Red Dead Redemption 2’s world was incredible, but it did feature one misstep thatGrand Theft Auto 6should seek to avoid. In most cases,Red Dead Redemption 2is a benchmark for what open-world games should hope to achieve. It even managed to eclipse otherGrand Theft Autogames in that regard. However, for all the good things thatGrand Theft Auto 6could take from the game, there are a few ideas that should probably be left in the past; one in particular certainly doesn’t need to make a grand return.
Thecontinued relevance ofRed Dead Redemption 2speaks volumes for its quality as a game. Rather than simply being a Wild West version ofGrand Theft Auto, the game dives deep into its own world, with its own approach to storytelling. The end result was Rockstar’s most heartwrenching story to date. At the same time, the story took some notable twists, including Arthur’s journey to the island of Guarma.
Compared to the rest of the game,Red Dead Redemption 2’s Guarma chaptersticks out for several reasons. It takes place entirely on the titular island after Arthur and several other Van Der Lindes get washed up there. Every aspect of its story is self-contained, and once the crew leaves, almost nothing that happened in Guarma has much of an impact on the rest of the plot. That gives it an odd place in the story, almost like an intermission.
The setting of Guarma itself is a big part of what makes the chapter such a diversion from the plot. Once the last mission in Guarma is completed, players can’t return, not even inRed Dead Redemption 2’s epilogue. Granted, there is little to do in Guarma compared to every other prominent area of the game, so not much content is lost in that sense. At the same time, it’s still a unique location that the player only has the chance to experience for a short time. They can’t visit Guarma before the story takes them there, and it’s gone once the story sends them away. It can be hard not to feel like something’s being lost once Guarma is permanently off-limits.
Guarma is a much bigger island than its story segment indicates, as discovered by modders going out of bounds, which makes it all the more tragic that players can’t go back.
GTA 6 Shouldn’t Lock Away Parts of Its Own World
An area like Guarma is something thatGTA 6should pass on. What’s been shown ofGTA 6’s version of Vice Citylooks fun, and it would be a shame if any part of it got cut off from the player at a certain point. This is doubly true if the player gets to visit another iconic area like Liberty City or San Andreas, only for the path there to be closed forever once they leave.Grand Theft Auto 6should thrive on giving players options and opportunities that stick around, and taking away entire chunks of the game world would be counterintuitive to that design philosophy.
It can be hard not to feel like something’s being lost once Guarma is permanently off-limits.
Guarma was an interesting experiment, but not one that needs to be replicated. It’s not impossible for players todefendRed Dead Redemption 2’s Guarma chapter, since the developers clearly had an idea for it. Despite that, a whole game area becoming permanently inaccessible is a definite sore spot.Grand Theft Auto 6should be able to have a large, exciting game world just like its predecessors, includingRed Dead Redemption 2, but it should ensure that it doesn’t unnecessarily cut off parts of its own world.
