5 side missions that GTA 6 should bring back

GTA 6 is all set to be released in 2025, and there are a lot of features that fans expect to see in the game. While the main storyline plays the most significant role in making a game feel engaging, the side missions are what make it truly immersive. Over the years, side missions in the Grand Theft Auto franchise have often provided some very engaging content, and players expect to see the best ones from all past games revived in Grand Theft Auto 6.

These include unique property management features, territory take-over mechanics, random NPC interactions that lead to missions, and more. With that in mind, this article goes through some of the most interesting side missions from previous Grand Theft Auto titles.

Note: The article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinion.

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5 types of side missions that should return in GTA 6

1) Vigilante

The Vigilante missions are sorely missing in Grand Theft Auto 5, especially the ones from Grand Theft Auto 4. Now that police cars are purchasable in GTA Online, fans hope that Rockstar will have added these side missions in the upcoming title. The Vigilante side missions had been a mainstay in the 3D Universe games, but it was a unique feature that made Grand Theft Auto 4 very engaging.

Players could access the police computer inside a cop car and search through a list of wanted criminals. They could then pursue and shoot the criminals down without needing to stay inside the cop car. This system should be reinstated in Grand Theft Auto 6 so that cop cars can serve a purpose other than sounding the siren.

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2) Strangers & Freaks

The Strangers & Freaks side missions in GTA 5 were a list of random encounters where the protagonists encountered random NPCs around the world and faced unique situations. Some of these NPCs appeared multiple times and offered follow-ups to their stories. This feature added life to the game world, making it feel more lived-in and populated with interesting characters, much like in an RPG.

Rockstar initially introduced this feature in Grand Theft Auto 4 but mastered it in the fifth installment of the franchise. Fans expect Vice City and Leonida to offer a similarly colorful Strangers & Freaks cast for players to encounter across the vast open world. The GTA 6 trailer already offered a glimpse into the wild denizens of Leonida, and fans expect more.

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3) Gang Warfare

Gang warfare was one feature that made GTA San Andreas unique. CJ, as a member of the Grove Street Families (GSF), must restore his gang to its former glory. To do this, CJ has to attack rival territories and retake the areas that the rival groups had previously taken from the GSF. Certain areas in Los Santos are quite dangerous to visit when they're controlled by the Ballas and the Vagos.

This feature could be implemented in GTA 6 to restrict the explorable region in the beginning. Rockstar could make these areas so dangerous to visit that players would keep away from them until a later part in the story when gang presence is lower.

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4) Empire Building

In Vice City Stories, Rockstar allowed players to not just buy and collect money from owned properties but made them way more interactive. Victor Vance, the protagonist, could attack and take over businesses owned by several enemy gangs. These could then be used for a variety of criminal activities, ranging from protection rackets and brothels to drug production and smuggling, among others.

Such activities can also be further upgraded, with bigger buildings offering more income and having more security. While Grand Theft Auto Online does have empire management, it's much more tedious and doesn't feel as intense. Rockstar needs to change their approach to managing the player's criminal empire in GTA 6.

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5) Drug Dealing

This was a controversial minigame in GTA Chinatown Wars, the last exclusively handheld game in the series. However, fans frequently cited it as the game's best feature. The Drug Dealing minigame offered a quick way to get rich in Chinatown Wars, but the higher the profit, the greater the risk. Any deal could be a set-up, especially if it seemed too good to be true.

The whole game was tied to this mechanic, as drugs could often be found in random places or as mission rewards. Almost every action the player took in the main story would affect the market value. Destroying security cameras reduced the cost of purchasing drugs as well as the likelihood of a deal being a set-up. GTA 6 could easily add such a mechanic to the upcoming game, giving players something interesting to do around the map.

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In other news, Grand Theft Auto fans all over the internet have been busy predicting the release date of Trailer 2 for GTA 6.