Intro: Grand Theft Auto 5 is one of those games that will stay with me forever. It’s a game that showcases the bad parts of humanity, and the hurt parts of society. GTA 5, in a sense, is mocking what happens in life, exhibiting a well-crafted story from the perspective of three people, Franklin, Michael, and Trevor. While this title had a lot of riveting things and captured me in the same way Red Dead Redemption 2 did, some parts were overly cruel and disgusted me. While this game is meant to mock society and some of its inhabitants, there is a fine line between bringing attention to something because it needs it, and creating a nihilistic world, with concepts that reek of this self-aggrandizing nature. By the time I got to a certain point in GTA 5, a lot of this title was reutilizing the idea of let’s be edgy to get our point across, or just shock the player with unneeded acts of violence. Trust the Process: GTA 5 was released over ten years ago and is the best-selling Grand Theft Auto game, selling 200 million units across three console generations and PC. I never understood why it grabbed people so much until I played it. There’s this fine line that Grand Theft Auto 5 treads, where it’s racist, homophobic, nihilistic, and cruel, but also brilliant in its narrative design and character interaction. There’s a lot that this game does right and a lot that I think is cringy and over the top just to be so. Games are supposed to make you think in ways you never have before, whether that’s positive or negative is down to the player’s perception. This game made me think about one core thing, why have we become so desensitized to violence? I tend to trust the process when it comes to games that are vastly out of my comfort zone. It’s how Red Dead Redemption 2 became one of my favorite games. But when some games give me whiplash in terms of morality and what I find going a bit too far in some cases, that’s when I have to question things a bit more than usual. This game is built on the premise that you will do bad things, you will commit crimes, and you will kill people. If it weren’t for the story which has an incredibly well-constructed narrative design I don’t think this game would have done as well as it has. We have Trevor who is a sadistic psychopath, Franklin who wants a better future for himself and those he cares about, and is willing to die for something that matters, and then there’s Michael, the dead man walking who escaped from a life of crime to be with his family. All of them have one thing in common and that’s hope. They hope for more, for better, and their version of what’s better for them while vastly different is still a form of hope. This isn’t just a common theme with our three protagonists, it’s a theme across the whole game. This went too far: When going about the topic of torture there’s no easy way to discuss it, no PG way to dive in. There is a section of GTA 5 where you will need to torture someone for information. It is by far one of the most unnecessary things to have ever been put into a game. I get it, this game is violent, but much like Martha is dead, there is no need to be put in the shoes of a raging killer. It's why I never played Martha is Dead, and had I known that there was a playable torture scene in the game, I would not have bought it. It’s a personal line and a draw for myself where yes, gore is fine, a certain level of violence is fine and needed to convey a story but I don't want to play a game where I am willingly causing torturous harm to another. Yes, the Last of Us 2 had it which I couldn’t stand, yes a lot of games have violence that goes over the top, but there is a line. There is a difference between protecting yourself and causing harm to another human who is doing nothing harmful to you. Neural pathways are created when neurons form connections in response to experiences. These experiences whether they are positive or negative deepen the neural grooves in our brain. A game is still an experience that teaches the brain to create new pathways and new reactions to certain stimuli. I tried to get out of that torture scene as fast as I could because I didn’t want to experience it anymore. After the “experience” so to speak had commenced I sat back in my chair and cried. There are things that I am, and hopefully never will be desensitized to. There are things that I don’t want my brain to create a pathway from. While this game’s story is brilliant let’s not forget the premise it’s built on. It's all in the mechanics: The mechanics in GTA 5 are good when they want to be. They have a certain drift to them that makes it hard to shoot a gun accurately at points and don’t even get me started on the driving mechanic. The driving mechanic is by far one of the worst I’ve seen of any game I’ve ever played, and I played Enter the Matrix back in 2003. With driving being one of the main things I did throughout the game, I tried to find ways to make my driving better, and one thing that helped was getting a motorcycle or a smaller car. For some reason, those types of vehicles were easier to drive. When you get to the sections where you have to swim I felt like the scuba diving section was easier than driving. BUT and this is a big but, when you’re controlling an underwater vehicle, that’s when things go from a light summer jog to falling down a flight of stairs while experiencing zero gravity. The camera was all over the place and I didn’t know my right from my left when guiding Trevor in the submersible.
A story of Hope, anguish, and laughs: Weaving through Michael, Franklin, and Trevor’s story was such a unique experience witnessing each perspective. They all have their views, ways, and unhealthy habits to cope with existing. This game showcases reality in a very unhealthy way, exhibiting a caricature almost of how life can suck, and then even the good parts suck too. Grand Theft Auto Five gripped me with characters that I ended up caring about, not Trevor though, that cannibalistic sadist got killed in the ending I chose. What is remarkable is that even with Trevor, at certain points I felt bad for him, because he much like our other two protagonists was heavily traumatized by their life experiences. Rockstar has always hit it out of the park with their narrative design, the fact that Michael can visit his therapist during the game is amazing, it reminded me of Tony Soprano sitting across from his Psychologist, just waiting for the session to be over. The music in this game reminded me of a classic action movie, this rough and tough nature where the sounds of the bullets could be a part of the orchestra. I like how each time you went into the car you could hear whatever would play randomly, nothing, or choose a station. The music, music like in real life ends when you leave the car abruptly. That was such a realistic touch to add, it made the ambiance of the game pop more! Everyone in this story worked together on each mission to get to an end goal, much like a drug addict, the high of the “next score” was always worth the anxiety, familial heartache, and possible early death. This game broke my heart but also made me laugh so hard that my side got sore. Michael calling Trevor a Hipster, peak comedy. Some say, “Separate the art from the artist.” I say that art is a part of what drives the artist to create. What gives their art life if not the person creating it? GTA is one of those titles that will never leave me for both good and bad reasons.
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