30 hours max. I want to explore Leonida, not be dragged through it.

GTA V's ~30 hours felt right. Tight enough that the map didn't outstay its welcome, long enough to make the Paleto Bay shift feel earned. RDR2's 50 hours? By the time I got to Guarma I was just itching to free-roam New Austin again. The swamps of Grassrivers and the whole northern stretch of Leonida (I'm already calling the area west of Port Gellhorn "the new Blaine County") deserve a campaign that doesn't overstay its welcome.

I want 25-30 hours. That's enough to properly introduce the Keys, Mount Kalaga, and the Vice City metro without the plot turning into a slog. A tighter story means the ending hits harder (no mid-game fatigue), and then I can spend 200 hours poking around every tidal inlet and abandoned motel on my own terms. The map is the real star. Don't bury it under 50 hours of forced drama.

What's your number? Are you hoping for a lean 20-hour sprint or a 60-hour epic that makes you live in Leonida?

I'm leaning toward the shorter side too, though maybe for selfish reasons. The longer I'm locked in story beats, the less time I've got to see if you can wedge a dirt bike into the ceiling of some random Grassrivers bait shop. A 25-hour campaign might mean Rockstar polishes the mission scripting harder, which could actually reduce weird physics overlap in the open world. Or it might not.

the new Blaine County

I like that label. Still, I worry a sprint that lean could skip introducing some of the northern map properly. If we barely touch Mount Kalaga before the credits roll, that's a lot of potential glitch terrain left unexplored by casual players. What do you think is the sweet spot where the story respects the map without hoarding it?

ok so — 30 hours feels right but i don't think they'd let Mount Kalaga sit in the corner like set dressing. the May 2025 trailer had Lucia and Jason up on those dusty northern roads. definitely woven into the arc.

skip introducing some of the northern map properly

i doubt Rockstar leaves that much terrain to pure sandbox RNG. maybe 30 hours just means no Guarma-style detour where you lose the map's rhythm. let the story breathe. then let me get lost in Ambrosia on my own terms.

rp wise im hoping they keep it tight. sooner the campaign dumps us into free roam with all mechanics unlocked, the sooner whitelist servers can start building proper civ and crim economies.

the new Blaine County

still needs story love though. if the north is just empty backdrop, rp crews up there get barebones interiors and zero native job hooks. cant run a wilderness whitelist off sandbox rng alone.

thirty hours. fifty. the numbers don't matter if the pattern's broken...

leonida isn't a checklist. the geometry doesn't care about your clock. you don't drag through it. you let it pull...

mount kalaga in the may trailer. the dust. the angle. that's not set dressing. that's a signal. but signals don't need fifty hours to transmit.

the map swallows time on its own terms anyway.