Rockstar has developed two of gaming’s most beloved franchises,Red Dead RedemptionandGrand Theft Auto. Both games throw players into a large open world with great stories, strange side missions, and a myriad of memorable moments players can make for themselves.
Bethesda Game Studios has a lot in common withRockstar, despite being known for very different kinds of game. Like Rockstar, Bethesda has relied on two very well known franchises -The Elder ScrollsandFallout- at least for the most part.Both studios use the same rough format for their two main franchises including their mechanics and the way they handle quests and open-world game design. However, Bethesda is making a move that Rockstar should ‘steal’ as gaming settles into a new decade. In fact, there are some strong reasons that Rockstar could benefit from this move in a way that Bethesda may be less likely to.
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Bethesda’s 2020s Vision
While fans still don’t know when hotly anticipated titles like Bethesda’sThe Elder Scrolls 6are set to be released, the studio has revealed a lot about its schedule for the come decade. Currently, Bethesda is working on a new IP, the first since the company took onFallout 3back in 2007, a franchise which was already 10 years old at that point. Bethesda’s next game will be calledStarfield,a space-set RPG which takes place across multiple planets.
It isn’t known ifStarfieldwill have all the staples of atraditional Bethesda RPG. These features include a first-person perspective, a large open-world, and a greater focus on roleplaying freedom and exploration than a strong central narrative or character development. There are some images reportedly leaked fromStarfield’s development, however, which show a character in a space suit standing before their ship.
TheseStarfieldleaksalso show a meter in the corner which appears to measure oxygen, CO2, and gravity, though how much each of these which actually come into play as mechanics remains unknown. There has been speculation thatStarfieldwill include a variety of alien races for players to meet, but ultimately, just where on the soft to hard sci-fi scaleStarfieldwill sit has yet to be revealed.
What is known, however, is thatThe Elder Scrolls 6will not release until afterStarfield. As such, players can likely expectStarfieldto come out at some point in the next three years, whileThe Elder Scrolls 6could be looking at at release around 2026. The most important thing, however, is that Bethesda is tackling a new IP at all.
Rockstar could deeply benefit from tackling a new IP, perhaps more so than Bethesda. There’s no doubt thatThe Elder ScrollsandFalloutplay a lot with their respective fantasy and post-apocalyptic genres. Nonetheless,Rockstar gameshave always been far more invested in exploring the depths of their genres than Bethesda’s open-world and narrative-light games have been able to.
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Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, isn’t just an open-world game set in the Old West. It’s a game that’s deeply invested in drawing out the implications of its genre. ThroughoutRed Dead 2, players are constantly confronted by the idea that the Old West is dying, and that the future will hold no place for theVan Der Linde gangand their way of life.
As the game goes on, players are encouraged to question whether or not the Old West thatDutch Van Der Lindeclaims is dying was ever real to begin with. Dutch touts a philosophy of freedom and supposed-nobility, but when the tide turns after a failed bank robbery in Saint Denis, it isn’t long before the gang members are at each other’s throats. ThroughoutRed Dead Redemption 2,players are encouraged to consider the myths the Van Der Linde gang members tell themselves in order to justify their actions. These myths range from songs based on the Ballad of Jesse James toRed Dead 2’s constant references to Arthurian mythologyand the Knights of the Round table.
There’s another meta-level to the game’s exploration of genre as well.Red Dead 2insistently uses fictionalized locations such asSaint Denisas a stand-in for New Orleans to the point where there’s almost no room for the real USA to exist at all in the game’s universe. This forcibly reminds players that not only are the characters presenting a fictionalized version of the Old West to one another, but they exist within a totally fictionalized version of America which is also a far cry from the reality.
Genre In GTA And Rockstar’s Future
Grand Theft Autohas always been invested in its genre, particularly satirizing American consumerism, and especially when it comes to fictional violence. The violence inGTAbecomes increasingly over-the-top as the games go on, while characters likeGrand Theft Auto 5’s Trevorremain likeable simply because they are enjoyable to watch and play as, becoming consumer products in and of themselves. LikeRed Dead Redemption,Grand Theft Autois an extremely self-aware series that plays with its genre’s implications both in and out of universe.
It is for that reason that a new IP could benefit Rockstar’s style of storytelling and game design far more than it might Bethesda. Anew Rockstar IPwouldn’t just take players to a new setting, but would allow the storytellers to explore the new IPs genre as deeply as the exploration of genre seen inRed DeadandGTA. The new IP could still feel like a Rockstar game, with a large open world populated with strange side missions and driven by a character-focused main story.
However, it could also allow Rockstar to explore a completely fresh set of genre tropes and the underlying ways players interact with the game’s genre. There is a risk, for example, that a hypotheticalRed Dead Redemption 3would simply struggle to add to the points already made across the first two games with the same level of depth. If Rockstar takes a page from Bethesda’s book and tackles an all-new IP, fans ofRed DeadandGTAmay find that the new game ends up feeling more like a worthy spiritual successor to those two franchises than a sequel ever could.
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