Analysis of GTA V for Xbox Series X – The umpteenth return to Los Santos

Almost 10 years after its release, GTA V is re-released in an improved version.

On a cold September morning in 2013, the person writing this to you was queuing outside a Media Markt in Madrid, waiting for the opening to get your pre-order copy of Grand Theft Auto V on Xbox 360. If you had told me back then that almost 10 years later I would be reviewing this game, I wouldn’t have believed it. And yet here we are, with GTA V premiering on a third generation of consoles and following the rhythm of Skyrim. However, the longevity of the title is undoubtedly due to grand theft auto online, a game so different now compared to then that it perhaps deserves another analysis. However, we’re here to talk about the single-player title, Grand Theft Auto V, which hasn’t changed at all. How does the game hold up in the year 2022 on Xbox Series X|S?

The first thing we have to say is that Grand Theft Auto V is as it was in 2013

, so we recommend that you read our analysis of this era to immerse yourself in the game itself. To summarize, in this game we have 3 protagonists, Michael, Trevor and Franklin, through which the story is told. Michael, a rehabilitated thief attempts to live an honest life in Los Santos under a new alias. A chance encounter with franklin This will be the trigger for the plot to begin. Trevor, meanwhile, is a former accomplice of Michael’s, who was left for dead and reappears once he sees his former raiding mate return to the ring. The trio then embarks on an unprecedented adventure that will leave us with indelible moments. As for the history and structure of the missions, Grand Theft Auto V is above other games in the series. The narrative of the missions is really fluid and they no longer feel like a series of loosely linked missions, like in Vice City of San Andreas.

Let’s move on to what really matters to us in this analysis, the game has been graphically improved for Xbox Series consoles. As in the vast majority of current games, we will have the choice between a series of graphic modes. So this version of Xbox series X|S to have three graphic modes to choose from: Performance Mode, 60fps in 4K on Xbox Series X (Xbox Series S 60fps at 1080p); Loyalty modewith a Native 4K and Ray-Tracingbut to 30fps and the RT Performance Mode

with 4K upscaling and 60 fps. The game defaults to loyalty mode when it first loads, but from a purely personal perspective, I immediately switched to RT performance to reach 60 fps.

Even without Ray-Tracing, lighting work and textures improved really gives a new air to the title. The graphics were never an issue on the upgraded Xbox 360 or Xbox One versions, so the improvement may be less noticeable there, but the new lighting and shading work is excellent. Watching the light bounce off the water or the shadows of the buildings move at the end of the day is a delight. In addition to the graphical updates you would expect from a next-gen update, load times have improved dramatically.

As for the negatives, Grand Theft Auto V is as it was in 2013. Advances in open world design that we currently have they leave this delivery in a not so good place. It looks like it is, a game from almost 10 years ago to which, despite all the beautification improvements you put into it, the core of the game remains the same. The world of Grand Theft Auto V lacks life and color compared to others today. He feels empty.

Whoever was the standard-bearer for open worlds in his time has been eclipsed in the time elapsed since its first outing. Grand Theft Auto V is still holding up very well, but playing it now is like stepping into the DeLorean, because the real world and the development of video games have changed a lot in recent years.

If to all this we add that in the more than 8 years that have passed there was never any additional content for a single player in Grand Theft Auto 5, it would already be the perfect reason for those who already enjoyed the game a few years ago not to see any incentive to play it again. This next-gen version would have been the perfect opportunity to add new content, a kind of DLC in the style of the fantastic ones that were in GTA IV. Instead, we have the exact same single-player game from 2013, with all of its current strengths and weaknesses. Always a lot of fun to play but it is a game that can be described as vintage.