Rockstar’s megagame is easy to reduce to its teenage peevishness - we should resist the urge.
The Joey Barton phase of existential philosophy).
But we shouldn’t.
It’s magic, actually.
There are really two ways games do the sense-of-place thing.
The other is the polar opposite: maximalism and literalist detail.
But GTA5’s size is focused and deliberate, targeted detail over detail for its own sake.
It wants to draw your eye, to highlight and direct.
It’s barely there, not obvious enough to be a joke.
This is where the people at Rockstar are masters.
But beyond that they’re something human, sincere, true.
It goes the same mechanically.
That’s your lot.
No crafting, no skill trees, no looting in the modern sense.
It’s light like this because it knows to get out of its own way.
Just do what you want.
This is the magic of it and the point of it; this is what GTA really is.
All of its music and weather and yes, its tone.
All of it screams at you.you could do what you want.
