 The development team found that introducing three concurrent protagonists increased the freedom afforded to players in missions . Lead mission designer Imran Sarwar felt that having multiple protagonists allowed different strategic options to open up in missions . He said that in a combat scenario the player can set up Michael at a high vantage point with a sniper rifle to provide covering fire for Trevor , who provides a frontal assault on the enemy position , allowing Franklin to manipulate flank points . Benzies said that character @-@ switching would eliminate a problem the team felt San Andreas had ; the player would be exploring open countryside and would then need to drive a long distance to a mission start point . In Grand Theft Auto V , the interplay of free roaming and mission gameplay is more organic because the player can switch between characters . According to Benzies , " Having three characters allows players to explore the whole map without having to worry about the long drive back to their next objective " . Houser commented that the use of multiple characters could remove dead spots in missions , for example where a character has to drive to a meeting point , because the player can switch to another character and be pulled into the action of the game more quickly . The game includes dynamic mission content , a feature borrowed from Red Dead Redemption because of its positive reception in that game . Dynamic missions present themselves to the player while exploring the game world ; the player can choose to either accept or ignore them . The team developed the concept of dynamic mission content further in Grand Theft Auto V by delivering it in the open sections of the world and in Los Santos ; for example , the player can encounter an armoured van in the city and try to intercept it to steal its contents . 
