Rockstar recently invited the media to a recent event in order to view a new, hands-off demo. A slew of new Grand Theft Auto V previews covering what was shown went live a short while ago.
IGN was one such publication in attendance, and posted a lengthy article covering the characters, gameplay details, and more. You can find a summary of their report below.
Characters
- Rockstar wants to create “the ultimate open-world game” with Grand Theft Auto V
- The three characters are a focal point of Rockstar’s attempt to do so
- All three are playable at practically any time
- Switch between the characters on the fly with only a brief period of loading
- Each character is an important part of the main narrative’s success
- Each character can also take on a bunch of sidequests and activities
- The way they work with each other will prove pivotal, and yet each is his own man with his own set of problems, desires, and goals, and the game encourages you to explore their stories individually as well as collaboratively
- Franklin is a repo man, an expert wheelman and a typical San Andreas criminal
- Trevor is an alcoholic and drug addict who always seems just one frame ahead of his latest bender
Press demo opening
- Start out by being introduced to a small gang’s ringleader, a clean-cut older gentleman named Michael
- Michael wants to continue his notorious crime-ridden ways because nothing else in his life of government-protected luxury makes him happy
- See events from his friend Franklin’s eyes
- Franklin launches himself out of a plane, where he immediately engages a parachute and floats slowly and surely towards the ground below
- Get to see the vast diversity of locations including mountains, forests, rivers and more
- When you hit the ground, Franklin gets rid of his parachute and explores the wooded region around him
- Two men are fishing nearby, humorously paying no attention to the man that fell out of the sky not a dozen feet away from them
- Animals run through the trees
- The nearby river flows steadily and quietly
- The sun shines in the sky above. Everything seems normal and every day
- Trevor is shown sprawled out on the beach, dirtied and bloodied and wearing nothing but his briefs with the corpses of some members of The Lost motorcycle gang around him on a beach
- He cleans himself up and gets into the action, likely unaware of what even transpired before he blacked out
Press demo – heists
- The three work together to complete a series of crimes known as heists
- “Heist” is a central theme
- Rockstar promises a series of highs and lows in the campaign, as opposed to Grand Theft Auto IV’s run towards an ultimate conclusion, meaning you’ll crescendo as you get closer to completing each heist, only to reset and start again on another heist thereafter
- In the demo Michael, Franklin, and Trevor plan an attack on an armored vehicle in order to steal its precious cargo
- Previous missions have players obtaining the necessary tools, such as acquiring the party’s costumes and masks, as well as the gigantic dump truck that they’ll need to tip the armored vehicle on its side and the escape vehicle that will whisk them to safety
- Mission doesn’t go quite as planned
- While the three get what they were looking for, private guards within the vehicle tripped the alarm before going down in a blaze of glory
- Cops soon swarm the location and you’ll need to defend yourself to escape
- Michael, Franklin, and Trevor will each take a specific position in the area, each armed with a different weapon, as they do away with the police
- Toggling between characters is entirely in-the-moment
- Characters can readily defend themselves when you’re not playing as them, but switching between each of them regularly appeared to be the key to keeping the cops at bay as their numbers are steadily whittled down
Press demo – sidequest
- Sidequest involves a starlet being stalked by the paparazzi
- Can walk up to her, agree to assist her, get into her car and watch her somewhat awkwardly path-find a way towards the passenger side door
- Inside, you’re off to her modest estate in the upscale hills surrounding Los Santos, trying to lose the paparazzi all the while
- If you kill the paparazzi, you automatically fail
Experience system
- Experience system included that gives players real control over the growth trajectory of their characters
- Each character is judged based on a series of nine statistics – Stamina, Shooting, Strength, Stealth, Flying, Driving, Mechanic, Lung Capacity, and Special – and each statistic is built-up specifically by doing the action given
- If you drive around a lot, you’ll become a better drive; swim the depths of the bodies of water around you, and you’ll become a more adept swimmer
- Specialist stat represents each character’s specific talent, catered to the individual strengths of that character
- Some some characters will start off inherently stronger in some areas than others, but through simple use, they’ll all gain parity with one another in every sense
Other
- No longer drown in the water
- Can swim and don SCUBA gear and explore underwater
- There will be a lot to find underwater
- Missions, sidequests, and more will be happening all over the map, but San Andreas is where most of the action is
- Each character has his own personality and skillset
- Franklin is about firearms, Michael is a driving expert, and Trevor knows how to pilot aircrafts
- Driving mechanics have been reworked and are tighter than ever
- Checkpoints will be more forgiving in GTA V
- IGN makes note of texture pop-in issues
- More tools in your arsenal and cars, trucks, motorcycles, watercraft, and all manner of aerial vehicles than ever before
- All are fully customizable and upgradeable