Say hello to my little friend!
Grand Theft Auto V has shown that Rockstar is a great teacher in proposing games in which quantity goes hand in hand with quality (after all, the $ 265 million spent on production is certainly not brusquin), and drastic change of direction compared to previous Grand Theft Auto IV was clear and decided.
Now, however, the years have passed and Rockstar knows that when you create a truly amazing world, you have to fill it with fun things to do. Because it is not enough to “forget” to make a product unforgettable, it needs a game behind it.
And with the next Grand Theft Auto VI– The name is clearly provisional – the founders of Liberty City will have to create something that, before being one of the most fascinating explorable environments ever, makes sense to the exploration itself. And that everything does not move from point A to point B, investing passersby and charging some prostitute (to kill and recover money). Because of GTA III’s decades ago, and the modern armed junior criminals need more to smear their criminal record.
But let’s start with some key questions to understand the direction that the series will have to take. First of all, where. The main location, or rather the time frame in which the upcoming GTA VI criminals should be carried out. The most sensible solution – and logical – seems to us only one: the magnificent 80s.
GTA: Vice City, originally appeared on the PlayStation 2 consoles in the year 2002, overwhelmed anyone thanks to its neon lights and shimmering colors, which alone could catapult us to Miami in 1986 at the time of the cocaine spot from South America.
The “City of Vice” with its Miramire, Vice Beach, Coral City, Little Dominica and Richman Heigh districts (just to name a few) was the perfect playground for our Tommy Vercetti and his potential climb to Re organized crime. “I’m Tommy Vercetti, remember that name”, remember?
Not to mention the soundtrack – or rather radio stations – that saw artists such as Michael Jackson, Bryan Adams and Ozzy Osbourne (with his “Bark at the Moon”), as well as a host of other songwriters of the 1970s and 80, for a dive in the past of unheard-of power.
Now, imagine that in a hypothetical Grand Theft Auto VI you decide to go back in 1986, in a split of the US coast that goes far beyond the simple Vice City and its three main islands. Imagine a freely explored area that lurks across the south-east of the United States, with an eye on ‘Atlantic Coast (and yes, with the extraordinary presence of the legendary Liberty City).
All absorbed in the lights, sounds and colors of the most surreal and fascinating decade of recent history. It will not necessarily be something to overwhelm the maps of The Witcher 3, GTA V, Skyrim or Far Cry, but a fairly wide room to contain everything you need. Without exceeding.
The world is Yours
For GTA VI, however, Rockstar will have to give us inside, and hard, even with regard to the gaming system, by stuffing a kind – that of the open world – that for some years now seems to have reached a level of worrying saturation.
First of all, proposing three different characters will be a feature that developers will probably abandon. Much better a single, charismatic and classy character to sell, with the ability to customize it through a simple editor (improved version of the one seen at GTA Online) and contextualizing everything around the neighborhood struggles related to drug trafficking typical of Ronald’s years Reagan.
But on a larger scale (do you have the Narcos TV series?). Here comes into play the characteristic that would upset the series forever:Grand Theft Auto VIshould have a dynamic and persistent gaming world, not as in the previous GTA V and GTA Online, but a continuous and systematic evolution of gambling.
Thousands of walking miles, “inhabited” by other criminal aspirants like us, capable of building – through a clan system or malevitous organizations – of real small criminal empires. Imagine, then, to face missions in homogeneous groups, as well as solitary, following this time a story told in the Rockstar style.
With the ability to receive, regularly, a whole host of content that keeps the threshold of interest (missions, weapons, vehicles and, why not, events that can change the fate of the story) always high. In short, a sort of “fusion” among the classic single player GTA campaigns and the gaming mechanics and the structure of GTA Online.
The narrative would be the focus of online gambling, with more structured and linked missions.
In addition, gaming environments must be explorable both inside and outside. Not just a beautiful city to see but also to visit, with dozens of dozens of open buildings able to recreate a living environment as “live” as possible. Because the greatness is also demonstrated in detail, and despite GTA V shining through the largest horizons ever seen in a video game, the sensation that it was going through a stage set was very strong.
Not counting the possibility of buying entire properties becoming a “landlord” of a territory, thanks to the reputation and experience gained on the field, and thus generating real wars between clans that will try to put our little kingdom into the hands. And the vehicles?
Everything that has made the fortune of the previous GTA should also return this episode, from the bikes, to the flying vehicles, passing through dozens of different cars. This time, however, it would be perfect to have a less arcade and realistic driving model (within limits) with a system of damages that oblige us to always keep an eye open on the conditions of our car.
