GTA 5 Online - the classic gangster showdown

Something is fashionable, something is out of fashion, and it seems that people will have fun online in the fifth GTA forever. Grand Theft Auto V was released back in 2013, but it is still in the top sales and fan videos on YouTube. It's all thanks to multiplayer, which offers even more options than the story campaign. On the one hand, the developers from Rockstar are still supporting their work by adding new modes and events to GTA Online, but on the other hand - the users are free to create there whatever they want. Let's get into the game in details and try to find out why the game attracts the public today, so many years after its birth.

In order to understand what GTA Online is, first of all we should briefly talk about the single-player campaign of Grand Theft Auto V. It is devoted to the adventures of three pals - Michael, Franklin and Trevor - in the fictional city of Los Santos, which has been copied from the real Los Angeles. On the avenues and back alleys of this metropolis the trio does things worthy of a "Godfather" movie, and in between the main tasks they have fun in the open world in every way they can. Basically, the heroes commit petty crimes, and then the artificial intelligence simulates the reaction of the police. The higher the level of the search, the more seriously the cops take on the criminal, up to blocking roads, chases in helicopters and armored vehicles.

In terms of freedom of action, the game offers plenty of options. You can steal and buy all kinds of vehicles, from bicycles to planes, have brawls in broad daylight and then flee from the police, raid stores or, conversely, lead a respectable life: diving, tennis and golf, trade stocks on the stock exchange, and go to a strip club at night, ordering luxurious beauties for private dances. With the proceeds from robberies and business, the heroes buy all kinds of possessions: luxury offices, fashionable mansions, upgrades for cars and weapons, change hairstyles, get tattoos and, on top of that, they also dress up nicely, flitting from one fashionable boutique to another.

However, sooner or later the story comes to a denouement, and the game leaves you alone with the virtual "sandbox" of Los Santos, where there is still a lot of activity, but the story missions no longer. And that's when Grand Theft Auto V multiplayer comes to the rescue, accessible from the main menu. In GTA Online there is the same illusion of life: people are rushing to do their business, cars are driving everywhere, there are a lot of events in the streets, ambulances are rushing to help the pedestrians, and the police are keeping order. Here you still have the same freedom of movement and all the activities associated with the open world, only on the city map with you are the characters under the control of other players, and the missions and modes, presented online, are no longer associated with the passage of the main plot.

Of course, for the sake of GTA Online there is no need to finish the main plot until the finale. The multiplayer opens right after the short prologue, when we learn that Michael didn't actually die in a shootout with the police, but got into the witness protection program. At this point, we can safely exit the campaign and launch the multiplayer portion of GTA 5. However, the postponement is provided for a reason, because for a comfortable stay online you need to get acquainted with the world of the game: to explore the areas of Los Santos, to freely navigate in them, get used to the management of transport, especially flying, to understand the basic types of weapons. Without mastering the basic skills in the society of other gamers will be tight. A simple example is racing, where you are invited to choose before starting the car. If you do not know the advantages and disadvantages of different models, there is a great risk of getting an iron on the ice and end up blowing the race.

The first thing we do is create a character. The game immediately demonstrates distinctiveness: there are no usual runners that change the height of the forehead, the width of the cheekbones and the length of the nose. Appearance is based on inherited traits - you have to literally choose the hero's father and mother. For depth of feeling, all this also takes place at the police station. Preliminary outlined the face of the future star of the underworld, it is possible to slightly "touch up". For example, to make the same nose crooked or snub nose. Completes the image clothing: there is a starter costume gopnik, rotozeya from the beach, a businessman and other types of Los Santos. If you're too lazy to delve into the settings, it's possible to generate a character at the touch of a button. Automatic options here, as well as in the manual editor, a lot, so online you will not meet two identical faces.

By the way, the same Rockstar developers later applied the same artistic trick in the multiplayer of the western Red Dead Redemption 2 - Red Dead Online, where the action also starts in the sheriff's office, where they bring a criminal for taking pictures, holding a sign with his name. As the saying goes, good things happen again.

Your hero's arrival in the city is original: he arrives here in a Boeing, where Lamar, familiar from the main plot of Grand Theft Auto V, is waiting for him at the airport gate. "You want to know how things are done?" - Of course, he immediately drags the newcomer into another crime spree. In general, GTA Online offers quite a few encounters with the protagonists of the single-player campaign. In addition to the artistic dark-skinned gangsters in the expanses of Los Santos you can cross paths with the organizer of the robberies Lester, crooked peddler Simon Yetarian, mobster Martin Madrazo, bounty hunter Maude Eccles - and they all give you tasks online. Paying attention to them is essential, as it gives you start-up capital and allows you to gain experience.

Unlike the adventures of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, reputation points (RP) and virtual bucks play a key role in multiplayer. They open you up to new opportunities, such as big heists or weapon trading. However, that doesn't mean there's nothing to do in the first levels. You are bombarded with missions at once: they offer you a training race, a shoot-out in "Survivor's Team" mode where you fight until the enemy's group is annihilated, Lamar sends you SMS with an invitation to a gangster showdown, Maude promises money for killing a criminal, Simon demands you steal a couple or three cars for him. You can try to walk around the store, or accept a challenge to a duel from one of the players on your server. Each such event carries with it an element of originality. For example, if during a robbery you yell at the vendor in a headset, he will be quicker to fill the bag with banknotes. Bounty and treasure hunts involve exploring an area where the right direction is indicated by the ringing of a bell - the louder it is, the closer the coveted target.

Getting acquainted with GTA Online, you get a free car and a gun that has, however, a limited amount of ammunition - you must either buy them in Ammu-Nation stores or pick up from the killed enemies. How does a gangster get his first car? That's right! You choose any car you like on the street and make it your own. In the garage you, for the first time, without any investment it will insure and put the tracker, so no one will steal, and you can always see on the map, where your vehicle. Yes, in the online with the cars all somewhat more complicated than in the story campaign - you can not just lock in the garage favorite sports car. At least because the garage should still buy, and the rest must be legal: car we buy in the store, then pay the insurance or locksmith services (by the way, 50 game bucks a day) and only then get a personal vehicle, which will be with us on any server.

What else you pay attention to when you first run GTA Online is how the presence of player-controlled characters brings Los Santos to life. If the world of the story campaign is more or less predictable, here all the time something out of the ordinary is going on. The streets are often reminiscent of the battlefield: the sound of explosions, machine gun fire, someone stealing a tank and a plane from a military base to duel with them, and the sound of looting coming from the grocery store. It is possible that these sudden incidents can affect you personally. In the multiplayer of GTA 5, alas, there are lovers of shooting at newcomers or just to spoil the fun. They are called griffers and the most efficient way to get rid of the bullies is to change the server. Your online progress will not be spoiled by this action.

Although GTA Online is an action game rather than an RPG, it has role-playing elements, from character creation to character progression. It would seem that what other parameters do we need to develop where we already know how to run, jump, ride and handle weapons? But you can do it all better if you work on stamina, shooting, strength, stealth, driving, piloting, and lung capacity. Each point is useful in some way. For example, advanced shooting skills help you reload your gun faster and reduce recoil, increased lung capacity allows you to stay underwater longer, and driving makes you more responsive to land vehicles.

The seven basic characteristics are arranged very simply - they depend on practice. To increase physical strength you have to fight. You can start by simply walking down the street and bullying careless townsfolk. Shooting skill increases, again, the use of weapons. As an option, you can go to the range, marked on the map target, and at the same time have fun with friends, participating in the competition for the prize. The development of other skills is arranged similarly: you need to improve something, go and put it into practice, remembering that repetition is the mother of learning. There are no experience potions, as in fantasy games, in GTA 5, of course.

A separate parameter of the hero - it is his reputation, the level of which depends on the privileges and opportunities in multiplayer. Reputation Points (RP) are given for different actions, from completing missions to the banal cancellation of the police chase. The more RP you have, the more serious quests, reward amounts and goods available in the stores become. A good example is guns. If at first you only have a pistol, at level 11 a submachine gun appears on the Ammu-Nation counters, later sticky bombs, an assault rifle, and at level 60 a grenade launcher are discovered. All of this can also be picked up in combat, but you can't keep it behind you forever, much less replenish your ammo at any time.

Another important thing is that leveling up does not provide the character with superpowers: during the whole development he remains as vulnerable as at the very beginning, and the newcomer always has a chance to defeat an experienced gamer in battle with a level 100 hero. This is a rare occurrence in online action games. However, the Los Santos regular has less twitchy machine gun when shooting, cars under his control are less often capricious on bends, during the mission he can buy any gun and strong armor, not a disgrace against the "small". Not to mention the fact that the most interesting adventures are accessed at more or less high levels. Such nuances, not spells in the style of "one stroke beats seven" is the basis of progress.

GTA Online has a huge variety of activities, over 500 types, but globally they can be divided into three categories: entertainment in the open world, cases and missions. The first includes optional, but very exciting mini-games like stunts on vehicles, tennis, golf, arm wrestling, darts and shooting gallery, available in the same locations as in the story campaign. To start a match, you just need to find a point on the map, marked with the desired icon, get there and enter the illuminated area, and then hit the ball with a racket as much as you like, either with random opponents, or with your friends.

Things are more interesting with cases, because there are more of them, and they are also more varied. Cases are also marked with icons on the map, to make it easier to choose the appropriate option. To participate in a case, you need, once again, to enter the highlighted area on one of the streets of Los Santos, and then you get to the menu of player selection, where there are the settings for the rules of the match and a timer, counting down the time before the start of the competition. There are the following varieties of cases:

• Races. Races are held in any vehicle and on any track, including structures suspended in the air. There are races on sedans, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, supercars, Formula 1 cars, armored cars, jet skis and boats, helicopters, rocket packs and fighter jets - generally everything, but the rules of competition also differ. You can, for example, to take part in a rally, where one player sits behind the wheel, and the second in the role of navigator helps to navigate the track or try their hand at "transformation" - the most complex type of racing, where you are constantly changing types of transport: now you are in the car, a minute on a bike, and a couple of minutes at the wheel of "corn". Stand out are the time trials, marked on the map purple stopwatch. Such races are rare, but quite profitable.
• Parachute jumps. Almost the same as the race, but at lower speeds and with more wind influence. On routes through the air, control points are placed in the form of rings, through which you must fly. That's in addition to striving for a first-place finish, of course. Parachute modes also include stunt jumps, available in scenic locations in Los Santos.
• Battles. Perhaps the most diverse category, as there are both deathmatch rules battles, like the already mentioned Survivor's Team, and shoot-outs on special conditions. Among the most interesting is Survival. On the ground you need to fight off waves of enemies, increasingly powerful and numerous, so tactics play an important role in this mode. "Platformer" is an analogue of "Battle Royale", where you fight to the last survivor in a gradually narrowing arena. In "Landing Zone" you land on terrain with a parachute and immediately engage in a battle for territory. This requires both support from your comrades while you're in the air and the right choice of landing spot to avoid being fired upon by the enemy team.
• Battles in the arena. Extreme show in the world of GTA 5. The peculiarity of these battles is that they are all held on maslkars, and according to the rules instead of racing participants just pounding each other, for which the cars are hung with spikes, buckets, grates, sheets of armor and other iron. In addition, there are different modes available in the arena: from the usual gladiatorial fights to capture the flag and ride with obstacles.
• Capture and Hold. A series of modes that have both Capture and Hold separately and Capture and Hold. The essence is clear from the name - you need to take control and protect something. For example, in "Capture" are going to be two teams with their bases, where you want to deliver a valuable item stolen from the enemy's headquarters. Whoever copes with the task quickly wins. A separate type of "Capture" - "Raid", where the theft and delivery of such items is not a one-time thing, but on account: for the allotted time team must pull it off as many times as possible.
• Business Scramble. Combines several mechanics - here you have the race, and capture with holding, and firefighting. The essence of the event is simple: one player (or team) gets the goods and delivers them to a certain point on the map. Opponents must intercept the goods, using any method, even if ramming at full speed, even laying explosives on the highway. The person who intercepts the cargo immediately becomes a target for the other players. Since this mode is automatically generated, "Mad Max" style road wars create a lot of action and noise on the streets of Los Santos.

After completing each case, you get to a menu where you can vote to repeat the same mode with the same participants, choose any other entertainment, or head back to the open world. It's expensive to run away while completing a case, even if you don't like it. After a few such tricks the game will put you on the list of unreliable and will throw in the parties of the same potboilers. To make it clear what I mean: on the servers there are people who at the very beginning of the task can throw a grenade at the partners feet and immediately leave the lobby for fun. Of course, you can't make oatmeal with such comrades.

An important feature of the cases is that ordinary players can create them. In this case, in GTA Online there is an editor. It lays new tracks for races, select starting points for the captures and the location of the "deathmatch". So you do not have to use other people's ideas - you can strain your creative flair and come up with a case to your liking.

• Finally, missions. These are missions given by characters like Lamar or Lester. You can find them on the map by the first letter of the character's name, or use the hero's cell phone, which receives SMS with tempting offers. To get to the menu of the smartphone, just press the up arrow on the keyboard and there you will see several options to choose from. Missions are much larger scale cases, they have cut-scenes with dialogues and even a story broken into stages. For example, in the heists, which became available with the release of the Heists add-on, you must prepare for the operation in advance, buy the property required for it, cars, inventory, distribute the roles. And the robberies themselves are not repeated: if you organize a prison escape, then you upset the owner of the largest casino in Los Santos, then the drug lord on the island of Cayo Perico.
  

Most activities in GTA Online are designed for multiple participants, but some actions are also available to singles. You can buy your character an apartment or a car or raid a store without any help, but you need the housing in Los Santos for partying and preparing crimes, and the cars are more pleasant to race with your friends. Unless carjacking for Simon, bounty hunting and the first treasure hunt missions do not require team participation: you yourself are looking for clues on the marks on the map and you yourself get a bonus when you get to the target. Moreover, in the case of treasure hunts, the reward is not only in Grand Theft Auto V - if you find a tomahawk or a golden revolver, and then kill a certain number of characters with them, both weapons will be available to you in Red Dead Online.

However, the main mass of activities you need the company. If you have no friends, the algorithm will automatically throw everyone you want in the party - sometimes it's even good, because the high-level player in the team can tell the newcomers what to do. On the other hand, it is more pleasant to have fun with familiar people, and chatting in voice chat, coordinating the actions of the team, is useful for business. To play together, you need to find the right person by nickname on the Rockstar Social Club portal and add him as a friend. There is also an option with Steam, but not everyone uses the "Steam" version of the game, so it is better to use the resource developers. Becoming friends on it, you will be able to get into a session of any of your friends list. It's enough to select the "Friends" item in GTA Online Pause menu, go from there to the list of active players, and then either invite someone to your party, or yourself join a session of one of your comrades. If you already have property, it is displayed on any server - you can go to each other and hang out there for a glass of whiskey between battles.

The next level of cooperation is the gang, the counterpart of the clan in most online games. But why do we need gangs in Grand Theft Auto, where there is no complicated role-playing system and level 80 elves? First, it's beautiful: each gang has its own symbols, graffiti and clothing styles. Secondly, the rewards for missions for members of gangs is higher than for singles, and, in addition, they are available to showdown with other gangsters in a special mode. And who would not want to feel as the boss that sets the rules, decides the issues of war and peace? Collect the grouping can be in an account Rockstar Social Club. And if you do not have enough friends, no one interferes with joining another's gang, among which there are many open - that is, such where enroll without the approval of the leader.

In-game bucks are a critical resource. You use them to buy supplies, flashy cars and fancy suits to show off to your friends, mansions on the slopes of Wynwood, and offices of businesses that bring in regular income. Without cash in your pocket, you couldn't pull off even the most lucrative business. For example, before you turn in a stolen car to Simon, it must be repaired and painted at your own expense. Before the most common firefight would not hurt to buy a bulletproof vest, not to mention the preparation of major robberies - the reward for them, of course, is decent, but the necessary equipment flies into the copay. In general, making money in GTA Online, perhaps, not the most pressing issue for the newcomer.

The fastest way to get GTA dollars is to buy one of the Shark Cash Cards on the Rockstar Social Club website for real money. The denominations vary, from the Red Shark Cash Card with 100,000 bucks to the Megalodon Shark Cash Card, which will bring you 8 million immediately - enough money to dazzle Los Santos with breadth for a while. However, spending real currency on a virtual house, even if it had a pool overlooking the city, is not an option for everyone. There are more economical ways to top up your balance. They will not take rubles out of your wallet, but they will take a certain amount of time.

Let's start with an easy one - The Diamond Casino, which can be found on the map by the icon of a black and white diamond. Every day, this institution offers gamers a bonus in the form of free chips. After taking them at the cashier's window, go to the "Wheel of Fortune," where the same free tour is provided. Here it is quite real to cut down at a time up to 50,000, and the newcomers jackpot falls with a high probability, as if the algorithm specifically plays along. The main thing is not to get carried away! After winning the jackpot, it is wiser to walk out with it, rather than sit down at the table to the gamblers. To save the money in the case of a character's death, you should immediately send them to the account. To do this, open the hero's smartphone, go to the browser, select the tab "Money and Services", scroll down the menu to the bank's website and press "Replenish".

Not a bad opportunity to earn in the first levels is given by the search for two treasures: a tomahawk and a revolver. Both adventures you are unlikely to miss, because the tips come to your character's phone automatically, and should not neglect the chance - both treasures bring the total of 500,000 bucks. Only to get it you will have to use the obtained weapons in practice: to cut down with an axe and shoot dozens of characters with a revolver. In principle, there is nothing difficult, but it is better to shoot from the car to escape from the police pursuit, as a pedestrian intruder with a high level of search, helicopters with snipers start circling over his head, to escape is extremely difficult.

The next way to get cash is through business. Whether it's a race or an armed confrontation, even if you lose, these ventures will bring rewards for participation in the form of both experience and bucks. If you are confident of victory, you can bet on your team before the match, thereby increasing the prize money. However, do not expect any impressive profits - depending on the level of difficulty, things can give you from a few to several tens of thousands of dollars. Is that you will keep an eye out for bonuses: from time to time in one or the other mode appears doubling the reward for a week.

Much more money, up to half a million at a time, comes from completing missions such as robberies. For these operations, you'll need the support of three friends, and also some prior capital investment. For example, an apartment with a room to choose a heist (costs from 200,000) and inventory: body armor, suits, special weapons and vehicles.

In GTA Online there are less time-consuming ways to get rich, without driving under fire, killing and other heroism. True, they require a serious investment. We are talking about production, which are sold in the same way as other real estate. It's enough to buy a bunker where weapons are assembled, an office for document forgery, or a medical laboratory stamping out drugs, and you'll have something of a passive income. You load the firm with raw materials, it produces the goods in the allotted time, which then only remains to be delivered to the point of sale. You can even do this on your own, but such businesses cost a million or more.

You can not ignore the activities that seem to bring income, but belong to the category when the game is not worth the candle. In particular, there is no need to waste energy on shoplifting. They are simple: you run into a shop and poke a gun at the clerk until he throws a bag of cash at your character's feet. The profit from a robbery is only a thousand and a half bucks, and after the robbery you have to get away from the police, and the offended shopkeeper will shoot you in the back, no matter what. Of course, despite the brutality, the game preaches pacifism and if you behave yourself, it is rewarded. For example, your hero, out of the blue, shot the other inhabitant of the server. Offensive? Yes, but much more offensive than that, that you will be awarded only $ 500 for refusing to take revenge. Better to take a shotgun and punish the scoundrel! In this case, no one will guarantee you the money, but it will be fun.

In GTA Online, an ordinary walk with friends in Los Santos can turn into an adventure, even without participating in any missions. It's enough to bet on who will be the first to climb Mount Chiliad, hijack a plane from a military base, or evade the police at a high level of search, and the evening immediately ceases to be languid. It's fun to go to the movies and to clubs, including The Music Locker with music and characters from real DJs, to have parties in the penthouse, if some of you have the money to buy luxury real estate, and to do whatever weird stuff you can think of.

The game also provides for collecting. There are comic book figurines scattered all over Los Santos and the surrounding area, and you'll be rewarded for collecting them. In addition, The Diamond Casino will award 64,000 chips to whoever finds 54 playing cards. Collecting a deck is especially useful for the newcomer, because there are fewer cards than figurines, which means you spend less time searching, but RP points are given as much as 108,000 - more than any of the cases and missions available to the first level characters. A separate collector's errand is given by a character named Solomon, for which you must find ten items of stolen movie props. You can do this in your spare time from other activities.

GTA Online's live-action simulation, which was impressive in 2013 and is still impressive now, is a great way to play different roles. To create a society of gamers who want not only to drive and shoot, but also to become citizens of Los Santos, adhering to the law established by themselves. It should be noted that to visit the role-playing servers one copy of Grand Theft Auto V is not enough, you need another launcher - a program for running a particular server. However, the scale of the phenomenon is so great that we can not ignore this topic. One example of such a server is, which has become an independent game, NextRP.

So, what is the role (or RP - from the English role-playing, that is "wagering") server? This is a virtual world based on GTA Online, but without the missions and anarchy typical for normal multiplayer sessions. Each participant is assigned a specific role here: one becomes a soldier, the other - the police, the third wheeling the "ambulance" in the uniform of a medic, the fourth writes articles in the local "Pravda," and evenings wasting life in discos, the fifth in the old style goes to the gang and hangs out with friends on the urban outskirts. There are a huge variety of options - as long as the choice is combined with the established rules. The role imposes restrictions on the "actor": the same cop must know the rights and responsibilities of citizens, as well as the limits of their own authority. On the servers with a hard wagering, or Hard RP, there are whole exams for the professions, and any exit from the role is punishable by a ban.

The appeal of RP servers is that, due to software methods, they tend to hold more people than the standard version of GTA Online. Instead of one and a half dozen characters under the control of the players on the role card is quite possible to meet and a hundred and a half, and even more participants. On the other hand, the entrance is sometimes paid - it is necessary not only to register, but also to buy a ticket to another reality. But on these servers every now and then found well-known video bloggers and streamers from Twitch, who see in RP a way to entertain the audience and earn on advertising. So, no one will prevent on occasion to exchange a couple of words with your idol.

Now GTA Online is one of the most exciting, multifaceted, technological and, despite its age, beautiful entertainment for gamers. The game is unlikely to suit those who prefer fairy-tale entourage and pumping the hero to the state of omnipotence, but wishing to have fun with friends in hundreds of modes for every taste and perfectly tailored open world - is unlikely to find a better option than this. It's no coincidence that the game is still actively supported by the developers, and the number of people online is consistently high. It's also worth considering the price of the issue: Grand Theft Auto V is still on sale at a discount, and sometimes it is even given away for free. Suffice it to recall the action Epic Games Store, when along with a copy of the action movie everyone who wants it was given a million and a half of GTA-bucks.