It’s been a year since GTA Online launched, and with the next-gen versions of the game the service has really come into its own. In terms of co-op content you’ll still find the heists are sadly missing, but there’s a lot more to offer than the game had a year ago.
Players can take part in story based missions now gotten from contacts met within GTA Online. These missions have a player range from one to eight players, with most missions being tailored towards four. At this point there’s well over 30 missions to take part in and most offer a pretty decent variety of activities.
You can definitely feel some missions require co-op to complete, for instance the car jacking missions that make it a necessity to take out the driver of the other car. WIthout someone riding shotgun and being the gunner taking out the opposing driver, it’s almost impossible to capture the opposing vehicle. Other missions are simply more fun with the extra players. In a multi-staged mission four of us jumped in a gang drug deal, stole the goods, and took them to our own dealer. Along each stage we set up our players and took advantage of chokepoints and building tops. There’s even a mission where you need to assault the army base to take out an informant.
Throughout it all you’ll bring in your character, arming yourself with the guns and goods you own from the open world. Your vehicles even come with you into the mission to use, so depending on the mission type, this can come in handy. In terms of getting into the missions themselves you’ll need to level up to at least five and then contacts become accessible via the phone. You can also join random co-op missions and use the game’s built in match making to fill spots or play the missions with your crew. There are cash and experience bonuses depending on difficulty and plenty of replayability.
All in all - this is what we hoped GTA Online would become when the game came out. Now we just need the strategy, setup and structure of the heists to enjoy with pals. The updated visuals are simply gorgeous in the campaign, with the lighting and weather effects being a highlight. The game is very photogenic and several additions clearly show it off well. GTA V on next-gen is a worthy pickup for sure and it's easy to recommend the entire package now, something we had a hard time doing on first release.
Verdict
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The Co-Op Experience: Known also as GTA: Online, Grand Theft Auto V will ship with an online mode for up to 16 players. Complete missions like heists, robberies, and other events with friends. Content will change and be updated over time.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.