GTA V Trailer 2 Analysis

By now you probably have all seen Rockstar Games’ brand new bombastic trailer for GTA V. It arrived on Wednesday, the internet exploded in a divided rage of “OH MY GOD THAT WAS EPIC” to “The grafix suck yo”. You just have to love the internet sometimes. Now that we have all calmed down, let us try and decipher what we saw and what we can expect when everyone in the world buys this game once it is released. Incase you were living in a hole and didn’t see the trailer let me remind you:

Let’s get started then. The trailer opens with a beautiful shot of Los Santos and its skyline quickly followed by the exterior of what we soon discover to be Michael’s house, one our new protagonists and narrator of trailer 1. We see a full tennis court which is one of the new mini-games and then we get the first glimpse at Michael’s family. A mother and daughter argument continues as Michael relaxes by the pool, seemingly like he’s seen it all before. Another few shots of Los Santos are shown showing trains and a very fluid and thriving open world, including drunks fighting outside of a bar.

We then get to hear Trevor for the first time, our next protagonist who proceeds to cause all sorts of damage such as burning down a house and acting like a complete psychopath for most of the time we see him. The classic GTA humor is showcased here with Trevor as he delivers one-liners whilst causing destruction in his path.

Next up we are introduced to our final protagonist, Franklin in what seems to be his first interaction with Michael after asking for directions to an address. Interestingly we see a ‘BALLAS’ spray tag on the bench that Michael is sitting on, which could confirm the return of everyone’s most hated gang from San Andreas. Whether we will see them return is unsure at this point. It’s been confirmed that no one from the PS2 era of GTA games will return, but the appearance of a gang could be the same as the return of advertising, such as Cluckin’ Bell, so only time will tell. Another possibility is that this could be the first Easter Egg in the game that references San Andreas, which I’m sure there will be many.

We see Franklin steal a car and he is then shown arguing with an unknown female at this time about his life and how he should change his ways. Next up, we see a nice shot of an Aston Martin DB5 fall off the back of a truck which means you can pretend to be James Bond in this game, if you so wish. More dialogue between Franklin and his friend sees Franklin not happy with things and wants more for himself. This character seems very much like CJ from San Andreas, the traditional start at the bottom and leave with everything rags to riches type story. Whether this will play out this way we will have to wait and see.

Moving on, we see Michael again this time talking to a therapist about his problematic son. This further implies that Michael’s biggest problems are not money like other characters but his family life. To further enforce this idea we see Michael’s son causing problems, this time by hanging off a boat on the back of a truck on a motorway. Pretty standard teenage life. This is followed by some great comedic dialogue from Michael making fun of his son’s vocabulary, showing us Trevor isn’t the only character to raise a smile or two.

More is shown of Trevor being a maniac once again followed by him piloting a plane, something that was missing from GTA IV and makes its welcome return from San Andreas. Next up we see a dog, a first for any GTA game, who can be identified as ‘Chop’ after his appearance on official GTA V artwork. He seems to be chasing a man dressed in a purple shirt and purple shoes, the color Ballas’ used to where. Perhaps it is another clue that this gang will return. Michael is seen rappelling down a building and we see what seems to be a diamond heist the gang is committing.

A fantastic shot of an Army jeep falling out of a plane with a man then jumping out of the jeep and parachuting is gloriously shown next. Below we see what seems to be a hugely vast desert area which we haven’t really seen in previous screenshots or trailers. The game is the biggest open world Rockstar have ever created and shots like this show just how big this map will be.

Dirt biking goes wrong in the next shot where we see many riders crash into each other and fall off. This really shows the dramatically improved physics engine this game will offer. Just when you thought you had seen it all we get to see Trevor jump off the top of a train before it collides completely head on in an unbelievable crash. It looks to be from a cut scene, but still impressive nonetheless.

Finally we see our three protagonists interact to give an idea of what we can expect from the story and how things could pan out. The shot of a fighter jet blowing up a helicopter is followed by the final shot of our new guys performing the three wise monkeys pose after seeing something that shocks them all. A sign of things to come in what promises to be one of the biggest games of this generation.

GTA V will be released in Spring 2013 on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.