Grand Theft Auto V: The Method Behind Rockstar’s Madness

Forget One Protagonist

One topic of interest in regards to Grand Theft Auto V is the fact that the game will now revolve around three different playable characters, as opposed to the series’s history of one character. Along with this, players will be able to switch between these three characters (Franklin, Trevor and Michael) at nearly any time during the game.

This idea has received mixed reviews from fans of the series. A lot of self proclaimed fans have complained, accusing Rockstar of straying away from the game’s roots and creating something intended for shock value.

The fact of the matter is, Rockstar is not doing this for shock value. As Rockstar’s vice president Dan Houser told Game Informer several months ago, “When [the player is] only one character, it means they always have to be driving…, shooting…, flying…, and parachuting. It can lead to things being a little ridiculous.”

Rockstar is looking out for the players’ best intentions, creating a more natural and realistic environment. In doing so, players are given three different characters with unique specialties that allows them to experience different parts of the same story without feeling like the only contributing character.

In other words, games like Call of Duty or Sleeping Dogs require the player to perform every important action with the same character. It begins to feel redundant and unbelievable in the fact that, if it were real life, the character would have been killed off a long time ago.

With Grand Theft Auto V, however, Rockstar mixes this up by allowing the player to perform the same amount of exciting and important actions, but with different characters – thus expanding the believability and excitement.

On top of all of that, Rockstar found a gap in the gaming industry that had not been filled by other developers. Yes, there are many games with multiple playable characters – Resident Evil, Heavy Rain, or Dead Island – however these games restrict you to one character for each mission. Previously, no mainstream games allowed players to switch between characters at [almost] virtually any moment. Rockstar took the challenge.

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