The Best GTA Game Rockstar Will Never Make

4. Red Dead And L.A. Noire - Why Rockstar's Natural Home Is The Past

Rockstar are unique in the video game industry. They don't operate like other studios or publishers and they do games differently - exemplified best by their most recent effort, Red Dead Redemption 2.

Red Dead 2 is one of the most ambitious video games ever made, and one that elected to tell its narrative in a uniquely character-driven way. Cutscenes are left to detail key narrative moments, but a lot of the relationships the player develops as Arthur Morgan over the course of the game occur in real time, mingling in the camp, or doing certain missions. Factor in the level of immersion on offer mechanically, with players being forced to look after themselves, their weapons and their camp, and it's safe to say there isn't an experience quite like it.

As a western epic, Red Dead 2 also grapples with a lot of historical themes. It's not the first by any means, and one could even argue that the narrative thrust of both that title and the first Red Dead Redemption was lifted straight from works like The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven - that being the end of the Old West - but it's still immaculately handled, and typifies why the studio seem to work best when submerged in the past.

If any word were to describe Red Dead 2, it would be 'authentic', and the same goes for the studio/publisher's other most recent effort set in the past - L.A. Noire.

Developed by the now sadly defunct Team Bondi, L.A. Noire was set in 1947 and took heavy inspiration from film noir, putting players in the shoes of golden boy Cole Phelps as he peeled back the lid on prosperous post-War America, investigating grisly crime after grisly crime as a part of the LAPD. Ironically, it would also transpire that Cole himself harboured his own dark secrets; a reflection, perhaps, of Tinsel Town after World War II.

Red Dead and L.A. Noire stand out to me as the two most compelling offerings from Rockstar over the last decade, and I think it comes down to both series' settings. Both those titles ultimately seem more confident in their approach, grappling with historical themes and capturing the respective zeitgeists of the Old West and 1940s Los Angeles, than GTA does with its scattergun approach to satire in the here and now. Granted that's part of the series' charm, but fans are ready for a more mature Grand Theft Auto, one that pools inspiration from Rockstar's more considered works.

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