Hiya!

So, it’s been around a week since Rockstar Games amazed us with its Extended Look of Grand Theft Auto 6. I am personally excited to get my hands on the game when it releases and I know it’ll occupy a lot of my time. This will actually be the first Grand Theft Auto game I’ve ever played. I’ve watched by brother play the previous entries when I was mainly a backseat gamer when I was younger and I’ve only really blossomed into a real gamer girl recently. So, yeah. I’d love to get my first taste of what kind of carnage I can do in Grand Theft Auto VI.

I mean, the game is all about living out a fantasy of being a criminal and doing criminal activities. Nothing I would do in real life, I swear, officer! I know there’s going to be a thill of doing bad things in the virtual world of Rockstar Games will make. However, a part of me is thinking Rockstar Games might be putting a damper on my felon fun in the latest entry as it does appear they’re adding a lot of realism to Grand Theft Auto VI.

While doing some additional research on the game, I got to watching a few videos from gamers who Rockstar Games allowed some playtime with Grand Theft Auto VI and have done interviews with the people behind the game. From those that I’ve seen, it does appear they’re making a lot of changes to how things work when compared to previous games and some of these changes may put a damper on how much fun the game should be.

The Extended Look already gave us some hints on some of these changes, such as how the Wanted system has changed as the police will have things like your physical and vehicle description while they chase you down. There’s also a quick moment where you’re given a choice to either break the window of a car or use a slim jim to unlock the door covertly. The Extended Look, however, didn’t show us all of Grand Theft Auto VI’s secrets as, apparently, you’ll need to get gas for your car now and need to obtain fancier equipment in order to steal the more high-end cars.

This is a big change from how the older Grand Theft Auto games handled gameplay. Cars never ran out of fuel so you can drive from one end of the map to the other without having to find a gas station. You essentially had your pick of what vehicle you wanted before. All you had to do was walk up to it and open the door somehow and you could drive away with it. Who cares if you have a total stranger in the passenger seat? It’s my car now and you should be the one to get out!

I digress, though. These additional gameplay mechanics definitely fit well in today’s world but is a game like Grand Theft Auto supposed to be more realistic? That’s something I’d like to discuss with myself!

First off, this might be a good thing because actually adding more details and mundane things can make the game more fun. For example, while the act of getting gas may seem boring in real life, getting gas in the game can be more of an opportunity to overhead the dialog of bystanders and listen in on some funny dialog. It also makes being more familiar with the map more essential as you would have to keep track of where the gas stations are and if you would have enough fuel to make it to your intended destination. It can also allow for more forward thinking, as in you would need to stow away some gas for long trips or else you’re run out of gas in the boondocks.

Then again, why would I want to keep track of these kinds of things? What happened to the simplistic fun of getting into the car and just exploring the world without a care in the world? Instead of trying to go off the beaten path on a whim, I might get second thoughts because I might run out of fuel and then shlep all the way back to the city because I have no idea where else to refuel. That kind of puts a damper on one of the better things about open world games: exploration. Having to check if you have enough fuel or know where a gas station is kind of takes that away.

On the other hand, making things a little more nuanced and complicated can make playing the game much more satisfying. I mean, stealing an old junker should definitely be easier than a brand-new luxury car with all of the new security systems. If you make them both on the same difficulty to swipe like in the older Grand Theft Auto games, then why bother swiping the old junker? I’ll always be going for the pricier vehicle because there’s nothing stopping me. Making it more difficult to steal something will make it more enticing and make you work harder to get it. So, when you do finally get the ability and the equipment to go joyriding on that fancy new sports car, it’ll feel more gratifying. If it’s more gratifying, that makes the experience much more special.

On the flip side, wouldn’t that just make the start of the game a slog? I have played some RPGs and one of the things I actively hate is grinding. The process of forcing yourself to go through random battle after random battle just so you can level up. That’s because the other areas will not be accessible or, rather, these areas will be unplayable because the enemies in those areas will trounce you because of how strong you are. I just want to move on with the story but I can’t! That seems specifically counterintuitive in a large sandbox game like Grand Theft Auto, doesn’t it? Part of the fun would usually be exploring areas early on but, if you can’t actually do everything right from the start, that puts a damper on that.

Having said that, I would think Rockstar Games would take that into account by giving you a ton of alternative activities to do while you do your grinding. Heck, I would even think they would purposefully make it so you would actually want to do these alternative activities because they would level up your character. My partner on this website already theorized the 2 characters you play will have different stats at the start and doing certain activities will help them level up the ones they’re not strong at. Besides, hasn’t all of the previous Grand Theft Auto games included tons of other stuff to do besides committing crimes? They’ve always had some various minigames and Grand Theft Auto VI seems to be no different. So, why wouldn’t Rockstar Games actually make it so there are benefits for doing these side activities?

I do think this is the main takeaway in the end, though. Yes, it’s not going to be all that simple to carjack a vehicle anymore. Yes, there are going to be a lot more “realistic” things to do, such as getting gas and such. The actual question is if all of these things Rockstar Games is adding to Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be fun to do. On paper, it doesn’t as it makes the game more complicated than before. The reality, however, is we probably won’t care if it make the experience of playing Grand Theft Auto VI actually more engaging and enjoyable. Maybe all of these other stuff makes it more immersive. It’s hard to say right now because all we have are the previews and the Extended Look. We’re just making educated guesses but we won’t be able to answer that until we all play the game.

So, yeah. Unfortunately, this debate with myself is more of a deadlock and more like we’ll just have to wait and see. Hopefully, Rockstar Games nails it and makes it all fun… but we won’t know until we experience Grand Theft Auto VI for ourselves.

Byee!

Do you think Rockstar Games is making Grand Theft Auto VI too complicated? Do you think it will strip away the fun? Let me know in the comments section below!