Despite the arcade-like nature of GTA games, their sandboxes offer a ton of room for immersive roleplaying. This is essentially the reason why GTA 5 RP has become a life sim for thousands of players, who voluntarily follow traffic laws, act within the confines of their character, and even maintain a sense of realism while committing crimes. All this serves as encouragement for Rockstar to incorporate some RPG elements into GTA 6 properly. Well, with the next major Grand Theft title almost here, it’s wishlist time. So if it were up to me, here are the five features I’d like to see GTA 6 borrow from other RPGs.
Being an avid fan of RPGs, I mentally ran through my favorite games in the genre while picking apart the elements that made them so memorable. But I did so with the understanding that a GTA game cannot have convoluted mechanics since its surface-level simplicity is part of the franchise’s charm. To sum up, all the features I’ve selected are typically associated with RPGs, but more importantly, they will make sense within the GTA 6 gameplay formula. Without further ado, let’s go to the list.
1. A Reputation System
Reputation systems in RPGs are all about your character’s relationships with certain factions, characters, and even settlements. If you do good deeds that please a particular faction, they’ll grow to like and respect you. But if you go around smearing their name or giving them headaches, the faction will begin to detest you. It’s a simple but effective way to give your actions more value outside of the decisions made during pivotal story missions.
Considering GTA 6 will almost certainly let you mow down an army of cops and freely terrorize the city, a broad reputation system wouldn’t make sense. So, I recommend establishing it at a micro level instead. Take vendors, for example – how many times have you walked through the doors of AmmuNation and shot the store owner for giggles? Yet, he always manages to forgive you and accepts your patronage with a smile.
With a reputation system in place, the NPC could have a meter of tolerance for your shenanigans before he decides to greet you with a cocked double-barrel shotgun. This would encourage players to either maintain a friendly relationship with the vendor or intentionally tick him off to drive him over the edge. Such a system would also be a seamless fit for side characters, such as Lamar or Jimmy from GTA 5, whose opinion of your character would hinge on the nature of your interactions with them.
Similarly, the many gangs of Vice City could react to you differently depending on how you’ve treated them in the past. GTA San Andreas utilized a mechanic such as this back in the day. And I’m really hoping that it finds its way back in GTA 6.
2. Streamlined Character Progression
When I say RPG-like character progression, it might lead you to picture fleshed-out skill trees, specific archetypes, and organic stat upgrades. Admittedly, this is far too much character management for a GTA game, and it certainly makes for a more enjoyable experience without it. So what I’m actually referring to here are changes to your character’s build, appearance, and versatility, all of which improve if you’re willing to put the work in.
I imagine it being a more in-depth version of the skeletal muscle-building mechanic from San Andreas. The mechanic in question let CJ hit the gym and pump some iron to gain muscle, or skip meals and sprint frequently to lose it. Despite its straightforward nature, the feature added an extra dose of immersion.
GTA 6 could take things up a notch by imposing a strict requirement on the number of meals players need to consume to stay ripped. Alternatively, they could tie different types of muscle growth to different workout regimens, which would put the onus on players to choose the body parts they want to improve first. This is also one of the old GTA mechanics I’d like to see in GTA 6.
3. Upgrades and Modifications for Safehouses
I loved every second of decorating Breezehome in Skyrim and renovating the idyllic Corvo Bianco in the Witcher 3. In fact, I distinctly remember taking on odd jobs of all sorts in both games, to scrounge up enough coin to install an Alchemy Table in the former, and fix the guest bedroom in the latter. There’s something incredibly satisfying about making a place your own through small additions, like these, even in a video game.
While GTA titles have featured safe houses of all shapes and sizes, none of them offer customization options, which has always been a missed opportunity in my eyes. With GTA 6, I hope that Rockstar finally seizes this potential and lets players customize their safehouses with decorations like paintings and furniture, as well as more practical installations like a weapon rack, to show off their prized minigun.
4. Branching Quests with Multiple Choices
The most common complaint levied against GTA games is their repetitive mission structure. Ever since the formula debuted in GTA 3, missions in the franchise have been more like instruction manuals, carrying players through scripted events while providing little room for different playstyles. And frankly, this blueprint has worked for the most part, primarily due to how strong these sequences typically are.
With that being said, Rockstar could switch things up by borrowing the branching quest structures of RPGs such as Divinity: Original Sin 2 or Fallout: New Vegas. To pull this off, they’ll need to offer players more agency and give them difficult choices to make. Based on their decisions, the mission would then branch out into a different direction and lead players down an entirely new rabbit hole.
Aside from keeping things fresh and engaging, taking this approach would also improve the game’s replayability, as players will be interested in seeing how the other choices could have panned out. However, this could also complicate things from the company’s end, as level design will get harder. We shall have to wait and watch, I suppose.
5. Romance Options
The GTA 6 trailer 1 has made it clear that there’s a romantic angle at the heart of its story. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the relationship between Lucia and Jason will eventually fall by the wayside. And if that does end up being the case, I’d love to see both characters seek out new paramours, possibly using an RPG-like affinity system.
In practice, the mechanic works a lot like the reputation system, with the main distinction being that your actions trigger a romance with a specific character. We saw a brilliant execution of this in Cyberpunk 2077, as its four romanceable NPCs all had personal quest chains attached to them. Completing these would give players the option to kickstart a romance. Not only were these personal arcs captivating, but the game also allowed players to hang out with their chosen partner even after the main story was completed.
Once again, San Andreas implemented a lighter version of this feature in the past, allowing players to take out NPCs on dates to fill up a ‘relationship progress‘ bar. Some overly eager players took things to the ‘next level’ by devising mods, but GTA 6 doesn’t need that. Just a standard affinity mechanic, coupled with well-written romance options, will do the trick.
And these are the RPG features I want GTA 6 to borrow. Do you agree with my picks, or have any suggestions to share? Do let us know in the comments below.
