Despite forgetting most of what went on before and during the credit sequence, where we actually witness and experience what happened between Trevor and Michael, I have found their friendship strangely engrossing. I don’t recall investing in the relationships between video game characters in quite this way before. Granted, much of this is due to simply how mesmerizing and amazing the performance of Trevor is. I just want to watch this dude all the time, even as he shocks and repulses me at every turn. And yet his strained friendship with Michael is actually interesting, a story I may be invested in were I not invested in the outcome with my own hands.
It’s almost as important as the realism of the gameplay—the realism of the trajectories of these characters’ lives. I suppose it’s possible that giving us the ability to control more than one character allows us to spend more time and learn and sympathize more with a greater number of individuals. But the progression of these three men’s stories, the unraveling of Michael’s secrets, Trevor’s growth as a person capable of caring for someone else, and Franklin’s continuous failure to do the right thing and live on the straight and narrow all keep the primary missions at the forefront of our interest rather than a chore to get through to keep the game moving along.
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