So the time has finally arrived. A year and a half after launch the biggest addition to Grand Theft Auto Online has finally made its way to consoles all over the world. Heists are finally here and everyone is rejoicing now that they are able to make some serious bank with three of their closest friends. But, perhaps all of the excitement could be attributed to the long wait. Sometimes not having something you want/need will put something along the lines of rose colored glasses over your eyes. Kind of like how even the nastiest food will taste like it came straight from heaven after being without food for a whole day. That couldn’t possibly be the case with GTA Online‘s heists, right?
Fortunately enough that is nowhere near the case. Before we get into just what makes these newly introduced heists so great it’s only proper that the current server issues be addressed. Many individuals grew impatient so they left the web-connected Los Santos for greener pastures. Once the elusive heists were let loose on the wild everyone seemed to have come flocking back and that put a serious strain on the servers. That led to (and is still leading to) problems with connecting to GTA Online. Naturally this has quite a few GTA fans up in arms since they are unable to partake in the criminal festivities.
While some have gone to extremes in expressing their dismay at the current state of heists, most complaints are understandable. It sucks having to wait months on end for content, only to end up having to wait even longer since the servers can’t handle the sheer volume of players. Yes, it can be argued that they should’ve been prepared due to the high anticipation of heists, but sometimes things happen.
We may not know the fix to these issues, but one thing we can say with certainty is that your temporary frustration will be greatly rewarded. In a word the heists are amazing. But one word is nowhere near sufficient enough to explain just how well worth the wait these heists are. Rockstar might have been dragging their feet in getting this content out there but the final product proves that they were serious when they said they wanted to provide the best experience to players.
For those who have abstained from gaming publications up until now, heists in GTA Online are new co-op based multiplayer content that has a team of four players set up and execute a series of great heists. These range anywhere from a simple small bank robbery, to breaking out a jailed high profile international criminal. You will need to utilize every crew member’s strength and focus on real team work if you are to have any success at reaching your goals.
That crucial teamwork is one of the primary strengths in GTA Online‘s heists. There are quite a few games out there that try to deliver a tight-knit team based experience. Recently Destiny‘s raids and Evolve‘s asynchronous multiplayer have tried to (quite successfully) sell experiences that revolve around working as a unit. To some extent, they do a great job.
Destiny‘s raids sometimes call for individuals to fill certain roles in order to advance. Each hunter in Evolve has a very specific task as you go out on your hunt. But, the roles in Destiny are interchangeable at the drop of a dime, providing some flexibility and a bit of a cushion to those not up to the task. While Evolve on the other hand forces each player into specific roles, you can still succeed even with some of your fellow hunters waiting to respawn. Both these games provide a bit of wiggle room in order to keep the action moving.
Rockstar took an entirely different approach with heists. Multiplayer modes and missions have been available from the beginning but they were a lot more forgiving when it came to how you played. Heists forces a team to work as… well a team. This means filling required roles, and sticking to them. There is no flexibility in these heists which may sound like a bad thing, but once you actually get a chance to play you can see just how genius this decision is.
For starters it adds a sense of realism. Heists are serious affairs, which is something you’d expect from a series of extreme felonies. When you pick people for your crew, you want specific skills and capabilities, much like when you chose crew members in Grand Theft Auto V‘s story mode. Once you choose people for roles you probably won’t want them going all lone wolf, especially when everyone’s looking forward to a huge payout. To that end, GTA Online‘s heists are very strict in keeping people in their places.
This adds a lot of much needed structure to the four or more missions that make up each heist. It also adds a bit of pressure since not a single person is allowed to slip up (if they do you must start your mission over). In all honesty the pressure is completely welcome become it presents a more than fitting gravitas to the situations and fills the void of all those games that offered a challenge but never quite delivered.
Of course, structure and difficulty aren’t the only great things to come out of the strict nature of these heists. One thing games like Destiny were hounded for was the limited replayability since although you could technically play a mission as many times as you wanted, they never felt different. Sure you could be the sword bearer against Crota in the latest raid but other than that, not much changes no matter what role you try to assign yourself. But, in GTA Online‘s heists each role has it’s own course of gameplay.
Instead of just giving you a job and having everyone follow each other around, you are given actual objectives that you will have to be able to carry out even on your own sometimes. In one particular mission, the crew has to split up to collect a few necessities and everyone ends up on completely different sides of the map. It’s not just the area of the map that is different for each player however. Your activities are also independent, meaning each member of your crew has a unique experience that you can only get if you play that role.
Playing a different role each time affords new avenues of perspective that make what would normally just be another run through feel like an entirely new mission. Heists end up feeling much less like a grind for a large payout and more like a masterfully constructed activity. Figuring out how to complete each role’s given tasks in different ways is both exciting and rewarding. Add to that the allure of Elite Challenges found in each of the heists that promise increased spoils, and you have something that is built on a core of mechanics that will keep players coming back for more.
This solid foundation is decked out in all the bells and whistles you’d expect from one of gaming’s largest franchises. Yes some missions that were already present in GTA Online had some fully fleshed out cut-scenes to go along with them, but for the most part you could tell that these were just some things to keep you occupied for the time being. More often than not, you received a call, accepted a mission, completed it, and then briefly got to see the “quest giver” as they nodded towards you with approval. It was cool but it lacked all of the pomp and circumstance that the single player campaign had many players grow accustomed to.
It’s such a good thing that Rockstar pulled out all the stops when constructing the heists for this latest, free update. Each heist has a full story, tons of cut-scenes, varied missions, new gadgets and vehicles, and all the quality you’d expect from a high priced DLC. The heists truly are nothing short of amazing when you stop to really take a look at all of the hard work that has been put into them.
Even if you choose not to participate in the newly included heists, there are still tons of little additions with this free update for every fan of GTA Online to enjoy. New adversary modes for you to test out against other GTA Online players, mew daily objectives to keep your cash flow coming, and new free roam activities such as shooting down planes for Trevor. there are also tons of new customization options for your wardrobe, and brand new vehicles thrown into the mix.
All in all, the new heists in GTA Online have shaped up to be even better than some could have imagined. With all the edge-of-your-seat action present in the single player examples, and the presentation of it all Rockstar have once again proved why they sit as one of the highest respected studios in the industry. Their devotion to delivering the best, and their execution is often unmatched. To provide one of the best cooperative experiences in the last few years to everyone who owns the game is worthy of applause and makes the wait seem like it wasn’t too long after all.
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