Grand Theft Auto V (2022) Game Review

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Parents' Guide to

Grand Theft Auto V (2022) Game Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PlayStation 5 , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 3 , Windows 2022

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 802 Reviews
• Kids Say 1,464 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

By Chad Sapieha , based on child development research. How do we rate?

age 18+

Crime, violence, sex, drugs, and alcohol = not for kids.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Grand Theft Auto V is an adult action game for Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows platforms. It brims with gang violence, nudity, extremely coarse language, and drug and alcohol abuse. Playing as hardened criminals, players kill not only…

Why Age 18+? Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Players can direct characters to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. Effects of p

Language

Frequent coarse language includes very strong words, including hundreds of insta

Sex, Romance & Nudity

An optional strip club mini-game shows women naked, save skimpy panties. They pu

Violence & Scariness

In the role of criminal characters, players employ an extensive array of realist

Products & Purchases

Players can spend real-world money on in-game money, letting them buy things wit

Any Positive Content? Ease of Play

Most of the game is of average difficulty for an M-rated action game, though spe

Diverse Representations

Among three playable anti-heroes, one is a Black man. He falls into a stereotype

Positive Messages Not present

Missions glamorize and sensationalize criminal life and illegal activities inclu

Positive Role Models Not present

No playable or secondary characters serve as decent role models. All are activel

• Parents Need to Know

  Parents need to know that Grand Theft Auto V is an adult action game for Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows platforms. It brims with gang violence, nudity, extremely coarse language, and drug and alcohol abuse. Playing as hardened criminals, players kill not only fellow gangsters but also police officers and innocent civilians using both weapons and vehicles while conducting premeditated crimes, including a particularly disturbing scene involving torture. Women are frequently depicted as sexual objects, with a strip club mini-game allowing players to fondle dancers' bodies, which are nude from the waist up. Players also have the opportunity to make characters use marijuana and drink alcohol, both of which impact their perception of the world. All of the main characters are criminals who think of themselves first and others rarely at all. Online modes allow players to create their own avatar and embark on a criminal career that includes armed robberies, corruption, and murder. There's some diversity within the cast, including people of varying skin colors, backgrounds, and sexual orientation, but virtually no characters here could be considered appropriate role models. Few games are more clearly targeted to an adult audience.

• Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

  a lot

  Players can direct characters to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. Effects of pot include the character commenting on how weed doesn't faze him, even though his vision becomes brighter and objects become haloed with light. In one instance, the player's character hallucinates alien monsters. Imbibing alcohol results in a wonky camera meant to simulate dizziness and loss of balance. Players can drive while drunk.

  Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

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• Language

  a lot

  Frequent coarse language includes very strong words, including hundreds of instances of "f--k" and the "N" word. Other words, including "s--t," "c--t," and "c--k," appear frequently as well.

  Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

  Get started Close

• Sex, Romance & Nudity

  a lot

  An optional strip club mini-game shows women naked, save skimpy panties. They push their breasts toward the camera, and players can direct their avatars' hands to touch the strippers' bodies when bouncers aren't looking. Sex workers attempt to sell themselves on the street. Many female characters are clad in revealing clothing. Men and women are shown having sex, though they aren't naked. Some scenes imply masturbation, fellatio, even necrophilia, including pleasured moaning sounds. Men's genitals are shown, though in nonsexual context.

  Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

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• Violence & Scariness

  a lot

  In the role of criminal characters, players employ an extensive array of realistic weapons ranging from pistols and shotguns to machine guns and grenades, killing hundreds of people including gangsters, police, and innocent bystanders. Cars can be used as weapons too, both purposefully and accidentally, as players race through crowded streets slamming into anyone who gets in the way. Blood often sprays from injured and dying characters, staining clothing and environment. One scene involves the player's character graphically torturing another, using methods including waterboarding and pliers. Screams and moans of pain are frequent.

  Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

  Get started Close

• Products & Purchases

  a little

  Players can spend real-world money on in-game money, letting them buy things within the game without earning money by completing tasks and missions. This is the latest and most updated title of a game originally released in 2013, which is also the latest chapter of a long-running franchise.

• Ease of Play

  some

  Most of the game is of average difficulty for an M-rated action game, though specific missions likely will test players' skills and tenacity. Helping ease things along is a polished and intuitive interface unlikely to cause most experienced gamers any grief.

• Diverse Representations

  very little

  Among three playable anti-heroes, one is a Black man. He falls into a stereotype as an ex-gangster, though the White protagonists also have criminal backgrounds. Gender balance skews heavily male; women are largely treated as sex objects and disposable. Characters also strongly skew White, despite fictional setting of Los Santos being based on Los Angeles, where White residents are the minority. But non-White and non-Black characters of color do arrive through appearances by a Mexican cartel and a Chinese gang. Homosexual characters (and references to them) pop up now and then, though they're rarely cast in favorable light -- such as a pair of brothers having sex in a van.

  Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update .

• Positive Messages

  none

  Missions glamorize and sensationalize criminal life and illegal activities including thievery, murder, and drug use. The game's aim is to entertain players by allowing them to role-play as criminals carrying out acts that are frequently extremely violent, including torture.

• Positive Role Models

  none

  No playable or secondary characters serve as decent role models. All are actively involved in or otherwise connected to the criminal world. Most of their decisions -- to shoot police officers, take advantage of women, kill fellow hoods, and even torture -- are driven by greed, self-interest, and a lack of respect for other people and their rights as humans.

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Grand Theft Auto V (2022)

Parent and Kid Reviews

See all

• Parents Say (802)
• Kids Say (1,464)

age 12+

Based on 802 parent reviews

Parents say that the game offers a mix of educational value and potential concerns regarding its mature content, which includes violence, strong language, and suggestive themes. Many believe it can be appropriate for older children (typically those 12 and up) if they are mature enough and properly supervised, particularly highlighting that the online mode is significantly less problematic compared to the story mode.

• educational benefits
• concerns about content
• suitable for older kids
• online mode recommended
• supervision required

Summarized with AI

See all 802 parent reviews age 13+

Based on 1,464 kid reviews

See all 1464 kid reviews

What's It About?

Originally launched in 2013, Rockstar Games' decidedly adult-oriented GRAND THEFT AUTO V has been remastered for newer consoles, including PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The story mode puts players in the shoes of a trio of criminals in Los Santos, a fictionalized version of Los Angeles. One protagonist is middle-aged and begins the game as a recently retired criminal; another is unpredictable, cruel, and dependent on drugs; and the third is a young man just beginning his life of crime. Players have the ability to switch freely among these men as they work through a dramatic criminal saga set in an open world that sees them carrying out heists, stealing cars, taking revenge on rivals, and killing anyone who gets in their way, including police officers and innocent civilians. The popular multiplayer mode GTA Online, meanwhile, allows players to create a unique avatar before setting out on a freeform criminal career with activities ranging from bank robberies and car theft to assassinations and shooting down airplanes, in addition to more traditional adversarial multiplayer modes such as deathmatch and capture the flag. The 2022 remastered edition sports enhanced graphics -- including support for HDR, ray tracing, 4K resolution, and 60 frames-per-second refresh speeds -- as well as a Career Builder mode for GTA Online that lets first-time players begin with millions of dollars to help them buy properties and gear so that they can catch up to longtime GTA players who have the ability to transfer over their characters from older platforms.

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Is It Any Good?

Our review: Parents say (802 ): Kids say (1,464 ):

This isn't a game for kids. Beyond its glamorized depiction of crime, greed, and violence, Grand Theft Auto V is filled with mature satire both obvious and nuanced -- some of which hasn't aged very well -- that younger audiences are bound to take at face value. That said, it's also an expertly designed game that remains surprisingly playable and engaging. It gives players a vibrant and authentic world bursting with activities and things to discover, tight controls that seamlessly transition between various actions, and a cleverly designed story that puts the player in the shoes of three separate characters, pushing each narrative forward at its own pace. Newly added features in remastered versions of the game -- ranging from vastly improved loading times and enhanced audio to subtle new haptic feedback and contextual trigger sensitivity when using the PlayStation 5 controller -- have helped this game remain relevant and widely played much longer than most.

GTA Online is bound to be where most folks spend the bulk of their time, though. Newer editions allow players to skip the opening part of the story mode altogether -- which was required in earlier editions in order to teach people how to play -- and jump straight into Rockstar's multiplayer universe, where almost nothing's scripted and pretty much anything goes. What's more, the new Career Builder gives players $4 million up front and lets them set themselves up as a gun runner, the operator of a shady nightclub, a corrupt CEO, or a bike gang leader. GTA Online provides endless opportunity for players to indulge dark criminal fantasies while testing their mettle against other players. Just keep in mind, though, that just about everything here -- online and off -- is geared for adult audiences. And even then it won't be to all tastes. Grand Theft Auto V is well made and entertaining, but unequivocally inappropriate for kids.

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Talk to Your Kids About ...

• Families can talk about the impact of violence in media. Do you think violent games like Grand Theft Auto V have a different or more significant impact on behavior than violent movies, books, or music?

• Villains make for popular protagonists across all media but might be viewed differently in games, since players actually perform their dirty deeds rather than simply observe them. So can an anti-hero ever be a good role model?

• Does it do more harm than good to create a cast of diverse characters but then present the majority of them as common stereotypes, dimwitted, or malicious?

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Game Details

• Platforms : Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , PlayStation 5 , Xbox 360 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 3 , Windows
• Pricing structure : Paid ($59.99)
• Available online? : Available online
• Publisher : Rockstar Games
• Release date : March 15, 2022
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Transportation ( Cars & Trucks ) , Adventures
• ESRB rating : M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
• Last updated : October 1, 2025

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Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Grand Theft Auto V (2022)

Suggest an Update

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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