We’ve all been up at 3 AM, flying an Oppressor Mk II over Los Santos, and you realize you’re bored to the bone. You’ve got more (digital) money than the local gangster in your city, but the world feels too shallow (or shall we say 'hollow').
Then you decide to boot up Red Dead Redemption 2. You spend four hours just watching the mud dry on Arthur’s boots and listening to a drunk guy scream about his lost friend. Suddenly, you realize: GTA 5 is a fancy and vibrant theme park, but RDR2 is a world in itself.
If Rockstar wants GTA 6 to be anything more than a sequel, they need to steal Arthur Morgan’s personal notes. Here is how GTA 6 can avoid being a $2 billion disappointment by leaning into its inner cowboy :
1. The 'Doraemon's Pocket' Crisis : Physicality Matters
In GTA 5, your protagonist is basically Doraemon. You’re carrying an RPG, a minigun, three assault rifles, and a tennis racket in your goddamned cargo shorts. It’s brain-breaking!
RDR2 fixed this by making you actually carry your gear. If it wasn’t on your horse, you didn't have it. We need this for GTA 6. I want to see Jason and Lucia pulling a shotgun out of the trunk of a sedan, or slinging a duffel bag over their shoulder after a heist. If I can’t see where the gun is coming from, then what even is the point in all the anticipation of 'GTA 6' launching in '2026'? It’s time to trade Doraemon's pocket for some 'real storage'. Let us feel the hustle, Rockstar.
Also, are you really telling me that nobody, literally nobody in the whole developer team pointed this out? I guess everyone was too busy making the cars look ‘realistic’. Hey! There are at least a hundred more things that you could make more realistic. Try getting the storage right for starters.
2. NPCs with More Than Two Brain Cells
GTA 5 NPCs have the survival instincts of a sloth that's high on a full-cream Cappuccino. You stand near them, and they either scream 'HELL NO!' and run into traffic or start behaving retarded.
RDR2’s 'Greet/Antagonize/Defuse/Rob/Callout' system was so impressive. It turned every walk through town into a social experiment. In GTA 6, if I accidentally rear-end a Karen driving an expensive SUV, I want the option to 'Gaslight' or 'Apologize'. I want a world where the NPCs remember that I’m 'that' lunatic who blew up the local burger joint yesterday. Give the NPCs a 'Memory System' so amazing that I feel actual guilt - or at least a reason to wear a mask that isn't just for the aesthetic.
3. Stop the 'Long-Distance Relationship' Missions
Rockstar loves making us drive from one side of the map to the other just to hear two guys talk about their childhood trauma. It’s basically a podcast with extra steps (and a couple of car crashes).
RDR2 was a repeat offender here (looking straight at you, Dutch), but it at least had a 'Cinematic Mode' that let the horse do the work. In GTA 6, if I have to drive 12 miles to a mission start point while Lucia explains her backstory, I’m going to absolutely lose it. Just give us the cutscene, or better yet, make the 'travel dialogue' happen during the action. I don't need a Sunday drive, I just need to reach the heist location. (In short, don't stuff conversations to justify the long drives that make zero sense).
4. Satire : Move Past the 'Life Invader' Jokes
We get it. Social media is bad. Consumerism is a lie. GTA 5’s satire was about as subtle as Michael Bay's explosions in the Transformers movies. It was funny back then, but now? We’re living in a world that’s already a parody of itself.
RDR2 worked because its humor was grounded in the characters and the cultures that they represented. It was funny because Arthur was a grumpy 19th-century man confused by 'civilization'. GTA 6 needs to stop hitting us over the head with 'Facebook is for losers' (we're not denying it isn't) jokes and start focusing on the main character(s) energy and cultural details. We need the weird, dark, "I can't believe this is happening" vibe that made RDR2’s world feel so personal.
5. Density Over Destiny : Open the Doors Rockstar
The biggest lie in open-world gaming is the 'City'. You see 5,000 buildings, but you can only enter the gun store and a strip club. It’s like being in a beautiful gallery where everything is behind 'Do Not Touch' glass.
RDR2 let us walk into almost every shack, cabin, and saloon. If GTA 6 wants to be the GOAT, it needs to stop being a 'oh we didn’t think you’d want to do that' box. Give us interiors. Let us rob a random apartment, hide from the cops in a laundromat, or just explore a high-rise without needing a loading screen. If the door is locked, let us kick it down (in several ways).
6. The 'Law' Actually Needs To Be Scary
In GTA 5, the cops are just annoying house flies. You kill 50 of them, hide under a bridge for a couple of minutes, and suddenly you’re a law-abiding 'pookie' citizen again. I remember wanting to play GTA as a kid because it'd let me do things that I couldn't in real life - like blowing up cars, shooting a missile at a random helicopter hovering in the city. But, the thing is, a huge percentage of the GTA fan base has grown up, they STILL want to do the cool stuff, but not 'brainlessly', and especially not after paying around $70-80 or higher.
RDR2 made the law feel like an actual threat. The bounty system meant your crimes had legs, which meant 'leaving footprints behind'. You couldn't just 'reset' your reputation by changing your shirt at a local store. GTA 6 needs that weight. I want to feel the heat. I want to have to ditch my car because the plates are hot, not just because I want a faster one.
Our Verdict
GTA 6 has the chance to be the most immersive game in the history of gaming. But if it just copies the GTA 5 blueprint, it’s going to feel like a remastered relic with better graphics. We need the soul, the narrative depth, and the "Wait, did that just happen?" moments of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Because at the end of the day, if I can't accidentally get into a 20-minute philosophical debate with a random NPC before being eaten by an alligator, did I even play a Rockstar game?
Your move, Rockstar. Don’t make us wait until 2030 now.