Why GTA 5's lead character could be an FBI agent, and why that's brilliant

Say hello to Calvin North, whoever he is

It's always nice when you're obliged to retract a negative initial impression. When first I laid eyes on Grand Theft Auto 5's announcement trailer, for instance, I took the unnamed narrator for another of the franchise's dry-witted gangster heroes, destined to inflict acts of Scorcese-esque violence upon a world of street bums, cultists, corrupt cops and big-talking moneymen.

Click to view larger image
This was faintly depressing - a step back from the brilliantly unexpected Niko Bellic and his outsider politics - and the choice of San Andreas as backdrop seemed a little bankrupt by association. There's an unheard-of level of scene-setting in the (probably in-engine) footage, but classic GTA tropes are in full evidence: car chases, glittering vistas, lots of incidental actions on the part of pedestrians and, needless to say, men with guns. Would this be the GTA that stumbled, I thought to myself, the one that contented itself with reliving old victories? Or was I jumping to conclusions?

Turns out I was, indeed, jumping to conclusions. Or at least that's what it looks and sounds like, in the cool blue air of August 2012. The man from the trailer makes cautious reference to a former "line of work" midway through, discussing his reasons for moving to the coast. Last year, I'd assumed this to be some kind of criminal backstory - perhaps even an allusion to a prior GTA, a hint that a previous leading character will return. But as the months pile up, this seems increasingly like proof of a rumour regarding the involvement of the FBI - or as GTA IV cheekily terms America's best-known crime-fighting outfit, the FIB.

Skip to around 45 seconds in. Watch the sequence where three men - one the smart, graying white guy subtly framed as the speaking voice elsewhere - leap from a truck in identical pest control disguises brandishing suppressed automatic weapons, and kick their way into a glass lobby. Seems rather too scientific and coordinated for a mafia operation, doesn't it?

Click to view larger image
The FIB have featured in every GTA game from the third outing onwards - they're the elite enforcers, coaxed into view when you push the wanted gauge past three stars. But they've seldom had much impact on series storylines, making the choice of FIB agents as core characters both natural and provocative. With GTA 5, Rockstar may be about to make its grandest break from precedent yet. No longer are you some loud-shirted renegade, pitted against murky and unfeeling authorities. Now, you're one of the men on the inside, with years of sinister dealings under your belt.

It's possible to put names to what we glimpse of those faces. Three "FBI" agents number among the characters listed on a Telsey & Company casting call from early 2011, allegedly conducted on Rockstar's behalf. There's the "annoying, wise cracking, highly successful" Mitch Hayes, a sound bet for comic relief, the somewhat faceless Miguel Gonzalez, "a young Mexican American", and last but not least Calvin North, a "clapped out FBI agent who now mostly works offering advice on TV shows".

1 2 Next page

Edwin Evans-Thirlwell

Comments

10 comments so far...

  1. Clanger67 on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    Hmmm some interesting thoughts.If it does turn out you are an FBI agent then you wouldn't go undercover,would you?.The FBI are usually brought in over the heads of the local Police,Sheriffs dept.It would also probably mean Americas most wanted type crims. so maybe a notorious gang or something.It would certainly be a big diversion for the GTA series given that most of the previous player characters are a bit dodgy.

  2. msbhvn on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    Aren't they called FIB in the GTA games?

    EDIT: Never mind, it's in the article. :oops:

  3. Clanger67 on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    Aren't they called FIB in the GTA games?

    EDIT: Never mind, it's in the article. :oops:


    Yeah but for the sake of the heading and realism,lol.It also says in the article.

    Edit: :lol: Sorry. :oops:

  4. msbhvn on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    :lol:

  5. OXM ETboy on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    I think this might be the politest exchange I've ever seen on the internet.

  6. msbhvn on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    You don't get post counts like ours without having a blonde moment at least once a day. :lol:

  7. FishyGinger on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    Hmmm some interesting thoughts.If it does turn out you are an FBI agent then you wouldn't go undercover,would you?.The FBI are usually brought in over the heads of the local Police,Sheriffs dept.It would also probably mean Americas most wanted type crims. so maybe a notorious gang or something.It would certainly be a big diversion for the GTA series given that most of the previous player characters are a bit dodgy.

    And the twist at the end of the game is that your undercover agent is Max Payne. It could happen. Maybe...

    Mmmm, maybe there was something else in that 'cake' I ate earlier...

  8. Clanger67 on 10 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    Hmmm some interesting thoughts.If it does turn out you are an FBI agent then you wouldn't go undercover,would you?.The FBI are usually brought in over the heads of the local Police,Sheriffs dept.It would also probably mean Americas most wanted type crims. so maybe a notorious gang or something.It would certainly be a big diversion for the GTA series given that most of the previous player characters are a bit dodgy.

    And the twist at the end of the game is that your undercover agent is Max Payne. It could happen. Maybe...

    Mmmm, maybe there was something else in that 'cake' I ate earlier...


    :lol: Yeah maybe the Multiplayer on both is linked so you never know,it might tie in with Max on the SP as well.

  9. GHOSTY05 on 12 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    In sleepings dogs your an undercover cop, so who knows!

    I hope in gta this is the case as an (almost) coppa myself it's something I have an interest in! :)

  10. Mendes on 13 Aug '12 said:
    Report this post Reply with quote

    I haven't posted in a while...darn work firewall! Determination and persistance is a wonderful thing though...

    I think playing an FIB agent sounds good but hopefully from an off-kilter Rockstar angle, i.e. Undercover cop in too deep and gone rogue, or just plain dirty and on the make but still with some moral conscience to try and do the right thing, or a once-dirty cop being blackmailed by mobsters and is on the road to... ahem... redemption.

    If anyone has seen a great Gary Oldman movie called Romeo Is Bleeding you'll know what I'm on about, the character he plays in that has everything a lead cop character in a GTA game could ever need.

    We know Rockstar can do multifaceted characters with moral ambiguities and do them well... so, as with pretty much all Rockstar games I have the utmost trust in anything they come up with.