From a Longtime Grand Theft Auto Fan...can Rockstar Games still deliver a phenomenal single player game with GTAVI?

Grand Theft Auto III sold me on buying a Playstation 2.

It was Late October of 2001, I was finishing a semester of college before leaving for the Army (think 9/11), and a friend brought over his PS2 and a new game he had been raving about from a company I'd never heard of. Prior to this, I'd been a dedicated Nintendo gamer, since the late 80s, and had a Super NES and a Nintendo 64 hooked up to my 19" tv in my room, and between shooters, racing games, and wrestling titles like No Mercy, I had everything I needed in gaming.

That is, until I saw Liberty City.

So he hooks his PS2 upto my tv, and from the moment he turned it on, I was mesmerized by the start-up screen, and the intro to Grand Theft Auto III he let play in its entirety before jumping back into his save. He had already wacked Salvatore in the game, and he drove through the part of Portland where the mafia gunmen lined the streets. I watched in amazement as they opened fire on the car the protagonist was driving, and my friend explained to me that these "NPCs" will do that if you have completed missions that killed members of their group or faction. I'd never seen anything like it.

Although I had the money to buy a PS2 at the time, I had my mind focused on upcoming basic training, so I didn't actually buy my first Playstation until after completing Basic Training and Airborne School (which immediately followed the former). When I went on leave, I picked up a Playstation 2 and a copy of Grand Theft Auto III...and in the few weeks before I got deployed I would go to the nearby MWR center (didn't have a TV yet because we were getting deployed and I didn't want to have to store it somewhere), and every single night I'd bring my copy of GTAIII and play it for hours.

When I was on my first deployment, I'd pick up gaming magazines from the PX and read about True Crime: Streets of L.A. and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, but it was the sequel to Rockstar Games' crime epic that had my attention - and when I returned from Afghanistan, I was playing GTA: Vice City every night after work and every single weekend. Now granted, I played other games as well on my Playstation 2 - Tekken Tag Tournament, Dead to Rights, Max Payne, Red Faction, and Half-Life, to name a few...but the Grand Theft Auto Games took up most of my time.

When I reconnected with an old love interest, she knew I was a gamer, and bought me Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne while I was on deployment - and after we got married upon me returning from my second deployment (this time to Iraq), she surprised me with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - and would watch me for hours and loved the series just as much as I did.

Back in those days, Rockstar Games was "firing on all cylinders", so to speak. There were a lot of Rockstar Games offerings for the Playstation 2: Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, San Andreas - and the two ports from the Playstation Portable to the PS2, GTA Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories; Smuggler's Run 1 & 2, Max Payne 1 & 2, Midnight Club 1 thru 3, The Warriors, Bully, Red Dead Revolver and Manhunt 1 & 2 (if I am forgetting any, I do apologize). They were pumping out a lot of content, and the future looked bright and amazing as a fan of Rockstar Games.

While the Playstation 3 generation didn't put out as many games as the Playstation 2 generation as far as Rockstar Games' offerings goes...there were some truly phenomenal titles - Grand Theft Auto IV and its two DLC expansions The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned (which got released together as Episodes of Liberty City), Red Dead Redemption and its suprisingly-phenomenal DLC expansion, Undead Nightmare, Midnight Club: L.A., Max Payne 3, L.A. Noire, and Grand Theft Auto V (I'll come back to this specific title in a bit). With every game, Rockstar was pushing the boundaries of what they could do with the machines presented - and how much they could surprise and delight their fans (such as yours truly). I had no idea this would mark the end of an era with Rockstar Games.

Fast forward to the Playstation 4/Xbox One Generation. There was a port of Grand Theft Auto V - which was admittedly cleaned up and both ran & looked much better, there was actually GTA V DLC planned in the same train of thought as Episodes of Liberty City, which would have Franklin & Lamar trying to survive the streets of Los Santos during a zombie apocalypse, but this got cancelled so they could focus on GTA Online instead (google it, very tragic). L.A. Noire Remastered was released (but didn't look very remastered, tbh)...and the original trilogy got a facelift from Grove Street Games (which had glaring issues at launch like rainfall that got a lot of negative attention from social media and gamers). I didn't mind that much - I bought them and enjoyed them...but I still felt like Rockstar Games was definitely coasting TOO MUCH on past successes. The only real new content they produced (aside from nonstop GTA Online content) was Red Dead Redemption II (which a lot of people like, but it is dreadfully boring IMO - and that's coming from someone who STILL loves the first Red Dead Redemption).

So GTA Online got all the love, and to keep the single player fans happy, GTA V got released not just on the seventh and eighth console generations (PS3/Xbox 360 & PS4/Xbox One)...but it got released AGAIN on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. So we went an entire console generation, essentially, without any new Grand Theft Auto games, at all. Fans of GTA Online will contest this...but GTA Online is such a sh!tshow and is very much a micro-transaction-driven cesspool of insanity that longtime Rockstar Games fans such as myself who have tried it are discouraged even more about the future of Rockstar Games.

Grand Theft Auto VI should have been here at least by the end of last console generation...but it's still not out yet, doesn't have an official release date...hell, it still hasn't even been officially revealed by Rockstar Games yet. That's not to say the game is in bad shape or that it won't be phenomenal...but I am legitimately concerned about the single player side of GTAVI versus the GTA Online side...and whether it can meet the lofty expectations that so many of us dedicated fans have of it. Fingers crossed it is the best in the series yet.

At this point, Rockstar Games needs that level of victory to show us that they're still very much alive and on top of their game.

Grand Theft Auto VI will most certainly have multiplayer as its priority, they make too much money for it not to be.

However never give up hope for a solid Grand Theft Auto. Yet it's always a good idea to see what it looks like, what the word is regarding the games 'state', and if you see any footage check if it's in-game for real.

Don't fall for a Cyberpunk situation. Endless ocean of overhyped bullshit, I still recall even when it launched CDPR fanbois called it the greatest game when it was nothing special. In some cases a broken mess.

Another example of this was Anthem, Bioware fans still lingered hoping for a W and it was a huge L in every category. Which was easy to see if they paid attention.

I've followed and got excited for my fair share of stinkers too though.

Callisto Protocol springs to mind, was very excited for a new Survival Horror, so much so I went completely media black-out for the game, bought day-one, and it was a stinker (spoiler: the game is hot garbage/ don't play it). Honestly can't even call CP a Survival Horror, it was a Beat em' Up with bad controls.

Luckily for me Signalis released around the same time and was everything I wanted from a new IP Survival Horror game, one of my favorite games of 2022.

No one wants a bad game. And it's awful when it happens, but pay enough attention to a bad game in the works and you can usually smell its stink.

Man these games get old really quick.

@Alexander2cents: I'm in the same boat. GTA is a series I respect for it's ambition and the way it pushes tech forward, but I lose interest after a while. So much stuff to do, but most of it isn't all that fun. Enjoyed Saints Row more (the older ones anyway).

I hope they go for a more immersive, RPG experience. Say what you want about Cyberpunk 2077, but the missions, world, characters, etc. are a lot more interesting.

If Rockstar could somehow keep everything they already do well, and add in that narrative experience of an action-RPG, that would be incredible.

And I'm not saying GTA needs RPG gameplay elements, just the narrative ones.