After nine long years, Rockstar Games has announced a new entry in the beloved Grand Theft Auto series, GTA 6, but it needs to avoid a GTA 5 mistake in order to be the best game it can. GTA 5 featured three separate protagonists, and although multiple protagonists can add to some games, GTA isn't one of them. Having a single protagonist that lasts for the whole game is likely the best choice, and would help GTA 6 be even better than its predecessor.
In GTA 5, the story follows three separate protagonists - Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, and Trevor Phillips. The three find themselves entrenched deep into Los Santos' criminal underbelly, and have to perform a series of heists in order to survive. Each of them is playable, and each has their own background and story to tell. Some say that San Andreas is the best GTA game, but GTA 5 still has some redeeming qualities. Michael is a former bank robber trying to retire from crime, Franklin is a small-time criminal trying to find his way in the world, and Trevor is a violent psychopath who deals drugs out of a trailer park. Over the course of the story, they all find themselves, often begrudgingly, working together.
GTA 5's multiple protagonists muddled the story and made it too complicated, which GTA 6 needs to avoid. Moving away from the previous game and into its own story with a singular playable character can open up the next GTA and give it more options to rework GTA 5's repetitive story missions. The Red Dead Redemption series stands as a perfect example of this and should serve as a model for GTA 6 to work with. Although details on the game are still largely unknown, now that it's officially confirmed, GTA 6's release date and news on its features could come at any time.
GTA 6 Needs To Keep Its Story Simple
GTA 6 is something that fans of the series, and of Rockstar Games in general, have been asking for for a long time. Its development confirmation came with elation from GTA players, and many are eagerly awaiting news and leaks. However, that same hype means that it must tread carefully. Overcomplicating the story could be the downfall of the next GTA and take it from the most-anticipated game of the year to the worst flop in Rockstar history. Multiple protagonists could do exactly that. The overlapping narratives and intertwined story of GTA 5 are a part of what makes the game what it is, but it's something that GTA 6 should avoid in order to make it the best game that it can be with the best story that it can have. GTA 6's story shouldn't interfere with gameplay and vice versa.
Focusing on one protagonist in GTA 6 could do wonders for the game. It would let the story stay simple and follow one character as they try to find their way in whatever setting the game ends up having. After the disaster that was the GTA Trilogy's Definitive Edition, Rockstar needs to show its fanbase that it's learned from its past mistakes, and this could be just what it needs to do. Moving away from GTA 5 is just as important, as the company has been milking it ever since its release.
GTA 6 Needs To Avoid GTA 5's Mistakes
GTA 5 has been the most successful game that Rockstar has made so far. It's been beloved by players ever since its release, but it's not without its fair share of problems. Putting aside all else, the story mode peters out as the game goes on, and quickly becomes dull and repetitive. GTA 5's enhanced next-gen changes can't fix the fact that its story mode falls flat. The series of heists that Michael, Franklin, and Trevor undertake devolve into a grinding slog that is often ignored in favor of other pursuits. The story mode loses out in favor of GTA Online, which gives players the freedom to do whatever they want, unburdened by the endless heists of the main game.
A single protagonist could free GTA 6 from the shadow of GTA 5 by opening up new opportunities for story and gameplay. Instead of focusing on how the three protagonists are forced to work together in order to survive the FIB, GTA 6 could tell the story of one person and their individual struggle to make it in the world. New types of missions would be available without the need to show the chemistry that builds between Michael, Franklin, and Trevor as they commit the game's heists. GTA 6's trailer isn't likely to release for some time, but hopefully, it features one protagonist so that the game can stand on its own, and avoid pigeonholing itself into heists the way GTA 5 did.
GTA 6 Needs To Learn From Red Dead Redemption
Red Dead Redemption serves as a perfect example of how a single protagonist would make GTA 6 better. Although it does feature multiple protagonists, each one is given their own game, John Marston with the original RDR and Arthur Morgan with RDR2. The story modes are much better, and show how John and Arthur grow as people and change over the course of their respective games. They do sometimes repeat their missions, but there's much more variety, and the stories still focus on Arthur and John as individuals as well as members of the Van der Linde gang. A singular protagonist that the game would follow over the course of the story would help GTA 6 be more like RDR2, deepening its story without complicating it and allowing for more character development.
Arthur Morgan and John Marston themselves should also act as models for GTA 6's protagonist. They're both complicated human beings with their own drive and ambition, and over the course of RDR and RDR2, players find themselves sympathizing with them, especially as John faces off against Edgar Ross' army and Arthur slowly succumbs to tuberculosis. In comparison, the GTA 5 protagonists seem shallow and unsympathetic, especially Trevor. Red Dead Redemption is a much better model for the game to build on than GTA 5's complicated story, repetitive gameplay, and flat protagonists. Grand Theft Auto should take elements from RDR in order to make a single GTA 6 protagonist that will stand above those who came before them.