Grand Theft Auto 6 could be better if its story followed a linear path without multiple endings, diverging from Grand Theft Auto 5. While offering players an active involvement in how the story ends can enhance the experience of many games, if not carefully established, multiple endings can lessen the impact of a story, especially if they come down to a singular choice, like what happened in GTA 5. With little being known about GTA 6's story, it's possible that Rockstar will choose to add multiple endings, which would make it feel less natural and potentially make it less meaningful.
Although GTA 5 mostly followed a linear story throughout its missions, it offered players a choice that resulted in three different endings: two in which Trevor or Michael die, and a third in which the protagonists fight their enemies. Even with their coolest moments, though, GTA 5’s endings were weak and hollow, barely impacting players' perception of the protagonists, yet relying exclusively on a single important choice players made, which made them poorly structured. GTA 5's multiple endings were disappointing and took away from the meaningfulness of the story, and it would have been better without them.
GTA 6’s Story Could Be More Impactful With One Ending
While GTA 6 could make its multiple endings more meaningful if Rockstar implements significant changes to the narrative into the game, it would be better without them. GTA 5’s mostly linear plot line made its multiple endings meaningless, and GTA 6 concluding with an outstanding ending instead would result in a much stronger story. Not only that, but by following a linear plot, developers can use players' interactions with the environment to characterize the game's protagonist, which could impact missions, heists, and other quests. This was done in Red Dead Redemption 2 and helped make its ending more impactful, emotional, and meaningful.
GTA 6 Could Thrive With A Linear Story
GTA 6 could make the same mistake made in GTA 5 by sticking to this formula when it's wholly superfluous to the story the game is trying to tell. Other games with multiple endings, like Life Is Strange, worked better this way because their stories relied exclusively on the player's choices to be told, but for a franchise like Grand Theft Auto, in which characters achieve their goals with a single major mission, an outstanding and well-established ending could be a better conclusion for their stories.