Running until May 21, Epic is giving away free copies of GTA5 via the Epic Game Store. As long as you add it to your account before the deadline, it’s yours to keep forever.
This includes the entire single-player campaign, a debased tale of revenge, heists gone wrong, and life on the wrong side of the law. It’s set across the backdrop of Los Santos, a sun-bleached hyper-exaggerated take on Los Angeles, where everyone has a dream no matter how nonsensical or dangerous that dream is.
You also get access to the entire GTA Online mode, an extremely varied and creative online mode, where you and a group of friends can find all sorts of mischief to get up to in a massive open world full of activities to try. It was an entertaining diversion in the original release of the game, but over the years they’ve added a wealth of extra missions and activities, where it’s now a massive toy box full of things to try.
This game has been discounted many times in the past, but it’s never been free before, so this is a great time to jump in if you’ve never played it before. I reckon it’s the best of the series to date, where the unique mechanic of switching between three different playable characters in real-time allows for some really fun moments, and each of the characters is more well rounded than similar previous protagonists. Particularly Trevor Philips, an unhinged maniacal reprobate of a man, is the first time I’ve seen a GTA character that is convincingly the same person in dialogue during cutscenes as he is when I’m running around the street in downtown throwing grenades at busses and getting into car chases.
I’d also say that a lot of the rough edges in the controls and interactions from previous games have been smoothed out, and it’s the slickest and most polished the series has ever been. Rockstar did a great job with this PC port, and it feels good to play with a keyboard and mouse, or a controller. If you’ve never properly got into the GTA games before, this is an excellent entry point, especially at the cost of free.
You’ve got until May 21 to claim this freebie, so head over to the Epic Game Store to grab it now.
