Although GTA Online built upon many of the features observed in Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer mode, its roots come from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. GTA: San Andreas had two co-op modes in a variety of locations throughout the city. One mode, titled rampage marked having a skull, tasked two players to kill many people within a time period limit. The second named free roam, marked by two red models, allowed two players to roam San Andreas with no time limit. While limited by today's standards, both modes provided a glimpse in the eventual direction of GTA, and of its multiplayer components specifically.
Today, it's arguable the primarily co-op-focused GTA Online has outgrown Grand Theft Auto as an entire, using the game continuing to develop when it comes to content and in revenue made. Cooperative play reaches the core of GTA Online, and also the same modes from San Andreas are implemented in a single form or any other. The gameplay is more open-ended now, with players able to access dynamic and linear missions all over Los Santos, but its core gameplay continues to be similar. The duties have gotten more in depth, with missions requiring players to engage in activities like street races, heists, or perhaps playing rounds of tennis. There's plenty to complete and plenty to determine.
Where GTA: San Andreas opened the city for either exploration or indiscriminate slaughter, GTA Online expanded and improved upon those elements. The game performs this by concentrating on a branching narrative connected to GTA 5. The game has witnessed a near-constant stream of new updates since its 2013 launch, most abundant in recent one, GTA Online: Anything, featuring Dr. Dre. Each activity, old and new, nudges the player towards more cooperative missions that need coordination. PVP modes are available as well, however the main focus is on co-op play, whether that maintain missions, or on exploring and taking in all that Los Santos has to offer.
GTA Online Modernized San Andreas' Multiplayer
Upon starting GTA Online, the gamer will get an inkling of structure and narrative. Tasked with gaining prestige and cash as a newcomer to Los Santos, the storyline builds upon a cast of characters the player meets in the single-player story in GTA 5. Because the player does jobs and missions to construct their reputation, the sport encourages them to do more daring and risky activities having a certain quantity of players required. This encouragement to experience co-op is completely from GTA: San Andreas, only dressed in a more nuanced and contemporary skin.
GTA 5 has many exhilarating missions, but GTA Online equals that with co-op heists. These multilayered jobs increase the depth towards the overall narrative and take advantage of the game's immersive aspects. A typical heist might have a planning stage and assign tasks to players during the final mission dubbed the “finale.” As the scheme progresses, the heists and missions have more complicated and much more ambitious, leaning further into the immersive, roleplaying facets of GTA Online.
Focusing on building a narrative at the outset of GTA Online provides players using the impetus to understand more about everything that is available. Moreover, the focus on cooperative missions and the stream of updates that have added further avenues to gain money and prestige – like GTA Online client jobs or heists – create an experience that is constantly fresh and immersive. Not all Grand Theft Auto fans may agree, with many waiting with an announcement for GTA 6, but that doesn't detract from precisely how well GTA Online realized the full potential San Andreas' co-op.
