Should half of the map be locked off at the start?EN

this could work really well with the chapter system they seem to be lifting from RDR2. i love V's open map but there's a stronger bond with a world that unlocks in steps, especially tied to story beats, like getting run out of Broker in IV or first rolling into Las Venturas. VI's map looks huge and dense, so i'd be fine with the RDR2 approach, mostly open but one specific chunk locked till near the end or a big story moment. basically what North Yankton should've been

counterpoint, nothing stops you from self-restricting. want the slow reveal? just don't drive off. no reason to gate it for everyone who'd rather not

no for me. i liked it fine in the old ones but this game isn't built for it. 3, VC and 4 chopped their cities into roughly even islands, SA had three cities plus countryside, all cleanly split. where do you even put the wall in VI? there's no tidy way to lock it in half, thirds or quarters. you could box you into the Keys but that gets old fast

no tidy way to lock it in half

yeah that's a really fair point

depends what's out past the Keys and VC. if it's another V-style map then no, keep it open. i liked how each RDR2 chapter felt walled off even though you could wander, Blackwater was off-limits from the law presence but i never felt pushed past what the story asked. the camp and the pacing did that work for me

easy, lock the north behind a fifteen quid map-unlock DLC. R* would never do that. [narrator voice: they would]

fine with the whole thing open but i'll play it like RDR2, i stuck near where the story took me so it basically unlocked itself at my pace. let me really soak in each area and the little details. made that game so much better, same plan here

no tidy way to lock it in half

i'd love that new-area feeling but there's just no clean method. ankle monitor is one character so it's pointless, roadblocks i drive around, invisible sniper again really, terrorists lol, closed bridges cool i'll take a boat. so it probably opens up straight away and the story just naturally routes you through the whole thing

story just naturally routes you

right, i reckon the first half of the story is that guided route through the map, and the back half opens up with concurrent storylines in different regions

probably start in the Keys, ease into VC, drift through neighbourhoods (bet we open in the poorer working-class bits, south or west) then missions nudge you downtown and east. maybe something abrupt shifts a character over to PGH. then parallel storylines across more of the map, and by the endgame you settle somewhere nicer near the coast as your main place. something like that

honestly wouldn't mind half of it locked at first, it'd force me to actually take a region in instead of my ADHD flinging me across the whole map absorbing nothing

to be fair i never explored all of V, never felt like it had something hidden round every corner. RDR2 flipped that. and there you're on foot or horseback a lot, not staring down endless buildings. the spot i covered least in RDR2 is Saint Denis funnily enough. which is exactly why interiors matter so much. still miss GTA III hidden packages though lol

no tidy way to lock it in half

my guess is the Keys act as the tutorial zone, plot creeps in as Jason, side characters like Brian and Cal get introduced, then something triggers (he drives out to collect Lucia) and the rest of the map unlocks in one go

i used to assume Lucia's monitor would lock parts of the map, but the more i think about it the less it holds up, you'd have to lock it for Jason too. still, i do think a slice will be gated for a while, like Great Plains and Blackwater in RDR2. closed bridges keeping you in the Keys till she's out feels most likely

like others said, no clean way to carve it into locked chunks, so i expect it fully open pretty early. but same as RDR2 i didn't set foot in Saint Denis my first run until the story took me there. that's the sweet spot, blitz everything now if you want, or follow the story for the sense of discovery