GTA V taking a page from Sly 2?

[BullworthAcademy]

 

In 2002 the Sly Cooper franchise was born on Sony’s PlayStation 2. It gave players a new unique platformer with a lovable cast. You jumped and smashed your way through five HUBs as the series main character, Sly Cooper. Your team was Sly’s lifelong pals Bentley the turtle and Murray the hippo, yet they were not playable, just support characters to provide dialog in the game. It sold well enough to win a Greatest Hits award from Sony and a sequel. With each sequel to a game new mechanics must be introduced to giver players a new-yet-familiar feeling and to add depth to the gameplay. In 2004 one way the team at Sucker Punch tackled this need for new mechanics was by making Bentley and Murray fully playable characters. And it worked wonderfully. Each character had their own missions in a more free roam HUB and those missions all played a crucial part in preparing the gang for the main heist and inevitable boss battle. In these heists you would assume the roles of all three characters, performing each step to stealing the Clockwerk part from the boss. It was a great way to add depth to the game and give the player each character’s perspective of the big heist.

 

The Grand Theft Auto series has always had one protagonist. Rockstar has grown and developed their main characters from the strong, silent type to a character with personality, flaws, and internal struggles like Niko in Grand Theft Auto IV. So how can Rockstar improve this model and make the next entry deeper and better? The answer Rockstar has given the world is three protagonists. With three protagonists the player now has three different points of view of the same event. And the big events in GTAV’s campaign are heists.

 

In Grand Theft Auto V the three main characters, Michael, Trevor, and Franklin, all work together for one purpose, money and lots of it. Missions are spread out across three different areas of the huge Los Santos. As the player switches between protagonists and those protagonists interact on different jobs, they all meet up in the end for one big job. Now that’s not one big job in the whole game, but quite a few different heists over the course of the game. Missions before the bank jobs can be thought of a prep work for that big job. This gives players a sense of accomplishment, like, “I worked up to this job and now I’m ready. Bring it.”

 

This is where Rockstar is taking a mechanic from the Sly Cooper franchise and make it better. In Sly 2: Band of Thieves each heist was scripted, with forced transitions and a somewhat nonlinear story telling, because flashbacks were used to switch character roles. With GTAV transitions are mostly optional, with just a few forced for story reasons. Transitions are reported to be smooth and fast, without orientation being lost. It is supposed to feel natural. This system of switching characters mid-mission gives player’s something beautiful in games; free will.

 

Grand Theft Auto prides itself with its open-world, sandbox gameplay. Switching roles in-game is how Rockstar brings that sandbox feel to the game’s campaign. The game’s first reported bank job, describes the gang breaking into the IAA by having Michael repel down the building, Franklin sniping from an adjacent building, and Trevor flying a helicopter above. Before, if this kind of job had been done in a previous entry, the job would have been one-side from Michael’s or Franklin’s or Trevor’s point of view. In GTAV that barrier is gone. After Michael breaks into the IAA and grabs a hostage he is quickly cornered and outnumbered by IAA agents. In a single protagonist game the player, Michael, would have to wait for an AI Franklin to snipe out the hostile agents. Not in GTAV. An icon appears on screen and players can pick if they want an AI Franklin to pick off the agents or if they want to handle it themselves. Upon selecting Franklin the “player perspective switches instantaneously” and suddenly you are picking off IAA agents with a sniper. This is how Rockstar puts a sandbox feel into their characters. “Do I want to snipe these guys? Or let someone else handle it?” Total free will to the player.

[Lock n' Stock]

Two completely different games, but regarding the multiple protagonists mechanic the comparison definitely makes sense. Good find, where was this from?

[Jarg1623]

I have been thinking that this will be a M rated version of Sly since the introduction of Michael, Trevor, and Franklin

[Meezarawcks]

Sly, Murray, and Bentley

Micheal, Franklin, and Trevor?

 

Trevor doesnt fit lol

[GTAfan786]

 

Sly, Murray, and Bentley

Micheal, Franklin, and Trevor?

 

Trevor doesnt fit lol

 

This has NOTHING to do with the characters, only the similarities with the transitions between the two games.

[Meezarawcks]

Well Sly has been an open world game in a sense. I woudln't put it past R* to borrow from other games.

 

I was recently playing GTA IV TLAD and the motorcycle races in that so reminded me of Road Rash.

 

 

So yeah the planning part might be taken from Sly but it seems like a natrual progression for the GTA series.

 

@GTAFAN786

 

Yeah i get that buddy I was just making a joke. I am a huge fan of both Sly and GTA so to me its no biggie.

[RaptorXD25]

It's pretty similar, especially the whole "working together on heists" thing. They're both some of my favorite franchises ever too. Sly Cooper was my childhood.

[Scampi]

It seems things have come full circle. When Sly 2 came out all I heard from people was that it was trying to copy GTA. When I heard the preview a few weeks ago about how Mike would be organizing missions to contribute to a larger heist the first thing I thought of was Sly 2. So if Sly borrowed some of GTA's formula and now GTA is borrowing some of Sly's I don't see a problem. It should mix well together. I just hope Rockstar can make it a lot more varied. I re-played Sly 2 a couple weeks ago and it did not hold up as well as I remembered. I actually had to force myself to finish.

[BullworthAcademy]

Another similarity is that both have 7 or 8 heists.