Rockstar’s been teasing Grand Theft Auto 5’s multiplayer heists since it first launched on consoles back in September. With work on the PC version wrapping up ready for launch at the end of January we’re finally getting a glimpse of them in action.
Not only is there a carefully choreographed trailer but GTA Online producer and lead mission designer Imran Sarwar has spilled the beans on exactly how the heists will work.
The trailer shows off a real spread of what you’ll be doing in each robbery, from knocking over a bank to intercepting a prison transfer, or nicking a military jet from the runway of an aircraft carrier.
The heists are four-player jobs that open up to players when they reach rank 12. Another requirement is that your designated heist leader has a high-end apartment to set up a whiteboard to plan your missions on. Everyone knows no bank’s been successfully robbed without a whiteboard plan.
The leader’s got a lot of responsibility – from picking the crew and fronting the cost of the job’s prep costs before you can even begin the mission.
Rockstar’s first revealed heists shortly before GTA 5’s launch but it’s taken them till now to actually get the things running. “Creating missions of that complexity for multiple players at the same time was much more difficult than we anticipated and every time we thought we were close, something would send us back to square one,” Imran Sarwar told IGN.
The problem was that every player had to feel central to the action at all times. If you’re the getaway driver your part in the mission shouldn’t be dropping people off at the bank and then sitting in alleyway while they have all the fun.
“To make this work for multiple players,” Sarwar explained, “we needed to create situations where the driver has something interesting to do at exactly the same time the rest of their team are locking down the bank and making their way to the money.”
The heists are due to be released in early 2015 and there will be five to start with, each made of four different missions. Plus, each job has multiple roles so you’ll want to go back and play it from each perspective.
GTA 5’s PC release date is set for 27 January.