‘GTA V’ Is Truly One Of Gaming’s Greatest Sandboxes

As I sat my GTA V Online character on the top of Mt. Chiliad with a few friends, I marveled at how the game brought us here. We started in Vespucci Beach on mountain bikes and rode all the way to the peak of GTA V’s tallest mountain. All because we can. Nothing in GTA V told us to, but we decided to make it happen.

I’ve played Grand Theft Auto V on PC now for a few days, that is after the launch issues were fixed. GTA V has been in gamers’ hands since 2013, and I’ve played the game at every platform’s release, but GTA V on PC just always felt as the end version I wanted to play. Issues aside, the game has been great, especially because GTA Online has worked pretty flawlessly.

We decided to parachute down, and it was then I remembered I didn’t have one. So after tumbling down the ridge we met on another peak (this time I brought a helicopter) and we parachuted to the observatory overlooking Los Santos. Again, no direction from GTA V; we did it because we can.

Many outlets have praised Grand Theft Auto V for being one of the few games in recent years to truly encompass what a perfect game can be. IGN has stated that GTA V is“one of the very best video games ever made.” PC Gamer is currently reviewing the PC version of GTA V, and while they haven’t been as complimentary as IGN, the PC-only outlet has stated that Los Santos “feels like a real city in a way that no open-world game since GTA 4 has done.” I would have to agree on both statements.

We found ourselves afterwards at the airport in Los Santos, finding a plane we could use to pick up another friend across the map. Flying in GTA V is incredibly tight and soon we were airborne, only to switch our focus from picking him up to parachuting from a helicopter high above my plane. The goal was to (safely) land on my wing and climb in the plane itself. I was ambitious, and the feat was made possible thanks to GTA V’s great gameplay mechanic: to leave you alone and let you do whatever your imagination lets you.

Why did we do this? Because in GTA V, we can. Needless to say, he didn’t land safely. But we picked right back up and went on to the next activity. GTA V truly is a masterpiece in sandbox gameplay, and it is something that will not be topped for quite some time.

[Images via Twitter, GTA V]