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The first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 5 came out last week and it brings up a lot of questions. Who is that mysterious narrator? How many pointless items will we be collecting? What new and exciting dick jokes will Rockstar come up with? However, the biggest question in my mind is:
Cars, again?
This probably isn't the kind of "trafficking" you expected in a crime game.
I don't want to poop in anyone's fish tank (figuratively or literally), but the prospect of driving around a sprawling urban setting doesn't really do it for me anymore. In the three years since Grand Theft Auto 4 came out, the open-world genre has expanded and evolved. Games like Infamous, Assassin's Creed 2, and Batman: Arkham City have all but eliminated vehicles from the equation in favor of more interesting and enjoyable ways to get around.
The genre that Grand Theft Auto popularized is leaving it behind, and here's why.
I've come to associate Rockstar with unchecked world-sprawl and uninspired responses to it. Sure, it's more convenient to call a cab than it is to drive. But is it more fun? A fast-travel system should save you time, not spare you boredom; for me, GTA4's taxis fall squarely into the second group.
It's especially telling that the Infamous games and Arkham City don't even offer fast-travel — climbing, gliding, and grinding alongside an elevated train are huge parts of what make them great. Missions have to do most of the heavy lifting fun-wise, but players should be having fun even when they're not advancing the main plot. I'm not just talking about sidequests: I mean basics like getting around the world.
What do Cole McGrath, Ezio Auditore, and Batman have in common? For starters, they've never stood next to a flaming ruin that used to be their car in the middle of Bumblefuck, San Andreas and wondered how the hell they were going to get home. Their worlds are manageable and their means of traversing them are engaging.
I was playing Arkham City the other day, traveling from one side of the map to the other. In the middle of my grappling and gliding and being all "I'm Batman," I received a button prompt for a Glide Kick.
"Sure," I thought. "I'm Batman, after all, and Batman would totally take a break to kick this guy." So I pressed the button and Batman swooped down and kicked the random thug into a wall. Seconds later, I was back on course, and one more criminal had learned that sometimes justice tastes like your own teeth.
I've never had an experience like that with the Grand Theft Auto series because I focus most of my attention on not destroying my vehicle. In the new batch of open-world games, developers tie mobility to character abilities, not fickle and explosion-prone machines that may or may not be there when you need them most. In other words, the character is the vehicle, and I'd rather feel like a superhero than a guy stuck in traffic any day.
Cole McGrath is physically incapable of getting into a car. Ask him if he cares.
Am I suggesting Grand Theft Auto get rid of cars? Of course not — that would be stupid and also antithetical to the title of the game. But given the choice between driving through a massive open world in a vehicle that, let's face it, will eventually catch fire (probably with me in it) and swooping quickly and effortlessly through the air, grinding along power lines, or, hell, just running in a fun way, I know where my time is going.
Who needs a Batmobile when you have a Grapnel Boost?