Summary
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GTA 6
must innovate and refine gameplay mechanics to live up to its monumental hype and the legacy of the franchise. -
More activities, weapon and vehicle customization options, and official RP servers are essential improvements for
GTA 6
. - There are a plethora of other activities that can be added for a truly immersive and satisfying gaming experience.
Over a decade after the initial publication of Grand Theft Auto 5, rumors predicting the pending release of Grand Theft Auto 6 are seemingly popping up on a near-daily basis. Although GTA 5 remains immensely popular and is widely regarded, critically and commercially, as one of the greatest video games ever released, it is not perfect, and there are a number of glaring areas its highly anticipated sequel could improve from its predecessor.
Although there are numerous elements from GTA 5 that should be carried over into GTA 6, innovation, refinement, and the development of new and exciting gameplay mechanics are of paramount importance to consumers and critics following the release of any new video game. Moreover, with the release of a title that transcends the video game industry, such as GTA 6 undoubtedly will, the pressure is significantly heightened. For GTA 6 to live up to its monumental hype and to the legacy of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, it must be a demonstrable improvement over its predecessors in several key areas.
10 More Activities
Although reckless driving, mass murder, and the occasional mission are all adrenaline-pumping staples of the Grant Theft Auto franchise, the series shines in its ability to make mundane mini-games and activities entertaining, both offline and online with friends. In the latest edition, these include golf, tennis, darts, gambling, and hunting, which, although fun, are severely limited and somewhat repetitive. Previous installments featured a wider array of activities to partake in, such as pool, air hockey, and Roman’s favorite activity, bowling.
9 More Weapon And Vehicle Customization Options
Weapon and vehicle customization options are somewhat limited for non-online players, and although they are comparatively expensive for those who play online, they could still be significantly improved in GTA 6 to allow for a broader sense of unique style — a potentially crucial element for immersive roleplaying. Notably, there has been a significant amount of speculation regarding GTA 6 vehicle customizations, with the prevailing theory being that the system for vehicle customization will be comprehensive.
8 Official RP Servers
The developer of GTA 6, Rockstar Games, will undoubtedly appreciate that for many, GTA Online is the most important aspect of the game and the area where many will spend the vast majority of their time with the game. Although people play GTA Online for many different reasons, a large community of regular online gamers participates in GTA Online‘s roleplay servers. Therefore, a potentially enjoyable improvement over GTA 5’s incarnation of GTA Online would be the introduction of Official roleplaying servers.
7 Explorable Buildings
One significant area that can almost obliterate a player’s immersion in GTA 5 is the inability to enter the vast majority of public buildings. Although rendering the interior of every building would be an unreasonable request, the expansion of explorable buildings in GTA 6 would afford the game a noticeable improvement in immersion and realism. Allowing the player to enter dining establishments and public service buildings, among others, could help to make the world of GTA 6 feel like a real, breathing society rather than the pretty yet dead world of GTA 5.
6 More People Inside GTA Online Servers At Once
With the immense popularity of the current iteration of GTA Online, a notable improvement that should come with the upcoming version is the expansion of servers to allow more people to share a map at any given time. With GTA Online‘s servers supporting only 32 players, the map often feels particularly barren; expanding this number significantly would result in a significantly more entertaining, enjoyable, and perhaps even chaotic online experience.
5 Graphical Upgrade
Perhaps the most obvious way in which GTA 6 can improve over its predecessor is with the upgrade of its graphics. Notably, as a result of GTA 5‘s unusually long life span, three console generations, it has seen monumental graphical improvements. GTA 6 will, therefore, likely not be a drastic graphical improvement at first; however, if it is to live up to the hype, it certainly must be a visually stunning game from day one.
4 Improved Movement And Stealth
Two closely related issues inherent in GTA 5 that could easily be improved for the upcoming sequel are the rather clunky on-foot movement and the abysmal stealth mechanics. These glaring failures are, at times, incredibly frustrating and immersion-breaking — ultimately reminding the players that they are controlling an unwieldy character in a video game. This, however, has not always been a significant issue. Earlier installments in the series, namely Grant Theft Auto: San Andreas, seemingly perfected the stealth and movement mechanic as seen in the Grand Theft Auto burglary missions — hopefully, they also make a return in GTA 6.
3 Quantity And Quality Of Heists
One of the most significant (and enjoyable) elements of GTA 5 and GTA Online was the inclusion of heists. While they were fun in story mode, they particularly shine in online mode, where their idiosyncratic nature often provides the most challenging yet exciting experience available in the game. GTA 6 would almost undoubtedly be a somewhat disappointing game if it failed to match the caliber of heists included in its predecessor.
2 Interactive Environments
A potential improvement that would see GTA 6 capitalizing upon the latest hardware could come with interactive environments — perhaps in the form of destructible buildings, terrain, and flora. Although this has proven to be a difficult task for many games to execute (see Crackdown 3), it seems as though if it were feasible, Rockstar would be a good candidate to carry it out successfully. Interactive environments would add a notable sense of consequence and reality, pushing the player’s immersion to new heights.
1 Better AI
A key improvement that GTA 6 desperately needs to make over GTA 5 is a significant overhaul of NPC AI. GTA 5, although beautiful, captivating, and immersive, is tarnished by its abysmal NPC AI. The primary complaints regarding NPCs in GTA 5 concern their terrible driving, lack of variation, and general stupidity, resulting in reactions from bemusement to frustration. Grand Theft Auto 6 seriously needs to rectify this glaring shortcoming.