GTA Online | Second Second Life

Over the past decade, Rockstar has become an indisputable synonym of quality games. The Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar’s flagship, is now a milestone in the video game industry, inspiring dozens of games with its themes, humor and way of playing. Grand Theft Auto V, the newest member of the franchise, is not only one the most expensive, rewarding and successful games ever produced, but it is also a kind farewell to the current video game generation.

GTA V is an excellent game on his own. The innovation in its narrative, the marvelous storytelling, the empathy it creates on the audience towards the characters and the complicated heists and missions –verisimilar, still- create a game like the world never saw. But Rockstar was not satisfied with this; it walked the extra mile and gave us one of the most complex and anticipated multiplayer modes of all: Grand Theft Auto Online.

In an era where multiplayers are an essential part of games -see Titanfall, an upcoming game without single player mode-, GTA Online takes the best out of the world of massively multiplayer online games and merges it into consoles. It is true that a game should not be judged merely on the basis of its online experience, but, in this case, GTA Online is a new game on its own that should be rated by itself.

Regardless the fact that Rockstar is still dealing with issues in its servers and some people still haven’t been able to play adequately –I hope affected players are restituted soon-, GTA Online provides an infinite spam of game hours. It is almost like life itself –if life was more like an action movie with a huge load of black humor-. Even the progress and property loss has become part of this ecosystem. Many people lost their cars, their houses and even their characters, just the way people lost their properties in the economic crisis or their lives or health to illness –just like the random character some players get when they lose theirs: a man with the looks of a woman, without hair and with almost zero stats-.

To be honest, I’ve been playing GTA Online on a diary basis ever since it was launched and I just can’t get enough of it. I joined a crew with my friends and we’ve made almost everything, from creating death squads to collect bounties, to invade a military base to steal jet fighters. It is amazing –in spite of the casual sociopath that only wants to kill other player for fun-.There is always something fun to do, a real bundle of mini games within a big game.

The sense of accomplishment the game provides is one of its key factors. When you get the achievement or trophy called The American Dream, you are the proud owner of an insured car, a house and a garage. You are making a name of your own and you are getting your life together. You are someone. The escalation system is also fundamental. You start your life busting your back killing gangsters and robbing liquor stores, just to, eventually, become a kingpin in this messed twisted world.

Talking to one of my crew members, we came to the conclusion that Rockstar really walked the extra mile with GTA Online, for they created a whole new game with whole new missions and a whole new way to play. It is the same mechanics, the same city, the same characters, but not the same story. The almost 40 gameplay hours the story mode provides are just half of the game, and that is something gamers are very thankful for. It shows how committed a game studio is and how much they care.

Any big studio can develop a triple-A game nowadays, with the right amount of money at hand, of course, but triple A no longer equals quality. I’m pretty sure most readers can think of one in this moment. What does triple-A entails after all? In my opinion, GTA Online raises the bar, and raises it high. Probably, a new classification should be created, just for this. I’m not saying GTA V is the best game mankind has been a witness of, but it deserves a special place in video game history, just the way Second Life did.

In Second Life, like many of you remember, you could do whatever you wanted the way you wanted it. A game with no objective at all, just a place to hang with your friends and buy a bunch of cool stuff. Life itself. Well, GTA Online takes Second Life to the next level; it offers most of the things Second Life offered, but also offers a sense of purpose –along with many other features, but leaving others behind-. With a simple text or a phone call from a secondary character, players in GTA Online write their own story as they make their way in chaotic San Andreas. Maybe, if the players were given more options to fulfill their consumerist thirst, it will resemble more Second Life –like being able to buy furniture, decorations and other banal stuff for their hard earned apartments, or, the always popular, option for mating with other player’s characters-.

You may think I’m all hyped for this game, that I’m not being objective and that it will be forgotten in a couple months, for I haven’t written anything bad about it. It is not my intention to write about the mistakes Rockstar committed in GTA Online, neither it is to be the one that says NO where others say YES. There are plenty of critics out there who are doing so and they’re doing a great job. My intention, if I have any by expressing my opinion, is to vindicate and exalt an excellent game and to be thankful for the care and attention to detail in a world so vast, details are overseen most times.

It is not something new to say video games and movies are becoming more alike every day and that the narrative language of movies has been penetrating and feeding the video game industry so it became what it is now, but let’s not be oblivious in the fact that it is also happening the other way around: the way of telling stories in video games and the way of presenting them is also penetrating in the film industry. Games more like movies, more movies that look and feel like games –see Elephant, Mama or Elysium-. So, it is not deranged to think that, in the future, GTA V and GTA Online will inspire movie makers into new ways of creation.

Some of the most obvious examples I can relate when thinking about GTA V and movies is Pulp Fiction -which is actually presented as stripes of a pulp magazine- because of the way the player can swap between characters at will, and Amores Perros –in which three story lines converge in a single break point-. What does GTA Online have to offer the movie industry? Perhaps the multiplicity of characters, perhaps the way the heists are executed with others, perhaps the nonsensical chaos and mayhem always present in the streets of Los Santos.

To wrap thing up, GTA Online, just the way Second Life a decade ago, is a new referent in video gaming. It is, without a doubt, something we will be telling the future generations about. A token of appreciation towards the fans, a way of saying “We know what you like and we will give it you”, a must play and a great way to spend hundreds of hours with friends and, I insist, a new level to which the bar has been raised. Others may come and repeat the formula, but let’s never forget who broke the ground. Rockstar learned from its previews attempts to make a good multiplayer –see the multiplayer modes of Max Payne 3, Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV- and, with each attempt, it has improved and matured, assimilating every mistake and heading towards perfection.