Grand Theft Auto Online is the multiplayer mode that was developed to give a different experience as a multiplayer game. It is the online version of the Grand Theft Auto V that was released just a month before the online game. The game is based around the same island of San Andreas and Los Santos, just like in GTA V single-player mode. However, GTA Online was developed to perceive a different experience in line with GTA V.
Grand Theft Auto Online features around 30 players at a time who freely roam around the recreated city. These 30 players can either choose to complete the jobs separately or could join groups to complete the tasks together. Each group can have a maximum of five players while every group fights to top the online leaderboards.
Gameplay and Storyline of the Grand Theft Auto Online
A player creates a new character in line with the original characters Franklin, Trevor, and Michael. The player-characters are designed by a genetics-related process. Meanwhile, much of the concentration is given to the hairstyle and dressing style of the character. The game starts with the protagonist arriving Los Santos via plane who is picked up by Lamar Davis. Davis provides the character with a gun and a car which is then followed by an in-game tutorial regarding all the controls for car and gun.
In the beginning of the release of the online of the GTA V, it faced many technical issues. However, Rockstar Games overcame the issues and went on to produce one of the most selling games. The story of GTA Online is like a prequel to the GTA V, as it involves the characters from the GTA V. The game features few functions similar to that of the single-player mode. Like GTA V the players can level up their character’s attributes such as driving and stamina.
Apart from its open-world mode, the game also features three other sets of activities: racing, deathmatch and then objective-based contact missions. The game, nonetheless, was everything that new gamers love. It had the same thrills, if not less, the racing and the deathmatch, both of which were totally created by the player. The Rockstar Games had featured the Online GTA with a content creation tool. Now, this tool allows the player to choose a location, start and spawn points in the race, the weapons and vehicles drop in a deathmatch.
How GTA Online differ from GTA V?
Yet, the developers couldn’t give the players the exact feel of the GTA V. The online multiplayer mode lacks details in its open-world game. It features fewer pedestrians or animals or birds flying in the sky or a plane crossing the sky. These are the minute details that make the game feel more realistic and adventurous. Then comes the details added to the cars used in the online game. No matter how many times one crashes their car, the car comes back with zero or minor defects. Whereas in GTA V, a crashed car would exactly look how it would in real life.
Development Throughout the Years:
After its initial release, the game faced serious technical issues that were reported by the GTA lovers. However, Rockstar Games overcame all the issues and the very next month they launched the Beach Bum update. This update featured more beach-themed jobs and customization options for the players. The launch year of the game saw three more updates by Rockstar Games, all three in the month of December. The major update came on 11 December that featured the introduction of Deathmatches and Races.
However, Rockstar has also launched updates in the game that were time rendered and would expire after the notice date. They launched a similar feature update in December 2013 named Holiday Gifts. Now, this feature was removed from the game on 5th Jan 2014, which was its expiring period. Meanwhile, the other theme-based updates included Valentine’s Day special, Independence’s Day Special released in July 2014, and so on.
In most of the updates ever since 2013, the Grand Theft Auto Online was loaded with more guns and cars with varied events. Whilst its most famous update came in September 2015 where they released Rockstar Edition along with Freemode Events update. The Rockstar Edition was also made available on PCs. Whereas the Freemode Events allowed the players to customize and create features of the online GTA mode. It also introduced new game modes, features, and adversary modes that featured no loading menus and didn’t require lobbies.
Nonetheless, Rockstar Games has done well with the continual updates of the game that keeps the fans engaged even six years later.