The Wire, which in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past ten years, is an HBO series by David Simon that focuses on the lives of the people of Baltimore.
The show’s protagonists range from key players in the drug trade, and the police who are tasked to stop them. In subsequent seasons of the show, viewers are also given insight into the lives of civilians, teachers, journalists, and politicians whose lives revolve around the same dirty business.
The show encapsulates life in the city of Baltimore, and that’s what it’s about.
Instead of having a narrative driven by a single protagonist like Carl “CJ” Johnson or Niko Bellic, imagine if Grand Theft Auto 5 walked down a different path from its predecessors and offered a narrative similar to The Wire—one driven by multiple protagonists whose lives in the city of San Andreas intersect.
To an extent, games like Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain have offered multiple points of view, giving the player control of multiple characters as he or she plays through the storyline. However, it’s never been done to the extent a game like Grand Theft Auto could possibly pull off, especially with intersecting narratives.
Rockstar is well known for its experiments in interactive narratives, and their latest game—Max Payne 3—has been no exception to what they’re willing to do to tell a powerful story.
Should the studio draw inspiration from the narrative of The Wire, Grand Theft Auto 5 could stand to become one of the best interactive stories ever told.