GTA Online’s menus are now slightly less awful than they used to be. Wooh!
Last month’s 1.67 update brought in a key improvement that makes getting into missions a whole lot easier. With the introduction of a ‘Career Progress’ hub, GTA 5’s hugely successful online spin-off has finally made it easier to focus on the content I really care about.
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I’ve been playing GTA Online pretty much every Thursday evening this year with three good pals who are relatively new to video games. They all bought a PS5 during various COVID-19 lockdowns, but prior to that, they hadn’t touched a controller in over a decade; the Luddites.
They’ve been asking me why GTA Online’s menus are so confusing for ages, yet I never came back with a good answer. Career Progress tweaks haven’t fixed the game’s overall tricky UI, but at least they ensure it's way simpler to get into a heist now.
Career Progress menu tweaks ensure it's now simpler to get into one of GTA Online's heist"
The showpiece heists in the single-player GTA 5 campaign are masterpieces. I think the 'Jewel Store Job' might be my favorite GTA mission of all time. Actually, scratch that: my true fave is GTA 4’s Heat-aping 'Three Leaf Clover', but Michael’s clever caper runs it a close second.
The trouble is, I’ve never got into heists in GTA Online because a) I didn’t want to play with randos and b) Rockstar doesn’t do a great job of explaining how you can actually initialize one.
With the rolling out of the Career Progress update, the parameters are finally much clearer. The game tells you that you need to be at least rank 12 before you can take on low-level heists (like the Fleeca Job), while also informing you to buy a high-end apartment with space for a planning room. This key info is now easy to find thanks to GTA Online’s new hub, at long last demystifying a problem that previously took a quick Google to remedy.
Heist to see you
By clearly listing what the player needs to achieve in order to qualify for heist play, Rockstar has made the experience of getting to GTA Online’s best content far less daunting. Since its introduction, our four player posse have already ticked off The Human Labs Raid.
Yes, I know this mission has been around for years. Yet it still feels like a big deal that this is one of the first ever heists I’ve completed with real-life chums. The Career Progress hub makes it easy to track your progress while taking on heists and contract missions, even rewarding you with new clothes and car liveries for ticking off certain tasks.
If it wasn’t for this canny menu update, me and my friends wouldn’t be taking down complex bank jobs, oh no. We’d still be obsessing over GTA Online’s surprisingly awesome golf mini-game.
If nothing else, the Career Progress update has finally given us an excuse to tear ourselves away from those addictive Los Santos tees.
