Playing A Game Grand Theft Auto V X360

So, you've got Grand Theft Auto, a franchise explicitly about crime (and implicitly about anti-social behavior in general); and you've got the online video game community, possibly the most wretched hive of scum and villainy there is. What do you get when you shove these two forces together? A surprising amount of entertainment, although not without frustrations.

Technical quibbles aside - and, at least in its first few days, there were plenty to set aside - Grand Theft Auto Online works about as well as the GTAV single-player does. Driving and shooting are great fun, particularly in the service of a particular mission, despite (or sometimes because of) the elite special forces of the San Andreas Police Department. There's of course a wide array of sandbox activity to engage in, and playing with friends dramatically amplifies the enjoyment of any of these hijinks.

Unfortunately, Rockstar's strength in mission design is largely squandered in the Online game. Missions with a semblance of "story" are incredibly few and far-between; day-to-day missions tend to draw from a limited number of templates, e.g. vehicle hijackings or rip-and-runs, while the vast majority of available missions are merely multiplayer races and deathmatches. This situation should get a lot better once heists are added in, but in the meantime, I'm counting on the social aspects of playing with my friends to wring the fun out of the game.

Naturally, GTA Online being what it is, griefing is a major concern. Rockstar has done an admirable job of developing systems to mitigate unwelcome player behavior, but loopholes in these systems leave plenty of opportunity for trolling. You can turn on a "passive mode" to avoid getting in firefights with other players, but you can still be killed by vehicular manslaughter. There is a "bad sport" mechanic which sequesters players with a pattern of bad behavior, but repeatedly killing players who don't (or even can't) fight back, apparently doesn't count as "bad." Thankfully, since the game's introduction, the cash penalty for being killed has been drastically reduced; but there is still an intrinsic annoyance in being assassinated when you're just trying to get something done.

And though there's a bit of a hurdle in the game's economy - requiring quite a bit of cash-grinding to save up for nice apartments and vehicles - the bigger hurdle is the experience level curve, which keeps certain weapons, mission types, and even features locked until you meet specific level requirements. The game is at least intelligent enough to prevent this from becoming unfair (for instance, you can't place a bounty on a player unless they're a high enough level to place bounties themselves), but the grind required to reach meaningful milestones, coupled with the lack of mission variety, is something of a demotivator.

But the silver lining of GTA Online's current issues is that Rockstar is continuing to rebalance the experience, and has short- and long-term plans for adding content and features. Already, in its relative infancy, balance changes have made the game friendlier and more exciting. I've got faith that Rockstar's polish will continue to improve the service over time.

Rating: Awesome