Skill Systems In The GTA Franchise

Grand Theft Auto. When you think of this video game franchise, you think of guns, crime, action, and most notably…cars.

What you don’t think of, is an RPG. Yet somehow various RPG (role-playing game) systems, particularly a skill system, have weeded their way into multiple games in the franchise.

San Andreas is by far the most unique game in the 3D era of the franchise (which includes III, Vice City, Vice City Stories, Liberty City Stories, and if you want to get technical, Advance is included, timeline-wise), not just because you get to visit three different cities—Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas—but because it was the first, and one of the only two games (three, if you count Online as a separate game) to include a skill system.

Rockstar went all out with this system—not only was it a skill system, it even included certain statistics you needed to keep at a certain level or else CJ (Carl Johnson, the main protagonist) would die: CJ must keep a certain amount of muscle and fat in order to stay alive. Without fat, he will lose muscle, and without muscle, he will lose health until he dies, making San Andreas the only GTA game where your character can die of starvation.

Progression of your flying skill is literally required for story completion, as the mission “Learning to Fly” requires CJ to…well, learn how to fly, and as a result must attend Flight School. Yes, the thing that is completely optional in GTA V is actually required to beat San Andreas’ story. The sheer sense of relief I felt when I finally finished that final flight lesson was astounding. Never in my life did I ever feel such a sense of accomplishment…for learning.

It didn’t stop there, though. You can improve your stamina to run longer, muscle to increase melee damage (they even put gyms in the game you can exercise at to do this), you can even upgrade your skill with individual weapons. They aren’t covered under a singular “Shooting” skill, like in GTA V—you upgrade the pistol separate from the suppressed pistol, the AK-47 separate from the M4, and so on and so forth. Were it not for Online’s existence, I would argue that the skill system makes San Andreas one of the grindiest games in the entire franchise. This isn’t even acknowledging what must be done for 100% completion.

San Andreas was released in 2004. Clearly, Rockstar was aware that players weren’t very big fans of the skill system, or at least how it was implemented. Hence its absence in 2005’s Liberty City Stories and 2006’s Vice City Stories. The former I recall its lack of a skill system being touted as a selling point somewhere, though it may not have been an official Rockstar source, whereas the latter had a different kind of grinding altogether with its empire building system. The closest thing to any RPG system GTA IV had was its friendship/dating system, which is found in other RPG games like Fire Emblem and Persona, serving as a sort of expansion upon San Andreas’ dating system.

However, when Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013, it seems Rockstar was ready to bring back the skill system, albeit massively simplified. Alongside the introduction of special abilities, there were now only seven attributes players could level up for each of the three characters: stamina, shooting, strength, stealth, flying, driving, and lung capacity. Most of these are straightforward: stamina improves your ability to run, flying improves your ability to fly, etc. Strength will increase melee damage and reduce damage taken and stealth will improve your abilities in stealth mode (the game’s equivalent of crouching).

I figure that, since now you had to handle skills across not just one but, three (four, counting Online) characters, there was no way the skill system could be as complex as it was back in San Andreas. They knew their fans didn’t have that kind of time. Imagine having to level up each individual weapon, once for every character. That would be hell. At least in the newer Call of Duty games, you max out your weapons once, and then the level grind is over…

I still find it curious that Rockstar felt the need to bring the skill system back, though. After IV’s success without it, were there really fans who wanted it back? Did Rockstar want to pay homage to the first game set in San Andreas by taking another stab at one of its game mechanics? Did they realize it was an effective way to keep people playing the game? Something else to grind? This seems a little unlikely, since maxing out skills isn’t required for 100% completion, but it’s still worth considering.

I will say that V and Online don’t make maximizing Strength particularly easy. The only two ways to increase it are punching people or participating in sports. There’s an array of consequences with the former (something something Wanted level), and I’m pretty sure practically no one wants to do the former. At least in San Andreas you had gyms where you could lift weights to level it up.

San Andreas was very ambitious with all of the new systems it introduced. Relationships, turf wars, a skill system, you could even gamble. It’s no wonder so many people consider it the best game in the franchise to this day. Personally, I feel like its skill system was a little too ambitious. I spent a good portion of the beginning of my playthrough having CJ lift weights and use the exercise bike. It may not have been necessary, but it sure as hell made the game easier. At the same time, its reintroduction in V/Online felt a little sloppy. I’m glad they simplified it, but for some skills, it almost felt like too much. Also, beyond maybe Flying or Lung Capacity, most of the skills never really felt like they had much impact. Perhaps in VI, Rockstar will have hopefully learned from these games, and make a skill system that, while not necessary to contribute towards during a play-through, feels beneficial enough and fun enough to work on that players may actually consider investing their time in it. Or maybe they’ll pull a IV and just remove it entirely. Again. Which to be honest, I’d be okay with.