the crack house scene might be two different mission versions stitched together

So Rockstar's been pretty open about wanting missions to have more player freedom this time around, and I think they already showed us proof without anyone really catching it. The crack house mission from the trailer, the one where Jason and Lucia clear the floor and then Raymond lets them into his aunt's apartment. I'm convinced that's not one continuous sequence. It's two separate playthroughs cut together.

Watch it again. When you take control of Jason, Raymond is there for like two seconds, taking cover off to the left with the Draco. Then Jason and Lucia move through the floor, get in the elevator, and the power cuts. Raymond is gone after that. Never seen again on that floor. Then it cuts to what we assume is later, Raymond opening the door to his aunt's place. But there's no shot of how they got out of the elevator or where they ended up.

My bet is those are completely different versions of the mission. In one, Raymond books it the opposite direction while you two go for the elevator. That path leads to a totally different ending where you never see Raymond again and find your own way out. In the other version, you follow Raymond instead of going to the elevator. He takes you down a different route, maybe stairs or another elevator, and that's how you end up at his aunt's apartment.

It would make sense with what they've said about less scripted missions. The trailer might literally be showing us branching outcomes and we just assumed it was one linear sequence. I'm not saying it's confirmed or anything, but the editing feels too deliberate to be a coincidence. Raymond disappearing after two seconds is weird if it's all one version.

I'd love to see them lean into this hard. GTA missions have always been pretty on rails, even when the world is open. If you can actually choose which way to go and get different mission endings, that's a huge shift. And it would explain why they showed the crack house scene the way they did. They're teasing the freedom without spelling it out.

Anyway, that's my theory. Could be totally wrong, but I'm rewatching that trailer frame by frame now and it holds up.

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Source: r/GTA6 · Curated content.