At long last, we got our first look at GTA 6 gameplay on Thursday, which also put the spotlight on the various locations found in Vice City and Leonida. From derelict ghettos to posh downtown neighborhoods, the extended look at the game, which premiered on Netflix, gave a lot of visual fodder for anticipating fans.
Ever since the announcement of GTA 6 being set in a new iteration of Vice City, Rockstar’s own take on the American city of Miami, enthusiasts have been speculating about the game’s map. Thanks to two different trailers, several screenshots, and a half-hour-long gameplay video, the community now has a better idea of what to expect from GTA 6’s setting.
GTA 6 vs GTA 5 map size
Throughout its existence, almost each GTA mainline game has provided a bigger in-game world to explore compared to its predecessor. The one instance where that trend didn’t hold was the map of GTA 4, where its size was significantly smaller than that of GTA San Andreas’ map. However, the former may still have ‘felt’ bigger to certain players, given that Liberty City of the HD era was denser with more details and personality.
But, in GTA 6’s case, the map has once again increased in its length and breadth, per TGG’s report on his conversation with Rockstar Games Head of Development Rob Nelson. According to the popular YouTuber, GTA 6’s map is twice the size of GTA 5’s, and similarly, Vice City is also double the size of Los Santos.
Moreover, the total area of the forthcoming game’s world, which includes Vice City and its nearby counties, is eleven times bigger than GTA 5’s world, which consists of Los Santos and Blaine County. The counties that significantly add to the area of GTA 6’s map were revealed to be Vice-Dale County (where Vice City is situated), Mariana County, Kelly County, Lummox County, and Leonard County, as previously leaked by a hacker group called Cyberleek.
GTA 6 vs RDR 2 map size
Red Dead Redemption 2, which hit the shelves in 2018, is Rockstar’s most recent feat in the open-world sandbox genre. The winner of various accolades, it was also a groundbreaking release that completely raised the industry’s standards for immersion and attention to detail. Based on that, it’s no wonder that the studio’s fans are still comparing GTA 6 with the Wild West-inspired game that came out nearly 8 years ago.
According to the aforementioned source, Nelson gave insight into how GTA 6’s map stacks up against RDR 2’s—and it’s a surprisingly unexpected answer. According to him, Vice City and its surroundings combine to form a map thrice the size of RDR 2’s.
It’s worth noting that this statement would essentially establish RDR 2’s world to be fairly smaller than even GTA 5, which released 5 years prior. While this is indeed true, a section of fans may have found the former game to be bigger in experience. An explanation for that is the difference in traversal modes between RDR 2 and GTA 5, where, in the former’s case, traveling across the map on horseback makes its world feel much larger than it actually is.
Since, for GTA 6, Rockstar not only takes from the GTA series so far but has also borrowed some traits from its Red Dead franchise (as evident in the extended look), we are likely to get the sheer vastness of GTA 5 combined with the immersive density of RDR 2 in the forthcoming title.
Author’s take
Over the past decade or so, we have seen Rockstar’s penchant for making authentic open worlds further evolve and become even better than before. The record-breaking commercial success of GTA 5 and RDR 2 is a testament to its open-ended adventures faring extremely well among players.
From what I’ve noticed in the official videos and the leaks so far, there is impressive variety and vastness in terms of both interior and exterior locations. So, the current feeling around GTA 6’s map is nothing short of exciting. On top of that, the population density and numerous different NPC models enhance the realism of GTA 6’s world. These two features should elevate each other and offer what could be the closest a Rockstar project has ever come to producing a world that truly feels ‘alive’.
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