GTA Online

To say GTA Online had a bit of a bumpy start is to say that Hitler was not very nice, an understatement. After all the issues and problems with it’s launch however it finally seems to have picked up speed, but how does it compare? Let’s find out.

Firstly, this is actually a completely separate experience from GTA 5, with a whole load of new story elements, gameplay additions and so much more. Along with this it’s completely free as long as you have GTA 5, I compare it to a GTA MMO in many ways which can bring along positives and negatives.

Firstly you start with one of the strangest character creators i have ever experienced. Instead of molding your character to how you would want it you actually pick from a selection of Grandparents and parents. This in turn determines how your character looks through genetics. It’s a strange system which I personally like, but many people hate. You start off the story with a street race after arriving in Los Santos, and from there go through various tutorial missions in order to learn all the ropes. it’s mostly GTA 5 mechanics and so if you want to read how that is go look at my review on the single player experience.

The one things that throws itself at me is the weird mission structure. There are two main currencies in action, Money (of course) and reputation. Money is earned by doing missions, robbing stores and taking it from other players. Reputation however is determined by doing missions and doing certain activities such as evading the cops and killing players. The higher your reputation the more weapons, car customization options and missions you can do. The sad thing is this encourages people the simply grind high paying missions in order to rank up and get access to more interesting missions, this is where the MMO comparisons begin. Some of the gamemodes are great such as one particular one I played where a group of people on motorcycles had to evade the other team in fighter jets, was great fun. Others however are not so fun, the standard deathmatch in particular is not very fun due to it just being find the enemies and auto aim to kill them. This coupled with the huge difference between ranked up players skills and weapons compared to newer players in deathmatches make it difficult to have fun.

The Logo for GTA Online

This also couples in with a HUGE complaint I have (which has been confirmed to be a glitch by Rockstar) and that is the death system. You have money on hand and money in your bank account and so when you die you lose money in hand and so it is encouraged to find an ATM and deposit your money as soon as possible. However this doesn’t take into account your hospital bill, which takes huge amounts of money directly out of your bank account. And this happens in every game mode. INCLUDING DEATHMATCH. You can see my problem. These however combine with other silly glitches to make it a horrible experience early game and will put a lot of people off.

The game picks up however after you reach rank 15 and start to make lots more money. New missions are unlocked and become a lot more fun to do and people randomly killing you becomes a thing of the past. However considering just how much it feels like a true MMO it definitely will put a lot of people off.

You can buy apartments and garages to make your mark on the world, and invite others round!

Overall then, at the moment, it’s a bit of a mess. The strange glitches and problems with jerk players randomly killing you, combined with the annoying mission system and constant grinding make it not very fun. But stick with it and it will get a lot better. And of course just driving around Los Santos with your friends doing missions is as fun as it sounds and definitely worth a try. My suggestion is to leave it for now and wait until all the annoying glitches and issues are dealt with then you can truly enjoy the game for what it is. The definitive online GTA.