‘GTA Online: The Doomsday Heist’ Update Could Make You Play Grand Theft Auto Again

Rockstar is releasing a new heist for GTA Online, The Doomsday Heist, the first one in three years. The update, coming on December 12, will include new futuristic vehicles and equipment, including those that the developer has added over the past years. There are bomber jets and cars that can fly and transform into a submarine.

The trailer for the new heist shows an existential threat, an AI called Clifford. There are futuristic jetpacks and tanks, flying cars and submersible cars. There are four player characters being debriefed by Lester, and this time, instead of money or fame, they are going to fight to stop the apocalypse from happening.

Based on the synopsis from Rockstar, the four player characters include a billionaire tech mogul, an idealistic intelligence agent, a socially awkward conspiracy theorist and a neurotic supercomputer. They will be forced to form an alliance in order to prevent the apocalypse at San Andreas. The player and his criminal crew will be recruited to face the unknown enemies, solve mysteries and clear threats from the streets of Los Santos to under the ocean and even inside Mount Chiliad.

This new heist is a good news, especially for seasoned GTA Online. It was also a pleasant surprise since the developer said in 2015 that after four heists, no new heists were planned in the near future. When GTA Online started in 2014, it was bound to fail. Unlike the successful single-player Grand Theft Auto V, the multiplayer mode started poorly and the game was losing players rapidly. But the game was able to get back on track and the past two months were its two biggest months in terms of monthly active users, via IGN. With The DoomsdayHeist update, many players who have stopped playing before are expected to return to the game.

GTA Online's Doomsday Heist promises absurd Saints Row-esque world-saving thrills – https://t.co/g3FhLdrBzd pic.twitter.com/4MKz4MSwHo

— Rock Paper Shotgun (@rockpapershot) December 9, 2017

“[When] the PC Gamer crew disbanded after the final heist, we thought we were done for good. Now I’m making them reinstall the game,” Samuel Roberts of PC Gamer said. “I think this is fantastic news. Seasoned GTA players have sampled the game’s existing heists over and over again at this point, and recent updates have focused more on businesses and multiplayer modes. I can’t think of a better reason to come back to GTA than another one of these.”

“It promises to be the latest piece of the puzzle that turned GTA Online from a near failure into a grand success,” IGN agrees.

Sam Prell of Games Radar said GTA Online, in general, has been too serious for his tastes, but the upcoming heist update might just convince him to log in again and join the fight to save humanity.

Grand Theft Auto Online: The Doomsday Heist is coming for PS4, Xbox One and PC versions of the game on December 12. Watch the trailer below.