“I know you’ve been complaining, but you weren’t ready,” Lester tells us at the beginning of the trailer for Grand Theft Auto V‘s long awaited Online Heists. And judging by the trailer, it looks like the wait will be worth it, featuring everything from drilling through vaults to scrambling jets on an aircraft carrier and beyond.

Grand Theft Auto V’s online heists will arrive, at long last, in early 2015, Rockstar Games revealed today on its website.

In an interview with IGN, Grand Theft Auto Online producer and lead mission designer Imran Sarwar said the Heist mode was intended to be, “a series of multi-tiered missions featuring diverse prep work, a range of different types of gameplay and a big finale, where team coordination and playing your own distinct role could make the difference between success or failure.” However, when they actually began developing the mode, they realized that creating something of that complexity that had concrete ties into the story mode necessitated delaying the rollout of the highly anticipated multiplayer mode.

So how will it work? Basically, each heist requires four players at rank 12 or higher, one of whom will be designated as the heist leader. In order to be the heist leader, you need a high-end apartment so you can have room for a planning board from which you launch the missions. Over the course of the heist, players will complete a variety of prep missions in order to prepare for the big finale that will find players tackling everything from hacking computer systems to stealing getaway cars to infiltrating police stations.

At launch, Imran says there will be “five unique strands involving 20 total missions, which will add up to around 20 hours of gameplay.” Players will be able to take on multiple, varied roles in the missions, which lends an inherent replay value to the proceedings. Considering how drastically first-person mode has altered the experience of playing Grand Theft Auto V, we’re excited to try out the online heists from every angle possible.

Are you excited for online heists to finally arrive? Let us know in the comments below.

[HT: IGN, Rockstar Games]