Awesome / Grand Theft Auto Online

All spoilers are unmarked per wiki policy. Read only at your own risk. You Have Been Warned.

• The finale of the final Online Heist: After robbing the Pacific Standard bank, you and your crew hop on motorcycles and lead the police on a chase across half of San Andreas. At the end of the chase you drive your bikes off a cliff, deploy parachutes, and glide to a boat that's waiting in the river below. It's a stunt straight out of a James Bond film.
• The setups are also awesome. In one of them, you steal a Hydra from an aircraft carrier and later get involved in an aerial fight with other jets. Once all jets are down, guess what happens? Danger fucking Zone plays on the radio!^note Only in the Next Gen version, though
• Getting a jet snipe in Online. For those who don't know, it's when you take down a jet without using any type of RPG, instead, using a sniper rifle.^note It's harder than it sounds. Since the Player Character shoots roughly half a second after you hit the trigger, you have to compensate for where the jet is going to be when he does shoot, which is damn near impossible Here's a good example.
• Whenever you are on your Yacht and its defenses are up, you can just sit back and watch as even Hydras and Lazers are unable to attack you.
  Yacht Captain: (paraphrased) I just want to assure you, you cannot be harmed while aboard your Yacht.
• Beating the Criminal Mastermind Challenge with your friends is a good reason to celebrate, as you need to beat every heist with the same people, in order, without anyone dying, on Hard difficulty. Luckily you're allowed to fail a mission, but if anyone dies it's back to the start, and "the start" means going right back to The Fleeca Job. Anyone who manages to beat this challenge is awarded with 10 million fucking dollars.
• Succesfully managing to sneak up onto a player and killing them is something that is satisfying to do in many online games, but when you sneak up on a player while hiding in plain sight is a whole new level.
• The Doomsday Heist. Dear God, The Doomsday Heist. The update includes a flying car straight out of Back to the Future, a submarine car out of The Spy Who Loved Me, a new underground base, a series of heists involving saving the world, a team-up between heist-givers Lester and Agent 14, and after years of absence, the fucking jetpack!
  • If that wasn't enough, the final mission of said heist blows the trailer out of the water: After the Online Protagonists accidentally help Avon and Cliffford in their plans to destroy humanity, Lester, Agent 14 and Mrs. Rackman arrange an attack on an abandoned nuclear silo Avon and Cliffford took over with either an armed jeep or a tank.^note The vehicle you don't choose Lester will sell to get everyone extra money. After mowing down a tunnel full of Mooks and Juggernauts, you have to plow the rest down on foot due to a spike strip, while blowing up any backup copies of Cliffford in case Avon tries this again. When you reach the refurbished main command centre, Cliffford initially blocks you, until Lester trolls him into opening the door for you. After getting in, you have to defend one Protagonist while they try to hack into the countdown sequence while killing more mooks. After that, each Protagonist takes control of an orbital cannon to blow up all the mobile data farms to kill Cliffford. Now you have to confront Avon, since he also has the last backup of Cliffford on him...but he takes off in a jetpack, causing the Protagonists to take an armed jetpack each and shoot down Avon and blow up a few helicopters trying to kill you. Keep in mind that these are crooks who were friends with an unsuccessful gangster they met on Lifeinvader who they decided to visit in an unfamiliar territory, who eventually grew from holding up shops and banks to eventually managing to save the world.
  • Heck, even a setup mission deserves a mention: During Act I: Data Breaches, one setup requires you to steal four "Deluxo" brand cars. If you don't know, they're based on a DeLorean DMC-12. After a quick respray and plate change, they're sent to the facility for Avon's team to modify them. The next mission has you take the Deluxo's for a spin, now with onboard weaponry and "extra features". You're sent to hack three sets of targets with them. The first targets are fairly straightforward, as you're stealing data from four armoured trucks, then blowing them up with the missile system. The second targets, however, are at sea. Because of this, Avon shows you the first extra feature, which turns the Deluxo into a floating hovercraft so you can hack the boats harbouring data and then destroy them when you're done.]]The final target really takes the cake, as it's a plane at LSIA about to take off. Avon now introduces you to the final feature, flying Deluxo's. With at least one member of your team leeching the data from the plane, the remaining members have to shoot down a bunch of helicopters out for your ass, then finishing off with spamming missiles at the plane to shoot it down. Repeat, this is a setup mission.
• THE ORBITAL WEAPONS SYSTEM. Once installed in your facility the Cannon will be usable to kill ANYONE, ANY TIME (with a few exceptions) every 48 minutes, complete with an entirely unique WASTED screen for your victim reading the words OBLITERATED. The catch is how soul-crushingly expensive it is (900k to install, costs as much as a Turismo R to fire, and costs more than a Cheetah to fire with auto-targeting) and how everyone in-session is alerted somebody used their orbital cannon. However, nobody except your victim learns the user's identity.
• The Diamond Casino Heist. In its entirety. You got a heavily expanded version of the Heist planning seen in single-player, crew members making minor appearances to source equipment and the like, and a massive, sprawling casino with which you will tear apart for your gain, either guns blazing or Ocean's Eleven style, all planned out of a arcade with a small cameo appearance from Jimmy of all people. Oh, and Lester gets laid with Georgina Cheng at the end.
• The Cayo Perico Heist. If you think the Doomsday Heist and the Diamond Casino Heist were the best Grand Theft Auto Online has to offer, then think again. This update introduces a whole new batch of vehicles, some new weapons and radio stations, and a heist that takes players beyond the familiar cityscape of San Andreas and into the tropical Caribbean island of Cayo Perico.
  • Remember back in the Doomsday Heist where you have to infiltrate a nuclear submarine? In the Cayo Perico Heist, you can now purchase and operate your very own nuclear submarine, the Kosatka, to be used in infiltrating the island undetected. And if you got a lot of money, you also have the option to fit your submarine with guided missiles and sonar equipment, as well as a small helicopter and a couple of underwater vehicles (one of which happens to be a submersible car that is similar to the Stromberg). And unlike the Galaxy Super Yacht, you can actually drive the submarine as well!
  • And to top it all off, the heist can actually be done by just one player, from start to finish. You read that right. Just. One. Player. This means you can perform reconnaissance and gather intel on the island, make the preparations and setups for the heist, and even perform the actual heist all on your own. Essentially, you can become a One-Man Army against a powerful drug lord and his private island full of guards and defenses, and still manage to steal millions of dollars worth of drugs and valuables while you're at it!
• The Los Santos Tuners contract missions has you doing alot of high speed chases and elaborate missions, but the most notable ones are the 'The Union Depository Contract and Data Contract''.
  • In the Data Contract, you stick it to Don Percival himself, the CEO of Merryweather. Michael in the storymode only fought off Merryweather long enough to get to Devin Weston himself. Years later, you help Avi Schwartzman steal valuable files of Don to get under his skin and for good profit too. The final mission has you defending Avi as you fight an entire swarm of Merryweather goons not unlike what the original three protagonists in the story mode had to deal with in "Option C".
  • In the Union Depository Contract, you rob the very bank that Michael, Franklin and Trevor did. Sure, you don't get to take as much as they did but understand that it's not exactly an easy feat to do. Arguably one of the hardest contract missions given the hordes of law enforcement and NOOSE that surround you, you take your place amongst history alongside the original three protagonists after robbing the depository.
• During one of the main missions within “The Contract” arc, if you own BOTH a super yacht and a Diamond Casino penthouse (Two of the most expensive properties in the game with upgrades) Franklin and Imani will drop a comment, cementing your status as a One Man Army, in addition to finally acknowledging your criminal empire.
  After discussing about the Diamond Casino for the next part of the job:
  Imani: Hey, don’t you have a penthouse there?
  Franklin: Wait… man, you got a penthouse AND a super yacht? Man, who the fuck did you rob?!
  Imani: According to my research... everybody.
  Franklin: Hahaha! Now that’s why you my motherfuckin’ partner!
  • Through the entire time you work with Franklin, you are his partner. You aren’t his lackey, you aren’t working FOR him, you're working WITH him, and he makes this very clear from the get-go. Considering everyone else you’ve worked with has either treated you like a tool or have treated you like a random thug off the street it’s very refreshing to be working with someone as an obvious equal.
• Random is it seems, you have to give credit where it's due to Isiah Friedlander for being able to accumulate enough funds to operate his own drug cartel in South America as revealed in The Last Dose update