You're probably concerned with how critical I am of GTA V and GTA Online on the PS5, and some of you may be concerned that I outright despise Rockstar's current headlining title. This is far from the truth; I have enjoyed GTA Online and GTA V much more than I ever did playing on previous generations. The next-gen upgrades alone have added depth to much of the gigantic world of Los Santos, and it's...beautiful. Just beautiful. I can't figure out if it's because I'm a nostalgic ex-Los Angelino or because of Rockstar's success in continuously refining and polishing the environments. Either way, there are multiple reasons to praise the next-gen version of GTA V and GTA Online, but be warned that the new player experience is still much to be desired compared to other MMOs. If you own a PS5, you should definitely take advantage of trying out GTA Online before it becomes a premium game in a few months.
Update 4/30/2022: A prior version of this review mentioned my difficulties with playing the campaign and restoring my save from the PS4 version. This was because I had not uploaded my PS4 save to Rockstar’s Social Club. I downloaded the PS4 version onto the PS5, downloaded my save from PS+, opened the PS4 version, uploaded the save to the Social Club, and was successfully able to resume my PS4 progress on the PS5 version.
We understand that Grand Theft Auto 5 is…well, ten years old. Eric Layman’s original review still rings true in 2022, and we highly recommend you read his review before reading our experience with the next-gen version. We won’t reiterate his opinions here, but do know that our thoughts about the quality of GTA V are consistent and we recognize that GTA V is deserving of a level of respect that stands outside of typical cynic critiques that look past its contributions to game design and storytelling.
Truth be told, Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) was my first experience with the GTA series. Several years ago, one of my best friends M gifted me GTA V for the PS4 so we could play together. Prior to that, we played Borderlands 2, and at his recommendation, I tried and eventually enjoyed the Saints Row series. Now that I was moving across the country, M had hoped that we could play GTA Online together and relive our glory days of late-night gaming in college while I lived (alone) in Kentucky. Sadly, I made little time to play with M, who remained in Los Angeles. I prioritized my PhD studies and coffee consumption, and I was afraid to stay up late playing games because of our three-hour time difference. Thus, my experience playing GTA V and GTA Online on my PS4 was a lonely one by my own design.
When I played GTA V and GTA Online on my shiny gold PS4, I hated how long it took for the game to load. You could hit the main menu, make a pot of coffee while you waited to be pushed into GTA V, then you would bring up another menu to switch to GTA Online. You could then consume that coffee while you waited, along with doing a load of laundry, and then by the time you matched up your last pair of “Death before Decaf” socks you’d be spawned in Los Santos. No longer is this the case.
Booting up GTA V on the PS5 is a process that occurs over a matter of seconds, and you’re taken to a main menu that lets you choose between Online and the Story. I booted up a new story file (since my story file was unable to be transferred from my PS4; do know that you can transfer your saves across generations) in about 20s. Getting online took…45s. When I played with my friend M, I was unfortunately joining an already full lobby and was placed into a queue. This meant my load-in time was around 90s (which, for those of you who kept count, is still MILES better than any load time on a previous gen console).
The PS5’s hardware is used quite well in making Los Santos look less like a decade-old sandbox and more like a slightly-more-real emulation of Los Angeles county. Enabling “Performance RT Mode” (a PS5/Series X exclusive graphics setting) enables ray-tracing while running 60FPS (with some occasional dips) at an upscaled 4K resolution. On my television, Los Santos looks its best yet, and as an ex-Los Angelino I cannot help but feel nostalgic as I drive through the uncanny valley seeing slightly familiar architecture, palm tree formations (yes; if you know, you know), and the sunset on what is supposed to be the Pacific Coast Highway. I’ve driven through these streets, in real life, and this next-gen update is somehow bringing out all the feels. Compared to games like Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7, GTA V pales in comparison at a graphical level. But, if you’ve spent a significant amount of time playing GTA V on a previous generation, the graphical differences are quite staggering.
The PS5 version of GTA V also takes advantage of the DualSense controller in a way that is less gimmicky and more immersive. While PS5 owners may not be impressed by the additional resistance present in the adaptive triggers (a standard affair on most PS5 games these days), I love the haptic feedback that is present in so many fashions. Driving on bumpy roads will make your controller jiggle consistent with the sounds of the bumps. Explosions and weather effects impact the vibrations really well. If you enjoy a realistic driving experience, or at least one that is immersive, GTA V/Online gets you there in an excellent fashion.
I am disappointed that no additional gameplay features were added to GTA V Story on the PS5. Compared to other decade-old games, GTA V boasts graphical updates to make Los Santos look and feel more alive without giving Michael, Trevor, and/or Franklin additional tools and another reason for players to relive their stories. The PS4’s GTA V update brought a first-person mode. The PS5’s version brings…improved graphics and an immersive experience. PS5-specific features such as the adaptive triggers and subtle haptics while driving add to immersion, which is quite nice. Unlike Skyrim’s Anniversary Edition that featured a wealth of mods and content (over 70 in total!), GTA V looks like a reskin of the PS4 version rather than a remaster. Nevertheless, it is still a good game, but an old game, too.
It is clear that Rockstar’s primary goal of bringing GTA V to the next gen was to give GTA Online additional love and support. And love and support they added, but it’s still…lacking. Getting into an online session takes a matter of seconds, and if your session is full of players you may not jive with, it’s quite easy to move to another session and hope that the new players you come across will make your gameplay experience much less of a negative one. Many additional features have been added to the next-gen version of GTA Online, such as the Career Builder.
Thus, for this review, I opted into creating a new character from scratch rather than porting my existing GTA Online character so I could see how this game treats new players (and lucky PS5 owners). The following review details my adventures as Karen, the CEO of Koffi. Update: This has since been resolved by me playing the PS4 version, uploading the PS4 save to the cloud, and then reopening the PS5 version.
Right from the jump, I was directed toward the Career Builder to “power up my player experience” and get ready for the chaos that is currently GTA Online. I was given the option of being an Executive, Biker, Nightclub Owner, or Gunrunner. Because I chose to start a new player from scratch and I fashioned myself as a strong and independent woman whose end goal is to break the glass ceiling, I decided to go the CEO route. While the menus gave a description on the differences between the four available roles, I learned quickly that there was significant overlap between these roles, and I could also restart my character and return to the Career Builder at any time. I was also given $4 million in GTA money to purchase…just about anything. As a CEO, I was told to purchase an office, a warehouse, a car, and a weapon. I learned after made my selections that my office location didn’t really matter, but my warehouse did, as the more space I had in a warehouse, the sooner I could yield bigger profits. I wouldn’t expect a new player to know this right off the bat, so I found it weird that a new player could be disadvantaged upon beginning their new journey as a CEO.
Once I finished creating Karen, I was let out of the Los Santos prison, where my orange sports car was waiting for me around the corner. It was flashy, it was fast, and it was absolutely worth the crazy million I spent on it. I was then directed to my new office, where a business yuppy gave me brief tour of my office, a preview of how I could upgrade my office, and then instructed me to use my desktop so access my first mission. Alas, my first mission as a CEO was…cargo transportation. Ok, this works, I can hire someone to run this errand for me, since I’m a CEO, right?
Wrong. I had to be the Uber Eats driver today. One pallet of marijuana, coming right up! I couldn’t hire anyone or ask my avocado toast-eating assistant to make the delivery for me, which added insult to injury. I was directed out of my office to a random location across town. In this mission, I was directed to a truck that was parked behind a building that just to happened to be hidden behind a freeway wall. Even worse, the navigation indicator led me to the location, but on the other side of the wall. Imagine pulling up to the indicator on your minimap, only to find a freeway exit ramp with nothing resembling a cargo truck. As someone who played GTA Online prior to this review, I figured that the truck was on the other side of the wall, which it was. I then ditched my car and entered this monstrosity of a truck to deliver weed to the port all the way across town. As I listened to Mr. Fingers’ “Mystery of Love,” I found myself wondering what twist of fate had me fly into the sun as a CEO and drive to the middle of nowhere in a truck that could hardly reach 50mph with the wind. Was it because I gave too low of a review in 2021? Did I accidentally drink decaf?
I made the delivery. Easy cash money. Except…the truck I used to get to this empty delivery location was now gone. My car was on the other side of a map. Veterans like you may be thinking, “duh, just press the PS5 pad and have your car delivered!” That’s great, I’m glad we know this, but in no way is this communicated to a new player. What claimed to be the tutorial had sent me across the map and simply left me to my own devices. Even more, what was I to do now? Where was I to go?
I snagged a car that was parked and decided to make my way back to my office, but somewhere in the mix I had joined a random in-game event where I was to acquire a weapons stash and deliver it across town. My map updated, and I drove to a warehouse where several other players had begun dealing with NPCs and each other to secure a bag of weapons. I hid in the corner until the coast was clear (ish), easily dispatched a low-health opponent with my assault rifle (thanks, Career Builder!), and snagged the bag. No more than five seconds after I got into my vehicle, another player sniped me across the map in a single shot. Karen was wasted.
Events like this became quite common as I spent more time in Free Play trying to level Karen up. Attempting to participate in the randomly generated missions meant I was most likely against players who were at least level 50, or even over 100. Yes, I may have had $4million in cash money, honey, but that money was unable to be spent on weapons to help me keep up and alive for more than several seconds if I dared cross another player. I contacted my friend M when I got this review and we played some heists together, but we both were concerned about the discrepancy between newer players (in this case: ME) being completely unable to participate in some events because of the difference in firepower.
Basic information is still tucked away through a maze of menus. The joy of Free Play is that anyone can play how they want, but at the same time, their microphones will most likely be on for you to hear everything and everyone they’re listening to. If you’re down to grind through missions and listen to the expanded (and still, quite incredible) soundtrack of GTA V, you’ll most likely be interrupted by players of all ages babbling away. I get it, trash talking is fun when you’re in a competitive environment, but why must a player go through several menus to see the list of folks in a particular session, find the folks who are making the noise, and then mute them individually? I would have hoped that the next-gen iteration of GTA Online would have made the UI more intuitive, but that remains to be seen. Rockstar, please implement an easy mute button. Please.
As an experienced player with a good amount of time spent in Free Play, I can personally look past the oversight of GTA Online assuming that the player knows the rules of and has access to tools to surviving Los Santos. It’s an entirely different story for a new player who is still figuring out what to do next, as well as how. Putting some weapons behind arbitrary levels is even worse for new players, who just can’t compete alongside veterans who’ve invested more time into GTA Online to earn the opportunity to purchase things like sniper rifles and RPGs.
In theory, the Career Builder serves several functions, some better than others. Career Builder gives you an easier access to character creation and some resources to make your way through building a character from scratch. For veterans, it lets you safely restart a character/create a new character without being too concerned about a large time/financial setback. With some gameplay knowledge, it’s a smidgen easier to recoup your losses without needing to grind several hours’ worth of quests. For new players, Career Builder acts as an illusion of choice and prosperity, where you’ll learn real quick that the $4mil you’re given can be eaten up by purchases that don’t really matter yet unable to give you what you really need to survive in Los Santos, especially against players who’ve spent more time acquiring weapons and vehicles, let alone purchased RP cards to get rich quick. Career Builder needs to reconsider the guiding structure for new players, as it’s simply not enough.
It’s now 2022, and GTA Online is inches away from being considered a next-gen MMO, barring an annual paid expansion, cinematic cutscenes, and lore spanning beyond “steal some cars.” Los Santos is chock full of illicitness for players to enact that can feel overwhelming and confusing in the eyes of a new player, and the lack of a structured introduction to that city full of chaotic NPCs and players who’ve assuredly amassed much more than $4mil can make it less of a fun experience and more of a confusing and frustrating one. Of course, it’s safe to assume that those who are playing GTA Online have at least played through GTA V (or at least completed a heist). However, seeing as GTA Online will be sold separately and eventually cost $19.99 for PS5 owners and $9.99 for XBOX owners, I’m inclined to believe that future next-gen owners may end up hardly touching the base game and dive straight into playing with, and against, other players. Future GTA Online players deserve more from Rockstar, and they’ll need it sooner rather than later.
As a PS5 owner, there’s no reason not to acquire GTA Online right this minute (it’s Sunday, March 27; go download it!). It’s free (until June 2022), it loads miles faster, and it does look and feel prettier than GTA Online on the PS4. Once GTA Online on next-gen consoles becomes a paid affair, I will find myself struggling to recommend GTA Online to a new player with a next-gen console. Barring the graphical improvements, it is still the same game, and you can have the same good time you could have on the previous gen version. I have high hopes that Rockstar will continue to improve GTA Online and include more celebrities, as The Contract feat. Dr. Dre was quite fun. Rockstar has also committed to improving the online experience by adjusting mission payouts and continue balancing PvP, meaning veterans have much to look forward to in the future.
You’re probably concerned with how critical I am of GTA V and GTA Online on the PS5, and some of you may be concerned that I outright despise Rockstar’s current headlining title. This is far from the truth; I have enjoyed GTA Online and GTA V much more than I ever did playing on previous generations. The next-gen upgrades alone have added depth to much of the gigantic world of Los Santos, and it’s…beautiful. Just beautiful. I can’t figure out if it’s because I’m a nostalgic ex-Los Angelino or because of Rockstar’s success in continuously refining and polishing the environments. Either way, there are multiple reasons to praise the next-gen version of GTA V and GTA Online, but be warned that the new player experience is still much to be desired compared to other MMOs. If you own a PS5, you should definitely take advantage of trying out GTA Online before it becomes a premium game in a few months.
