Grand Theft Auto V Review
Three protagonists, one enormous city, and a decade of staying power. GTA V remains the benchmark open-world playground.
More than a decade after release, Grand Theft Auto V is still the open-world game everyone else is measured against. Los Santos is a living parody of Los Angeles, and the three-protagonist structure remains a genuinely clever way to tell a heist story.
Developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games, it first arrived on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in September 2013, then again on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2014, on PC in April 2015 and on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in March 2022. That is three console generations for one campaign, and it has earned every one of them.
Three crooks, one city
Switching on the fly between Michael, Franklin and Trevor keeps the campaign fresh and gives the heists a cinematic, multi-angle flair. Trevor in particular is one of gaming's great agents of chaos, and the mission to assemble and execute each big score is still a thrill.
The trio are sharply drawn. Michael De Santa is a retired bank robber who cannot quite leave the old life behind; Franklin Clinton is a young street hustler looking for a way up; Trevor Philips is a volatile drug dealer and gunrunner who treats every scene as a threat. Performances from Ned Luke, Shawn Fonteno and Steven Ogg sell the friction between them, and the story's squeeze from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals gives their uneasy alliance real stakes. Each man even has his own special ability: Michael slips into bullet time, Franklin slows the world while driving, and Trevor halves the damage he takes while doubling what he deals.
Heists done properly
The big scores are where the structure pays off. Harder heist missions have you recruit AI accomplices with their own specialities, such as hacking or driving, and anyone who survives takes a cut of the money but comes back sharper for the next job. Some heists let you choose your approach, whether that means quietly incapacitating a room or storming in with guns drawn, and missions switch between the three leads to cover different objectives, so each of them earns a role in the job.
Moment to moment, the shooting and driving are solid rather than spectacular. Cover and auto-aim smooth out firefights, and the five-star wanted system still produces the series' best improvised chases, with helicopters and SWAT teams escalating the pressure the longer you stay in sight.
A playground that endures
Beyond the story, the sheer density of things to do, from stunt jumps and the stock market to random encounters, means the map never runs dry. It is the definition of a sandbox.
The world takes in Los Santos and the sprawling San Andreas countryside of Blaine County, and it is far larger than any earlier entry in the series, with fixed-wing aircraft added to make the distances manageable. After the prologue it is open without restriction, and it rewards aimless wandering as much as mission-running: desert towns, mountain trails and neon-lit city boulevards each feel authored rather than filled. The satire, aimed at the entertainment industry, the government and American excess in general, still lands, and the radio stations remain some of the best world-building in the medium, with more than 241 licensed tracks shared across fifteen stations, plus two talk radio stations, according to the game's production history.
What's changed since launch
The 2014 re-release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One added a longer draw distance, denser traffic, new wildlife and vegetation and a first-person view, which changes the feel of the game more than you might expect. The PC version followed with 4K support at 60 frames per second and the Rockstar Editor, whose Director Mode lets you stage and cut your own scenes, as the official Steam listing describes.
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S version launched on March 15, 2022, with technical and performance upgrades, and Rockstar pushed it hard.
Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online coming March 15 for PlayStation® 5. Get GTA Online for FREE exclusively on PS5. Pre-load now and be ready to play March 15.
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) March 10, 2022
PC players received the same enhancements in a free update on March 4, 2025. What never arrived was story DLC: plans for single-player expansions were shelved as Rockstar put its resources into Grand Theft Auto Online and Red Dead Redemption 2. Online, for up to 30 players, has grown into an enormous, ever-shifting service of its own, but it is also where the game's grind and monetisation are most obvious. Judge Story Mode as a finished, self-contained campaign, because that is what it is.
Official resources
- Grand Theft Auto V official site (Rockstar Games)
- Rockstar Newswire: GTAV for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S
- Grand Theft Auto V on Steam
- Grand Theft Auto V on PlayStation
- Grand Theft Auto V for Xbox Series X|S
- Grand Theft Auto V on Wikipedia
The verdict
The lack of new story content and the grind of its online mode show their age, but as a single-purchase open world, GTA V is still essential. Its heists, its three leads and its bitterly funny portrait of Los Santos have outlasted a generation of imitators. For a more grounded, emotional Rockstar epic, see our Red Dead Redemption 2 review.
What we loved
- Three distinct, switchable protagonists
- Los Santos is endlessly entertaining
- Slick, cinematic heist missions
- Sharp satire that still lands
What held it back
- Story mode has had no new single-player content in years
- Online can be grindy and predatory
- Some dated mission design
