Grand Theft Auto 6 is already shaping up to be a much more ambitious game than GTA 5, and that is not just because Rockstar has built a much larger version of Vice City. The world itself is supposed to be considerably more interactive, with more enterable buildings, more activities, more NPC interactions, and plenty of little details that can make the world feel alive. But Rockstar is also making some notable changes to how GTA 6 tells its story.
GTA 5 had three protagonists (Michael, Franklin, Trevor) and a fairly straightforward mission structure that let players bounce between characters as the story progressed. Red Dead Redemption 2 focused on a core playable character, relegating the second playable character to the epilogues, allowing the devs to focus on Arthur Morgan’s story to its logical end across a handful of chapters. As fans know, that chapter system worked out pretty well for Red Dead Redemption 2, and Rockstar has confirmed it returns in GTA 6.
GTA 6 Has Chapters Like RDR2
During a recent Trois Couleurs interview about how Rockstar builds its stories, co-studio head Rob Nelson confirmed that GTA 6 is structured around chapters. Nelson did not confirm how many chapters GTA 6 will have (RDR2 had 6 chapters + 2 epilogues), nor their specific length or anything like that, but he explained how this lets the team move from one part of the story to another naturally. As the major narrative beats are established, Rockstar can focus on the gameplay, world, and everything that Jason and Lucia encounter throughout Vice City. This is a pretty significant change from GTA 5, which did not use chapters in the same way. As Nelson explained, it begins with Rupert Humphries, Senior Vice President of Narrative:
“Rupert will start writing, and then he delivers a page and a half of the story: ‘This is it, they start here, this is their situation. This happens, that causes them to move here, then they stay here for a little bit and do this sort of stuff, then boom, move there.’ And so we very consciously have to think about how we’re going to push and pull players through the map, through narrative beats. We then go, ‘OK, what sort of missions and set-pieces are we going to have there,’ and build the locations around that. And then, once we have the big beats of the narrative that will certainly drive the story forward, we’ll start developing these tentpole missions a little bit more…”
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The interesting part is that these chapters do not appear to mean GTA 6 will suddenly become a completely linear experience. Rockstar explained that it first establishes the major story beats, then figures out how missions and locations can support those moments. After that, the team considers what happens if the player decides to do something different (including whether GTA 6 can allow players to go “off the rails”). That seems to fit with everything else Rockstar has shown about GTA 6‘s gameplay, with Nelson continuing,
“This one is going to be the catalyst that is going to move them from this part of the game to that part of the game. The game is set over chapters, which also help us figure out how the game is going to move. And then, once we have these sorts of tent-pole missions with some different key plot points that are going to happen, I guess then it’s sort of ‘How is this going to work?’ And then, ‘What if the player does something different, can we allow for it, if the player wants to go off the rails?’ So always sort of building it up in layers, and seeing what’s working and what is not”
Rockstar used chapters in Red Dead Redemption 2 to move Arthur and the Van der Linde gang through different locations and stages of their story, while still giving players plenty of freedom between major missions. GTA 6 appears to be taking a similar approach, but applying it to Jason and Lucia and a much more modern Grand Theft Auto setting. Considering how much Rockstar has emphasized the GTA 6 couple’s relationship and the consequences of their actions, the chapters could also give the story a clearer sense of progression as their situation changes.
GTA 6 is still going to be an open-world game first and foremost, but the addition of chapters shows that Rockstar is borrowing more from Red Dead Redemption 2 than just its approach to world detail. GTA 5 did not need this kind of structure with its three protagonists, while GTA 6‘s focus on Jason and Lucia gives Rockstar a different opportunity. If the chapters work anything like they did in Red Dead Redemption 2, they could give GTA 6 a stronger sense of progression without taking away the freedom that has always been such a major part of Grand Theft Auto.