A Grand Theft Auto player has compared how police react to being aimed at in GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, and GTA V. In a viral TikTok video, creator @cjjbr dived into each GTA and set about accosting law enforcement officers – and the results caught the attention of fans.
The one-minute video begins with 2001’s GTA III and protagonist Claude. With the caption “Let’s see how the police react” on-screen, cjjbr is wielding a shotgun and takes aim. An expressionless and angular Liberty City cop waddles past completely unfazed.
Next up, it’s the turn of 2002’s Vice City and main character Tommy Vercetti. Using first-person view and with palm trees visible in the background, cjjbr points his weapon at a cop who once again fails to respond. A crowd of NPCs has seemingly gathered around Tommy and the officer walks towards them, but nothing happens.
Playing as fat CJ, cjjbr followed up by jumping into GTA: San Andreas to test its police reactions. In this game, it appears Rockstar had improved police AI. As CJ raises two machine pistols towards a police officer, the cop immediately reacts by firing his weapon.
While controlling Niko in GTA IV, cjjbr points a rocket launcher at a cop. This time, the cop raises his weapon and takes cover. When no shots are fired, he arrests Niko. The new ability to arrest the player is further demonstrated in a second GTA IV clip where two officers aim at Niko and he quickly surrenders.
Where things get really interesting is in 2013’s GTA V. That’s because police seem to react differently depending on which character you play as. When aiming a rocket launcher at police as Trevor, the player is promptly forced to surrender and arrested.
In the video’s final clip, cjjbr approaches officers as Franklin while holding a mini-gun. In an act of apparent racial bias, officers instantly fire at Franklin and kill him. Viewers on TikTok were quick to spot this, with the video’s most-liked comment saying “notice how in GTA 5 they only arrested trevor but franklin got shot instead”.
The TikTok video has been a huge hit for cjjbr, achieving 4.1 million views and 73.8K likes at the time of writing. While it’s worth pointing out that cops in GTA III and Vice City do, in fact, react if you aim at them using lock-on, the video clearly demonstrates how Rockstar improved police behaviour over the years.
Above all, cjjbr’s test makes us super intrigued to see how Rockstar further enhances police AI in the long-awaited GTA VI. The game is still more than a year away from release, but it looks set to be one of the most technologically advanced video games of all time.
What did you think to the police reactions in older GTA games compared to GTA V? Let us know in the comment section below and don’t forget to check out our other gaming articles…
