Rockstar North co-director Rob Nelson tells IGN that Leonida is designed for replay, in the mold of Red Dead Redemption 2, with a Criminal Profile instead of an honor system.
Sources jeuxvideo.com
GTA 6 is not meant to be played in a straight line, and Rockstar says so openly. In a long interview with IGN, Rob Nelson, co-director of Rockstar North, says the state of Leonida was built so players start a second or third run, as relayed by JeuxVideo.com.
Yes, according to Nelson. JeuxVideo.com reports that he starts from Red Dead Redemption 2, where many players rushed the story and missed about half the content. The studio wants the same logic at Leonida's scale: micro-events, encounters and story threads a first pass lets slip.
That does not mean redoing the main story from scratch. A second run should show something different because the world reacts to what you did.
Nelson describes a world that rewards looking around. As quoted by JeuxVideo.com, in French: a huge amount of what you find is emergent, not guided by objectives, markers or map icons, and spending time exploring is "hugely" rewarded. A house spotted on a hill may hide something, with no pin to announce it.
Read also GTA 6: Rob Nelson on how Rockstar opens up missions without losing the story
On policing, he says that at three stars in town, the best option is usually to leave the streets and head into the alleys on foot, since police know what you look like and what you wear.
The reputation system is called the Criminal Profile. Nelson says it differs from Red Dead Redemption 2's honor system: there is no right or wrong way to play, but repeating certain actions affects how the world reacts and how the story unfolds.
The same goes for Jason and Lucia. Investing in their relationship is optional but encouraged, and just doing missions may not keep them together. Players will need to spend time together in the open world. "It's not something we want to force on players," Nelson adds.
Nelson already spoke about freedom in missions, covered in our earlier piece. See also GTA 6 versus Vice City 2002.
For anyone wondering about length, the message is that Rockstar sells a world to explore rather than a checklist. Whether the emergence holds up from November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S remains to be seen. The interview gives no numbers, neither story length nor event counts. Follow our release page.
Sources jeuxvideo.com
By Lara Rivolet · GTAVIFRANCE newsroom
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