GTA has built a reputation over the years as not just AAA gaming at its peak, but a new revolution for the medium upon each game’s launch.
So it struck me how after watching the Extended Look at GTA 6 back in August, there was considerable chatter in my social circles claiming it looked like an Xbox 360 game.
I don’t think these comments should be taken literally, given that the footage we’ve seen shows such tremendous graphical fidelity and detail that it would have been impossible on hardware from two generations ago. But there’s a kernel of truth when poring over each video snippet and trying to consider just what is meaningfully new or different to this time.
Perhaps the best way to do this is to actually look back over GTA’s history and consider the ways each installment did break new ground for the series, and whether there is still space for new foundations GTA 6 can lay, or merely build upon.
Grand Theft Auto 3: A new dimension
While the first GTA already garnered acclaim and controversy in equal measure for giving players the freedom to cause criminal anarchy, it was GTA 3’s change from the original’s top-down perspective to a full 3D open world that propelled it into blockbuster success. Some of that was also stoked by controversies over the many morally reprehensible acts the game allows you to do.
But beyond the tabloid headlines, GTA 3 set the standard for open-world games as we know it: You had the freedom to roam Liberty City on foot or by car, whether it was following silent protagonist Claude’s story of revenge against psychotic ex-girlfriend Catalina, going off the rails to unleash your own chaos to drive up your Wanted rating–knowing that even if you were wasted or busted by the cops, you’d soon be back on your feet ready to do it all over again –or just listening to NPC chatter or radio stations to soak up the atmosphere of this living, breathing city.
GTA 6 can realize this formula with the highest modern polish, but its commitment to realism may also mean restricting some of the freedom that the series has been known for, such as being able to cycle through a small army’s worth of weaponry. Yet if this does mean giving more consideration on what you should bring to a mission, that could be a quiet game-changer for the series where instead of a maximalist approach, having less is actually more meaningful.
GTA San Andreas: go big, or go home
I don’t doubt that GTA 6’s State of Leonida will be the biggest open world in a GTA game to date, but it’s also not the first to embrace the philosophy of bigger and better by being set in a whole state rather than just one city. Whereas GTA: Vice City had started as an expansion to GTA 3 that then became a standalone title, GTA: San Andreas was a much more ambitious undertaking, consisting of three cities across five counties, including the LA-inspired Los Santos, which was later reimagined in GTA 5.
San Andreas didn’t just expand the scale but also its systems. While Rockstar continued to expand the modes of transportation beyond the staples of carjacking to also include cycling as well as flying the infamous Dodo, it also incorporated RPG elements to an unprecedented detail. Rather than needing to look at stats, your protagonist CJ physically transformed depending how much you worked out at the gym or how much junk food you gorged on, which also had an impact on your combat effectiveness, and your status among your friends.
According to a cover story in Dazed, we can expect similar RPG mechanics in GTA 6 too, where eating food will affect Jason and Lucia’s weight, working out will visibly tone their muscles, and a lack of sleep or taking things to excess may also take a physical toll.
Where GTA 6 has the chance to do something different is the central relationship between its two leads. Since you’re playing as a couple (though it’s not clear yet whether there will be a meet-cute or that relationship is already established when the game begins) there’s a potential to explore how that relationship develops instead of the video game norm where bonds with companion characters level up over the course of the game. Will Jason and Lucia’s Bonnie-and-Clyde romance play out the way as scripted by Rockstar, or will you have the choice to impact the ups and downs, and messiness of real relationships, even causing them to break up, and then make up again?
Grand Theft Auto 4: when push comes to shove
It’s funny to think that GTA 3 innovated and set the template for modern open-world games all while being developed with RenderWare, a popular 3D middleware engine preceding the likes of Unreal and Unity. The next big leap then arguably came when Rockstar decided to develop its own proprietary engine.
Although RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine) was actually first used for Rockstar Presents Table Tennis, with GTA 4 it ushered in an even more advanced era of open-world gameplay based on real-world physics, while also bringing its new version of Liberty City to life with mo-capped performances. While improved physics meant more realistic vehicle handling, for the mischievous player, it meant being able to bump into NPCs–cue countless videos of people shoving hapless pedestrians down subway steps or off tall buildings.
From what we’ve seen so far, its grounded realism means we’ll get unbelievably realistic hair physics showcased by Lucia’s many different hairstyles, as well as realistic jiggle from characters with larger body sizes. That will be a big deal for people who want to be immersed in its world, but it does feel like a shame if it means not having the opportunity to use realistic physics in silly scenarios.
Grand Theft Auto 5: split fiction
Among the best-selling games of all time, and the entry with the longest shelf life, there’s an argument that GTA 5 has largely refined many of the series’ existing openworld tenets. But if there’s one key new thing it introduced, it was multiple protagonists, where at the push of a button you could switch between retired career criminal Michael, ambitious up-and-comer Franklin, and raging psychopath Trevor, giving the game the flow of a sprawling prestige TV ensemble drama.
GTA 6 having multiple protagonists isn’t new, but one of them being a woman is. As a couple, it could also present some interesting dynamics. We’ve seen footage of character-switching in action but I’m fascinated by how much control I can have over whether Jason and Lucia are joined at the hip or free to do their own thing, and when a mission does require both, whether there’s a say over the role–for instance, who drives, and who rides shotgun–or if each has actions unique to them.
Regardless, it seems Rockstar already wants to assert some control over how you’ll experience GTA 6. Compared to GTA 5, the game will launch with just a third-person single-player campaign, without the first-person mode introduced in GTA 5 from its PS4 and Xbox One release onwards, and without a GTA Online mode.
Given reports that a playthrough could take 80 hours, it’s probably fair to pare back some features for post-launch while also ensuring the first playthrough is experienced as cinematically as intended. However, that also makes me consider that perhaps the most groundbreaking thing that GTA 6 can do is retire the series’ rigid story structure where the open-world freedom ends the moment you take on very linear and scripted missions like the ones that bookend and take up a significant chunk of the 26-minute Extended Look.
Of course, not every game sequel needs to reinvent time and time again when iteration or the chance to deepen existing systems, such as a more dynamic approach to the Wanted system, can be just as meaningful. But given how much GTA has redefined itself and games as a whole over the decades, when I finally sit down to play GTA 6 in November, I really hope it doesn’t just feel like a game I could have been playing from over a decade ago.
