GTA Online Heists Preview: IGN goes hands-on ahead of launch next week

While Grand Theft Auto V was a critical success, there’s been one key feature missing since its initial launch a year and a half ago: Online Heists. Now, 18 months on and after numerous delays, Heists are finally coming to GTA Online next week! As proof, IGN recently played the new mode for themselves and have documented what they experienced.

First of all, what do we already know about Heists? One of the reasons why the mode has continuously been delayed is so that Rockstar could perfect the mode. In particular, the studio wanted to take the best of the Heists missions in the single player mode and make them work in an online multiplayer world where every player always has something to do. Heists will support up to four players, one of which is a designated leader, and for each Heist, the team has to complete multiple missions as they lead up to the ‘big one’ within that particular Heist. The ultimate goal, of course, is to come away with a huge payout. Now onto IGN’s hands-on impressions…

Here’s a summary of what IGN have posted:

• The leader pays for all of the costs of the Heist and doesn’t get paid until the Heist is completed. Everyone else, however, gets paid after each mission that prepares the Heist. To be a leader, players need to be Rank 12 in GTA Online and own a high-end apartment. Players who meet these requirements will receive a call from Lester with information.
• There are five Heists available and each one has a number of preparation missions which take around 20-30 minutes to complete. Depending on a team’s skill level and approach, it takes around 2-3 hours to complete a single Heist.
• IGN played one Heist which was called ‘Humane Labs’. Triggered by meeting at the leader’s apartment, an AI character relayed information and then the first few preparation missions were displayed on the planning board. There were four jobs available followed by the main Heist.
  • Prep Mission #1 -The team meets a contact to receive key codes. Two players can choose to be lookouts, one can be a ‘buyer’ for the codes, and the other can provide bodyguard support. It turns out that the meeting is a sting and after killing FIB agents, the job is completed. One player (the buyer) earned $20,520 for their cut.
  • Prep Mission #2 – The players steal two heavily armoured vehicles (two players to each one), one of which had a gun turret. Upon stealing the vehicles from Merryweather forces, they had to escape from oncoming enemies.
  • Prep Mission #3 – The players drive to a dinghy boat and use it to reach an aircraft. When they do so, they each stole a VTOL-capable Hydra jet and return it to a hangar in Blaine County.
  • Prep Mission #4 – The team delivers an EMP device to Humane Labs. With comparisons to Splinter Cell touted, they adopt a stealth approach by dressing all in black and using Night Vision Goggles and suppressed weapons to infiltrate the base undetected and within a time limit. One player completes a time-based hacking mini-game to access the garage door security panel and they escaped the area undetected by being disguised in a Humane Labs van.
  • Main Heist – The players travel to Humane Labs within a Valkyrie helicopter. By splitting into groups of two, the ground team parachutes into the facility while the air team fends off reinforcement helicopters. Navigating through darkness and using the Night Vision Goggles, the players grab data from a server room and then escape by swimming through underwater tunnels for around five minutes. Arriving at a beach, they rendezvous with the air team. Upon escaping in the helicopter and taking out incoming reinforcement helicopters, the team safely lands, complete the Heist, and receive their cut.
• The Hydra VTOL military fighter jet can be unlocked for use in free-roam mode.
• Strong teamwork will be required and it’s recommended that players play with their crew and ensure everyone concentrates and cooperates.
• Every Heist team is allocated two lives. If a member dies, then they lose a life. If two die, then the whole team needs to re-start the mission.
• A challenge called ‘Criminal Mastermind’ can be completed by doing all of the Heists in order on Hard mode without a team member dying. The prize reward is $10,000,000.

Head over to IGN to read their detailed hands-on impressions in full. Check out a bunch of new screenshots and a short new video clip below.

GTA Online Heists arrive on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next Tuesday (10th March) as part of an update that includes numerous other additions. The PC version of Grand Theft Auto V will be released on April 14th and includes all of the downloadable updates available thus far, including next week’s Heists update.

GTA Online #HEISTS coming March 10 https://t.co/PDUqXf7By9

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) March 5, 2015