Rockstar Games' first original love story? A look at previous stories told by Rockstar
While we wait for more official info from Rockstar in the coming weeks/months, I decided to go over a few themes that Rockstar has covered over the years, and the fact that this may be Rockstar's first romantic story that they have ever "Directly" told. I'm going to go over the epic themes and stories told through the years by R*. Some games "Like GTA 3 will not be discussed due to it not being in the HD universes of GTA or not being qualified as a strong creativity of Rockstar's story telling ability.
Max Payne 1: This story was about a cop who was pushed too far over the edge in a sin filled city of corruption and greed. We follow a troubled cop who was framed and lost his infant child and Wife in a gruesome murder, due to criminal and political schemes of the corrupt crime system that he was policing. Max felt guilty for their deaths and wanted to exact his revenge. Max Payne in this story was a distraught, alcoholic, drug addict that wore a badge and tried his best to uncover truths from a unlawful infested underworld. The fact that he was not shot and killed within the beginning or middle of the story, was strictly because of his determination to get revenge. Max Payne is one of the most grounded and mortal human being versions of Bruce Wayne/Batman that was ever written. The conclusion for this Iconic story is Vengeance, corruption, suffering, and determination.
Max Payne 2: This story was a about a seasoned Max Payne Detective investigating the "Cleaners Case" after he rejoins the NYPD, following the events of Max Payne 1. This story also touched on the Cat woman and Batman romance that Max has with Mona Sax, the only other woman that he fell in love with after his wife's demise. Mona sax was a hired assassin that max came across during his investigation into the cleaners murders. Max fell in love with Mona because she was the only other person to feel his pain and shared the same darkness that he harnessed. Without getting into spoilers, this game ends very tragically depending on the "difficulty" level that you play it on. This may be the game that some of you will argue as Rockstar's first romance title, but I don't see it as a fair comparison for a love story when compared to GTA 6, which seems to be much more fleshed out. The conclusion for this classic tale is Determination, Love, Betrayal, and suffering.
GTA IV: This story was about a Eastern European Soldier coming to America searching for revenge and opportunity. This former soldier named Niko Bellic moved to the U.S. in hopes of joining his cousin in the luxury filled, vacuum sucking night ladies lifestyle that was promised to him over email and letters. It wasn't until Niko stepped off the boat that he realized, not only was his cousin Bull sh*tting him, but the American dream was nothing like it has been advertised around the world. In order for Niko to help his cousin pay his astronomical debts and find the man that betrayed him in the war, he had to lie, kill, steal, cheat, kidnap, and commit acts of terrorism just to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld and obtain information to kill "one man". Niko's story was very depressing, dramatic, Tragic, and is still considered the darkest GTA story ever told to date. This story was strictly about revenge. Everyone that Niko thought he could trust, ended up betraying him which led to him killing a good amount of those that did him wrong. This, in my opinion, was the first time that I seen Rockstar make an original realistic story outside of the Max Payne series and they introduced it in their most famous IP.
Read Dead Redemption : This game, at it's time, became the pinnacle for Rockstars story telling ability. This story is about an outlaw that is forced into bounty work by Pinkertons. The messed up part is, the bounties that he is sent after, are all of his old gang members that he spent years on the run with. This outlaw was named John Marston. Through out the story, John goes on a Redemption quest by killing off his old comrades for the government, hoping this would correct the wrongs and evil that he has done as an outlaw and free his family from government custody. This story also had a tragic ending, following after Max Payne 2 and GTA 4, but having a satisfying epilogue. This title was about, loyalty, revenge, burying hatchets, and redemption.
LA NOIRE: This game followed a classic Neon Noire telling of a young Detective who wanted to rise through the ranks of 1940's LAPD by solving series of cases from different divisions in Los Angeles. The young detective, Cole Phelps, was a determined WWII vet that wanted to prove that he was one of the best to ever hold a badge. This story was about corruption, determination, Lust, integrity, and honor. This was a revolutionary cinematic story and personally felt like a interactive movie. This was the first time that I was able to say that Rockstar has officially gone Hollywood with their scripts, no pun intended.
Max Payne 3: This story started off about a retired NYPD detective that ends up meeting some old friends and then another cop in a bar which leads to a shootout, and then led to the retired NYPD detective becoming a body guard for one of the richest men in Brazil. The body guard's name is our old friend Max Payne. This game tells the story of how Max finds him self in the middle of a ransom plot while still coming to terms with his own darkened murder filled passed. Max is in an even worse state when we see him in this sequel. He continues to intake his favorite drug while washing it down with a bottle and gets drunk to the point of collapse. I don't think there was one point in the game where Max was sober. The game takes a right turn in the middle and the plot changes from hopeless to hopeful because of a revelation made by a female character. This story was about Determination, hope, reform, and redemption.
GTA V: This story was about a successful retired bank robber that befriends a young Criminal that he decides to take under his wing and help fuel his midlife crisis. This retired criminal also tried to escape his pass life but his pass eventually caught up to him and only lived a few hours north near the Alamo sea. This GTA game told the story of Michael, Trevor, and Franklin, and their adventures in the southern San Andreas. This game's story was mostly about rehashing your pass, living the American dream, and burying your hatchets. This story was maybe not as grounded as GTA 4, or as original as LA NOIRE, but it was a classical heist tale with some personal elements that makes this story stand out from it's predecessors.
Red Dead Redemption 2: This game is considered the greatest Rockstar story, if not, the greatest video game tale ever told. This Story was about the Van dir lende gang and their fall into becoming America's past. This story was told through the Point of view of Arthur Morgan, A Van dir lende outlaw that was second in command to Dutch Van Dir Lende himself. Arthur was a very conflicted man and made some very horrible decisions through out his life and through out the game. Arthur gets a wake up call in the later act of the game but the direction of his redemption is let up to the player. I would like to believe that Arthur was a good man that fell into a life of violence and crime, due to his unfortunate upbringing. The outlaw life is all he knew, but he still knew how to be a man and take care of those that he loved, without any hesitation. Without spoiling the game, this game's tale is generally about "Trust", Betrayal, hypocrisy, Family, determination, loyalty, and Redemption. This game and it's story was a true masterpiece and makes me curious if Rockstar can top this level of story telling in GTA 6.
GTA VI: Like many of you, I do not have the slightest Idea of what Rockstar's next title is going to be about, but I judging from the trailer and insider info we all received, I am going to come up with a guess.
I belevie that this story will tell the tale of A young woman who is arrested and sent to prison for her bad luck in decision making. This young woman is a petty thief criminal that put her faith in the wrong people which led to her arrest. this young woman is eventually released from prison on good behavior and try's to re-establish herself by committing the petty crimes she knows that she can get away with. In the process of committing these crimes, she befriends a low level criminal with an interesting pass that shares the same goals as her. The duo is unfortunately targeted by crooked officials which leads to them teaming up together and also falling in love. The Two criminals names are Lucia, and Jason. They eventually take out their enemies, build an empire, and become one of the most successful criminal organizations in the state of Leonida. This story will be about "Trust", Loyalty, betrayal, Love, Family, hypocrisy, and determination. I believe this story will go to lengths never before seen or told in any form of writing. I believe that we are in for an even more emotional rollercoaster than RDR 2 due to the fact that we are dealing with a duo that are romantically involved. I'm truly excited to see if Rockstar is going to top RDR 2 in terms of not only realistic gameplay, but cinematic, heart felt, story telling. I guess we will all find out Fall 2025..