A little more than a month ago, I went to my local EB Games store aimlessly during their mid-year sale, with little intention of buying anything. Yet I walked away with a copy of Grand Theft Auto V on the PlayStation 5. As someone who had purchased the game on the PlayStation 3 shortly after its launch, I returned it because it didn’t conform to my gaming preferences at the time. Therefore why did I decide then was the day to nab myself a copy? The answer will likely elude me forever. Even though I have yet to make much progress through the main campaign and probably should would things ever quieten down, I found myself drawn to Grand Theft Auto Online – especially during the last few weeks where I have been unwell and confined to the couch and television. With GTA Online content being a simple, enjoyable binge on Youtube for many years, how did it fare for someone like myself who has no experience in either first-person shooter (FPS) or third-person shooter (TPS) games?
The New User Experience
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of Grand Theft Auto Online have an alternate ‘New User Experience’ for the first character created on your account, granting access to a four million dollar boost to your account and a choice of four career options that you are required to pledge a majority of those funds towards – Executive, Gunrunner, Nightclub Owner and Biker. The idea of a chic suit appealed to me, so choosing Executive I was taken through a series of prompts going through what office, upgrades, weapons and vehicles you would like to start with. A huge ask for someone who has never set foot in GTA Online before, but I trudged through the menus before spending the mandatory $3 Million of my boon and setting foot into the world for the first time.
This is pretty much as far as the new user introduction experience goes. If this is your first time in San Andreas, you should go in expecting a bit of confusion. You are given a few missions about collecting your gear, arriving at your chosen business’s destination, and then doing a set-up mission to set it up. From then, you are let loose to take your character in the way you wish or take a few steps out of the door to get pummelled by an experienced player griefing. The best way to resolve this is time, trying new things and also reading guides, as Sam from a month ago was left confused until deep diving into the GTAOnline subreddit for advice on what different interactions did, and how to best unlock new content.
My Experience – Gradual Improvement
I typically don’t play any sort of cooperative shooter games purely because my skills suck, and I envision myself as more a logical, careful planner than someone who can rely on muscle memory to take down opponents with a sniper rifle (or any rifle) in a matter of seconds. Although I could attribute this to either my being put on servers with other unskilled players or the game’s rather generous aim assist, but provided I was not swarmed by enemies, I found myself gradually doing better and better until I would say I was at the same level or better than the average of other players I met. The variety between tactical and pure combat missions was welcome as it balanced the combat with the logical side of my brain well, but I felt that even without an in-depth tutorial or practice mode, I could pick up most fundamentals through standard play.
You Gotta Spend Money (In-Game or IRL) to Make Money
Some of the basics are given to you, fortunately, including some adequate vehicles on-demand, and a high-end apartment where you can just hang out or dabble in some entry-level heists (if you can get another three players along for the ride… which I was never able to do). So essentially, about an hour in, you should have access to most of the basics of GTA Online and the foundations of one of the meatier businesses that have been the focus of DLC releases post-launch.
As the saying goes, “variety is the spice of life”. Depending on whether you are willing to part with some IRL money, you may need to invest quite a bit of time into progressively unlocking new content – with each new property or expensive vehicle typically providing a new set of missions, whole sets of new content, or brand new money making activities to enjoy. With most properties going into the millions of in-game dollars to purchase, and potentially more for upgrades, the big challenges of the game are to:
a) Resist the urge to spend your money until you save up for what you want
b) Resist the urge to spend your money on frivolous aesthetic upgrades (interior designs, visual features, even sports cars) until you are rolling in the cash
c) Finding a way of making more money to unlock the new content and
d) How to maximise your passive income accrual so you can diversify the opportunities you have access to.
Following the advice from others, the generally accepted route is to first undertake money-making opportunities to purchase the Submarine or Arcade, which allows you to run arguably two of the game’s best heists – Cayo Perico and Diamond Casino – especially the former which is a solo heist that can net you $1.5 Million or more with the investment of an hour or two. The heists themselves are a lot of fun and are obviously the newest creations from Rockstar with favour exploration and careful engagement with potentially big rewards. Technically you can join in the heist missions of other players, but virtually everyone runs Cayo Perico solo, whilst you are looking at a meagre cut of the 2-4 person Diamond Casino heist. But the time dedicated to them is worth it, as both can be tackled in a multitude of different ways depending on what preparation missions you take. Are they hard… depending on the route you go down they can range from a cakewalk to expert tier, but none could be seen as impossible. Sadly, to unlock everything at a quick pace, expect a lot of grinding of the same 1-2 optimal routes.
Once you have a few businesses under your belt, provided you don’t want to keep up the grind train going in heists, you should have enough to keep your gameplay loop feeling fresh enough. Some properties such as the MC Clubhouse and the expensive Facility you will find yourself irregularly using, but the Agency Office, Nightclub, Auto Shop and Bunker in particular are hubs that provide lots of opportunities – from different mission contracts (The Agency being home to a collaboration questline with Dr. Dre and a new type of mission due in the coming weeks) to money making opportunities to unique unlockable vehicles and services. The only problem is that with half-yearly major updates in recent years, new content can take some time to roll out, which is a bit too infrequent as a month in I am already finding myself struggling to find new things to do given my more solo, lone wolf playstyle. Granted more resources are purportedly being put onto the long-awaited GTA VI, but still, quarterly updates would probably keep the experience fresher.
Heading Online or “Online”
While the console versions of GTA Online do not suffer the same levels of hacking as the PC version does, there is still a consistent level of griefing that may see players wanting to throw in the towel due to how unfair some of the situations can be. For example, I, as a lowly Level 10 player doing a bunker transport mission came face-to-face with a Level 400 on a flying motorbike with homing missiles, known as the Oppressor Mk II – which I had virtually no means of avoiding. This prematurely ended an hour or two worth of progress and rewarded it with a negative monetary intake. I found it fostered a feeling that if you encountered another player in the game, you should either do your darndest to hide from them or take them out in case they took you out. Even when you get to the triple-digit levels and are capable of more solidly defending yourself, those foundations of concern can stubbornly remain – or otherwise encourage you to take on the griefer role. It is a hard one because GTA Online openly encourages players to do this, but just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.
GTA Online has voice chat built in, although in 90% of cases everyone was muted, a further 7-8% unmuted themselves to shout profanities, and the other 2-3% were interested in talking or helping progress the instanced mission we were in. From experience, at least half of those on voice were clearly under the age of 18, despite is the Australian classification age of Grand Theft Auto V (R18+), and I overheard one kid admitting they were eight years old. While I have had my concerns with classification board ratings in the past, tweens (or younger kids) playing GTA Online is probably not a good idea.
There are some things in GTA Online that need to be done in the online mode, such as certain transport missions, even if what requires online servers is haphazard. For other things, however, you can head into an ‘Invite Only’ instance which is just you and the NPCs, which is honestly where I spent most of my time – especially with school holidays and weekends bringing more chaos and destruction to the streets of Los Santos. The next update, expected to go live next week, is set to relook at what missions need to be played online, so hopefully, it is possible to do pricey Nightclub Delivery missions without having a gang of players on your tail 50% of the time.
A Quality Game?
With GTA Online and Grand Theft Auto V both being introduced to gamers several console generations ago on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, saying that the visual quality is next-gen level even with the ‘Enhanced and Exlanded’ features for the newest generation of consoles would be inaccurate. The game looks very pretty, especially many of the building interiors and vehicle designs, but without completely overhauling the assets of the game from the ground up, the graphical fidelity is nowhere close to more modern AAA games – but still looks pretty good even by today’s standards. While I mentioned above that your first priority shouldn’t be aesthetic updates to your properties, when you do get the chance, you should look at decking out your venues. While not a clubber myself, splurging on lighting rigs, a dry ice machine and an alternate design scheme for my Nightclub was worth the investment, just on the atmosphere alone.
With dozens of in-game radios, the clever use of licensed and original music, and engagement with those in the music and DJ scenes – Rockstar really nailed the music composition throughout GTA Online. So many times I would stand in my property or just take a longer route to my destination, so I could jam to the beat on the radio – especially Roundabout by Yes and Steppin’ Out by Joe Jackson. The quality and diversity of music on offer is top-notch. The radio segments and in-game television segments are also amusingly memorable, parodying many different matters in often a hilarious but shocking way.
Where GTA Online does not get much acclaim however is the prominence of bugs throughout play sessions. The number of times I faced loading times hang, elements of a mission not loading in, or falling through the ground were more than I would have expected from a game that has been around this long. While nothing game-breaking to the point of being unrecoverable, having to redo a mission taking 20-30 minutes because something didn’t load at the end was frustrating, to say the least.
Final Comments on my Month in GTA Online
With just shy of a decade of content updates behind it, GTA Online is still an appealing option for newcomers to check out – supported by recent initiatives such as the game until recently being made available for free on PlayStation consoles. Just expect a gradual learning curve, as for complete newcomers to the GTA series, the handholding is kept to a minimum. Despite the griefing and bugs aplenty, it was still a really fun and surprisingly addictive experience for me, and even as I finished my playtesting, I will still log in every couple of days to tackle a mission or two and work towards unlocking some of the game’s many unique vehicles. GTA Online has shown that older games can still retain their appeal well and truly after their release with ongoing development, but with question marks about the fate of the game once GTA VI releases in the future… will it still receive the love and attention or complete overhaul it deserves should it wish to be relevant for another decade?
Grand Theft Auto Online is available on the PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Depending on the platform and any promotions at the time, you may also get Grand Theft Auto V bundled with the game, or the online game as a completely separate title.
