Why Does GTA 5 Have So Few Interiors?

Playing through the story of GTA 5 will take you through a number of buildings and interior locations — pretty much all of which are locked out when you're not playing a specific mission or if you're in Online. Why did Rockstar close off these interiors, and why did they add significantly fewer interiors than in previous games altogether?

GTA 4 featured a wide range of various interiors that could be accessed at any time when roaming about the open world, including the interior of that one hospital that everyone hunkered down in after collecting a six-star wanted level and blocking the entrance with a patriot.

The newer installment, however, is all about the outdoors. Featuring the most non-urban areas since San Andreas, GTA V's open world is much more focused on wide open areas and wilderness than previous installments. Even the city of Los Santos feels much more open and roomy than Liberty City did in the previous game.

However, the contrast is more extreme than simply the more recent title featuring more open spaces. GTA 5 doesn't have a whole lot of interiors that the player can access by conventional means, though there are a few locations that can be glitched into. A few that are accessible include the Pacific Standard Bank, the upper floors of the IAA building and, of course, the Vanilla Unicorn.

But when looking into the reason as to why these locations are locked out, the answer is an elusive one. The most obvious reason would be to improve loading times in GTA Online by simply not spending resources on the interiors. Thing is, the interiors do load — they're just inaccessible to players.

So what is the reasoning behind this move to lock players out of interiors? One possible answer would be that this is Rockstar's way of preventing the exploitation of these locations. The attributes of certain interiors would make them easy to use against other players in a number of ways.

Then again, these interiors would also pose a solution — at least a partial one — to the griefing problem present in GTA Online. Players being harassed by griefers in Hydras could potentially seek refuge in these buildings where the jet's weapons would not do them harm.

However, we must consider another factor — the sheer size of the GTA Online map. Since Online isn't your traditional MMO, many of its systems mirror those of a lobby-based multiplayer title, seeing as it is. With the map size the game is working with, throwing a bunch of interiors into the mix would make finding other players pretty much impossible.

Rockstar's reasoning behind locking out the interiors probably comes down to the factors of encouraging player interaction by, you know, helping them find each other, while also trying to prevent rowdy players from exploiting these to the detriment of others. Too bad we can't use the interiors as a refuge from those squeakers in Hydras, right?

Would you welcome a larger number of playable interiors in GTA Online?