Grand Theft Auto V is a pretty ridiculous game, we all know that much.
You can knife fight with sharks, drive off of buildings, and even afford to live in LA
– Sorry, we mean Los Santos.
But if there’s one thing the developers at Rockstar Games can say for themselves,
it’s that they have an insane attention to detail.
You may think that the absurd arsenal of weapons you can pick up in-game reside purely in the
realm of video game fantasy, but you’re wrong.
Every single weapon in the game has a real-life analogue – or in many cases, several - and
today, we’re gonna tell you about all of them.
It’s time for all the players out there to lock and load, cause it’s only gonna
get crazier and crazier.
These are GTA V’s guns in real life!
Let’s start with the basics – you can’t survive in Los Santos without your Pistol,
the first firearm you receive in the game.
Despite the pretty generic name, the firearm enthusiasts on the Internet Movie Firearms
Database have found that V’s basic pistol is clearly based on the Taurus PT92AF – though
its default clip contains 12 rounds, compared to the real PT92AF, which has magazines of
10, 15 or 17.
But hey, as an ardent GTA player, you’re hardly leaning on a basic pistol.
What if you want a little more firepower for your buck?
Take the game’s Heavy Pistol, for example.
This nifty little gun can be upgraded to have an absurd 36 magazine clip, and while that
isn’t yet possible without a crazy, foot-long extension, the design of the gun is very much
grounded in reality.
For the real-life variant, you’ll need the Enterprise Arms Wide Body 1911.
Not big enough for you?
How about we take things up a notch, and load a nine-round clip into the Pistol .50.
This is based on an equally powerful and iconic real-life weapon: The Desert Eagle.
However, the designers here have taken a lot of liberties with the original – they’ve
changed everything from the long beavertail of an actual Desert Eagle to the safety switch,
so Desert Eagle purists may not go home satisfied.
What’s that?
You want more power?
Jeez.
Maybe the gun for you is the Marksman Pistol – a devastatingly powerful single-shot pistol,
based on the real-life Thompson Center Arms Contender.
Maybe firing one shot is a little too conservative for you – perhaps you want to take down
your enemies with a quick and deadly parabolic hell-storm?
In that case, the fully-automatic AP Pistol is probably for you.
Sadly, you won’t have as much luck with this one in real life.
It’s a combination of the Colt SCAMP and the M1911, with completely fictional automatic
properties.
Still, size isn’t everything – what if you’re the stealthier type, in search of
a more compact weapon to get the job done?
The game’s three offerings in that area are the Combat Pistol, the Ceramic Pistol,
and the SNS Pistol.
The SNS – short for Saturday Night Special, a nickname often given to small, cheap guns
– is actually a design portmanteau of three different weapons.
In its Mach I variant, the SNS is a combo of the Heckler & Koch P7M10 and the Colt Junior.
In its Mach II variant, it becomes a simple AMT Backup.
The Ceramic Pistol is a combination of Heckler & Kock P7 and a Glock, and the Combat Pistol
is a combination of the Heckler and Kock P2000 and the Beretta Px4 Storm.
Operationally, all the guns behave similarly in game.
Whether this is because they’re striving for realism or want to bleed a little more
out of customers with each update is a decision we’ll leave to you.
For the more old-fashioned gun-slingers, the game provides one classic pistol and three
different revolvers.
The Vintage Pistol is the product of four different weapons – the primary inspirations
are the FN Model 1922 and the FN Model 1903, but it borrows the trigger guard of the Mauser
HSc and the backslide of a Glock.
Two of the three revolvers are direct reproductions of their real-life counterparts – namely,
the Colt 1851 Navy and the Colt New Army & Navy, dubbed the Double-Action Revolver.
The third revolver is the “Heavy Revolver”, another frankengun comprised of the Taurus
Raging Bull and the ASG Dan Wesson CO2.
Of course, the GTA V arsenal extends way beyond its wide range of pistols.
If you’re more of a close-range dominator, then may we interest you in our fine selection
of shotguns?
The most basic you’re likely to encounter is the Pump Shotgun, which is a modified version
of the Mossberg 590 – which is slightly shorter, with an oversized forend, a heat
shield, and a Magpul CTR stock.
The game’s sawed-off shotgun is a shortened Mossberg 500 in Serbu Super Shorty style,
with a little longer magazine tube, and short forend instead of the Serbu vertical grip.
If you’re still in the mood for something a little more vintage, the game also has a
faithfully recreated Sawed-Off Double Barrel Shotgun.
For something a little sleeker and more powerful, maybe it’s time to whip out the semi-automatic
Heavy Shotgun.
Once again, this is a frankengun, with elements of the Saiga 12 and the Norinco Type 56-2.
For even more firepower, you could try the Assault or Sweeper Shotguns.
The Assault is a relatively direct visual translation of the UTAS UTS-15 – though,
unlike the real UTAS, the Assault is fully automatic in-game.
This is a running theme with a lot of the shotguns in the game.
The Sweeper is based on the Armsel Protecta with a seven-inch barrel, but it’s semi-automatic
in game, whereas the real gun that inspires it is manual rotation-only.
Finally, the Bullpup Shotgun, which is inspired by the Kel-Tec KSG.
On the whole, the reproduction here is pretty faithful, though its 2 magazine tubes are
depicted, mechanically, as a single long tube.
But sometimes a shotgun just won’t do the job.
Sometimes, you really need to unleash hell upon your online enemies with some compact
and deadly submachineguns.
Here, you’re absolutely spoiled for choice – though will the reality measure up to
the video game fantasy?
Let’s take a look.
The most basic SMG in the GTA V loadout is literally just called the SMG.
Creative, right?
It’s a portmanteau of the Heckler & Koch MP5A3 and the Taurus MT-40, with artistic
liberties taken with the reloading features.
A number of the guns in the game have upgraded Mach II versions, and this is no exception.
The SMG Mk II has a slightly higher stopping power and rate of fire.
It’s a combination of the Heckler & Koch MP5K – sans foregrip – and the front end
and magazine of the SIG-Sauer MPX.
The Combat PDW is also a Heckler & Koch/SIG Sauer hybrid, with built-in suppression and
an impressive rate of fire, for taking people by surprise and winning close-combat engagements
with sudden and excessive force.
And if you’re feeling spicy, you can even equip a hundred round drum mag, most commonly
used on the infamous AR-15.
If you want something more discrete, perhaps you’re in want of the Micro SMG – modelled
after the real-life Mini Uzi.
With the game’s classy and threatening Machine Pistol, you can get the experience of wielding
a real-life Intratec TEC-DC9.
Strangely enough, this is one of the few examples of the actual weapon being nerfed by the game
version: At their highest ammo capacity, with the drum magazine attachment, the Machine
Pistol levels out at 30 rounds.
Real drum mags on TEC-DCPs can hold up to a frightening 72 rounds.
Of course, if your vision of a true gangster is a little less Tony Montana and a little
more Al Capone, you may find your ideal firearm in the Gusenberg Sweeper, a tommy gun based
on the Thompson M1928A1 – with some minor alterations, like a smooth barrel and erroneous
closed-bolt action.
If it’s always been your dream to look like a background villain in an Arnold Schwarzenegger
movie, perhaps you’d be more comfortable with the Mini-SMG, based on the real-life
Sa.
Vz. 82 Skorpion.
But if you’d rather be an Arnold Schwarzenegger character than one of the seemingly endless
legions of goons he blows away, then you don’t want a submachinegun.
You want a real machine gun, and thankfully, GTA V has a few that pack a devastating punch.
But how true to life are they?
Let’s look and see.
The least impressive of the heavier machineguns is simply called the MG, based on the real-life
PKM, with some truly bizarre artistic liberties like a nerfed ammo capacity and an RPD circular
drum magazine which wouldn’t actually fit on a real PKM.
Slightly more effective is the Combat MG, an intimidating frankengun comprised of several
FN Minimi variants as well as the classic M60.
But if we’re talking about heavy duty firepower here, how could anyone forget the minigun?
The game’s take on this iconic weapon is inspired by this GE M134 Minigun, though the
game chooses practicality over realism, ditching the minigun’s power supply and ammo feed.
But maybe you’re in want of a little more accuracy rather than blowing away half the
neighbourhood in a hail of bullets.
If that’s the case, perhaps a rifle is the weapon for you – and you’ll be happy to
hear that GTA V has got you covered here, too.
Let’s start from the beginning – and we mean the very beginning, seeing as the game
offers a powerful Musket based on an English flintlock rifle from the 1800s.
Mechanically, however, this weapon is entirely unrealistic – with way too much stopping
power, and a reload animation that cuts out a number of the steps necessary for the weapon
to even fire in the first place.
You’ll find that serious artistic liberties and inaccuracies are a running theme with
the rifles in game.
The weapon designated the erroneous name of “Assault SMG” appears to be a portmanteau
of the Magpul PDR-C and the FN P90 TR.
The Bullpup Rifle is the mutant offspring of elements from the Norinco Type 86S, the
QBZ-95-1, the Norinco QBZ-95, and the LAPA FA03.
The Carbine Rifle is a custom AR-15 carbine with a bevy of attachments and modifications,
incorrectly presented to be collapsible in game.
The Compact Rifle is an AK Derivative that appears to be largely inspired by the Norinco
Type 56-2 and the Bulgarian Arsenal AR-SF.
The game’s Special Carbine is a custom Heckler & Koch G36C with a magazine reminiscent of
a Galil 7.62.
The Advanced Rifle is, in real life, an IMI Compact Tavor CTAR-21 with a raised scope
mount and an open pistol grip.
The game’s Assault Rifle is a derivative of the Norinco Type 56-2 with some of the
design trappings of the classic AK-74, like its 90-degree gas block.
Finally, we have the Marksman Rifle, modelled largely upon Ruger Mini-30, though much like
the Carbine Rifle, it’s incorrectly shown to have a collapsible stock.
Your standard rifles and carbines are great, sure, but what about GTA V’s sniper rifles?
Is the game’s take on the assassins’ firearm of choice faithful to the reality?
The game’s standard sniper rifle is the Accuracy International AW-F, which is relatively
accurate to its real-life counterpart, save for an overly long magazine.
Their treatment of the Barrett M107, the inspiration for their Heavy Sniper, is less charitable.
Everything from the raised full-length scope rail to the magazine capacity is off here
– Though in spite of these inaccuracies, it makes for fun a weapon in game, allowing
you to execute perfect headshots from impressive distances.
How about we end the video with a bang, literally, and talk about GTA V’s approach to heavy
artillery: We’re talking launchers!
The primary weapon in this regard is the homing launcher, based on the FIM-92 Stinger, with
a slimmer launch tube and an incorrect muzzle-loading system.
Next, we have the more discrete – well, as discrete as an explosive can be – Compact
Grenade Launcher, based on a shortened version of the M79 grenade launcher with a pistol
grip.
The game also features a regular grenade launcher, a role filled in by a Milkor Mark 14 MGL with
a Magpul CTR stock – which is relatively faithful, aside from its too-high grenade
capacity and use of “smart bombs” that detonate on contact to people and vehicles.
Finally, perhaps the most iconic grenade launcher of all time, available for all lovers of mayhem
and destruction in GTA V: The RPG-7, complete with PG-7V and a custom polygonal breech.
When it comes to raising cain in the city of Los Santos, you really can’t go wrong
with this – and thanks to the accuracy of this recreation, you could do the same in
real life too.
Though for moral and legal reasons, we really wouldn’t recommend it.
And there we have it – a rundown of some of the most iconic firearms in GTA V, and
their real-life counterparts.
In a lot of cases, the guns you’re using to tear Los Santos apart are fusions of several
real life weapons, designed to maximise the fun of the in-game experience at the slight
expense of realism.
After all, if you want to be a responsible gun owner in real life, you really shouldn’t
be taking any tips from Grand Theft Auto.
Now go check out “Most Successful Weapons Ever Invented” and “Weirdest Weapons In
The World” for more about history’s most interesting death machines!