What We Want From 'GTA 6'
Gaming has changed a lot since Grand Theft Auto V came out nearly a decade ago, and Rockstar, despite making an announcement, has kept pretty quiet about the game. Hell, we don't even know if it's going to be called GTA VI. The good news is that Rockstar doesn't need to worry in case they're struggling with a severe lack of ideas because it turns out a decade in withdrawal gives you a lot to think about!
The first room for improvement is in what was once the series' greatest strength: Its world. Red Dead Redemption 2 smartly took it slow and recreated the wild west life in the most detailed way possible, but it also showed that the formula is getting stale.
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The new GTA game should revolutionize the series's gameplay the way that GTA III did. No, we don't mean by adding an extra dimension. It should dynamize and make everything way more organic. I need freedom, not a promise of freedom that ends up having me approach a mission the exact same way every time.
One of the reasons why more traditional Japanese RPGs don't like open-ended games is that they can only have the resources to pull off so many different awesome story climaxes. GTA V has three different endings, none of which is much to write home about. If Nier: Automata managed to cram in 26 different endings that all come in direct consequence to our actions, Rockstar better be able to come up with a crazy number of outcomes to the story.
This brings us to ask for more options on violence. Please don't get this one wrong; we don't necessarily want more violence. We want the option to be able to finish the entire game as a bank robber who doesn't kill anyone. No excuse not to do that, considering how even Postal 2, a game that's basically a mass murder simulator, totally allows you to do it.
People love GTA Online, and being homebound at least taught us that online co-op is awesome. If you can't make the GTA VI campaign a fully-online thing, at least consider making it something you can finish cooperatively with one buddy.
And now for the crazy wishes.
GTA V came out a long time ago, but the game hasn't been dead. Its online portion has been getting constant updates, making it pretty hard for a direct sequel to do anything really new – as long as it is set in the present day. But, what if ... we go to the future? A common thought echoed among people who got disappointed by Cyberpunk 2077 was the belief that in the hands of Rockstar, it probably wouldn't have sucked.
So why not a futuristic GTA? One that looks dark, messed up, and more importantly nothing like the gross colorful misunderstanding of the cyberpunk genre that Cyberpunk 2077 turned out to be. Cyberpunk 2077 took nearly a decade in the making, would probably use another decade in the making to get great, and it sold an absurd amount of copies regardless. Imagine the demand for a game whose premise is "Cyberpunk 2077 but good". It would also prove a true gangster move in terms of dominance assertion over CD Projekt Red.
Last and most important of all: you know damn well that the fans will wait, so take your goddamn time if that means your employees won't have to suffer just to make a game.
Top Image: Rockstar
