GTA 6 Could Learn a Few Lessons From Bully, Rockstar’s Schoolyard Gem

Everyone has their own expectations for Grand Theft Auto 6. While many hope it will live up to the dizzying standards set by GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, I’d actually like the next installment in the franchise to be less like recent hits and more like GTA 4, San Andreas, and the original Red Dead – games that had more restraint and, as a result, more focus.

Developed by Rockstar Vancouver and released in 2006, Bully is often described as “GTA with kids”. Instead of a career criminal, you play as unruly teenager Jimmy Hopkins. The setting isn’t some big modern metropolis ruled by rival gangs, but a stuck-in-time New England-style boarding school (aptly named Bullworth Academy) where students are divided into different cliques like jocks and greasers.

Bully has one of the smallest maps of any Rockstar game, comprising only Bullworth Academy itself and the surrounding town. But because space is so limited, hardly any of it went to waste. The campus includes a library, gymnasium, and dormitories, while the town features a carnival, BMX park, and an insane asylum, to name just a few distinct and memorable locations.

Fortunately, there are already some indications that GTA 6’s design philosophy will harken back to Rockstar’s Bully days. Though the game’s map is rumored to be more than two and a half times as large as GTA 5’s, its Florida-inspired setting promises to create a much more striking and cohesive visual footprint that should compensate for any empty space.

Another mechanic that helps ease you into Jimmy’s shoes is the game’s curfew system. After 11 p.m., the school becomes overrun with prefects who’ll send you to bed if they catch you, filling up your Trouble Meter (the higher the meter, the more suspicious and hostile certain NPCs will behave towards you). Avoiding punishment puts you on edge, while making it back to the safety of your dormitory draws out a sigh of relief.

Unlike its predecessor, GTA 6 does seem poised to treat its playable characters as actual people rather than vehicles for chaos and carnage. Dual protagonists Lucia and Jason, we’re told over and over, will be Bonnie and Clyde-style partners in crime, and as in Bully, story and gameplay could conspire to put the player in the middle of that no doubt complicated relationship.