On the sweltering Leonida Keys, sweat slicks the skin of two lovers on the run as they toast new beginnings, watching the sun set over the water. A breeze blows through their hair, and you can almost feel the condensation dripping from the cold beer bottles in their hands; in the background, locals gather on the weatherbeaten dock, indifferent to the story unfolding between the outlaws. Elsewhere, a few miles north, tanned bodies of all shapes and sizes swarm the sand on Vice Beach. Further north still, locals are caked in mud, kicked up from the back of a dirt bike or spattered on a stars-and-stripes bikini. And as night falls back in Vice City, sweaty crowds surge to deafening hip-hop beats, spilling out from clubs on to the neon-lit streets.
The first real preview of Grand Theft Auto 6 hit today, just ahead of the video overview on Netflix tomorrow, and an absolutely ridiculous number of leaks over the last week.
And…I have to say…I’m starting to get my doubts about this game. Not because of it’s scale or scope… for example:
To pull off the technical and cultural feats required to build a world of the scale, depth and interactivity of GTAVI, the Rockstar team has more than doubled in size since the release of Red Dead Redemption 2. It has offices around the world, with one branch in LA dedicated almost solely to the world of in-game pedestrians (NPCs). More than 50 real street artists were brought in to design murals in places like Vice City’s Stockyard (based on Wynwood, Miami). The team that deals with vehicle handling is made up of literal race-car drivers.
But instead, its stuff like this that makes me think it won’t be for me:
GTAVI marks the return, and expansion, of these interactive systems that alter the protagonists’ bodies. Food affects Jason and Lucia’s weight, while exercising visibly builds and tones their muscles. And, if you end up spending a long time away from your bed, on the run from police or on a multi-day bender, their features are going to pay the price for that as well. The effect is a bit like The Picture of Dorian Gray – only, instead of your soul being recorded on a spooky painting in the attic, your habits and sins are written on to the faces and bodies of the game’s avatars. This kind of interactivity is unique to video games, shaping the virtual world and the player’s responses to it in turn. Between visual feedback mechanisms, deep relationship mechanics and the heightened realism of the world they inhabit, people might even think twice about going on the arcade-style rampages of GTA games gone by, once they land in Leonida.
I appreciate that games can be this realistic. I appreciate the artistry and effort that goes into making these forms function.
But I play games specifically to lose myself in them — not to have another list of to-dos for fictional characters. I have enough of an internal battle about taking care of my own health and well-being — why do I need to take care of theirs too?
And then there’s stuff like this:
This marks the first time that a GTA game has featured a playable couple in the lead role, which makes for some unique scenarios: on the way to a job, for example, players can cruise along the highway as Jason, or swap to Lucia in the passenger seat to scroll on the in-game phone. (Yes, there are working social media feeds – what satirical take on 2020s America would be complete without them?)
Dear god, am I supposed to doomscroll as a GAME MECHANIC!?
Maybe I’m overthinking this, but some of those aforementioned leaks have featured things like fuel gauges and engine health…
…did we forget that its a game?