Originally Posted by
number8
I've said before that I don't plan on playing GTAV and that's probably still true, but I do like to keep up with the series to see the advancements.
I read the lengthy feature on this month's Game Informer and the three-protagonists system is quite impressive-sounding. So you control three very different guys from three very different areas (Michael the rich ex-robber pro in Beverly Hills, Trevor the violent psycho junkie from Salton Sea trailer park, Franklin the young hustler from South Central) who occasionally work together on heists, and the way you play the game really depend on who you play as.
The demo that the article details is a job where they have to break out a contact being interrogated by feds in a government building. You start as Michael, rappelling down the side of the building Rainbow Six-style, smash in through the window, then grab the contact. At this point a prompt shows up to let you know that you can stay as Michael and have a close-quarter shoot-out with the feds, or switch to Franklin who's on the neighboring building with a sniper rifle and pick off feds. Whoever you choose, AI takes over the other. Then Trevor shows up piloting a helicopter, Michael and the contact hop in, and an aerial chopper chase is on. You can switch between piloting the chopper as Trevor, shooting an assault rifle at the pursuing choppers out the side as Michael, or snipe chopper pilots from the ground as Franklin. And you have complete freedom to jump around between the three.
During off-mission, there's even more freedom, as you can switch between the three whenever you want, and apparently your roaming activities will differ depending on who you play as. For example, there's a full golf course mini game in it at a country club that only Michael can get in. Or how only as Trevor you can go around causing wanton damage like pouring gasoline on a random car and setting it on fire, or flipping random pedestrians off. Rockstar said they did this to address the inconsistencies between the written personality and the player's desires (like how in GTAIV, Niko is reluctant about being a criminal in the cutscenes, but then you take over and run over grandmas for fun). By having 3 characters with wildly different personalities, they hope to minimize those inconsistencies without sacrificing the player's options. You just gotta switch to Trevor if you feel like blowing off steam.