A new GTA 6 gameplay from a former Rockstar Games developer hints at the return of one of the best parts of Red Dead Redemption 2. To date, despite being six years old, Red Dead Redemption 2’s open world remains the most impressive open world of all time. What makes it stand out from the open worlds of games like Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, Starfield and the many others that have been released since is how alive and immersive it feels.

Videos by ComicBook.com

There’s a ton of technical wizardry and a ton of resources poured into the open world of Red Dead Redemption 2 making it the most living and breathing open world to date. Perhaps the biggest contributor is how real the NPCs feel and how they interact in the world in such a seemingly dynamic way. There’s really nothing dynamic about the NPCs, it’s all scripted, but there are so many scripts, and they’re done so well that it gives the illusion of being dynamic and purely reactive.

Achieving this with GTA 6 is obviously much more challenging as there are a large number of more NPCs in GTA 6 than Red Dead Redemption 2 due to the setting of each game. Meanwhile, there are even more opportunities for open-world sandbox mayhem in GTA than Red Dead Redemption. That said, it sounds like Rockstar Games may have taken what it did with Red Dead Redemption 2 and somewhat expanded upon it.

RELATED: GTA 6 Leaked Screenshots Appear Online, But Are They Real?

To talk to IGNformer Rockstar Games designer Ben Hinchliffe – who left the company in 2022, but worked on GTA 6 before that – teased Grand Theft Auto fans that the GTA 6 open world won’t be a watered-down version of Red Dead Redemption 2, but actually expanded on .

“From a theoretical point of view, and what you could do if you had the budget and the team size, I see no reason why you couldn’t have that (Red Dead Redemption 2) level of NPC interaction in a much larger game,” Hinchliffe said .

Now obviously Hinchliffe can’t confirm anything or go into details as he’s no doubt under a tight NDA considering he worked on the game. That said, this seems like an obvious nod and wink. And of course he would know having worked on the game.

In the hypothetical Hinchliffe presents, Rockstar Games ticks both boxes. It has the budget and team size. To come to this, it sounds like GTA 6 will have the same level of NPC interaction as Red Dead Redemption 2, but on a much larger scale. If this is true, it will set a new bar for open world gaming that probably won’t be matched until it releases its next game. Because no one has the combination of budget and team size that Rockstar Games has. And it shows when it releases a new game.

All that said, take the speculation here with a grain of salt. Meanwhile, for more GTA 6 coverage – including all the latest GTA 6 news, all the latest GTA 6 rumors and leaks, and all the latest GTA 6 deals – click here.