Grand Theft Auto 6has a release date. According tothe trailerthatRockstardropped across all of its social media channels this week, the most-anticipated game of the moment (and maybe of all time) will now arrive on May 11, 2025.
I’m pro-delay (this sunny vacation of a game was always a better fit for the summer than late fall), and in many cases, I would be using the extra time the push provided to do some homework. I got into the habit of cramming old games as a freelancer, needing to quickly familiarize myself with a series so I could pitch myself for coverage. But even for ordinary gamers, it’s natural to want to catch up on a series you’ve never played or jog your memory about one that you know and love.
Doing that before Grand Theft Auto 6 would be a mistake.
Some Series Aren’t Meant To Be Marathoned
SinceGrand Theft Auto 3in 2001, the series hasn’t really changed. Obviously, that’s not true in some ways: GTA 6 looks like a photograph at times and GTA 3 looks, well, like a 24-year-old game. Rockstar’s newer releases play better, too, with shooting that feels more in line with other modern third-person games. And, obviously, there’s way more to do inGTA 5thanVice City.
Butstructurally,the games are still quite similar. You have a huge open world, with weirdly restrictive main quests to accomplish and side activities to do, and a heavy emphasis on a crime movie-influenced story. That’s a basic description of the games, and, if you zoom in, thereare somedifferences. But, if you’re taking a broader view, the series has has remained largely the same.
It would be an interesting experiment to go back and play Vice City — the last GTA game set in Rockstar’s Miami equivalent — before we see its next-gen evolution in GTA 6. And I could see the same argument for revisitingSan Andreasahead of 5, or 3 ahead of4. But attempting to get a refresher could be a major buzzkill.
I know because I replayedBreath of the Wildin late 2022 through early 2023, and ended up rolling credits just a few months beforeTears of the Kingdomlaunched on Switch.It was a mistake. While I really liked TotK, I felt like I had robbed myself of the chance to go in fresh — and that isn’t something I can get back. My first experience with the game will always be a playthrough where I was slightly tired of its world.
GTA’s Worlds Are Meant To Be Lived In
Open-world games just don’t work for this kind of marathon play. If you try to play 3, Vice City, San Andreas, 4, and 5 ahead of 6, you’ll probably just burn out and start beelining to the main missions. But for a series like GTA, that would miss the point completely. The purpose is to luxuriate in these worlds, to enjoy the little details of their settings, not just to finish them. The main missions are often the worst part, as they tend to be pretty restrictive with prescribed paths and fail screens hidden like spike traps just outside the play space.
Other series would be fine to shotgun. PlayingFinal Fantasy 14scratches an extremely different itch thanFinal Fantasy 15, and even if you want a less extreme example, 15’s open-world road trip through a fictionalized version of the United States feels completely different than making your way throughFinal Fantasy 16’s linear, grounded medieval fantasy kingdom. Even within the Zelda series, replayingTwilight Princessbefore I first experienced Breath of the Wild didn’t spoil my appetite because the games were so distinct from each other structurally and tonally.
The TP/BOTW has me thinking that, if you absolutely must play a GTA before 6, 4’s dark, washed-out Liberty City would make the best counterpoint to GTA 6’s sunny Vice City.
The GTA games don’t offer that kind of variety. You could play Rockstar’s linear shooterMax Payne 3or the pseudo-open-world crime dramaL.A. Noirebefore GTA 6 and not get tired of the formula because they’re different. You could go back to the first two GTA games, too, since the top-down gameplay is so different from what the series became. But if you want to have the best experience with GTA 6, you probably want to hold off on starting up a new playthrough of any of the mainline games released since 3.
I understand the impulse. I keep watching the two GTA 6 trailers and feeling that itch to play the game. I know that jumping into GTA 5 would scratch it to some degree. But, like planning a big heist, this is a case where delayed gratification is best.
