GTA 5 entertained many gamers for years, but not everything about the action game was a good idea. Some features should GTA 6 avoid.
Missions that only extend game time
In GTA V, especially in online mode, there are missions whose structure is neither challenging nor particularly fun. Often, you are also sent to the other end of the map. It is particularly annoying during the money grind to have to go to Paleto Bay or Sandy Shores only to drive back to the city after a 20-second fight with a truck. The driving isn’t bad, but it becomes boring when you drive straight for over 5 km on a highway with no real fast travel option. GTA 6 should therefore avoid such missions that only stretch game time through long distances or trivial tasks and prolong the grind.
Vehicles that ruin the big city vibe
Flying cars and motorcycles with rocket steering, fighter jets, tanks… None of this relates to life in a big city like Los Angeles or Miami. GTA 6 does not have to completely forgo it, after all, there have been jetpacks, tanks, and armed helicopters in GTA for 20 years. However, it needs to be better integrated. The open lobbies have been pure war zones for many years now, having no resemblance to real Los Angeles. And that is what defines GTA: the parody of real places and personalities.
Inciting players
Speaking of fighter jets, tanks, and noob bikes… um, excuse me, flying motorcycles: GTA 6 will be much better than its predecessor if it avoids inciting players against each other so aggressively in online mode.
Don’t get me wrong, PvP is fine and can be fun in GTA Online. What bothers me is the incitement of players, this “Destroy the delivery” without getting worthwhile money or XP for it. The “reward” is neither enough for a level-up nor to change the left rim of a VW Golf. Here, the only aim is to incite players against each other.
This leads to there being no shared community. When grinding, nearly everyone tries to avoid open lobbies and unknown players. Strangers are potential enemies. Helping each other only happens among friends. Joint and peaceful social events only exist in private lobbies. This is very unfortunate for an MMO, because GTA offers countless opportunities for cool activities with the possibilities of a big city – as many successful roleplay servers show.
Calls and spam messages from NPCs
Every GTA player knows the countless calls and spam messages from NPCs trying to sell you some property. And I am extremely sure that nobody has ever bought a business because it sounded so interesting during one of those calls.
This is not just a pure GTA Online problem. Of course, Brucie doesn’t need to call me every 20 minutes in the story just because he wants to hang out and consume copious amounts of drugs. I can already see myself sitting in front of the screen, shouting “MAN, STOP IT!”
Cutscenes that cannot be skipped
Almost as bad as spam calls are cutscenes or phone calls that we can’t skip – whether online, offline, or even in completely different games. It is always a torment. A torment that actually occurs multiple times in GTA V. This is especially annoying when we consider that GTA 6 – like its predecessor GTA 5 – will probably be played for another 10 years. Some cutscenes we have simply already seen. Is it really necessary for me to watch them again?
This is particularly bad when buying new properties in GTA Online. These cutscenes are usually neither entertaining nor helpful nor relevant in any other way. While I enjoy watching every cutscene in the campaign, I just want to finish the relatively love-less chatter in online mode as quickly as possible.
Mechanics that make the game too easy
I do not expect GTA 6 to become a Soulslike or offer a permadeath mode. The game does not have to be difficult; it just needs to avoid mechanics that make the actual playing almost banal. In the story of GTA V, these are, for example, the abilities of Michael, Trevor, and Franklin. Particularly, slow-motion driving and shooting are actually unnecessary and certain situations become too easy to manage because of it.
In online mode, the classic example is probably the armored Kuruma— a car in which you are almost completely protected from enemy fire, but can still shoot out. The actual mission design becomes completely unnecessary once the player arrives with a Kuruma. Another example is the Oppressor, which robs many quests of their actual gameplay.
Of course, each player is free to use such features if they are available. But let’s be honest: If they are available and we as players may have spent millions of GTA dollars on them, then we will use them too.
Places that exist in the game but we cannot visit
GTA V has places that we see briefly throughout the story or in online mode but can never return to during normal gameplay – such as North Yankton or Caio Perico. We can only visit these places when we play the respective missions. Just getting into a plane in the open world and flying to these places is not possible.
It is quite possible that GTA 6 could also have places that we only see briefly in the story. I hope that we can visit these special locations at any time. This would be a particularly interesting addition for the roleplay community – even if these places do not offer much and are very small.
Snow – at least if it remains this bad
The snow in GTA is just annoying. Cars slide more, NPCs drive even worse than usual, and everyone is running around in summer clothes. It’s cool at the beginning of the Christmas season for 30 minutes, but after that, the snow has lost its magic and is just a nuisance.
If GTA 6 wants to offer snow or other special events of this kind again, it needs to be much better. The weather should act dynamically, still waters should freeze, and NPCs should adjust their clothing and behavior to the changed conditions.
Prices/ Value Ratios
The price/value system in GTA Online is just absurd. Rockstar Games needs to find a better solution. A high-tech fighter jet with stealth mode costs between 3.3 to 4.5 million dollars. A police car based on an 80s Chevrolet Impala costs between 3.6 to 4.8 million GTA dollars.
Of course, it seems exaggerated when a standard road car costs several million dollars. Much worse is that a military helicopter, which costs over 50 million US dollars in reality, is at most twice as expensive as a vehicle that can be purchased in reality for under 250,000 euros.
Magical police
The police in GTA V/ Online is basically anything but a threat to the player and yet extremely annoying – because they spawn in the most illogical places. You have shaken off your pursuers with skillful maneuvers, are in the middle of nowhere under a bridge in a creek or hundreds of meters from a road on a mountain, and suddenly a non-off-road police car drives up and sees you three seconds before you would escape.
I really hope that GTA 6 tweaks some aspects of GTA 5 and that Rockstar makes some decisions that improve the experience for us players – after all, my journey as a gamer started with the GTA series and turned me into the shooter player I am today: I spent 1,800 hours in GTA V – and it made me a sweaty shooter tryhard
