GTA VI vs other open worlds

Current status

GTA VI is not out yet, so any comparison with released open-world games has to be careful. We can compare public footage, Rockstar's track record, and confirmed setting details. We cannot compare final mission design, performance, online systems, PC features, or endgame depth.

The useful question is not "which game wins?" It is "what kind of open world is GTA VI trying to be?"

The comparison set

The closest reference points are:

• Cyberpunk 2077 for dense modern city design.
• Starfield for the contrast between scale and authored content.
• Horizon Forbidden West for visual polish and activity structure.
• Elden Ring for discovery-led exploration.
• Red Dead Redemption 2 for Rockstar's own simulation standard.

Each game solves a different problem. GTA VI's likely advantage is not RPG depth or fantasy combat. It is a contemporary crime world with vehicles, crowds, radio, police, satire, and systemic chaos.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 is the cleanest city comparison. Night City is dense, vertical, and visually packed. GTA VI's Vice City looks broader and more regionally varied, with a state around it rather than one huge urban stack.

Where Cyberpunk is likely stronger:

• RPG builds.
• Dialogue choice.
• Cyberware and combat systems.
• Dense vertical districts.

Where GTA VI may be stronger:

• Driving.
• Police chases.
• Water traversal.
• Ambient city behaviour.
• State-wide variety outside the city core.

No final call is possible until GTA VI ships.

Starfield

Starfield is useful because it shows the risk of scale without enough authored density. It has enormous scope, but much of its exploration relies on repeated structures and procedural worlds.

GTA VI appears to be taking the opposite approach: fewer spaces, more detail per space.

The lesson for Leonida Intel is simple: judge Leonida by memorable places, not map size.

Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West is polished, controlled, and visually consistent. It is also built around a different kind of open world: machine combat, traversal tools, and marked activities.

GTA VI will probably feel less controlled. Its value comes from traffic, crowds, weather, vehicles, law enforcement, and unscripted moments.

Useful comparison:

• Horizon is strong at authored combat encounters.
• GTA is strongest when the world reacts to player trouble.

Elden Ring

Elden Ring is the least direct comparison, but it changed what many players expect from discovery. It gives less explicit guidance and rewards curiosity.

GTA has usually been more readable: markers, missions, shops, icons, and scripted objectives.

The open question is whether GTA VI hides more of its best material off the obvious route. If it does, the map and database layer becomes even more valuable.

Red Dead Redemption 2

RDR2 is the serious internal benchmark. Rockstar already proved it can build a world with strong weather, wildlife, NPC routines, slow travel, and ambient detail.

GTA VI has a different pace. It has cars, phones, police footage, social media satire, dense roads, beaches, ports, wetlands, and city nightlife.

The question is whether Rockstar can keep RDR2's world detail while returning to GTA's speed.

What GTA VI needs to beat

To feel like the next step, GTA VI needs to deliver on:

• A city that stays interesting after the first week.
• Regional variety that is more than scenery.
• Better interiors and businesses than GTA V.
• Police and wanted systems that feel less predictable.
• Water, wetlands, and roads that all matter.
• A story that makes Lucia and Jason more than marketing images.

Those are the fair benchmarks. Hype alone is not evidence.

What could disappoint players

The main risks:

• A large map with too many empty roads.
• Side activities that feel shallow.
• Online monetisation overshadowing single-player.
• Too few interiors.
• PC plans staying unclear for too long after the console launch plan.
• Mission design that has not moved beyond old Rockstar patterns.

Tracking those risks openly makes the site more credible.

Editorial line

GTA VI will be judged against the best open worlds of the last decade, but it does not need to copy them. Its lane is different: a modern crime state with dense urban systems, long drives, police pressure, radio identity, and satire.

The strongest comparison focuses on design tradeoffs, not imaginary awards before launch.

Sources

1. Rockstar Games official GTA VI site and trailers.
2. CD Projekt Red Cyberpunk 2077 release and Phantom Liberty material.
3. Bethesda Starfield release and post-launch material.
4. Guerrilla Games Horizon Forbidden West material.
5. FromSoftware Elden Ring material.
6. Rockstar Games Red Dead Redemption 2 material.