Grand Theft Auto 5: Small Details That Enhance The Open-World

Highlights

The immersive open world of Los Santos in GTA 5 enhances the criminal experience and remains a detailed locale.
Money management is important in Los Santos to avoid losing funds to criminals, and depositing money into the bank is crucial.
The detailed sound design in the multiplayer mode adds to the chaos of the game, with explosions and sirens creating a sense of disorder.

The Grand Theft Auto series has always been a staple point for gaming, dating back to the original released in 1997, to the incredibly anticipated and recently announced GTA 6. No doubt GTA 6 will have some amazing features once it launches, but for now, GTA 5 remains the latest in the series.

Thief in Eagle Mask with gun from Payday 2, Sly Cooper, Trevor From Grand Theft Auto 5, and overhead shot of two burglars in Crookz: The Big Heist

15 Best Games About Pulling Off Heists

Heists are popular missions in video games, and they can either go really well or poorly, and these games do heists the best.

A large part of GTA has always been the world and its interactivity, allowing for the player to experience the game’s vision of being a criminal. Without an interesting world, then this notion would fall flat and render the main theme of the game void. While there have been some exceptional open worlds in recent years, such as Elden Ring’s The Lands Between, Los Santos remains a detailed and impressive locale, with many small features enhancing the experience.

8 No Loading Screens For Shops

Seamless Transitions Into Buildings

GTA V Binco store building in Los Santos

Some of the bigger buildings, such as the player housing in the multiplayer GTA Online mode, do possess loading screens, so not every building features a seamless transition.

However, more of the smaller buildings, mostly being stores, are fully accessible to walk into without a loading screen. Simply walk to the entrance and the character in control will push the door open, a feature that Bethesda games have been criticized for not including.

7 Money Management

Deposit Money Into The Bank To Avoid It Being Stolen

GTA V Pacific Standard Bank view of main door on corner

Since Los Santos is a location infested with criminals, losing money can happen in various ways. As cash is king, it is needed for every worthwhile investment but can be lost when the player dies.

Especially in the GTAOnline mode, other players can call upon muggers, stealing a desired amount of up to $10,000.

The only way to avoid this is to deposit those funds into the bank. The constant wariness of losing hard-earned wealth creates the atmosphere of Los Santos truly being an unruly and criminal world.

6 Distant Sounds

Immersive Sound Design Helps With Ensuing Chaos

GTA V police occurring with the player driving off ramp

While there are the occasional moments where this can happen in the single-player, it is more of a prevalent detail in the multiplayer mode, where other players will be causing chaos often.

5 Open-World Games That Let You Experience Multiple Perspectives

These open-world games let players switch perspectives to get a fresh look at the world and narrative.

Notoriously, loading in the downtown area will commonly feature explosions, sirens, and other noises of disorder, creating a sense of chaos. There’s nothing like waiting in the city, only to hear police sirens in the distance before another player wizzes down the street with four stars and a whole station's worth of cop cars chasing them.

5 The Roads

Intricate Roads Make Realistic Traffic

GTA V Road in Los Santos with some cars at a red stop light

An impressive feat of GTA 5 is how memorable the streets are. With enough time spent, the roads become easily recognizable to the point where waypoints can be secondary to knowledge, and while Los Santos is modeled after Los Angeles, it doesn’t take away this notion.

More important is how wide the roads are, with enough room for the player to drive through even when there are two cars on either side. For example, Cyberpunk 2077’s Night City’s roads aren’t wide enough for cars to fit through the middle when traffic occurs and, as a result, motorcycles are more favorable to ride, despite the numerous amounts of cars available.

4 Vehicles In The World

Vehicles Populate Waters, Deserts, & Cities

Since GTA 5 has a contemporary setting, there is an abundance of cars on the roads. While it is annoying at times for cars to turn and crash into the player, NPCs will accurately drive their cars depending on the lane they are in. Cars in the right lane will turn right when pulling out at a junction. Similarly, NPCs will also stop at traffic lights when red and will go when green, showcasing the well-structured AI.

Vehicles can be spotted in various environments. Most notably, boats can be seen sailing around the island’s waters, instead of there being no vessels populating the sea. Another example can be seen with the blimp, which flies in the airspace of Los Santos, making the world feel more believable with airborne activity.

3 Animals

Different Animals Populate Different Areas

GTA 5 deer looking at camera on grassy hill

There were a number of animals available in the original Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of GTA 5, such as Chop the dog and dangerous sharks in the waters, but the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC editions introduced numerous creatures. These new animals could be seen in the open-world, but more famously, could be played as via the use of Peyote Plants.

Animals in the environment in the new version of the game further breathe life into the world, pushing how believable San Andreas could be, and proving how important some of the smaller details are.

2 The Size Of San Andreas

A Large City & County In One Package

GTA V Los Santos city sunset with palm tree in foreground

An important feature of open-worlds is to make the map expansive. A lot of the time, the city portions of open-worlds will have to be downsized to allow for the other parts of the map to exist. However, Los Santos is giant and is something akin to a biome.

Open-World Driving Freely Games- GTA5 Far Cry 5 Forza Horizon 5

8 Best Open-World Games That Let You Freely Drive Around, Ranked

These open-world games allow players to drive freely across the sprawling maps featured.

The size of the map can be seen by how long it takes to travel from one end to the other. Even with cars and planes, it will take a good amount of time. A map this large not only allows for more detail but also enhances how realistic the world feels.

1 The NPCs

NPCs Have Set Routines & Lives

NPCs are the most important feature of an open-world to help it feel alive. NPCs display numerous amounts of actions, such as some becoming hostile towards a player for certain actions, walking faster if a player is seemingly stalking them, interacting with their phone, running away from gunfire, and the list goes on.

NPCs are the lifeblood of a good open-world, and recently, some games have shown how crucial it is to portray them correctly. Even some of the smaller details of GTA NPCs will enhance the open-world, but when done incorrectly, can completely ruin the setting.

Grand Theft Auto 5

Platform(s): PS5 , PS4 , PS3 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S , Xbox One , Xbox 360 , PC
Released: September 17, 2013
Developer(s): Rockstar North
Genre(s): Open-World , Action