5. The Jewel Store Job
Getting Lester on-side allows him to help you plan and execute a series of heists throughout GTA V, the first of which is the jewel store robbery, one which has been featured heavily in trailers ever since the game was first announced. We're given two options for pulling off the job; you can go in loud and dumb through the front door, or quiet and stealthy by pumping gas into the vents and then getting in and out before anyone even realises. Depending on your approach as well as the caliber of colleagues you hire for the job, there are a few branching ways the mission can play out, but every road leads to you and your buddies fleeing the scene on bikes, with the cops in hot pursuit. This sequence instantly reminded me of the Wall Street chase in the first act of The Dark Knight Rises, as you speed off, heading down into the bowels of the city (just as Bane did when Batman showed up and accidentally stole the cops' attention away). Franklin's slow-down mechanic is extremely useful when racing through Los Santos' narrow underground tunnels, and once you finally surface, you'll soon enough switch control to Michael, who is driving an armoured car, which is used to shake the cops and ensure a job well done. Though it was perhaps a little
too easy and quick to pull off compared to, say, the intricacy of Three-Leaf Clover in GTA IV, it's still a classic mission for the series, one which I look forward to re-playing with a different approach soon enough.