I bought GTA+ so you don't have to—and I don't think it's worth the subscription even for GTA Online diehards

It sure feels like everything's a subscription these days, and subscriptions are getting more and more specific as time and capitalism grind forward. We've moved on from subscriptions that give you a bunch of games to subscriptions within specific games themselves, like Grand Theft Auto Online's GTA+.

For $8 a month, you get a monthly cash allowance, free cars, free Rockstar games, and a host of other in-game benefits. It looks like a good deal on paper if you live and breathe GTA Online, but after spending some time subscribing to the service myself, I'm not sure who, exactly, it's useful for.

What does GTA+ include?

Cash is one of the biggest selling points of GTA+. Your $8 in real money every month nets you quite a bit in virtual currency:

• $500,000 is deposited into your GTA Online bank account every month
• 15% bonus cash on every Shark Card purchase
• Certain items get GTA+ exclusive discounts
• Select GTA Online modes have dramatically increased payouts for subscribers

Then there's the Vinewood Car Club, another core pillar of the GTA+ subscription. It gives you an exclusive storage space that holds up to 100 cars, and you can test drive a selection of the game's rarest vehicles before purchasing them at discounted rates. Free cars are given away monthly as well.

The Vinewood Car Club is more than just a storage space. You can conveniently customize all of your cars inside, eliminating the need to visit Los Santos Customs where the poor people other players shop.

Plus, it offers some highly requested quality-of-life improvements via the in-game phone app. You can request free vehicles, claim the passive earnings from all of your businesses remotely, and even purchase ammo straight from your phone.

These little bonuses are what truly make GTA+ worthwhile for serious grinders, and there are several more. With a subscription you can lower your wanted level, go off the radar in freeroam activities, take free taxi rides for fast travel, and more.

The GTA+ games library

Being a GTA+ member also gets you access to other Rockstar games outside of GTA Online. You can download Bully, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and other Grand Theft Auto games on supported platforms.

There are some odd gaps, though. GTA Liberty City Stories and Chinatown Wars are available on the service, but they're only on mobile devices. Bully is included with GTA+ as well, but PlayStation players get the base PS2 game while PC and Xbox owners can download the upgraded Scholarship Edition.

This is a "rotating selection" of Rockstar games, too, so they can be pulled from the service whenever Rockstar feels like it.

Is GTA+ worth it?

All the perks above are nice, but it's still hard to recommend GTA+ to anyone, even diehard Grand Theft Auto Online players who log into Los Santos every day.

If you're a frequent player the monthly cash allowance is chump change, and you can easily make more with very little effort via the Cayo Perico heist or other tried-and-true farming methods. Also, the Shark Card bonuses are only there to get you to spend more money, which is the last thing most people want to do after adding another subscription to the monthly budget.

It's nice to be able to store and customize 100 cars at the Vinewood Car Club, but in all the years I've spent playing GTA Online it's never felt like a necessity. It sucks that the Vinewood Car Club showroom has cars that can only be purchased by GTA+ subscribers though, especially since the rotating pool of cars includes removed vehicles that can't be obtained anywhere else in the game. Rockstar definitely knows that FOMO will lure in some players.

Then there are the clothing items and car cosmetics exclusively available for GTA+ members, and they'd be at least a little tempting if they weren't the ugliest things you've ever seen. Nobody wants to pay $8 per month for a deeply uncool baseball cap and a neon eyesore livery for their car, right?

The quality-of-life improvements are what really make GTA+ hard to cancel once you've tried it out. Free CEO/VIP abilities, free premium vehicle requests, remote cash collection and ammo purchases, and discounted weapons at the gun van are really nice to have if you play GTA Online frequently. Rockstar keeps digging up more dirt to toss onto the pile as well, like the newly added bonus daily Lucky Wheel spin at the Diamond Casino. (This analogy assumes that you like dirt. Please just go with it.)

With all that said, it's really hard to recommend GTA+ to both veteran heisters and GTA Online newcomers. Existing players likely have more money and cars than they know what to do with after years of grinding, and new players have so many avenues to catch up that just require… actually playing the game. The GTA+ boosts really aren't necessary unless you really, really want to take advantage of quadruple earnings for your favorite business, to earn more while playing less.

Maybe that'll all change when GTA 6 finally rolls around, though, and delivers a whole new version of GTA Online.