Red Dead Redemption 2 should be the game that Grand Theft Auto VI builds off of, not GTA 5. Rockstar Games is a developer with thousands of employees and nearly a dozen studios around the world. After the release of GTA 5, Rockstar decided that it could do more with its games if all of these teams came together to work on one single project. Of course, this means the developer releases less games, but the ones that they do put out are of a higher quality. Red Dead Redemption 2 specifically is one of the most detailed open-world games out there and should be a point of reference for Rockstar going forward.
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Red Dead Redemption 2 wasn’t just successful for its open-world and storytelling, though. Rockstar Games created a very immersive world through gameplay as well, giving you more control than ever over your character’s actions. It really helped you feel like you were roleplaying a cowboy. Given GTA 6 will no doubt be one of the most detailed games we’ve ever seen, it only feels right that we should be able to roleplay as a modern day criminal as well. To help achieve that, here are some features from Red Dead Redemption 2 that GTA 6 should absolutely steal.
5) Interactions With Any NPC
In Red Dead Redemption 2, you can interact with every NPC. You can strike up a conversation with anyone in the open-world and depending on your honor, where you are, and the circumstances around your conversation, they’ll all respond differently to you. It gave the NPCs purpose and allowed them the opportunity to be more than just people to shoot or run down. It would be great if this could then allow an NPC to randomly tell you about something in the open-world, like some unsolved mystery out in the countryside.
NPCs also remembered you in Red Dead Redemption 2, so if you robbed a store and shot the owner, he would have a wound the next time and would make a comment to you upon returning to the store. Perhaps creating enough of a ruckus would eventually lead to people talking about you on social media and then give you a negative reputation with people you bump into on the street. The possibilities are endless thanks to the inclusion of modern technology in GTA 6
4) Kidnappings and Robberies
You could also use the aforementioned system to mug random citizens in Red Dead Redemption 2, something that would make perfect sense for a couple of street criminals like Lucia and Jason, though with added dangers thanks to cameras, smartphones, and a bigger police presence in a modern day setting. However, maybe there’s a way to combine this with a different Red Dead Redemption 2 mechanic.
In that game, you could hogtie people with your lasso and kidnap them. There wasn’t a whole lot you could do with a kidnapped person beyond finding deranged ways to kill them, but maybe GTA 6 could expand on this. What if you could target high-profile looking businessmen in downtown Vice City, zip tie them, and then throw them into your car to steal their wallet and fancy watches in a more discrete location?
Perhaps if you get the attention of police in GTA 6, the player could take a hostage by using them as a meat shield or locking them in your car, forcing the police to back off to avoid casualties. There are a lot of ways to build upon the foundation that was laid by Red Dead Redemption 2, especially in a modern setting.
3) Warning Shots
For the first time in any Rockstar game, there was a dedicated button to subtly point your gun up in the sky and fire it as a warning shot. It’s one of those little touches that doesn’t necessarily need to be in the game, but it once again helps create a more immersive experience. Given GTA 6 seems to partially revolve around Jason and Lucia doing stick ups on smaller businesses like diners and liquor stores, walking in and making an impression on anyone inside by popping off a round would be really cool. Obviously, it will only create a panic and not be very strategic, but the rule of cool always triumphs.
2) A Limited Inventory
Rockstar Games have always been gently mocked for having an illogical inventory system where the player can pull a rocket launcher out of their pants. Of course, it’s a video game so no one really cares, but Rockstar decided to basically make the player’s horse their inventory in Red Dead Redemption 2. If you were in a gunfight, you could only use what was on your person, which forced you to be a bit more thoughtful about the weapons you were using.
This would be an interesting system to see in GTA 6 as well, though potentially more intrusive than Red Dead Redemption 2. You can literally summon your horse to you in RDR2 so long as they’re not too far away and the more explosive, crash-prone world of Grand Theft Auto could mean your inventory gets compromised more often. Not to mention, it’s called Grand Theft Auto, you’re encouraged to steal vehicles pretty regularly which means your inventory wouldn’t carry into a new vehicle automatically.
However, it would also create more value around your vehicles and make them feel less disposable. Investing in you car wouldn’t just be about making it faster and flashier, but also protecting things like your weaponry. Additionally, a small solution to this could be giving Jason and Lucia the option to carry around a backpack which can store smaller weapons like handguns, SMGs, or assault rifles that have collapsible pieces. However, if you want something bigger like an LMG or sniper rifle, you’ll have to retrieve it from the trunk of your primary vehicle.
1) More Open-Ended Exploration
Part of what makes Red Dead Redemption 2‘s world so enthralling is that there aren’t a ton of random icons all over the map. It’s not a checkbox game, it’s a game where you discover incredible things just by wandering around, listening to what people say, and reading things in the world. It encourages you to live in the world and pay attention to it as opposed to zooming through it. It’s a big reason why fast travel is so limited in Red Dead Redemption 2, you would miss so many of the best parts of the game if you could teleport everywhere.
GTA 6 should absolutely take advantage of this. As I noted earlier, it would be great to have NPCs off-handedly mention hidden side activities to you, but what if you could hear about things on an in-game social media platform too. Hand written letters are less likely to be a thing in GTA 6, so a Twitter-like platform could serve as a replacement. What you read in these posts won’t put anything on your map, you just have to learn names of towns and key areas and go explore them based on what people have organically described.
What do you want to see in GTA 6? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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