When Game Informer magazine released their hotly anticipated December issue featuring an 18-page spread on the equally as fervently anticipated Grand Theft Auto 5, fans across the globe clamoured to see just what Rockstar Games had up their sleeves.
A number of features were revealed in December after a fairly quiet marketing campaign on the developer’s part, such as the addition of scuba diving, randomised dynamic missions and a larger focus being placed on bank heist-related missions.
But by far the biggest piece of news from the December information blowout was the inclusion of not one, not two but three main protagonists to the series for the first time in the popular sandbox title’s history.
Say hello to Michael, a former bank robber; Franklin, a young and ambitious hustler and finally Trevor, a war veteran. These are the three protagonists we will be following throughout the sprawling world of San Andreas when the game is released this September.
The inclusion of three protagonists throws up several thoughts and possibilities, and whilst it seems like an exciting feature, it may also have its drawbacks.
Here, we examine five ways multiple protagonists in GTA could be a great idea, and also examine why it might not be.
Click “Next” to begin.
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23 Comments
Who is the fool who writes these fillers that appear in the google search?
Solid article, Joseph!
And why are all of these articles made with the “next slide” format? What a stupid way of presenting information that could easily be placed on one page in a list.
You say one of the negatives of having 3 playable characters is the possibility of being pestered into hanging out with one of them while your busy doing something else but Rockstar has said that won’t happen. Oh and you called Franklin “Francis”.
My thoughts on 3 characters is its going to be insane! Awesome decision on Rockstars part, even if it does feel a little “alien” in a Grand Theft Auto game.
great post WC! i enjoy reading these a lot! i just want to i guess “recommend” that for these posts ya’ll should have that voting thing, like, “what console will you get GTA V on?” or yeah that just gets me to think more or to see where i stand. other than that great post! you guys made good points, although i really like the multiple protaganist feature, gets me really excited! i have been a long time GTA fan, since GTA 2, i first played it when i was 4 on my brothers PlayStation, lol he would always get mad.. i am 16 this April 1st so… I Love GTA <3 :D
gta IV had 3 protagonists when the game was completely released. I believe it is called the liberty city stories? Anyways, all three stories were great and all three stories blended together perfectly. This new approach really isn’t too foreign.
Stop writing this crap. Your articles are horrible and offer no useful information.
Nice article, but with the three that suck, the “Traditionalist factor” and “what would happen to others whilst not playing as them” were adressed by Rockstar, and they are working on them. As for the hanging out bit…….well…we’ll see.
I doubt the other protagonists will wander in mid mission and get themselves shot, I don’t think the game designers are that stupid. They’ve already said that they will go off and do their own thing though. How much research was done for this article?
Pc is better dan ps3 n xbox coz i can upgrade it to 16GB of ram n 2GB of graphic card n play a clean n fast gta 5
The people saying that ‘GTA isn’t GTA anymore’ seem to completely ignore the fact that every (major) instalment of the series has made some major changes.
GTA V will be most overrated game in 2013. It just look so much like IV with a different locale. I will not waste my money on this game.
LOL, the last three part of the article is lack of evidence, why would it suck. Rockstar is making sure that while you’re playing as Micheal or Trevor or Franklin on mission and you chose Michael then the other two character is program to do the mission in the right way, you just worry about the character you chose, if you get shot, mission fail.
Thanks for the comments everyone, I can see this has really divided opinion. To the last point, of course it’s a lack of evidence, we haven’t really seen the 3-way character mission-element in full force yet.
good article dude!!! but R* man Dan Houser earlier mentioned that when not on a mission the other 2 protagonist will go to their own business and whenever you will again bounce back to them you will find them in different situations for example if you are playing as treavor and suddenly you switch back to micheal you can find him playing tennis or if you switch to Franklin you can find him driving a white F9 (R*’s equivalent to audi R8) or you can find someone eating stacks at burger shot …………………………………………………………………………and countless possibilities
I think the character AI is a concern. Sure it’s fine in the FIB mission that Rockstar showed to the press, all the characters were in different locations. Rockstar has also stated that you can jump to one of three characters at any time between missions – while they’re going about their business in locations around the map. The example game informer gave was Trevor on the toilet.
My point is that say you have a mission (think diamond swap in GTA4) where all 3 characters have to shoot their way through a building etc. The AI has to be bang on. It will be really frustrating if any characters wander into your line of fire, especially if their death means ‘mission failed’.
The only point that worries me is the first point of the “sucking” ways, but it could be easily solved if they do it like Call of Duty: the character you use gets the main attention of the enemies while the other two cannot be killed (no matter how many damage they suffer) but they didn’t kill too much enemies either. Rockstar did something like this in GTA IV in Three Leaf Clover; cops attacked Niko much more than Patrick and Derrick, they had a lot of life and they barely kill anyone.
*I’m spanish so please excuse if that is not written properly.
I’am sure R* will do it’s best to make sure they meet the standards of their fans expectations so their is no need to complain and given their track record I’m sure they will be successful with the three protagonist formula. I’m for one am not worried I can’t wait for Sep 17 2013 to play this game.
How can you agree with these comments? No one has played this game yet (except for the developers) so how do these comments make sense?
“Totally ruined the game for me. f*ck you Rockstar.”
“I have to agree with the OP. A soundtrack during gameplay. Rappelling down the side of a building. Stopping an interrogation. Sniping from a helicopter. All sounds cool and will be fun, but not GTA.”
“this is more like sims where they are just your puppets and your the master (IV was hard enough with one character now you have to control 3 in every mission?). It dosent have the same connection to the character. Man they really f*cked it up.”
Some of the Press have actually played the game in like November 2012, and that was the mission with the helicopters and snipers.
good article dude!!! but R* man Dan Houser earlier mentioned that when not on a mission the other 2 protagonist will go to their own business and whenever you will again bounce back to them you will find them in different situations for example if you are playing as treavor and suddenly you switch back to micheal you can find him playing tennis or if you switch to Franklin you can find him driving a white F9 (R*’s equivalent to audi R8) or you can find someone eating stacks at burger shot …………………………………………………………………………and countless possibilities
great article. houser did say though that the other characters will be doing their own thing when your not them. i am actually excited for the 3 character format. think its refreshing and gives players a way of choosing which is their favorite playstyle. i can already tell that trevor is going to be my favorite. that man is crazy!
will be an amazing idea! it wont be all about just the one guy involving other people you dont
interact with only in missions we will have other guys to kill people with yes