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The original provides no such reassurance. You're at a physical distance, but the world itself is played incredibly straight. Cops chatter over the radio in plausible, business-like code. Rather than grotesque caricatures, pedestrians are mute passers-by, going about their daily lives. The radio counts down the Top 40. You can occupy temporarily this character's mind, and understand his behavior, but there's no vindication—unlike so many other games, including recent entries in the GTA franchise, Grand Theft Auto isn't consistently patting the player on the back, telling them to keep going. Insofar as it eases players into an alternative frame of mind, efficiently and through embracing its technical limits, it's a better standard of writing than I'd normally expect. Inasmuch as the character is still morally ambiguous and very difficult to truly root for, he's more interesting than a lot of his contemporaries.Follow Ed Smith on Twitter.Read on Motherboard: Watch the Undersea Wildlife Documentary Made in 'Grand Theft Auto V'