It’s safe to say that Rockstar’sGrand Theft Auto 6might just be one of the most hotly anticipated games of all time. After therecord-shattering successes of bothGrand Theft Auto 5andRed Dead Redemption 2,fans have very high expectations for the next installment in what has become one of the most prestigious video game series. But a lot has changed in the 11 years since the lastGTAgame was released.
Rockstar is in danger of becoming a victim of its own success. Each successive game the studio releases has pushed the boundaries of gaming further and further, forcing subsequent releases to up the ante more and more. What Rockstar can (and should) do withGrand Theft Auto 6is draw on its past successes to create a world just as lifelike and realistic as Los Santos, Ambarino, New Hanover, and Lemoyne.
GTA6 Can And Should Bring Back Random Events from GTA5 and RDR2
How Rockstar’s Random Events Improve Open World Gameplay
Grand Theft Auto 6should heavily lean into therandom events that were introduced inGrand Theft Auto 5and perfected inRed Dead Redemption 2.Half the fun of these series is always exploring the maps. Rockstar creates immense, immersive worlds in a league all their own and these randomly occurring events are a crucial part of what makes the streets of Los Santos and the wilderness of the Wild West feel like real places rather than just digital arenas for gameplay.
A common pitfall of open world games today is that, despite the maps themselves being immense, vast, and nearly infinitely explorable, they lack a level of liveliness that sells the player on the illusion that this world they exist in is real, and they are merely experiencing it. WhenArthur Morgan happens upon a settler being attacked by wolves inRDR2, or a traveler in need of a lift back to town, it makes the world feel more alive than if the player was just mindlessly piloting themselves from “Point A” to “Point B.”
How GTA6 Can Incorporate Random Events
Rockstar may have started its modern take on random events in the lastGTAgame, butRDR2is where the system really came into its own. The developers for that game have explained that the secret to the system’s success comes from a core principle that keeps the player engaged at regular intervals. Everytwo or three minutes inRed Dead Redemption 2, a random event will triggerclose to the player, who can either engage with it or keep traveling. These events and their relative frequency are what makes a Rockstar world so lifelike, and should absolutely make its way over to the studio’s next blockbuster release.
How the studio accomplishes this in the context of aGTAgame presents some unique challenges, as Vice City is an incredibly different environment from the Old West. Challenging, but not impossible; the modern setting of a fictionalized Miami allows for Rockstar to lean heavily into the satirical absurdities that the GTA series is so beloved for.
What Can Random Events Bring to GTA6?
WithGTA6promising one of the most expansive maps to date, there’s bound to be a lot of traveling baked into the gameplay. As fun as the driving mechanics may be, this will inevitably get a little old, especially when objectives are spaced far apart. Random events, in addition to making the city feel more lived in and lifelike, will also break up the monotony of those long drives. Until the player unlocks the inevitable flying vehicles, at least.
Ultimately, the random events do nothing but add a much-needed flavor to the game. They make the world feel so much more alive, which makes interacting with it all the more rewarding. They’re not mandatory by any means, easily passed by if they player is in a serious rush or isn’t in the mood. Nevertheless, putting random events inGTA6will only aid in making sure that the world of Vice City is Rockstar’s most ambitious yet.
Grand Theft Auto 6
WHERE TO PLAY
Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them. But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive.
