In the early 90s, one of the biggest revolutions in gaming was the widespread adoption of 3D worlds in games. Iconic adventures likeMario 64andOcarina of Timewith Nintendo,Metal Gear SolidandCrash Bandicootfor PlayStation, and various other games and systems in between helped push 3D worlds forward. 3D games with unique worlds in general had existed for a few years, but giant and immersive (for the time) worlds were pioneered by Rockstar Games in two key franchises: theGrand Theft AutoandRed Dead Redemptionseries.
At the turn of the century, Rockstar Games and development studio DMA Design helped pioneer the western-style open world game withGrand Theft Auto 3in 2001. For the first time, a video game had properly emulated the perception of a living and breathing simulation of the real world in gaming. There was still plenty of “uncanny valley” for sure, but Rockstar Games eventually tackled that issue a decade later withRed Dead Redemption. John Marston’s adventure was one of the first games to make that expansive 3D world feel like it genuinely reacted to the player’s actions, but both games have heavily influenced the open world genre and several games to come after them.
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Grand Theft Auto 3’s Innovative World Design
Modern open world games, or at the very least western open world games, arguably started with the release ofGrand Theft Auto 3.There were other games prior likeShenmue, the 2D classicThe Legend of Zeldagames, and evenMario 64that are credited as some of the first open world games, but none were likeGrand Theft Auto 3at the time.Grand Theft Auto3’s Liberty City was the first game to simulate an active and fluid world within a video game, with NPC citizens and vehicles traveling across the uncanny valley version of New York City.
Of course, the game had its limitations,butGrand Theft Auto 3was a huge step in video game history. Random people walking down sidewalks, drivers heading to and from work while following traffic lights and laws, all of whom are voiced characters that had several basic reactions to the players' actions.Grand Theft Auto 3emphasized the idea of a living open world in a meaningful way that no other video game had done before, regardless of how rudimentary it was. This game would be the basis for all futureGrand Theft Autogames, of course, but it also set the bar high for practically every sandbox/open world game to come after it.
In between 2001 and 2010,not only were there seven additionalGrand Theft Autogamesreleased, but there were several unique open world games that released from a variety of developers/publishers. All of these games iterated off the foundation thatGrand Theft Auto 3set in various ways, but there was still an underdeveloped aspect of open world games that very few franchises had touched on. While many associate a highly interactive open world with the simulation-likeRed Dead Redemption 2, that game wouldn’t have revolutionized open worlds without the firstRed Dead Redemption.
Other open world games had provided players with a sandbox where they were the center of attention, butRed Dead Redemptionwas largely designed against this idea. While it wasn’t as clearly revolutionary as theGrand Theft Autosister franchise,Red Dead Redemptioncrafted a western worldthat didn’t entirely revolve around the player’s point of view.
Various townspeople truly go about their days, in a fluid world with little to no loading screens outside of booting up the game. WhereGrand Theft Auto 3had simulated a grandiose 3D world that lived in service to the player,Red Dead Redemptionfocused on crafting a world where the player is simply a participant among other NPCs. John Marston could help passerby asking for a ride into town, John could get robbed by bandits on an empty world, or he could be attacked and mauled by wildlife if he’s not careful. These kinds of interactions in other open world games were typically planned events that happened to players on purpose.InRed Dead Redemption,these kinds of things happened organically, no matter where the player is in the world.
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Rockstar Games' Impact on Future Open World Games
These two design philosophies and innovations have led to some of the best open world games to this day. Immersive games likeMetal Gear Solid 5,The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,The Witcher 3,The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, and many more have all evolved and iterated on the ideas presented in Rockstar Games' flagship franchises. Evenupcoming games likeCyberpunk 2077are honing and refining bothof these development concepts together to potentially create one of the most simulatory triple-A games of all time.
Nowadays, some of gaming’s biggest franchises likeAssassin’s Creedcontinue to iterate and steadily expand on these foundations. Without Rockstar Games' two biggest series, some of the best games ever made theoretically wouldn’t have existed or been designed very differently. These two innovative games are the reasons whyboth theGrand Theft AutoandRed Dead Redemptionfranchiseshave such staying power for fans. The pedigree of Rockstar Games' open worlds were honed and refined upon these two pivotal games that made Rockstar the powerhouse publisher it is today.
Grand Theft Auto 5andRed Dead Redemption 2are out now.
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