Just a little over a month away from the release of Grand Theft Auto 5, developer Rockstar Games decided to give players a small taste of the multiplayer version Thursday in its official gameplay video of GTA5's online mode.
The three minute long video shows a huge range of possibilities that users can enjoy in the new game's online world. Players can join up and perform specific tasks and missions together, or they can just travel about the huge open world of the game and do whatever they please; it is up to the player how they want to play the game.
Players can either explore the online world solo, or team up with friends and form a crew. Once players band together, they can perform heists like in the game's offline single player, commit random acts of crime (the example in the video is a crew robbing a liquor store), or participate in more traditional competitive multiplayer modes such as deathmatch-style shootouts. Completing missions gives the players money and boosts their reputation. Players can use this cash to customize their online character in a variety of ways, from changing their appearance and attire to changing their weapons and vehicles.
Once players build up a huge supply of cash, they can start buying much more extravagant items. Players will be able to buy apartments for gathering players together and garages to hold all their rides. The game will allow users to race their vehicles against each other, whether they are using cars, planes, or boats. It seems as though whatever path users take, the game will reward them, progressing the online story and unlocking new missions. Players will have a huge amount of options for how to deal with missions, as one mission shows a crew parachuting into a firefight, and another shows a jet being used to blow up a building.
A content creator will also be available, and players will be able to design and share races as well as deathmatch maps with their friends and everyone else playing the game.
Overall, this video shows off an amazing looking online experience that, combined with the stellar single player mode, should catapult Grand Theft Auto 5 above all other games released this year. If Rockstar can deliver on all the promises made about both the online and offline modes, then Grand Theft Auto 5 should be the top game of the year.
However, this online content will not be available at launch, as Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies told CVG that Grand Theft Auto 5 Online will be available October 1 due to the fact that Rockstar considers the mode seperate from the single player offline mode:
"It'll be GTA Online; it's not part of GTA 5. Obviously it's set in the GTA 5 engine, but it's going to grow and evolve into its own thing."