GTA 6 vs Red Dead Redemption 2: map, NPCs and story

Is GTA 6 like Red Dead Redemption 2?

In its systems, more than any GTA before it. Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, told IGN that the way you interact with people is “returning and evolved” from Red Dead Redemption 2. IGN’s preview lists plenty more from the 2018 game: safehouses that work like RDR2’s camps, trimming your hair and beard at home, fences for stolen goods, studying animals and slow-motion replays of your best shots.

Nelson compares the worlds too: “There is a whole other world in Red Dead Redemption 2,” he told IGN, and GTA 6 is “very much like that”, with lots to find that no map icon points to. For us, it reads as GTA’s crime sandbox with RDR2’s living world built in.

How does 1899 compare with present-day Leonida?

In the 2018 game you ride with Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang through a fictional America in 1899, as the Wild West era closes. You mostly travel on horseback, and much of the map is open country between settlements. Dazed describes its tone as slower and more emotional than GTA’s satire.

GTA 6 is set today in Leonida, the series’ take on Florida. Vice City, based on Miami, is the urban heart of six regions, among them the Leonida Keys and the Everglades-style Grassrivers, VGC reports. Nelson told IGN the NPC ideas began on RDR2 in “a more sparsely populated world”, and GTA 6 tests them at modern scale.

Is the GTA 6 map bigger than RDR2’s?

Yes, about three times bigger, going by figures Rockstar gave the press. The New York Times reported on August 27 that the studio put the whole map at three times RDR2’s playable area, GamingBolt notes, and YouTuber TGG said Nelson gave him the same figure, VGC reported. Aaron Garbut later told Game Informer it is Rockstar’s biggest map “by some degree”, per VGC.

There is no official area in square miles. TGG was also told twice GTA 5’s size, and PC Gamer thinks GTA 5’s map was always bigger than RDR2’s, which just feels larger because it’s denser and you cross it slowly. As for length, Nelson told The New York Times his own run through the story and some optional goals took about 80 hours, Pure Xbox reported.

Are GTA 6’s NPCs more advanced than RDR2’s?

RDR2 is where this started. Nelson told IGN that earlier games had only basic ways to talk to people, and RDR2 turned the aim button into a fuller interaction system. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier says, in a video GamesRadar+ covered, that animation vice president Mark Tennant came up with the prototype around 2014 or 2015.

GTA 6 takes it “much further”, Nelson says: with your gun away you can greet, taunt, defuse or provoke, and people notice if you eavesdrop or tail them, IGN reports. Rockstar told The New York Times it has over 600,000 NPC animations to RDR2’s 300,000, per GamesRadar+, though Digital Foundry notes a curated video can’t prove how deep the simulation goes. Our GTA 6 NPC and AI page tracks what’s known.

Arthur Morgan vs Jason and Lucia: why two leads this time?

RDR2 is one man’s story: you play Arthur Morgan, with John Marston only in the epilogue. After GTA 5’s trio, Nelson told TroisCouleurs, the team was “slightly nervous” players would be bored with one lead, though it gave Rockstar room to dig into Arthur’s journey, GamesRadar+ reported. Arthur’s Honor rating changed dialogue and some outcomes.

GTA 6 tries to keep that closeness with two. Nelson said the aim was to bring the “emotional connection” people had with Arthur into GTA, and the answer was a couple, “Bonnie and Clyde”. IGN reports you can switch between them while exploring, the romance is optional, and the Criminal Profile, its take on Honor, has no clear right or wrong. More in Jason and Lucia vs earlier GTA protagonists.

Does GTA 6 look better than RDR2?

RDR2 was Rockstar’s first game built specifically for PS4 and Xbox One, and reviewers singled out its graphics and level of detail. The PC version a year later added visual and technical improvements.

GTA 6 was built from the ground up for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, Nelson told IGN. Digital Foundry called An Extended Look “perhaps the most impressive showcase” of real-time rendering it has seen, with ray-traced lighting and reflections, at about 1440p and 30fps on PS5. On footage we’d expect GTA 6 to come out ahead, though playing it is the real test; our GTA 6 physics page covers weather, wildlife and crowds.

Will GTA 6 come to PC like RDR2 did?

Not at launch. RDR2 came out on PS4 and Xbox One on October 26, 2018, after two delays, and reached PC on November 5, 2019, through the Rockstar Games Launcher and other stores, with Steam following in December.

GTA 6 arrives on November 19, 2026, on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only, and Rockstar hasn’t announced a PC version. GamesBeat reported, citing four sources, that one is planned for the first quarter of 2027, a much shorter wait than RDR2’s year, but neither Rockstar nor Take-Two has confirmed it.

How long did each take to make, and is there online?

RDR2 took more than eight years, starting soon after the first Red Dead Redemption in 2010, with around 2,000 people involved. Red Dead Online opened as a beta on November 27, 2018, became a standalone game in December 2020, and in July 2022 Rockstar said major updates were over as it moved resources to the next GTA, Kotaku reported.

GTA 6 has taken even longer. Nelson told Bloomberg that staff first flew to Miami for research in 2015, on a project code-named Project Americas that was pushed back while Rockstar finished RDR2, GamesRadar+ reports. Rockstar has roughly doubled since, from 2,441 staff in 2018 to 4,711, per IGN, and publishing head Jennifer Kolbe says that, looking back at RDR2, she promised: “We’re not going to finish this game by crunching.”

Online is the open question. Take-Two says GTA 6 “features a single-player experience”, and no multiplayer mode has been announced; Twitch’s CEO expects one next year, unconfirmed by Rockstar. Our Rockstar Games history has the bigger picture.