Rockstar’s upcoming open-world thriller Grand Theft Auto 5 is, without a doubt, one of the biggest titles slated to arrive this year. And with more and more details related to the game being revealed almost every day, it seems like this year’s GTA will be the the series has to offer. Now there’s some added information related to in-game characters and the research involved.
Rockstar President Dan Houser, who was recently in an interview with The Guardian, revealed that the character research for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto title involved over 100 days of interviews with FBI agents and former mafia members. Houser also added that some of the stuff he and the team learned about, involving these characters, were “eye-openingly depressing.”
"The single longest process is always creating the world," Houser stated, while also revealing that the new Los Santos map will be bigger than those found on GTA 4, GTA: San Andreas and Red Dead Redemption combined.
"We spent a minimum of 100 days in Los Angeles on research trips, probably more. Out and about, all night long with weird people, strange cops showing us around, a lot of first-hand research. We spoke to FBI agents that have been undercover, experts in the Mafia, street gangsters who know the slang – we even went to see a proper prison. These poor buggers in the middle of the salt flat desert, miles away. It was eye-openingly depressing."
On the topic of the introduction of three new protagonists for the game, and the ambitious plot that will be served from the point of views of all these protagonists, Houser stated: “Having three protagonists allows us to create nuanced stories, not a set of archetypes. Rather than seeming like you've got this super-criminal who can do everything effortlessly, they're all good and bad at different things."
Additionally, on the topic of the character of Michael, the troubled father, Houser added, "We liked the idea of a protagonist retiring with a family, and how awful that would be. We've never done anything like that and you don't really see it in games - to feed into these concepts of parenting and pseudo-parenting."
Grand Theft Auto 5 is currently scheduled for releases on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on Sept. 17.
