While some GTA players are still trying to enjoy everything that Los Santos has to offer by getting up to wacky hijinks and spending all of their hard-earned cash, others are already looking forward to GTA 6.
For some, this has involved coming up with potential ideas for its soundtrack, working out how a social hub like Red Dead Redemption 2’s gang camp could fit into it or intensely debating whether the game’s first trailer will be released this month.
However, the current issue on the lips of some prospective players is the linearity of the game’s missions, with a few old-school GTA fans desiring a return to more open-ended story beats.
Do you think GTA 6 should give players more freedom in missions?
This idea is the subject of a recent thread on the GTA 6 subreddit, which began with a post from user Senor_Tortuga308, who said: “The really odd thing about Rockstar's games is that the worlds they create are so open, and the player is given way more freedom than most open world games, but as soon as you enter a mission, it becomes the most linear experience imaginable.”
Their proposed solution to this was strictly limiting the actions that can cause a mission to end prematurely, saying: “We shouldn’t fail for alerting the cops, or hitting a pedestrian, or any of that stuff. The game should be able to adapt to what's happening and let the player figure things out.”
Some of their GTA-playing brethren agreed that this would be a nice philosophy to return to, with user 84_ferrari_f40 saying: “GTA San Andreas lets me play each mission in multiple ways, while GTA V is highly restrictive, which is quite ironic considering how V has a map really suited for such stuff.”
However, a number of other users weren’t as open to the idea, with one musing: “I personally like the linear missions, I think it creates the possibility of cooler cinematic moments and set pieces, since the devs know pretty much where you’ll be and when.”
Meanwhile, some had more nuanced takes on the concept, with user Whornz4 saying: “A more open approach to some missions would be nice. I understand that some need to be linear for narration purposes.”
Regardless of where you stand on the issue of open-ended missions in GTA, make sure to follow us for more GTA Online updates as new vehicles and more arrive.