While this would eventually expand with Grand Theft Auto Online, where players could customize and interact with their homes, there still wasn’t that much going for apartments other than personal flair. Other players would come visit, take a look around and maybe start a heist, and that was that. Camps in Red Dead Redemption 2 were an integral part of the experience, not only as a player’s home, but as a community hub for the characters and the story. Grand Theft Auto 6 would benefit from adopting this dynamic in its modern setting.
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Dutch’s Safe Haven
Dutch’s gang and their homebase was a huge and central part to Red Dead Redemption 2’s playthrough. The camp served as a community hub for Arthur and all of his family members, not just to facilitate missions and progression. Players would walk into camp greeted by their fellow gang members, ranging from happy to mean to indifferent depending on Arthur’s relationship with that person. Entire conversations and potential plot points can be initiated or entirely missed by players within the camp. Many of these conversations between Arthur and camp members don’t even lead to quests/missions, they just serve as elements of optional world-building. Even if Arthur’s not even part of the conversation, characters have their own respective interactions and arcs that act independently of the player’s actions.
Characters in the camp instill a sense that their lives are dynamic and functioning in the world independently of Arthur. Red Dead Redemption 2’s pacing emphasizes taking it slow, presenting the opportunity for Arthur to relish and explore the world he’s placed in. All of the subsystems and intricacies of the fictional American Wild West indicate a patient and immersive world dedicated to connecting players with its world. The camp is a big part of this notion; allowing players to decide who they want to bond with or talk to, giving the opportunity to invest in camp upgrades for equipment boosts and aesthetic customization, with plenty of subtleties in between.
Interactivity in Grand Theft Auto
Red Dead Redemption 2’s camp is, in a lot of ways, a thoughtful revolution of the interactivity first implemented in Grand Theft Auto. As far back as Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Rockstar Games has experimented with increasing interactivity within the in-game worlds for players to toy with. San Andreas, initially released all the way back in 2004, was the first in the series to add a dedicated button to talking to NPCs around the world. While this generally resulted in a one sentence response from an NPC before going about their day, it was still an interesting step towards the living worlds that have been crafted in video games today.
Grand Theft Auto 4/5 built off this foundation, and with better console processing, was able to craft a world that genuinely reacted to the player’s actions. Rather than just arbitrarily running away from gunfire, characters say “hi,” react to the player bumping into them or running around like a madman, driving nice cars or crashing them, and various other actions that force NPCs to react to in their own way. The only portion of Grand Theft Auto that cannot compare to Red Dead Redemption 2 is the community aspect embodied by Dutch’s camp. Players can go to strip clubs, bars, hang out spots with friends, but these are often linear quests. There’s never been like a common hangout area or community-like hub in Grand Theft Auto where characters congregate like in Red Dead Redemption 2.
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Emphasizing Character Dynamics
A Grand Theft Auto sequel would do well to incorporate this community dynamic into the plot of the next game. Grand Theft Auto 5 had a genuinely endearing character dynamic between Franklin, Michael, and Trevor. The story was at its best when the trio came together for heists and other missions, with each of their distinctive criminal personalities bouncing off each other in satirical right vs. wrong banter. While it was innovative for the franchise to utilize multiple playable protagonists in an interweaving plot, major story beats were the only opportunities for these three to come together.
Assuming a sequel utilizes this same multiple protagonist system, it’d be fascinating if there were more opportunities for the characters to come together organically. Grand Theft Auto 6 could even employ a centralized location like the camp in Red Dead Redemption 2 to help facilitate those types of interactions. Characters could come together in like a safehouse or staging location that’s used for heists, but they don’t have to necessarily initiate a mission from there. Rockstar Games could also implement some of the friendship/relationship concepts from Grand Theft Auto 4, where players could choose to hang out with characters outside of the main story.
Rockstar Games has experimented with interactivity to a great degree in their most recent outings. Red Dead Redemption 2 took this notion to the extreme, and was received quite well as a result. It’d be interesting to see that same simulation-like treatment focused into the next Grand Theft Auto game moving forward.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is reportedly in development.
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