Red Dead Redemption 2’s Detail Puts Weight Behind Rockstar’s GTA 6 Claim

Red Dead Redemption 2's Detail Puts Weight Behind Rockstar's GTA 6 Claim



Grand Theft Auto 6 recently won the Golden Joystick Award for Most Wanted Game—something that shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the gaming landscape of the past few decades. During the acceptance speech for the award, another unsurprising thing happened: the Rockstar representative described the game as “mind-blowing.”




Normally, this wouldn’t be taken too seriously, and for good reason—developers from every corner of the industry, but especially in the AAA market, are always hyping up their games with hyperbolic language like “amazing,” “revolutionary,” and “mind-blowing,” but the final product rarely lives up to such lofty claims. One only needs to look at the likes of Skull and Bones, which Ubisoft’s CEO described as the first-ever “AAAA” game, suggesting that it would somehow surpass even the most detailed, expansive, and high-fidelity games ever. Naturally, this was not the case when the game actually launched, and these dramatic statements were written off as little more than marketing speak. That could be precisely what is happening with Grand Theft Auto 6 now, and indeed, marketing and optics certainly play a role in any official statement about the game, but there’s plenty of reason to take these assertions of “mind-blowing” quality at face value.


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Red Dead Redemption 2 Proves That GTA 6 Can Indeed “Blow Minds”

Red Dead Redemption 2’s Insane Level of Detail

It’s no great secret that Red Dead Redemption 2 is a bafflingly detailed game. Rockstar truly pulled out all the stops when designing its sprawling open world, weather effects, character animations, and so much more. In the gaming community, there are frequently design choices, ingenious features, and art design that land well with audiences, but Red Dead Redemption 2 stands as one of the few games that just about anyone, regardless of their experience with the gaming medium, can stand in awe of.

Characters move, talk, and emote like real people, putting even the most expensive and graphically complex AAA games to shame during cinematics; NPCs follow strict schedules that help make each in-game city feel plausible; even some of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s more ridiculous or less glamorous details, like the inclusion of various equine bodily functions, help to paint a more comprehensive and reactive virtual world. With this same work ethic, creativity, and ambition, but in a game with a modern, urban setting, there’s no telling what Rockstar may accomplish with GTA 6.


Grand Theft Auto 6 Can Take RDR2’s Attention to Detail to the Next Level

Some of the aforementioned RDR2 details may not make it into GTA 6. For instance, every NPC following a bespoke schedule could be difficult to implement, at least in the same way, in a game set within a densely populated metropolis. But the scope of GTA 6, which is both larger and denser than RDR2, could open the door to innumerable new possibilities.

Maybe NPCs won’t each have their own schedule, but crowds could be programmed to react realistically to the player-character’s actions, perhaps to the point where they could play into some emergent gameplay opportunities. Additionally, while there probably won’t be major differences in temperature, given Vice City’s climate, there could be tropical storms or even hurricanes simulated in-game, which would be a unique chance to offer believable and novel weather effects. And while horses likely won’t make their way into GTA 6, automobiles could be deeply customizable and realistic, taking a page out of the racing simulation playbook.


Of course, these are all just theories; the reality of GTA 6 will probably be vastly different from what most players would guess. But nevertheless, the precedent set by Red Dead Redemption 2 means that hopes should be high for the “mind-blowing” aspects of GTA 6. Only time will tell what these aspects actually are.

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