GTA V Online: i love it when a plan comes together

The first rule of GTA Online is that nothing ever goes to plan. i’m creeping up to a warehouse, and the minimap shows three friends coming in from different angles. we’re being careful because we’ve died here before. in the parking lot sits a van loaded with drugs. we know there are also countless chinese gangsters hiding around it. in two attempts, we haven’t even touched the van. get too close and everything kicks off enemies keep coming while your gang falls one by one. 

But this time will be different. what’s fantastic about GTA Online is that you need a plan. it doesn’t have to be an amazing plan, just everyone trying to do the same thing. having tried to carefully creep up only to be overwhelmed, we decide to rush it.

I’m the driver. one mate clears out the enemies around the van, with the others on crowd control for reinforcements and hopefully following afterwards. i sprint straight for the van, taking hits, while gangsters topple like ninepins around me. with 25% health i manage to sneak in, duck and spark the spluttering engine into life. with gunfire everywhere, my passenger makes it just as the van picks up speed. we crash through a fence as our buddies run to their car and are brutally cut down. they respawn too far back and are executed a second time. it’s just us two left.

What’s fantastic is that you need a plan. it doesn’t have to be an amazing plan, just everyone doing the same

Well, us two and the parade of black muscle cars in the rearview mirror. my passenger nails three before we hit the freeway. but there are four more. and then he runs out of ammo. taking fire, enemies ramming us, we’re too far from the goal to tough it out. my mate shouts, “go into the traffic!” i swerve over the next gap in the freeway and we’re heading at top speed towards oncoming cars. i can drive a bit. but this kind of risk is only a matter of time.

I juke left and right through the beeping obstacle course while we both pray. one pursuer is close enough to take out a tyre and bump us. i’m dodging at top speed with little control. the barn’s so close we can taste it.

Then god smiles. the first pursuer clips the oncoming traffic and splays across the lanes. his buddies plough into him, and a truck smashes into the pile. we start whooping like mad. the turn-off soon appears, and we’re home dry. Success never tasted sweeter.

That’s the flipside of GTA Online’s first rule. Some days i’d crash that van, and the gangsters plug us both. on others they might drive better. or our buddies survive and help out. but on that day at that time, this happened. that’s why GTA Online is amazing. it’s always brilliant, but it’s also different every time.