History GrandTheftAutoV / GeneralTropes

* CommonplaceRare: The Declasse Asea sedan. Logically it should be very common, being based off a Chevrolet Aveo/Dacia Logan but it doesn't spawn in the traffic at all -- there are only two appearances of it in single player (and only one instance of its appearance lets you take it, if you miss it or destroy it it's {{Permanently Missable|Content}}) and it can be only obtained at the start of GTA Online (and chosen in sedan races). Averted as of the Business Update in March 2014, in which several cars previously unavailable for purchase, including the Asea, can be purchased from one of the two in-game dealerships. Also averted in the eighth-generation version, where it appears in traffic fairly frequently.

* RealityEnsues:
** If not approached with care, the stock market is a very easy way to ''lose'' money.
** Jump at a wall while sprinting. Unlike in ''IV'', your character won't suddenly switch to an animation of them climbing up the wall: they'll [[FacePlant jump right into it]], fall over, and take minor damage.
** Fall into water from any significant height, and you die. In GTA IV it was possible to bail out of an aircraft sans parachute but survive so long as you landed in the water.
** A major example of this trope in contrast to previous GTA games: no longer will police magically forget about you if you enter a safehouse. They will not only follow you inside, but the ability to save is disabled if they still see you.[[note]]Saving when the police don't see you and having at most two stars still removes the wanted level.[[/note]] In previous GTA games, saving your game while in a safehouse automatically removed any wanted level regardless of whether you were seen or had a full wanted level bar.
** Pulling a gun on an NPC in a vehicle will usually result in them panicking and attempting to run you over.
** Averted in one respect: you can play golf during a raging thunderstorm. In both [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/Caddyshack most fiction]] and real life, of course, this is a bad idea.
** Also averted in that it's possible to drive cars and trucks up impossibly steep terrain and through areas where, in reality, no off-road vehicle should be able to go. (For example, it's possible to drive a semi or a muscle sports car to the top of Mount Chiliad, even without using the trails.)
** Complete a heist mission and look at the amount of money obtained; then watch that amount plummet as team members take their cut and, if applicable, hospital bills are paid. [[spoiler: A prime example is the final heist where more than $200 million is stolen, but depending on actions taken and options chosen, the main characters might only get $40 million or less each.]]
** Some radio stations[[note]]namley the [[http://gta.wikia.com/West_Coast_Talk_Radio two talk]] [[http://gta.wikia.com/Blaine_County_Talk_Radio radio stations]][[/note]] have limited range and cannot be heard across the whole map.
** Bail out of a moving vehicle and you take heavy damage, often enough to be fatal if you don't have health and armor maxed out (this even applies during a side mission where bailing out is a requirement for gold). In the pre-HD GTA games, player characters could bail out taking little to no damage.

* TheMafia: Surprisingly absent from this game-the closest you get to encountering them is Enzo Bonelli, a corrupt real estate tycoon with mob connections who serves as the target for the final assassination side mission. [[spoiler:Rocco Pelosi returns from TBoGT, but he's abandoned the mob in favor of the movie business.]]

* AMFMCharacterization: Each of the three protagonists have their own favorite radio station that will usually be playing if you enter their personal vehicle or switch to them while driving.
** Trevor's favorite station is Channel X, which plays old-school punk rock.
** Michael's favorite station is Los Santos Rock Radio, which plays classic rock.
** Franklin's favorite station is Radio Los Santos, which plays modern hip-hop.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: Los Santos is superficially brighter, but make no mistake. The game is set in a pastiche of San Andreas plagued by extreme wealth disparity, demagogic politicians who offer no real solutions, and a vapid and brainless culture that obsesses over the rich and famous to the detriment of everything else. The kicker, though, comes in the online mode, where, upon dying for the first time, you are greeted by [[spoiler:Cris Formage, leader of the Epsilon Program, a thinly-veiled parody of the [[ChurchOfHappyology Church of Scientology]]. As it turns out, he really ''does'' have magical powers, which he shares with you (the [[GameplayAndStoryIntegration in-game explanation]] for "passive mode"), and has the last laugh over everybody who called him a charlatan and a cult leader.]] That's right. In the ''GTA'' universe, [[spoiler:Scientology]] is the one true faith. Furthermore, under the facade of such nice scenery is a conglomeration of all the worst traits in [[{{Eagleland}} American culture]]: fame and celebrity obsession, materialism, hypocrisy, xenophobia, narcissism, and more, with virtually every character -- including many minorities -- exhibiting at least one of these. Naturally, the negative portrayal of the minority characters landed the game into quite a bit of controversy, some of it from PoesLaw, some of it because negative portrayals of minorities are (to some) [[OnceAcceptableTarget unacceptable in ANY circumstance,]] setting and context be damned.
** That said, Los Santos itself isn't that awful a place when taken on face value, with a number of beautiful neighbourhoods, vibrant nightlife, and close proximity to natural areas, taking the CrapsaccharineWorld trope to another level.

* AnachronismStew: Some of the licensed music added to the radio stations in the 2016 "next gen" version post-date the 2013 or earlier setting of the game (i.e. Lorde's "Team" which hadn't been released yet when the original game came out, much less when it was made).

* HollywoodCalifornia

* DesignatedHero: None of the three main characters in the story or your online character have a working moral compass, but it's okay because they're fighting to survive in a CrapsackWorld.

* HideYourChildren: GTA V continues the tradition of children being totally absent from the world, despite the existence of playgrounds. Also, like ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', juvenile and baby animals are totally absent from the world. However, [[ShowWithinAShow two of the four TV cartoons featured in the game]] have children and teens in them. There is a newsboy who shows up in very beginning of "Gordon Moorehead Rides Again," a boy in the ad for the show, and a girl and a boy in the Redwood cigarettes commercial. There are teens in "Kung Fu Rainbow Lazer Force," including the five main protagonists of the show. Michael's daughter is also implied to be underage. There is also a picture of a black boy on one of the questionaires on the Children of The Mountain in-game website that Franklin has to complete.

* TookALevelInBadass: The cops in the [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV previous game]] frequently got attacked for their [[ArtificialStupidity almost hilariously bad AI]]. This game's cops are far more aggressive, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard make far more impossibly good shots]], and are much better at hounding you. If you decide to play sniper from a rooftop, better make sure there isn't a way to climb up nearby.

** They sometimes use the Type 56-2 Assault Rifle, a real-world Chinese version of the AK-47 imported in small amount during the 1980s for training purposes. This is mostly for balancing because the in-game M4 variant is too powerful for the player to fight.

* PoliceBrutality: The cops in this game are much more relentless than in previous ones, especially to [=NPC=]s, where they would kill them outright all the time instead of arresting them. They will even attack and hunt down unarmed civilians if they do something as scratch their police car or accidentally hit them while panicking from other acts of violence.
** In "The Paleto Score", when the sheriff's department is responding to the bank robbery, one of the deputies tells his partner that plans to kill the robbers even if they surrender.

* ContinuitySnarl: The online portion of the game is set several months before the single player story but the TV shows Tracey De Santa on Fame Or Shame's finale with Lazlow saying he's being threatened to get Tracey to win, which happens in single player.

** In ''Online'', If you sell off a car you stole, any wanted level you had at the time will immediately plummet to zero. This can be exploited pretty easily if you're being pursued and happened to be in a car that was stolen, are near a garage and you have not sold any cars for the last in-game day, and were planning to pawn off the stolen car for cash anyway.

* AmazonianBeauty: The female bodybuilders seen on Vespucci Beach, both buff and dressed in revealing bikinis.
** In ''Online'', it's possible to create a female character that fits this bill; simply max out her height (and choose an outfit with heels) and she'll tower over virtually everyone else either in ''Online'' or the Director's Mode.

** The [[{{Eagleland}} Republican Space Rangers]] return, once again keeping future America safe from encroaching feel-good socialism by becoming part of the "Coffee Grinder" political movement. They also gain a limousine-liberal counterpart in "Impotent Rage", a smug SmallNameBigEgo-type superhero who angrily derides those he disagrees with for being Neanderthals and brutes, yet solves all his problems with violence. It's also implied that he actually is impotent, which is the reason for his outbursts, making his moniker a MeaningfulName.

* CelebrityParadox: Los Santos is an expy for Los Angeles, Alderney for New Jersey, and San Andreas for California. There are songs on the radio that mention California, Los Angeles Neighborhoods, and the song "Convoy" mentions the Jersey Shores.

** If not approached with care, the stock market is a very easy way to lose money.

** The same is true when you're being chased by gangs. Their clunky [=SUV=]s and lowriders have no problem keeping up and ramming your supercar.

* {{Irony}}: The description for the [[TankGoodness Rhino]] on Warstock Cache N Carry states that it's "One of the few vehicles still manufactured in America." The irony is that the Rhino is based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopard_2 a German tank]].