GTA 4 tech lead left Rockstar because he thought the series was getting “too dark, too depressing almost”

Grand Theft Auto 4 was somewhat of a departure for the series that always made fun of American culture with a satirical wink, and its increasingly serious tone was actually the reason its technical director left the studio.

Obbe Vermeij, Rockstar Games’ former technical director during GTA 4’s development, mused that the series’ first 3D trilogy from GTA 3 to San Andreas “were just tons of fun,” but that all changed when Niko Bellic landed on Vice City’s shores.

“I really enjoyed them,” he said in an interview with SanInPlay (good spot RPS). “And then we made [GTA 4], and to my mind, it was a little too serious, too dark, too depressing almost.”

If the last 16 years or so have muddied your memory, GTA 4’s the one that took a jokey stab at the dream of an American Dream, following former Russian soldier Niko Bellic who immigrates to Vice City and then gets pulled back in to a life of crime and violence, as the rules of the GTA universe always dictates. It was certainly more straight faced then its predecessors, but was also just as full of hilarious radio hosts running on one brain cell, loud mouthed cousins, and the kind of ambient, seemingly random shenanigans that only Rockstar can pull off. 

“So when I decided to leave after GTA 4, it was like a number of things,” Vermeij continued. “One of them was like, my wife’s Canadian and she wanted to move back to Canada. But also, I thought GTA 4 wasn’t as good and as fun as the games before. And I thought that the next one was going to be like, even darker. I’m happy to see that I was wrong. GTA 5 is a lot more lighthearted than GTA 4. So I got that wrong.”

The future is a little more in question, though. GTA 6‘s first trailer is stuffed with gags and shocking sights literally ripped from current headlines and viral TikToks, but a central Bonnie and Clyde-type ‘romance on the run’ will likely take a more dramatic, probably tragic turn for the worse. Maybe next year’s mega-sequel can find the perfect middle ground. 

We thought GTA 6 could learn a lot from Grand Theft Auto 4’s Liberty City, however.