of the American Dream, respectively, then Trevor represents the perversion of it. He’s a sheer force of nature and totally blows away the arcs of Michael and Franklin when he enters the plot.
This leads me to the second problem: Trevor is by far and away the most interesting character in the game. Unfortunately, he’s so interesting that the game starts to feel flat when he’s not around; the game never focuses too much on him, and the player is left playing Michael trying to bond with his asshole kids or Franklin towing cars for his crackhead friend.
Finally, Trevor simply adds too much of a cartoony tone to the game. His over-the-top insanity absolutely derails any serious character development or attempts at poignancy. While Grand Theft Auto needed more of a lighthearted tone after the bleakness of GTA IV, Trevor (fittingly) pushes it too far into the realm of absurdity.
Not that Trevor is the only problem; he’s just emblematic of a failure to balance the knowing mocking and biting social critique. There are dangling subplots everywhere, baiting the player into caring about quirky characters and harebrained schemes on the fringes of Los Santos, but never completes these arcs in a way that enriches the main plot.
Elsewhere, the majority of the characters are sorely underdeveloped. The main three characters are given only the most cursory of backstories and as such, it's difficult to care for them. They fare better than the supporting cast, for there's scarcely a character who is developed beyond a single trait: the spoiled kids, the dumbass friend and the belligerent nerd are all cliches that GTA V trots out.
Even worse, the main plot is a monotonous slog that meanders from one boring plot hook to the next. Part of this stems from the fact that there's no real drive; there's no strong central antagonist (a yuppie and a douchebag FIB agent take up villain duties, and neither emit a single iota of menace) and the conflict between Trevor and the deceptive Michael provides hours of bitchy interplay, but no character development and next-to-no narrative consequence.
The plot drips like molasses, of course, until a very rushed final act in which 200 million dollars in gold is stolen and every enemy in the game is neatly killed with no reprecussions. This narrative sloppiness is the cherry on top of GTA V, which in the end doesn't measure up to the heights that previous entries have reached, at least from a writing perspective.