Rockstar Adds More Fuel To GTA's Alien War

The world of Grand Theft Auto Online has gotten pretty weird lately. If you haven't stepped foot in Los Santos in a while, you may not be prepared for just how bizarre the city has become.

There are still everyday passers-by on the street, of course. There are still police officers on patrol, and honest people commuting to and from work. These folks do their best to offer some semblance of normalcy in an unpredictable GTA universe. You don't have to travel very far, though, before things go off the rails.

We're not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens. And thanks to a rather generous move by Rockstar Games, you can now become an alien yourself.

For those out of the loop, there's a strange turf war going on in Los Santos between green aliens and purple aliens. Many in the GTA Online roleplaying community have aligned themselves with one of the two factions, and have been relentlessly targeting those on the other side.

Rockstar, seizing on the opportunity, has gone ahead and made both the green and purple alien suits free to all players for the next week or so. So if you've seen all of this craziness happening in GTA Online and have been itching to take part yourself, there's no better time than right now.

How do you get one of those fancy alien suits, you ask? The process is pretty straightforward.

First, you'll need to jump into Grand Theft Auto Online sometime before May 14, when the promotion officially ends. Next, you'll have to visit one of the many clothing stores that call Los Santos home. Binco works, as does Sub Urban or ProLaps. You'll then want to browse the Arena War section of the shop and look at the Bodysuits category. From there, scroll down to find the green and purple alien suits.

The green suit normally sells for $330,000, while the purple suit typically rings up at around $360,000. To say you're getting a bargain by copping them for free is an understatement.

Bear in mind this isn't some kind of official mode in the game, nor is it a Rockstar-sanctioned event. This otherworldly battle is something entirely dreamed up by players in GTA Online. In order to get in on the action once you've procured your suit, you simply need to put it on.

Believe it or not, the suit you choose will say a lot about who you are as a person.

According to Polygon, the green aliens are the troublemakers in the conflict. They're the ones out committing all sorts of atrocities against the fine citizens of Los Santos, causing unrest in the city wherever they're found.

The purple aliens, on the other hand, have more or less become the enforcers of peace. That's not to say the players in purple are abstaining from violence — far from it. They are, however, using that violence to protect the humans in Los Santos against the green alien threat.

It may be tempting to choose one of the two alien sides, but you don't necessarily have to. Not everyone in a Batman movie gets to be Batman, after all. Someone has to be "man in car" or "woman on sidewalk," and some in the GTA Online community have willingly embraced those roles. They're still going on about their business as the alien war rages on, adding a little more realism to the experience for all involved.

That said, you're probably going to be an alien. We don't blame you one bit.

Because Rockstar didn't really create the whole green vs. purple alien battle, there's no telling how long it'll last. It could become an ever-present part of GTA Online, shaping the city of Los Santos for as long as the game remains functional. Or players could eventually become bored with the whole thing, trading in their alien suits for something else entirely.

It's tough to deny that this is one of the more interesting community-driven events we've seen in GTA Online in quite some time. Rockstar probably can't believe its good fortune, as players took two different-colored alien suits and built a whole new experience around them. Who needs expansions?

The studio does deserve kudos, though, for building the kind of persistent world where something like this can happen. Whoever decided to make the alien suits free also deserves some praise. That was a heads-up move that cost Rockstar very little, but likely helped drive more players toward GTA Online.

We'll have more news for you on Grand Theft Auto as it comes, so stay tuned.