A Grand Theft Auto 5 player has made history nearly eight years after the game’s release. The player, UnNameD, posted a three-part YouTube video showing how they beat the game in nine hours—without taking any damage whatsoever. Though plenty of speedrunners have set records by completing the game in under six hours, to beat it with zero damage and zero deaths in such a short period of time is another accomplishment entirely.
GTA 5 has been on the market since 2013, but it continues to be hugely popular to this day. The game has already spanned two generations, with the PS5 version set to be released during the second half of this year. Even as of February 2021, it was the best-selling PS4 game in North America and second only to FIFA 21 in Europe. And for the first time since its release, GTA 5 was the most-viewed game on Twitch in March of this year.
The fact that so many fans are still enjoying the game years later makes news of this record-breaking GTA 5 run all the more sensational. According to the video description, UnNameD beat the game utilizing a mod called One-Hit-Knock-Out, which sets character health to one. This means that anytime your character takes a hit, you are pretty much guaranteed to die. They also accomplished the feat without Trevor’s special ability or any armors. In the end, it took UnNameD 48 attempts to beat the game without taking a single hit.
The historic run was posted to the speedrun subreddit, and players took to the post to discuss UnNameD’s achievement. While some Reddit users questioned its legitimacy and critiqued the player’s gameplay and attitude, others expressed admiration, acknowledging how incredible the feat is due to how chaotic GTA 5 can be. One user even stated that they would not be surprised if the run was never replicated.
All personal feelings aside, GTA 5 fans can probably agree that UnNameD’s accomplishment took some serious commitment. Assuming that enthusiasm for GTA 5 continues with the PS5 and Xbox Series X port, it will be interesting to see if other players can replicate this run. Or better yet, perhaps we will see even more impressive feats to come.
