A major GTA 5 mod is turning heads—even among the developers who originally helped bring Los Santos to life. David O’Reilly, a former environment artist at Rockstar Games, has shared his admiration for Roxwood County, a fan-made expansion that adds a vast new region to GTA 5’s map.
O’Reilly, who worked at Rockstar for over 12 years on titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA 5, and the yet-unreleased GTA 6, was stunned by the quality and scope of the mod. In a recent video, he explored the custom area and praised the sheer dedication it must have taken to build something so elaborate—especially after learning the terrain work was largely handled by just one person, an environment artist known as Kalit.
“That’s a tremendous amount of work,” O’Reilly commented. “I don’t know how you find the time to do it. I was getting paid to work on GTA 5. I wasn’t coming home and then doing stuff like this.”
Developed by a team called The Ambitioneers, Roxwood County is currently playable via FiveM and has been in development for a couple of years through a paid subscription model. It’s still a work-in-progress, with unfinished roads and areas marked off by construction signs, but the map already feels remarkably complete.
The mod connects directly to the original Los Santos map and introduces a fresh environment that includes a large mountain, a water park, a racetrack, and more. From across a wide body of water, players can look back and see the familiar skyline of Los Santos, giving a new perspective on the iconic city.
O’Reilly described the landscape as full of “atmosphere,” commending the layout, the building lights, road networks, and terrain silhouettes for their cohesiveness. “There’s an echo of Mount Chiliad in the mountain there. It’s well considered. It’s a nice layout of a map,” he said.
While GTA 6 is expected to launch later this year, Roxwood County is already giving fans a compelling reason to return to GTA 5. For many players—and even ex-Rockstar developers—it serves as a testament to how passionate and skilled the GTA modding community has become.
