GTAV Review, Pt. 2 - The Characters

This one's going to be a good deal shorter than the last, but I wanted it to be more focused. We're doing a timeshifted week because I got frustrated with what I had pre-written, and the piss-poor GTA Online launch, and had to take a break. We were going to do two posts tonight, but there's been a similar situation with Latency's inFamous review, so we resorted to this.

Now back to the review...(Some spoilers ahead...)

Grand Theft Auto V has 3 playable characters: Franklin, Michael, and Trevor. While each has a different initial set of skills, and wildly varying personalities, the archetypes which they fill are common fare for the series. However, GTAV is truly, at its core, Franklin's story, with Michael and Trevor taking on supporting roles, though with more involvement than giving the occasional mission.

Franklin

Franklin is the youngest of the three characters, and comes from a rough neighborhood. Trying to avoid the gang life and drug usage that surrounds him, he attempts to better himself, but instead ends up on the wrong side of the law after a chance encounter with Michael. After losing his job, he goes to Michael, and finds himself wrapped up in the very life of crime he tried so hard to avoid.

Franklin is the most bland of the three playable characters, and his transition from repo man to career criminal is as abrupt as it is obvious. By far, he is the character whose life changes the most over the course of the narrative, however, his personality changes very little, and the writing of his story arcs leaves much room for improvement.

Franklin's specialty is driving, having the highest initial aptitude for it at the start of the game, and his personal skill is to slow time while driving, allowing vehicles to break the laws of physics with their greatly increased handling.

Michael

Michael De Santa is a career criminal who faked his own death, and is now living the life of luxury in the Vinewood hills. However, his ill-gotten gains haven't made him any happier, and the combination of his anger management issues, and his disintegrating family life come to a head early in the story. This causes him to come out of retirement, and sets the stage for most of the events of the game.

Michael is an interesting design, as far as playable characters in the series go, having a large amount of money, a lavish house, and several cars available from the get-go, but the way his character is handled is ultimately disappointing. Throughout the story, Michael has moments of clarity, during which he decides to change and better adapt to the life he's living, but then immediately discards these personal revelations, and gets right back to old habits. Michael is a character who is fixed in his ways, and even though he spent 9 years in retirement, he acts as though he hasn't skipped a beat, and finds it impossible to return to that life. Had the prologue not been so far before the events of the game proper, this might be a more believable yarn, but in its current state, it causes a massive disconnect between the overall narrative and the evolution(or regression) of his character. To the story's detriment, Michael has the least to gain, and the most to lose, through the illicit dealings in which he takes part, yet he shows almost no hesitation. This is mostly ignored or skirted around with a lot of empty hand-waving and transitions to other characters.

Michael's specialty lies in shooting and stealth, being the most proficient at them from the open, and his personal skill is to slow time in combat, much like the bullet time mechanic from the Max Payne series.

Trevor

Trevor Phillips is a drugged up, alcoholic, ruthless humanoid typhoon. Willing to do anything for a profit, and with a psychotic urge to kill anyone, and everyone, that he feels slighted by, Trevor is the most polarizing of the three characters, and can be seen as a general manifestation of player behavior through the early titles in the series.

Trevor is a very conflicted person, who blames the majority of his problems on his rough childhood, and only enters into the story after the first heist, when it's revealed to him that Michael is still alive. Living out in the countryside, and pretending to be a legitimate businessman under the umbrella of Trevor Phillips industries, he's an arms trafficker and methamphetamine kingpin. Trevor is sensitive about his Canadian heritage, at times self-contradictory, and a complete loose cannon. At times, Trevor makes mention of serving some time in the Air Force, which is lent some credibility due to his high starting flying stat, however, it's hard to envision Trevor in any sort of regimented life, and with his history in crime, it seems to be a fabricated story at best, and another strike against the narrative at worst.

While Trevor is probably the most complex character in the game, he's also the one that you, as a player, will spend the least time with throughout the story. Outside of his schizophrenic delusions of grandeur, it's nigh impossible to pin down exactly what constitutes Trevor's character in text. He is an experience all to himself, though it's a particularly difficult one to recommend.

Trevor's personal skill is to enter a drug and rage induced trance, during which he takes half damage, and deals extra damage to enemies.

That's going to wrap it up for tonight. Assuming the servers ever let me on, my first impressions of GTA Online will go up Friday, and part three of the review that never ends will be up early next week.