Five years after Grand Theft Auto IV was released to high praise and high sales, Grand Theft Auto V launched with tremendous hype in its trail. The game reeled in $800 million on the first day of sales this Tuesday and its already receiving praise. Grand Theft Auto V broke world sales records and it fulfills that hype.

Grand Theft Auto V’s story relies on a new gameplay mechanic to the series by switching between characters and showing the three characters’ divergent stories with many missions where they converge and work together at times. The three characters—Michael, Franklin and Trevor—each have their own stories and lives as well as different supporting characters.

Switching between the characters opens access to different story missions and side missions. When you aren’t playing one character the others still live their own lives, and upon switching to a different character they may be in a random location or in the middle of an event such as driving, playing tennis or having a random conversation.

Each character has separate skills as well that can be upgraded. For example: Trevor used to be a pilot so he has a higher skill with planes and helicopters, Michael used to be a professional criminal so he has a better shooting skill than the others.

This switching mechanic adds a lot of fun and variety to the missions and free roaming of the game. Even during missions the player can switch between characters. 

In one mission Trevor pilots a helicopter as Franklin covers the operation on the top of a building with a sniper rifle while Michael rappels down from the helicopter to break into an office building. At any point during this mission the player can take control of any of the characters to make the mission go smoother.

This switching mechanic is particularly important during heists. Periodically in the game the characters will plan heists—the player is able to select what strategy they want to use and what crewmen they want to bring along. Crewmen have varying skills and the talented ones will take more of the share at the end of the heist.

Heists are fun and require good planning. They provide the player with ample money as well making it easy to get anything in the game.

The story in Grand Theft Auto V is entertaining and takes a few basic twists and turns. The story keeps the player interested but when split between three characters it can be difficult to attach to the story as a whole or the player ends up liking one character more than the others.

The gameplay is refined from Grand Theft Auto IV and as a whole the game is more enjoyable for it. Shooting has been tightened up and character control is improved greatly on V. However, the movement controls are still very loose and it is hard to make precise movements with the characters.

The game takes place in a fictional city called Los Santos, which is modeled to be almost identical to Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. This open map on Grand Theft Auto V feels like a living, breathing world. The graphical level and sheer detail of the world is beyond impressive for the eight year old Xbox 360 and seven year old PlayStation 3. 

The consoles do show their age, however, with small graphical glitches and moments of lag. These glitches are bearable though, and they do not detract from the experience.

Rockstar has crafted a world that genuinely feels like it continues living after the game is turned off. Small details lend the most to the feeling of an organic changing world. Cars are towed if parked illegally, player can influence the stock market, strangers hold conversations whether or not you’re listening and trains stop if a car is on the tracks. All of this creates a detailed, intricate world.

On top of attention to detail, the world is full of things to do almost to an overwhelming point. The player can go out and play tennis or ride fair rides near the beach or play a shooting mini-game at the firing range. Not only are there fun distractions to do in the world but the side missions have a great variety and keep things fun.

With its detailed physical world, Grand Theft Auto V creates an interesting social and cultural world. The Grand Theft Auto series has always been satirical and critiqued real life with parodies and over the top representations of culture. The latest installment is no different and has humorous commercials and cartoons that mirror current culture while poking fun at it.

However Grand Theft Auto V differs from the previous games in that it does not outwardly say what it parodies is bad. The social commentary is offensive in some spots where it is not always obvious whom or what they’re critiquing. 

Grand Theft Auto V delivers on the crazy hype it built up before launch. While it has a few flaws and is not the perfect game. Grand Theft Auto V sets a standard for open-world games with its detailed world and solid gameplay.