Open-world games have gotten very good at giving players somewhere to go, but getting them to actually care about those places is a different challenge. A huge map can provide hundreds of locations and still feel strangely empty once the initial novelty wears off. Rockstar Games has spent years pushing against that problem, with games like Red Dead Redemption 2 making travel itself feel like part of the experience instead of simply something players endure between missions.
Grand Theft Auto 6 appears to be taking that philosophy even further, especially as Rockstar expands beyond the familiar streets of Vice City. Leonida is not simply a larger version of Grand Theft Auto 5's Los Santos, but a broader setting built around multiple regions, communities, environments, and cultures. Vice City remains the centerpiece, but places like the Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia, and Mount Kalaga National Park give GTA 6 considerably more ground to cover (and considerably more reason to leave the city).
GTA 6 developer Rockstar discusses social media's impact on Vice City in the upcoming open-world game.
The challenge, according to Rockstar, is making sure players actually experience that world without turning the story into a...
