GTA 6 Has ‘Big and Small Choices’ in Its Story, As Rockstar Takes Red Dead Redemption 2’s Player Agency to the Next Level
It may be difficult to imagine now, but there was a time when people were disappointed that Red Dead Redemption's protagonist, John Marston, would not be leading Rockstar’s 2018 sequel. Arthur Morgan was an unknown, and it was somewhat unthinkable that he could mean more to anyone than the already established Marston.
Rockstar, of course, knew that would be the case. And so, during the production of Red Dead Redemption 2, it put a lot of careful thought into crafting Arthur’s tale, with the aim of ensuring Mr. Morgan could both connect with and reflect players better than even John had. And now, several years later, that same issue has been on Rockstar’s mind while creating GTA 6 protagonists, Jason and Lucia.
“One of the things we are interested in exploring with these games – and it’s something we did probably most consciously on Red Dead Redemption 2 – is the idea of how much of this character is them and how much of it is you, the player?” says Rob Nelson, Rockstar North’s co-studio head.
We spoke with Nelson as part of a recent visit to Rockstar North, and he told us about how important it is for player agency and choices, both “big and small” to permeate through the studio’s stories and the characters at the centre of them.