I never really followed or saw much
Grand Theft Auto news for the past few years and I was surprised by
it considering that usually when a new extremely popular game comes
out or is announced, I usually can't stop hearing more of it even if
I tried. I only recently found out why there was that lack of
existence, because there really wasn't much existing to talk about at
all, Grand Theft Auto 5 was only heavily speculated and rumored, at
least until now. Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto 5 is
actually in development and today they released the first trailer for
the game.
I've had different feelings about it's
predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 4, and even games that came before it
did in the series; games such as Grand Theft Auto 3, San Andreas,
Vice City or even 2 before all of those. There was a noticeable shift
in the entire series at a few points in it's life time, the first
being of course the shift from old generation consoles ending with
GTA 2 and moving onto 3 at which point the game went onto being 3D
and had a more cinematic presentation and somewhat more streamlined
flow rather than go where ever you want and do missions for whoever
you want (although you could still almost go where ever you want). In
any case however, the series continued basically the same way with a
few minor improvements in Vice City, and then started to show signs
of change in San Andreas with various inclusions such as appearance
customization, and including RPG elements such as gaining levels in
skills. After San Andreas however, GTA went back to it's roots
basically with GTA 4, not only taking place in the same city that GTA
3 did, but also almost mechanically as well. GTA 4, while very
polished, refined, and definitely the next level up in the GTA
series, reminded me of playing GTA 3 in that it seemed much more
clunky than Vice City or San Andreas, although after playing the game
for a long period of time, I decided that that “chunkiness” was
just the game being GTA 4, and it intentionally provides a weight to
everything for a sense of realism even to the extent of it's realism
getting in the way of what you wanted to do in a GTA game, much like
it would do in reality. With all of that said, that finally leads us
to GTA 5.
I believe GTA 5 will continue the
tradition of showing the change in the GTA series from just how
Rockstar has improved on their implementation and utilization on the
Euphoria engine between the time period of GTA 4 and Red Dead
Redemption. If you've played RDR and also have played GTA 4, you can
immediately spot the differences and similarities in game play, from
how movement is more fluid and less dragged on by weight in RDR, to
how the shooting mechanics are just in general way more improved and
easier to use in RDR as well. With the lessons learned (or created)
in RDR, I feel like if Rockstar carries that onto GTA 5, it would end
up being a massive difference from GTA 4, however at the same time
there's a possibility they won't do that at all because it would
separate the two feelings of both games too much, but only time will
tell.
As for the actual trailer, if you
haven't seen it yet, you can find a link to it below here.
The trailer itself looks much more like
the few things that I've seen from Max Payne 3 stylistically more
than GTA 4. The video just seems much more bright and colorful than
in has in the past. Although that may just be the improvement of
graphics, as even RDR had a sense of being colorful, moreso than GTA
4. There has also been some talk of speculation that I heard from
Adam who he heard from other people that speculated things such as :
-The main character is Tommy Vercetti
from Grand Theft Auto : Vice City
-Niko Bellic is in the trailer as a
homeless man
-CJ/Carl Johnson would have a part
-There are multiple playable characters
My take on those is that for the first
one, I wouldn't mind if Tommy Vercetti was the main character as I
really liked Vice City even though my liking of the character Tommy
Vercetti was somewhat questionable. Although according to the
trailer, if the narration voice is indeed him, then he has at least
slightly changed for the better. For Niko Bellic being the homeless
man shown in the trailer, I don't think that he honestly looks much
like Niko at all, of course he is wearing the same outfit that Niko
starts out with in GTA 4, and if the game takes 20 years after GTA 4,
then it would be possible as he would probably not be easily
recognizable. As the game takes place in San Andreas (apparently) it
would only make sense to have the main character of San Andreas have
some role in the story or at least make a brief appearance. Finally
as for the multiple playable characters, after hearing that Tommy
Vercetti would be the main character, I'm actually against that
because I want to see how he has changed throughout the years and
spending the entire game as him and seeing his view point the entire
way through would be a suitable way to do that.
Finally, I still don't have that many
real expectations for GTA 5 other than the one that of course many
other people will have, that the game will be good if not superb.
However, I do have one speculation or hope of my own that is based
off the hearsay that Tommy Vercetti is the main character. If he does
take that role, I would like to see mention or involvement of the
other characters in Vice City that were involved with him in someway.
Of course, that part should go without question anyway as the other
characters were essential in Tommy Vercetti's role throughout Vice
City. As I said before though, only time will tell what GTA 5 ends up
becoming and if any of the speculation is true at all. With that
said, the trailer made me excited for the game, and I will definitely
want to play it sometime after whenever it releases.
