I have finally been able to play a successful Heist in GTA Online. I've waited years for this moment, and it still feels sweet after all the delays. Clearly, Rockstar knows how to make good games. The only problem happens to be a massive one: server errors. The first heist is the only one I could actually get through yesterday without some sort of game crash. Thankfully, it's really fun.
Let's get the bad parts out of the way first. The stability of GTA Online right now is just terrible. I've been kicked offline multiple times, I've been refused the ability to log in with one account due to Rockstar cloud problems, Jobs fail to download and launch properly and inviting friends into a Heist is incredibly risky due to a higher percentage chance of getting kicked off a server. It's very frustrating when you finally get everyone in a room and the opening cut-scene of the heist starts playing and then one friend get booted. Everyone else has to sit through the entire cut-scene only to get an error message that there aren't enough players to complete the mission.
Speaking of cut-scenes, some of these are also incredibly long. Like, I get that Lester is a creepy dude, but do we really need to sit through a 3-4 minute cut-scene of him just saying creepy things? It got old pretty quickly, but you can't skip it. Thankfully, when replaying Heists you have already completed there will be the option to skip long driving sequences. This doesn't help with the cut-scenes, but it will eliminate a ton of Lester's lines.
Now on to the good stuff. The Heist itself is divided up into three parts. The first mission is the set-up mission. You and a partner drive Lester to a Fleeca bank franchise out on the highway along the coast. Once you have scoped out the area and come up with a plan, it's time to start phase two. The first part of this mission is super easy, and really just involves driving from point A to B to C, then back to A. Crank up the difficulty for this part of the mission to max out your RP and cash earnings.
The second mission involved in The Fleeca Job is probably the hardest one in the whole Heist. This mission involves you and your partner to get onto the roof of a parking garage and get away with a heavily armored car owned by a gang of Koreans. Obviously the Koreans would rather see you dead than inside the car, so a big gunfight will ensue. Make sure you are properly armed and protected before starting this mission. Try getting an SUV or bigger car to take up to the roof with you to act as a shield. Also, take your time. If one person dies, the whole mission is over.
Once the car has been stolen and returned to Lester's factory, you can start phase three. This is the actual bank heist. Both you and a partner get into the armored car and drive off to the bank. Once there, one player will have to shoot out all four security cameras and keep the witnesses under control by shooting your gun near them. Not at them, but near enough to keep everyone quiet and on the ground. The second player must take a drill and go around to the deposit boxes in the back. Find the right one and drill away until you pop it open. Once the contents of the deposit box is yours, run back into your armored car and take off down the highway.
The cops will be hot on your tail as well as setting up roadblocks ahead of you. Keep on pushing through all the defenses until our old pal Eddie Toh shows up with a massive helicopter. This helicopter has a huge magnet hanging from it, so get close and he will pull you up to safety. Done!
Like I said, when Heists work, they are so incredibly fun. This was just the intro mission, and I can't wait to see what else Rockstar has in store for the other bigger heists. The problem is if I can actually play these missions or not. Seriously, after a full day of trying and trying to tackle these, we only successfully pulled off the first one. Not because we kept failing the mission, but because the servers kept failing us. Hopefully things will stabilize over the next day or two. Make sure to check back for reviews of the other four heists as well, which will be coming as soon as I can play them.
So what do you think? Did you like the Fleeca Job as much as I did? Are you also experiencing a ton of issues with GTA Online? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
