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Who's still buying GTA 5 these days, I ask myself, having owned the latest main series entry of Rockstar's long-standing crime sim series on four different platforms over the last 10 years. I'm clearly among a distinguished number of players in the same situation, and part of the reason why the fifth-numbered Grand Theft Auto game has maintained an omnipresent place in top-sellers charts across consoles and PC for over a decade.
Speaking very personally, my relationship with GTA 5 has evolved in distinct stages. At launch in 2013, I was swallowed up by its Michael, Franklin and Trevor-starring story mode, reveling in the crimes and capers this trifecta of antiheroes endured all over the Blaine County and the Los Santos city sprawl. By the time GTA 5 rolled around on PS4 the following year, I began cutting my teeth in GTA Online.
My love affair with the base game's multiplayer off-shoot would jump ship to PC the following year after that again, and carry on through its host of increasingly sophisticated complimentary updates – from Doomsday to the Diamond Casino and Dr Dre – for many years, right through to today. But it was another feature first introduced in 2015 to desktops that changed the way I looked at the game entirely: a first-person perspective option.
Introduced via its Enhanced Edition, long after I'd watched the credits roll during my first run of the OG iteration of the game's story mode, playing GTA 5 in first-person was like discovering a new game altogether. And I don't want this feature from the outset in GTA 6.
First-hand account
Welcome to Grand Theft Advent – a month-long celebration of Rockstar's enduring crime sim series. Be sure to check in on our GTA 6 coverage hub for more every day throughout December.
With the introduction of first-person features in GTA 5, everything was up close and personal, more visceral and, I dunno, more real. Viewing all the crime and killing through the eyes of the assailant, for me, gave player agency a whole new meaning; whereas driving took on a whole new level of risk versus reward when viewing the world whizzing past from within the interior of a Bravado Banshee or a Pfiser Comet S2 Cabrio sports car. In story mode, one particularly memorable mission that illustrated a newer, not necessarily improved but definitely amplified experience, was Three's Company. Being able to switch between all three characters – one flying a helicopter, one eventually abseiling down the side of the glass-fronted multi-story FIB headquarters, and the other providing sniper cover from range – in first-person mode was a trip, and made an already amazing mission so much better.
In GTA Online, simple back-and-forth deathmatches in lobbies were given a whole new edge when stalking enemies through the eyes of your avatar, while just about every Martin Madrazo job felt dialed up to 11 by virtue of this new camera angle.
"Don't get me wrong, I suspect GTA 6 will arrive with first-person perspective features present from the outset, in the same way Red Dead Redemption 2 did at launch on PS4 and later on PC"
Don't get me wrong, I suspect GTA 6 will arrive with first-person perspective features present from the outset, in the same way Red Dead Redemption 2 did at launch on PS4 and later on PC; but part of me wants to be made to wait, in the same way I did with GTA 5. Playing through whatever the GTA 6 story mode has in store in third-person, and then taking another run at it, say, whenever the game eventually lands on PC (as yet, that's unconfirmed, but it seems all but certain it'll hit desktops at some point down the line) a year or two on would suit me perfectly.
One of the more eyebrow-raising Reddit rumors that appears to have gained momentum over the last couple of weeks is that the GTA 6 trailer is actually in-game footage – and not simply in-engine footage – and viewed through the eyes of the protagonist. Even assuming first-person perspective options come with GTA 6 at launch, I still can't see this being the case, not least because if it is, then even I've grossly underestimated just how powerful Rockstar's next much-anticipated installment will be.
Assuming this isn't the case, I'd honestly much rather experience that second wind all over again, playing what felt like an entirely new game despite being familiar with every story beat, and every forged and forgotten relationship along the way, this time through the eyes of Lucia or Jason or whoever else we might wind up filling the shoes (and sunglasses) of.
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