Of heist and men

Going for broke in GTA V’s jewel store job

You can thank Niko Bellic’s Heat-inspired bank robbery for inspiring one of Michael and co’s finest moments. If it weren’t for the burgling blueprint GTA IV’s ‘Three Leaf Clover’ mission laid out in 2008, its Los Santos-set sequel may never have built its state-spanning campaign around a series of electric robberies. And the pick of Grand Theft Auto V’s headline heists, you ask? It has to be that opening jewel store job.

After an unfortunate incident involving a Mexican-American gangster and his ruined balcony, de Santa is forced to re-embrace his old life as a bank robber. Upon wrangling together a crew, Michael and Franklin then embark on a daring daytime heist, which sees the middle-aged crook and his protégé fleecing a fancy jewel store in swanky Rockford Hills.

What separates GTA V’s first full-fat heist – and the rest of the robberies that follow – from the cookie-cutter missions of lesser open world games is the setup. Rockstar does a masterful job of building anticipation for the burglary. A series of prep missions whet the criminal appetite, asking you either to steal fully automatic weapons from a NOOSE team or to disguise yourself as Bugstars pest removers, depending on whether you plump for the ‘loud’ or ‘smart’ style of heist setup.

The resulting payoff is more than worth the wait. Regardless of whether you go weapons-free or sneaky, a breakneck bike chase through the Los Santos storm drain (a dead-on recreation of LA’s famous Sixth Street viaduct, of Terminator 2 fame) caps this thrilling mission. Making away with millions in stolen rocks never felt so deviously delicious.