GTA Online Heist Hands-On Previews

The online heist we played was called “Raid on Humane Labs.” Our overall goal was to break into a laboratory, steal their data, and get out clean, splitting up $540,000 in the process. It featured five setup missions and then the heist itself, and from start to finish it took us almost exactly three hours. I’m confident we could get that down to two-and-a-half or even two flat with an experienced, well-coordinated team, but the point is that these long-awaited four-player online heists are meaty and, in our initial experience, very different from anything else in GTA 5.

The new Heists mode debuts on March 10th on all major formats (they'll be live for PC launch on April 14th, too), for the dizzying price of free. The update delivers five major Heists, playable in four-player co-op, that take around 2 or 3 hours each to complete subject to your skills and approach. Each heist is split into substantial preparation missions of 20-30 minutes each, similar to story mode heists. The update also gives you new daily objectives (a bit like Destiny), new Versus modes and a raft of new vehicles and equipment, including a VTOL Hydra jet fighter and night vision goggles.

As with other joint missions there's a shared pool of Lives and a completion timer when engaged in a job.

Cooperation is essential, tag-teaming Merryweather soldiers on foot or in vehicles while escaping with a machine gun-packing jeep, or putting down covering fire to open an escape for fellow crew members boxed in by authorities in a hand-off gone wrong.

Communication is important, even vital come one standout moment in a half day's worth of them: working as a coordinated sniper team during a nighttime infiltration of the Lab. If any guard or lab assistant is alerted, it's mission over. Cue timed simultaneous takedowns of patrols and witnesses.

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