Grand Theft Auto 6 could improve upon. GTA 6's return to Vice City opens up a lot of new opportunities for Rockstar when it comes to revisiting and taking advantage of the diverse locale. This is particularly true for GTA 5's most boring vehicles, which have the potential to be greatly expanded upon in the series' next entry.
GTA 5 turns 10 this year, and the game's triple-protagonist system and updated mechanics made it a shining star in the franchise, but it's not without its flaws. For example, GTA 5's world could've benefited from being more detailed and interactive, and it would've done well to spend more time letting players get to know its characters; instead, people like Trevor just come off as over-the-top but lacking in any depth. GTA 5 also missed an opportunity by making one of its vehicles quite boring, which GTA 6 could remedy.
GTA 6 Can Fix A GTA 5 Vehicle Mistake
While GTA 5 succeeded in having an interesting and diverse array of cars, the same cannot be said for its water vehicles. Boats in GTA 5 are barely present and hardly useful, contributing almost nothing to a player's typical gameplay. Things are a bit better in GTA Online, where shipwrecks and other marine-based activities have been added, but not by much. This is a shame, because the potential for aquatic fun with the series is quite high, which could be proven with GTA 6.
GTA 6 Can Explore Vice City's Waterways
GTA 5 may have squandered its chances at making the oceans of its Los Angeles-inspired environment more interactive, but GTA 6 arguably has a better shot at making the mechanic work because of its setting. Vice City is based on Miami, which has several bodies of water, from the ocean and the Everglades to small rivers and swamps. This would be an excellent new way for the game's protagonist to evade the police or take interesting shortcuts.
Many boats from GTA Online fit with Vice City's aesthetic and general ambiance, and the addition of some of these lavish, larger boats to GTA 6 would also be a great way to make the player feel like they're truly moving up in the criminal world. These, paired with speedy, smaller watercraft, would add a new level of diversity to the game's vehicles, and add a fresh kind of interactivity to the environment of Vice City. Considering the foundation of the Grand Theft Auto franchise is its driving mechanics, the fact GTA 5 didn't capitalize on more opportunities to do so on the water is disappointing.
While it's not as if the absence of more boat-based travel put a serious damper on Grand Theft Auto 5, in a series that's about providing freedom within the world for players to do just about anything they can imagine, the lack of waterways is part of why GTA 5's world feels empty. A wider selection of boats and spaces to drive them in would add fun new mechanics and further diversify the in-game environment. Avoiding Grand Theft Auto 5's mistake would really help Grand Theft Auto 6's Vice City be the best it can be and make it truly feel alive.
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