Veteran YouTuber Dat Saintsfan has showcased an exclusive GTA 6 concept map for Independence City aka Philadelphia in his latest gameplay video for GTA Online. The map artwork has been credited to an avid GTA gamer and Reddit user, fancymenofcornwood, who has recently uploaded some exquisite photos of GTA 6 concept map in one of Reddit's gaming forums.
The concept map resembles any other standard or traditional GTA map with three distinct islands separated into three marked areas: one in the top-left, one in the middle and the other in the bottom-right alongside a small lagoon or the bay area. The map envisions the Independence City or Philadelphia that can further be classified into cities map, states map and geography map.
The map is designed to encompass the greater Philadelphia area, Camden, Central PA, the Appalachian Mountains, Buffalo New York with Niagara Falls, The Great Bay in New Jersey, The Pine Barrens and Vineland in New Jersey, and The Atlantic City.
With an intention to balance the City and Countryside map well, the Redditor has managed to keep the ratio of City to Country map slightly higher than that of GTA 5. On top of that, the urban area is all spread out to balance the overall feel of the map.
Next up in the screenshot (above), you can notice the major cities and geographical features of the area. There are a total of six cities in all including the Independence City (Philadelphia), Campbell (Camden in New Jersey), Pineland (Vineland), Atlantis (Atlantic City), Intercourse (Lancaster) and the Bison (Buffalo). Note: Those names enclosed in the brackets are the real-life city names and the ones outside the brackets are in-game city names.
Coming to the geographical locations we have the Ticonda Falls (Niagara Falls), Lenape Mountains (Pocono Mountains or Poconos), Susquehanna River, Dutch Farms (Armagh Country), Overkill River (Schuylkill), Man O' War River (Delaware), Grand Bay (The Great Bay) and Pine Barrens.
As Dat Saintsfan notes, the concept map explores remote corners beyond the city including rivers and geographical locations unlike the GTA 5 map which seems very static.
Moving on to the states map, we get to see the Liberty State (New York), Susquehanna (Pennsylvania) and the Alderney (New Jersey).
Finally, you get to see the counties map which includes Falls County (Upstate New York with Niagara Falls), Appalachia County (Appalachian/Pocono Mountains), Pennsatucky County (Central PA/Amish Country), Center Track County (Main Line Suburbs), Independence County (Philadelphia), Grand Bay County (Great Bay and surrounding hills) Barrens County (Pine Barrens and Vineland) and Atlantis County ( Atlantic City and surrounding marshland).
The entire GTA 6 concept map looks really amazing, given the fine details of the terrain and the great balance between city vs countryside map details. The inland rivers in the concept map are big enough to allow players to escape from one island to the other, emphasising the connectivity of remote parts of the land via water as this feature is clearly lacking in GTA 5.
The addition of Niagara Falls and the Atlantic City into the GTA game would surely promote the gameplay experience to a whole new level as there is a definite lack of terrain variation in GTA 5.
Do you think the GTA 6 concept map encompassing three different islands would be a better option compared to the traditional single island map as seen in GTA 5? Please leave your comments below.
