The anticipation around Grand Theft Auto 6 is at some of the highest levels the gaming industry has ever seen, with fans eagerly awaiting more official news about the project to release following its first reveal trailer back in December 2023. The long development time for the game, combined with the pressure to go far beyond the experience of 2013’s GTA 5, has led many to believe that GTA 6 will involve a truly massive amount of content, redefining what can be expected from the beloved franchise.
There are many ways in which Grand Theft Auto 6 can excel in areas of content that were omitted from GTA 5, with the side content of any Rockstar title being just as important as the core story and gameplay. As Rockstar’s most recently released game, Red Dead Redemption 2 can serve as a partial example as to the quality and scale of a lot of GTA 6‘s content, with some mechanics from the 2018 game oddly being perfect for a modern translation over to GTA 6. Hunting was a big element of RDR2‘s portrayal of the Old West, and while not as important in a modern setting, similar hunting mechanics in GTA 6 could still serve a fun purpose.

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Red Dead 2’s Hunting System Could Provide a Boost to Grand Theft Auto 6’s Side Content
The success of 2013’s Grand Theft Auto 5 speaks for itself, with the title holding the record of the most profitable piece of media ever created. That means Rockstar has a huge task ahead of itself to evolve the franchise and go beyond these lofty heights in GTA 6. The upcoming title is reportedly aiming to achieve this through things like a much larger game world and deeper NPC interaction, and there is one smaller element of GTA 5 that its successor could easily improve upon to work towards this goal: hunting.
Current estimates suggest that GTA 6‘s map will be at least twice the size of GTA 5‘s, with the upcoming game potentially featuring several unique maps that the player can travel between.
Aside from the dense urban areas of Los Santos, GTA 5 also featured large areas of wilderness around Blaine County and the wider San Andreas area, although there still remains a distinct lack of wildlife in these areas to this day. A lot of GTA 5‘s map feels a lot more empty thanks to this general absence of animal life, and Grand Theft Auto 6 is expected to expand upon this. The already iconic reveal trailer for GTA 6 went out of its way to showcase dense wildlife and a range of rural areas like swamps, with Rockstar clearly going all-out in Vice City’s inspiration of Florida.
A higher frequency of animals will serve to literally give more life to Grand Theft Auto 6, and if there are more animals, it only seems logical for the title to possess the same hunting mechanics as Red Dead Redemption 2 to give an extra layer of content to this aspect of the game. Of course, GTA 6‘s modern setting does not necessitate the hunting and skinning of animals for survival or money as it does in RDR2, but there are still plenty of potential justifications for the inclusion of hunting to give one more dose of content to the wide-spanning experiences of GTA 6.
Hunting in GTA 6 Could Be a Key Activity For NPC Bonding
Hunting could be a side activity that is available with certain NPCs throughout GTA 6‘s story, for example, with the player building bonds with an NPC following successful excursions in a similar vein to Grand Theft Auto 4‘s friendship system. Hunting tournaments could even be held as a core side activity, offering money, trophies, and reputational boosts alongside the usual GTA side content of things like street races.
The more advanced equipment of modern life such as recurve bows could logically improve upon the hunting system of RDR2, or at the very least add plenty of fresh elements to it, making its inclusion in GTA 6 feel natural and unique in its own right. While not the most important or exciting aspect of what Grand Theft Auto 6 might potentially offer, an improved and modern translation of RDR2‘s hunting system could be a great way to add another layer of variety to the massively anticipated project.
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