The Grand Theft Auto franchise has been indulging in all kinds of madcap nonsense over nearly three many years, from refined felony operations and heists at one finish to sandbox shenanigans on the opposite, with the participant operating round, blowing stuff up, and attracting rising quantities of police consideration. Nonetheless, Talita, a nonprofit company based mostly in Sweden, determined to make use of Grand Theft Auto 5 to inform a extra essential story, centered on saving girls from the palms of traffickers fairly than pursuing private wealth and indulgence.
Mission Talita is a mod pack that comprises 4 new missions, a custom-made radio, and the true tales of girls who’ve labored with the group to flee trafficking. It was constructed over the course of months by long-time Grand Theft Auto followers and modders FelixTheBlackCat, with help from Vxruz_Dans, and the group took pains to ensure it nonetheless felt like a Grand Theft Auto expertise. That features a radio station with music from Swedish Home Mafia, Sting, Salvatore Ganacci, and extra. The music is punctuated with information about Talita’s work in a similar way as Rockstar’s in-game satirical commercials and discuss reveals.
Certain sufficient, giving Mission Talita a spin may be very acquainted for anybody who’s performed Grand Theft Auto 5. You play as a Good Samaritan, utilizing intel to search out these girls and get them out of unlucky circumstances. The vibes are a bit of much like Taken; there are horrible individuals, however the participant can sneak previous them, rescue victims, and get out to a rendezvous level. There’s nonetheless excessive velocity automobile chases and gunplay, however because the protagonist, you’re much less centered on deadly pressure and extra on pulling off an ideal operation. The participant can evade or eradicate traffickers who chase them down, making certain a clear escape.
In a FAQ on the mod’s official website, the nonprofit explains: “A giant a part of Talita’s work entails making an attempt to shift the attitudes that gas the demand for sexual companies. One viewers that’s central to attaining this alteration is younger males. With this marketing campaign, we’re delivering our messages in a context that’s dominated by younger males. By providing another GTA expertise, we hope to offer an eye-opener on how society portrays, talks, and thinks about prostitutes.”
The group needed to attract consideration to an actual world problem that Rockstar cavalierly makes use of as set dressing in the principle sport. Utilizing Grand Theft Auto 5 as a base right here was a really intentional selection by Talita. San Andreas, and former cities constructed by Rockstar Video games, has intercourse staff at out there to see on strip golf equipment and on the road. The participant is ready to assault these girls, and actually, are rewarded with a money drop. Reversing the facility dynamic, so the participant is working to free intercourse staff as a substitute, is a daring assertion. The FAQ continues: “On condition that GTA is perhaps many younger males’s first publicity to victims of intercourse trafficking and prostitution, the chance is imminent that the sport will have an effect on their notion and attitudes towards prostitution in a dangerous approach.”
Whereas Grand Theft Auto 6 remains to be removed from its eventual launch date in 2025, the franchise remains to be culturally important and financially profitable. Rockstar has continued to replace GTA On-line, and the sport has additionally attracted a vibrant modding and role-play neighborhood who use the setting of San Andreas to inform all kinds of tales, from operating a pleasure parade, to working a taxi cab firm, to being a secret felony overlord or serial killer.
That flexibility is nice, and it’s fascinating to see a nonprofit use that acquainted setting to deal with a difficulty like trafficking. It’s been an extended custom for avid gamers to kill girls (and something that strikes) on the streets of San Andreas, however reformatting that by the lens of actual life tales makes for a compelling story.
The Mission Talita mod could be downloaded for PC from the nonprofit’s official website. It’s an easy course of, however you’ll need to have Grand Theft Auto 5 already put in in your pc. Talita additionally accepts donations on the mod’s website, together with a merch assortment designed in collaboration with Sneakersnstuff.
