Grand Theft Auto V

Don't come close. I don't want you to see my face. —Yeasayer, Don't Come Close, ending song of Ending A

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Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. First released in 2013, it is part of the Grand Theft Auto series. An enhanced version of the game for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One was released in 2014, with the Microsoft Windows version further delayed to April 2015. Ports of the game for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S were also announced in 2020, albeit much to the consternation of gamers who were understandably burned out by the constant GTA Online updates and lack of news about the next main game in the franchise.

Its story follows three criminals and their efforts to commit heists while under pressure from a government agency, and as such the gameplay allows players to cycle between the three protagonists: retired bank robber Michael de Santa, former gangbanger turned repo man Franklin Clinton, and Ax Crazy career criminal and ex-military pilot Trevor Philips, each having their own special abilities. Michael can enter Bullet Time whilst in armed combat, Franklin is able to slow down time when driving, and Trevor can fly into a blind rage and dish out extra damage whilst sustaining far less damage himself, and he can also perform a few unique melee attacks when the special meter is activated.

Included is Grand Theft Auto Online, where up to 30 players can engage in a variety of different cooperative and competitive game modes. While Online is incorporated into Grand Theft Auto V as its multiplayer component, sharing assets with each other (though DLC items such as vehicles are under normal circumstances exclusive to Online; these can still be accessed through mods), Rockstar treats it as a separate product from the main game.

• AKA-47: All of the weapons are given generic descriptors like "Pistol" or "Advanced Rifle", though they do have (fictional) brand names and are loosely based on real-world firearms.
• All Bikers Are Hells Angels: The Lost MC, who established a chapter in Sandy Shores and was taken care of by Trevor after an outburst stemming from Trevor's sexual affairs with Lost MC member Ashley Butler.
• Anti-Hero: Michael and Franklin have some resemblance of morality even if they do steal and kill for profit and are often paired against worst people. Trevor does still have a shred of morality in spite of his explosive personality, though. For instance he treats Michael's children with utmost respect, in the case of Jimmy not allowing him to take any hard drinks.
• Ax Crazy: Trevor. Michael can also fly into this when sufficiently provoked.
• Bank Robbery: Hands down the main focus of both the single-player and Online storylines.
• Bland-Name Product: As part of the series' Constructed World, many fictional products from the series lore make a return, most often parodying real-world products and services like iFruit, Lifeinvader and Bleeter.
• Black and Gray Morality: The corrupt side of the FIB the protagonists get involved with. Dave Norton is corrupt, having no issues with striking a deal with a bank robber and taking $5000 dollars a month in payment from him in order to advance his career, but he is depicted as saint like compared to Steve Haines and Agent Sanchez, who have no issues having the protagonists interfere with the IAA's investigations just to increase the FIB's funding, or ordering the protagonists to break into the FIB building to remove the evidence against Haines. Tellingly, Norton tells Michael that he hates Steve too, but nothing can happen, and in the canonical ending, Michael explicitly says Dave has to stay alive so nobody bothers the protagonists.
• Bowdlerise:
  • It was revealed in a live conference that Rockstar, despite having been known for their edgy public image as purveyors of mature oriented video games, tried to consciously cut down on the use of curse words and racial slurs by the cast. Shawn Fonteno and Slink Johnson rebuffed R*'s attempts at curtailing their speech, recalling in said panel that this is the way they speak having grown up in the hood, and in no way would they grow out of saying the n-word as they weren't using it in a racist manner anyway (especially within the African-American community where the likes of "what's up, nigga?" between Black people would be seen as fairly acceptable).
  • Later releases of the game would tone down if not completely excise transphobic content in the form of transgender sex workers with fairly muscular bodies, following pressure from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups who felt they were being unfairly stereotyped.
• Broken Bridge: The first numbered entry and the second game overall to avert this, with the whole map accessible to the player save for a few interior locations.
• Canada, Eh?: Trevor was in the Royal Canadian Air Force but was discharged for psychological reasons, psychological reasons quite obvious for anyone playing as him for a while, since he is a crazed murderer and rapist.
• Conspiracy Theorist: To a degree with Trevor as he expressed his contempt with the Illuminati and their (supposed) machinations, also alleging that the Merriweather is "the Illuminati's private army" which motivated him to carry out attacks against them. Taken Up to Eleven with Ron Jakowski, who developed an irrational sense of paranoia towards various conspiracies. Ironically enough, despite his deep-seated disdain for pervasive surveillance and his efforts to get away from "the man", Ron has a Lifeinvader profile; this is Truth In Television though as some real life conspiracy theorists do maintain social media profiles, contrary to their (twisted) beliefs, although they did come up with their own substitutes to mainstream social platforms (i.e. the so-called "alt-tech" geared towards right-wingers) as the likes of Facebook wanted nothing to do with them in recent years.
• Deceased Fall Guy Gambit: As it becomes obvious Haines will try to have the protagonists arrested, Michael asks Dave to get the protagonists out. Norton's initial plan is to throw the entire blame on Agent Sanchez, who had betrayed Haines. However, if the canonical ending is chosen, and Haines is sniped by Trevor, Norton throws all the blame on Haines and Sanchez, clearing both Norton and the protagonists.
• Dirty Cop: Since this is a staple of the series, this is a given. All of the law enforcement agencies are shown to be thoroughly corrupt, and the dirty dealings of FIB agents Dave Norton, Steve Haines, and Agent Sanchez are a major part of the game.
• Double Standard Rape (Male on Male): The only people Trevor are implied to rape are men, like his cousin, and jokes are made on it. His relationships with women are shown to be consensual.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Trevor may be an unhinged mass murdering meth head, but he is shown to care for people close to him, e.g. Michael's children Jimmy and Tracey. Trevor would even go so far as to refuse Jimmy from drinking alcohol when hanging out with him.
• Faking the Dead: Michael does this in the prologue, where he fakes being killed in a botched robbery, and is relocated to Los Santos with his family, where they spend nine years under the name DeSanta. Unfortunately, FIB agent Steve Haines discovers the corrupt deal and uses it to blackmail Michael into working for him.
• First-Person Ghost: Averted with the eighth generation and PC releases. The characters' limbs are visible all the time and bespoke animations were made to account for the new viewpoint.
• First-Person Shooter: The eighth generation and PC releases mark the first time that Rockstar has utilised this viewpoint extensively, contrary to what Dan Houser stated in 2011 about avoiding "what other companies are doing". To Houser's credit though, Rockstar has never developed a straight-up first-person shooter to this day, linear or otherwise.
• Hide Your Children: Again for fairly obvious reasons. However, children do appear in several in-game cartoon programmes, and an African-American boy can be seen on the Children of The Mountain in-game website that Franklin has to complete.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: As per series tradition where the protagonists can carry a military-grade arsenal and conjure one from their inventory at will. Weapon selection was made less tedious with a pie menu reminiscent of Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3.
• Private Army: Merryweather.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Averted. Stuttering and repetition of words does happen to several characters.
• Retired Outlaw: Michael is one at the beginning of the game. The situation quickly changes when he is forced to come out of retirement after unwittingly trashing a gangster's house.
• Updated Rerelease: Happened not once, but twice: one for the eighth-gen platforms i.e. the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and another for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles. Both re-releases have their own respective graphical updates, with better post-processing effects, higher-resolution textures, denser foliage and at least some form of ray tracing on the ninth-gen versions.
• Reality Ensues: During the Kortz Center shootout, Dave states he needs covering fire, and Michael tells Trevor to protect Dave. Trevor, having just found out that the robbery in the prologue was a deal between Michael and Dave and was supposed to result in Dave shooting Trevor, asks why he should help, only for Dave to point out that if he dies, the FIB will hound the protagonists, and Michael states that since Haines escaped the shootout and is looking for an excuse to arrest and execute the protagonists in order to save his career, Dave is the only way all three protagonists avoid getting arrested. No matter how good they are, the protagonists cannot escape going directly against the federal government, and having an inside man is the only possible way to get out free.
• Shout-Out: Michael tends to do this to movies that are In-Universe, most notably "You forget a thousand things every day. Make sure this is one of 'em." often using it as a warning to witnesses. It backfires on him as using this during the first heist in the game causes both the FIB and Trevor to realize that he is still alive, and it leads to the rest of the game's events.
• Villain Protagonist: Trevor is a drug dealer, murders with little to no provocation, is a rapist, and it's heavily implied to be eating human meat.
• Wanted Meter: With a maximum level of five. The meter eventually cools down as long you stay out of the law enforcement's line-of-sight.
• Would Hit a Girl: Would? It's fair play dude! (Well, not so fair if you're attacking civilians) You can attack any female you want.