What We Want from GTA V
Where next for Grand Theft Auto? We put together our wish-list for the next instalment.
by
Martin Robinson
November 20, 2009 - The sun has set on Liberty City The Ballad of Gay Tony marked the end of a saga that began with last year's Grand Theft Auto IV, and what a saga it was. From Niko to Johnny to Luis, Rockstar managed to wring an astounding amount of gameplay out of its magisterial metropolis, and it's with a heavy heart that we said our farewells last month.
But with one city down, we can't help but turn our minds to where Rockstar might take us next.
Co-founder Dan Houser's recent comments suggest that the next game hasn't gone past incubation, though we find it hard to believe that the team haven't been working hard on the next step in their bread and butter series since they shipped number four out of the door last year.
And what can we expect? Well, for one it might not even be called
GTA V, and we half expect that number to be reserved for the next generational leap in the series, something most likely tied into the next wave of hardware - which we'll likely be waiting on for some years now.
So the next instalment is likely to mirror the progression from GTA III to Vice City and onto San Andreas. But what direction will it take? With nothing more than
the vaguest of teasers with which to base our musings, we can only cross our fingers and hope that this is what we see in the next GTA.
A Move to Europe
Some people have interpreted a supposed teaser that featured in the manual of Episodes from Liberty City to confirm this very fact, though we're less certain. We are, however, hopeful that the series shifts its sights away from the lampooning of the American Dream and towards the more difficult target of European culture.
It's not totally foreign territory for the series a decade ago two expansion packs were released for the first Grand Theft Auto that took players to a cartoonish take of London in the swinging sixties. The new realism that fully blossomed in the fourth game would mean an approach far-removed from the high camp of the last attempt, but the idea of Rockstar turning its eye to London, Paris or Berlin is one that's wonderfully tantalising.
Back to the Past
GTA III was set in a contemporary Liberty City, the subsequent instalments evoking the eighties and nineties in turn with charm and precision. It's tempting to think that Rockstar will take GTA IV's engine on a similar journey, though the question is where to?
We'll rule out the thirties, forties and fifties 2K have another little open world game that deals with that slice of history and with the last two decades of the last century already claimed by Vice City and San Andreas it leaves but one option the seventies. Tying in with our previous wish, a take on the Mafia-run Rome of the seventies would be delicious think Romanzo Criminale but with more car chases.
That is, of course, assuming Rockstar wants to go somewhere new. They'd be forgiven for returning to past glories after all, it worked in GTA IV and an HD take on the neon-soaked world of Vice City would be welcomed by many us included.
A Playground City
We'd never belittle the achievements of GTA IV, but in the short time since its release other games have shown that there can be other ways to exploit an open world. Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed II, in particular, gives players a series of cities that are elaborate climbing frames, and scaling its many heights is one of the game's most thrilling pleasures.
We're not asking for free-running in our next slice of GTA, but for a more flexible lead who's happier in clambering walls and who's given more free reign to explore the world around them, and someone who's nimble enough to make a chase on foot as exhilarating as a chase behind the wheel of a top-end car.
