Grand Theft Auto 5’s character switching recreated in GTA 4 with mod

A new mod released for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4 has enabled users to switch between characters on the fly, a prominent feature in the next installment of Rockstar's best-selling open-world franchise.

Grand Theft Auto 5 will give players the ability to switch between the game's three protagonists, adding an entirely new element of gameplay to the template. Unfortunately, it's a feature only console players will experience as a PC version of GTA 5 has not yet been announced; the game has only been confirmed for Xbox 360 and PS3.

So the modding community has taken it upon themselves to replicate this feature in GTA 4. With the mod installed, you'll be able to hop between roles as GTA 4 protagonist Niko Bellic, The Lost and Damned's Johnny Klebitz, and The Ballad of Gay Tony's Luis Fernando Lopez. Like in GTA 5, the characters you are not playing will go about the business, wandering the streets or attempting to evade the cops if they have a wanted level. Each character has their own health, armor, ammo, and vehicle which are saved every time you switch characters.

A video below shows the mod, which is still in development, in action.

Seeing as how this game wasn't designed with this feature in mind, there are naturally going to be some bugs, but it looks like a pretty solid adaptation to me.

You can download the mod here, but you'll also need to install ScriptHook to run it.