The Art of Playing Grand Theft Auto by Soraya Murray presents an in-depth analysis of the incredibly popular video game series that received wide acclaim from both critics and players throughout the world. Overlooking various aspects of GTA and putting them together into a well-written descriptive scheme, Murray comes up with a positive evaluation of the game that she also chooses to supply with elements of discreet personal reflection.
With the tremendous popularity of Grand Theft Auto series, among gamers of all ages and backgrounds, Murray is admittedly quite right to initially pay attention to its explicit focus on violence and hint of social degradation. She rightly points out that the game comes to embody a combination of “America’s ruthless capitalistic impulse with a valorized national legacy of barbarism and hegemony” (Murray 91). Therefore, it might play a negative part in cultivating the principles of morale and solidarity as well as respect to cultural norms and values.
As it turns out, reproduction of violence seems to be the only flaw of GTA, with all the other aspects of the game serving to prove its excellence, lest to say perfection or pure taste. The first thing that excites Murray is the storyline, which she considers to be simple in both GTA: San Andreas, GTA III and GTA: Vice City and which centers on the characters of socially unprivileged background. While there is really nothing new in people being involved in corruption, the game series compensate it with “palpable urban texture and articulated sense of body experience” (Murray 93). The author is thrilled with the interface between the game character’s body and the player’s manipulations of it, which makes the whole playing experience realistic and sense-perceiving. What is more, she is really impressed by the game’s soundtrack, which she believes nicely frames the overall concept of the game and reflects the peculiarities of the depicted social environment.
On the whole, Murray aims at suggesting the idea that GTA has all the puzzles fit into the jigsaw. Each aspect seems to have been well thought of and neatly implemented into the game to ensure satisfaction of being in a simulated body.
Works Cited
Murray, Soraya. “High Art/Low Life: The Art of Playing Grand Theft Auto”. Performing Arts Journal, Inc. 80 (2005): 91-98. Print.
