GTA 6 could emulate this absolutely brutal element from Last of Us 2

The Grand Theft Auto series has always treaded the line between a full-blown life simulator and arcade-y, sandbox adventure. GTA 5 seriously stepped up the franchise's realism thanks to its stunning rendition of Los Angeles, but Rockstar could emulate one of the most disturbing parts of The Last of Us Part 2 to make the eventual GTA 6 the most lifelike installment of the game ever.

GTA 6 needs realistic gore and dismemberment. It's not that we want to see all that violence. It's just that for the franchise to take things up a notch in terms of immersion and satire of American society, more realistic violence that makes us cringe will make the player experience more meaningful.

The follow-up to GTA 5 is reportedly in early development and with no release date in sight, Rockstar should leverage the graphical fidelity offered by next-generation consoles to make its next crime drama a brutal masterpiece. While there's no way to know for sure how far along the game is in development, it would make sense for Rockstar Games to focus on next-gen. Which is to say that the game might be released by the end of 2022 in the best case scenario.

Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II had a stomach-churning level of detail when it came to how players could dismember and mangle the game's computer-controlled enemies. You can shoot-out their kneecaps to stop them from approaching or completely blow off their face with a shotgun.

By comparison, GTA 5 is a kiddie game.

Rockstar's 2013 release does include some pretty hysterical ragdoll physics and spurts of blood when you shoot someone, but all of that is tame and unrealistic compared to TLOU 2's level of detail. GTA 6 needs to up the ante by having character models act differently depending on the physics behind where they get shot and how their bodies break apart.

If you shoot someone in the hand, fingers should fly off. Hitting someone in the legs with a bat should cause them to start limping. There should also be dismemberment physics so players can chop off limbs and appendages in certain scenarios that could fit into GTA 6's rumored plot.

Again, none of this sounds pleasant, but GTA has always been a franchise focused on pushing the envelope with shock and awe.

Unconfirmed details claim the game is going to let gamers play as an up-and-coming drug smuggler who expands their criminal enterprise across Vice City and parts of Latin America. If this proves to be true, GTA 6 should let players choose if they want to do their dirty work and how they want to go about it.

That would mean choosing if you want to simply rough up a non-compliant associate or if you're feeling ruthless, torture them. GTA 5 already had a torture scene, so Rockstar could repurpose a level like this and let players choose when they want to be violent. Such choices could affect how other characters perceive them and have lasting consequences throughout the narrative.

The lively GTA 5 modding community has already created multiple game modifications to improve the game's gore and dismemberment, so there's clearly a desire for a gorier GTA game, but Rockstar will need to make it fit with the theme of the game in order not to make it seem senseless. Will Rockstar take advantage of next-gen hardware to achieve this?

GTA 6 is reportedly in early development.