It has been over 12 years since GTA V launched, and it remains one of the most beloved titles in Rockstar’s iconic series. The game that brought players back to Los Santos earned one billion dollars in its first three days of sales. GTA VI will need to be something special to justify replacing a game that has sold 230 million copies.
The new entry will also offer a sentimental return, this time to Vice City, inspired by Miami. But before that premiere arrives, I want to stay on the West Coast and take a closer look at GTA V, which remains the foundation of the series. Does it still impress? What was groundbreaking, and what needs improving? The phrase "Oh shi…, here we go again" comes to mind, but not this time. This is going to be a worthwhile trip back to a solid game that holds up better than it has any right to.
The Three Protagonists Remain the Most Important Step Forward in the Series' Story
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The biggest surprise in GTA V was the decision to include three protagonists. Previous entries in the series focused on a single character. We built Tommy Vercetti's criminal empire in sunny Vice City, or followed CJ Johnson's quest for revenge. In the fifth instalment, Rockstar gave us the ability to switch freely between three main characters.
Co-writer Dan Houser said the innovation was designed to push the story into more original territory than its predecessors. I was sceptical before my first playthrough, but returning to the game years later, I can say the mechanic works. It gives the game a rhythm that a single protagonist simply couldn't sustain.
When driving during a shared mission, switching to Franklin is the obvious call. His ability to slow down time behind the wheel lets you pull off spectacular manoeuvres and thread through obstacles that would otherwise end a mission.
In a firefight, Michael and Trevor are the ones you want. Trevor's rage mode, which amplifies his damage output and turns him into something barely containable, is still one of the most satisfying abilities in the game.
The three characters bring genuinely different energies to the story. Michael is the calculating criminal who has compartmentalised his violence behind a veneer of suburban respectability. Trevor, whom Houser described as someone driven purely by desire and resentment with no thought for tomorrow, is his direct opposite. Franklin is the ambitious young gangster trying to move up by learning from both of them. Together, they dismantle the myth of easy money and present a far less romantic picture of life in Los Santos.
Los Santos Set the Standard for Open World Design in GTA
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This was not our first visit to Los Santos. GTA San Andreas took us there years earlier, but GTA V presented a dramatically more detailed and expansive version of the city.
The map covers over 100 square miles. Los Santos is modelled closely on Los Angeles and its surroundings: Vinewood mirrors Beverly Hills, and the desert of Blaine County stands in for the Mojave. Rockstar's team conducted extensive field research in California to capture the city accurately. At launch, Los Santos was the largest and most detailed map in the series' history.
Booting the game up again, I expected to be let down by the visuals. I wasn't. Riding Franklin's motorcycle through Los Santos at night with a Gorillaz track playing was genuinely striking, the kind of moment the game still delivers without effort. But nostalgia only carries you so far. The area where Rockstar clearly needs to do better in GTA VI is NPC behaviour. A production of this scale deserves background characters who feel like they belong to the world, not figures drifting aimlessly through a beautiful city with nowhere to go.
GTA Online Became Its Own Game
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Beyond the story campaign, GTA V found extraordinary success in its online mode. GTA San Andreas had an unofficial multiplayer component that built a loyal following. GTA IV laid the groundwork. GTA V took the concept to a different level entirely, with richer player interaction, an expanding library of missions, and a far wider range of activities. GTA Online officially launched two weeks after GTA V, on 1 October 2013.
By 2019, GTA Online was generating five million dollars per day. In 2021, microtransactions alone brought in nearly one billion dollars in a single fiscal year. Despite those numbers, the mode has a persistent cheater problem, one that players have documented on forums for years, and one I can confirm from my own experience.
GTA Online may also be part of the reason the wait for GTA VI stretched as long as it did. The mode offered continuous entertainment and extraordinary revenue: extra missions, races, and enough variety to keep players returning year after year.
Should You Play GTA V Before GTA VI Launches?
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If you have already played GTA V, you probably know it holds up well enough for a second or third run. If you haven't played it yet, now is a reasonable time to start before GTA VI releases in November. The game is frequently available for under ten dollars, and its active player base remains in the millions, a number likely to climb as GTA VI's release draws closer.
PC players have the most compelling reason to return. GTA VI is launching on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which means PC players will be living with GTA V as the current entry in the series for some time yet. The main campaign runs around 30 hours. If you push into the open world properly, that figure can stretch to 100 hours or more.
A Legend That Has Earned Its Successor
GTA V is an anomaly, proof that a well-made game can generate revenue indefinitely. GTA Online still earns over one million dollars a day through Shark Card sales and GTA+ subscriptions. This era has now lasted 12 years.
For comparison, only five years passed between GTA IV and GTA V. The three-protagonist structure, the scale of the online mode, and the visual ambition all helped GTA V set a new standard and raised the bar for everything that followed. But something new is coming.
I came back to GTA V after years away and ended up staying longer than I expected. That is a good sign for the game and a complicated one for its sequel.
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This bundle contains the original version of Grand Theft Auto V, the standalone game Grand Theft Auto Online and the story mode add-on of Grand Theft Auto V.
