14 DAY TRIAL // Rockstar Games emphasizes just how many iterations were needed to ensure that Grand Theft Auto 5's online heists will delight fans when they eventually appear in the game's multiplayer mode, as the studio had to rethink a lot of design strategies so that all four players could have major roles in the missions.
Grand Theft Auto 5 launched last year for PS3 and Xbox 360 and last month for PS4 and Xbox One. While the game is also set to appear for the PC next month, Rockstar is busy putting the finishing touches on the long awaited online heists, which are set to finally appear early next year, after being promised ever since the initial debut of the game.
After explaining the delay and just how the new missions are going to work inside the GTA Online multiplayer mode, Rockstar's Lead Mission Designer, Imran Sarwar, has talked to IGN about the different stages that the heists went through until the team found the winning recipe.
Online heists are very different than the story ones
While the GTA 5 single-player story mode features some pretty impressive heists, Sarwar emphasizes that the online activities are quite different, as they have to involve all four players in different roles in order to ensure that they're entertained.
"It took several passes from scratch before we settled on the design we have now. Prep and set-up missions in Story Mode could be relatively low-key affairs, but with four players and an emphasis on replayability we felt like we needed to make these as diverse and as fun as possible. Another thing that’s changed since the beginning was how we integrated each player into the mission objectives," he explains.
All players need to feel integral to the mission
According to Sarwar, the initial heists proved fun for one or two players but the other two participants didn't exactly feel all that involved in the actual experience. As such, Rockstar spent a lot of time prototyping and experiencing new things in order to find the best plan of action.
"The more we developed and really pushed the concept, the more we worked to make each of the four players feel integral to the mission. It meant rethinking absolutely everything – and rebuilding it from the ground up on several occasions – but it also massively improved each mission’s replayability as you have the chance to go back and switch roles to experience completely different sides of the same mission," he adds.
The developer also confirms that there will be options to skip long trips for those who have already played the mission, while Rockstar has gone to great lengths to ensure that there are balanced checkpoints and a range of difficulty levels to ensure that players have incentives to keep planning heists.
As of yet, however, it's still unclear when the actual online missions will appear in GTA 5.
