Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One) Review - A New Brand of Crazy

Editor’s Note: Here at CraveOnline Gaming we review remasters and re-releases on new console hardware based upon the added features and content, as well as presentation and gameplay adjustments of the package. If you would like to see what we thought of Grand Theft Auto V‘s original release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, you can read our review of that product here.

Preparing a critically acclaimed title for re-release just one year after its initial debut is no easy task, and Rockstar Games knows it. So well, in fact, that the studio (or, should I say, various studios) has gone to unprecedented lengths to not just gussy up its golden open-world creation, but actually attempt to reinvent Grand Theft Auto V for its new home on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. An A+ for effort from the get-go is certainly a great place to start from a critical reception standpoint.

GTA V is still an incredible game a year later, and one that should not be missed by anyone who believes in the potential of video games as an artistic medium, craft, or even just fun pastime. When you isolate what’s changed and place it alone, though, the results fall just short of the usual Rockstar brilliance. This is by no means something to be concerned about, but it does appear to be true.

The Power of Full HD

To me this begins with the most obvious of changes — the upgrade from 720p to 1080p. To my surprise, the boost in resolution is not universally advantageous. Where it does shine most is in simple world traversal; the vistas that sprawl the player at any given time are greatly enhanced, with any and all blurring imposed to hide 720p jaggedness effectively gone. The joys of a clean, full-HD signal are hugely impactful on the GTA V experience, and in its calmer moments — perhaps while biking through the forest, or driving down the freeway in a freshly-tuned Imponte Ruiner as city lights dot the horizon — the improvement is night and day. It’s everything your brain compensated for while playing the old version, except now it doesn’t have to.

Drawbacks kick in at odd times, and a lot of it has to do with polygon counts, textures, or assets in the environment that simply haven’t been fully redone for the new edition of the game. One culprit is buildings and other large structures. At night, everything is lit up, the new lighting system works its magic, and things look peachy. But during the day? It used to be that a distant building would look bad if you zoomed in with a scope, until the enhanced texture popped a moment later. Now, certain structures just look bad period, no matter what you do. The boosted fidelity can feel especially double-edged when the car you’re driving looks absolutely impeccable, but the looming horizon line seems a bit more like the 3D buildings in Google Maps by comparison.

It’s everything your brain compensated for while playing the old version, except now it doesn’t have to.

GTA V is huge, and as such it’s not exactly reasonable to expect a 100% overhaul. Still, what has changed has all been done in a single year. What if Rockstar took two years instead? The difference would have been profound, the game could easily sell just as many new-gen copies if not more, and it would really, truly feel like next generation GTA, or at least GTA 5.5. Instead, it feels like an incredibly fresh and beautiful coat of paint with flecks that chip off a bit more frequently than they probably should.

Growing Pains

The gorgeous presentation extends to cutscenes as well, and once again the results are mixed. Sometimes, the boost in fidelity is hugely effective, especially when the lighting is right. The scene where Trevor shows up at Michael’s house for the first time is now packed with far more emotion, for example. The details of Trevor’s face, the wrinkles under his eyes, the clear and abundant crazy of his demeanor; it all served to keep me immersed more than I was the first time around. Conversely, in the game’s opening scenes Michael and his therapist look plasticky and robotic by comparison, and the reasons why are largely a mystery.

In fact, throughout the game Michael specifically looks noticeably worse than the other two main characters, his face almost resembling a hollow HD shell at its worst and a smoothed over, up-rezed version from the original game at its best. Considering the impressiveness of Trevor and Franklin, and even characters like Wade who now wear their emotions right on their face and sleeve, the nastier moments are a big mystery to me. Even random pedestrians now show fear or disdain on their faces, and while its not as if these characters look better than Michael or anyone else who looks “just OK” in a cutscene, the disparity in relative improvements across the board can be jarring in a way that I wish was avoided.

the disparity in relative improvements across the board can be jarring in a way that I wish was avoided.

Oddly, and perhaps more unexpectedly than the boost in resolution, the new lighting also proves to have both its benefits and drawbacks. The benefits are, of course, that on a technical level what we’re seeing here is superior in almost every way. Los Santos and Blaine Country are absolutely drenched in vibrant pinks, deep reds, and everything in between depending on the time of day and position of the sun. It’s great, but the more I played, it began to feel like too much. Let me explain.

On PS3, the game was developed with 720p and console limitations in mind, and as such, it was actually rare to achieve that gorgeous, picture-perfect moment. When you found it, whether you were driving down a dirt road in Sandy Shores or watching a sunset from Vespucci Beach, the effect was beautiful, profound, and almost spine-tingling. On PS4, with nearly everything soaked in sultry hues on the regular, my surroundings at times felt over-indulgent, some of their novelty stripped away. Don’t get me wrong — there are still incredibly beautiful moments to be had, and they may even be more frequent. But the distraction of an environment (or even a car or character in some cases) rendered at a slightly-higher resolution than it was designed for, paired with lighting more advanced than the objects it graces, prevents any moment from being entirely perfect

A New Way to Play

The pink elephant in the room is far and away the new first-person mode, and though I applaud Rockstar’s very substantial implementation, I find myself wondering if the effort would have been better spent really coaxing the re-imagined open world to gel perfectly. I spent about a third of my playthrough from the new perspective, and I’ll admit there are some thrilling encounters that were not previously possible. Exterminating the O’Neals comes to mind, as do many of Franklin’s early gang-banger endeavors and, most notably, a later heist where the crew escapes a burning building dressed as a team of firemen. While entertaining, nothing about these encounters was transformative in any way. Meanwhile, driving in first-person is actually worse, and after a few hours trying it across multiple play-sessions, I retired the feature for good. It’s a fun diversion, sure, but while running and/or gunning in first-person is a matter of personal preference, driving and flying that way are inferior unless your goal is to damage your vehicle or explode.

There are countless other details in the new GTA V worth noting. I was especially pleased with the upgraded vegetation system, which goes a long way in covering up the old game’s blurry earth, ground, and grass textures with something that feels organic and substantial. Bushes and trees are impressive too, though not universally amazing. The spiral plants at Michael’s house, for example, are almost shockingly detailed for an open-world game, while random shrubbery out in the wild can still look pretty dicey. There’s a nice motion-blur effect that occurs during car crashes which I very much enjoy, and new depth of field tricks that lend a more cinematic feel to the overall experience. Transferring GTA Online data is also painless, assuming you have a Rockstar Social Club account. All of these additions are absolutely welcomed and appreciated.

Conclusion

The truth is, if you loved Grand Theft Auto V last year and $60 isn’t a big deal to you, there’s not really a reason to avoid playing it again on PS4 or Xbox One. The enhancements are worth it, and you won’t miss out on the few ways in which the old game is superior since you likely already played the heck out of it. There are even smaller quality-of-life tweaks that are too numerous to list, but that returning players will notice immediately. These range from world map functionality to GPS, how garages work, fewer disappearing car glitches, and more. The once-over to the weaker minutiae of the old game is definitely felt and appreciated.

And yet, GTA V in 2014 is a remaster that by and large does what was expected of it. This is in no way a bad thing, but it is a bit atypical for Rockstar, who are normally ninjas well-trained in the art of shattering expectations. First-person mode simply isn’t the game-changer it was advertised to be, and beyond that, what’s left? The definitive version of what many feel was 2013’s best game, polished and primed for new hardware, that’s what. If that’s enough, then buy it. It was for me, and I did just that. But don’t be surprised if you get a nagging sensation that some of Rockstar’s A-team has already secretly moved on to the next big thing.