GTA 6 Reveals 26 Minutes of Gameplay: A Game Truly Worth a 13-Year Wait
In 2013, almost simultaneously with Apple's release of the iPhone 5s, GTA 5 was officially launched. Both products would later have profound impacts on their respective industries.
Thirteen years later, Apple is about to release its first foldable iPhone, and the launch event will serve as the first major test for the new CEO, John Ternus. Meanwhile, on the other side, the sun has finally set on Los Santos, and Rockstar is ready to take us to Vice City.
In the early hours of this morning, Beijing time, Rockstar released a 26-minute extended demonstration of GTA 6 on Netflix, titled "An Extended Look."
The video was exclusive to Netflix for six hours before becoming available for free on Rockstar's official website and YouTube. A version with Chinese subtitles was set to go live on Bilibili at 11:00 AM.
This time, Rockstar directly presented nearly half an hour of in-game footage, allowing players to follow the two protagonists, Jason and Lucia, as they drive, rob, and engage in gunfights, living a life on the run in the neon-lit Vice City.
After watching it, I feel comfortable making this bold judgment:
GTA 6 might be the most conservative game right now, as well as the most radical.
13 Years Later, GTA Is Still GTA
Prior to this extended demonstration, we were already able to piece together the background story of GTA 6 through the first two trailers and various interview materials—
The main stage of GTA 6 is "Vice City," inspired by real-world Miami, but the actual game map expands to the entire state of Leonida, modeled after Florida. This is the "Sunshine State" propped up by social media, tourism, criminal gangs, and get-rich-quick dreams.
As everyone knows, Florida doesn't raise idle people.
The playable protagonists are Jason Duval, who has mingled on the streets since childhood, and Lucia Caminos, who is skilled in fighting and eager to change her life. This couple on the run are the 2020s' Bonnie and Clyde, and they form the foundation of the entire open world.
Of course, the previous two trailers presented more of the bustling life in Florida. What the game actually looks like when played could only be glimpsed by watching the newly released extended demonstration.
The 26-minute video centers around the interactions between Jason and Lucia, stringing together several main storyline fragments: they pick up goods for the nightclub owner Boobie but stumble right into a police raid; they join the bank robber Raul Bautista's crew, climbing the ranks through a series of deals and heists; and when missions go out of control, they split up, with one engaging in a gunfight from behind cover upstairs while the other sneaks away downstairs.
Similar to many "dual-protagonist" games today, the relationship between the two has also become part of the gameplay—
Players can have Jason drive while Lucia scrolls on her phone in the passenger seat, or instantly switch over to let Lucia take the wheel while Jason leans out the window to fire at pursuers. They can act together or split up, causing trouble in different corners of the city.
However, if we set aside these few new designs, GTA 6 remains the game that veteran players know so well it requires no learning.
Third-person over-the-shoulder perspective, cover-based shooting, carjacking and racing, and wanted-level escapes—these are the fundamental gameplay mechanics that have continued all the way since GTA 3, and the "six-star wanted level" from older titles has also announced its return.
Outside the main story, the open world continues to be filled with a staggering number of activities: basketball, working out, diving, speedboat racing, dirt biking, skydiving, and every conceivable and inconceivable pastime you could think of in Florida.
As for those vulgar signs, the over-the-top advertisements, and the eccentric characters handing out missions, they have all been inherited exactly as they were.
As a quick review by a Guardian journalist after watching the demonstration noted, if you were to make a checklist of GTA elements beforehand, almost all of them could be ticked off after these 26 minutes.
Rockstar didn't invent a new game mode like they did when they created GTA 3 back in the day. In terms of gameplay, GTA 6 is as conservative as it gets.
But gameplay innovation has never been a must for the GTA series. Rather, its true innovation lies in using a terrifying amount of labor to build an incredibly realistic world.
Putting Everything Familiar into the City
There is a skydiving shot from a high-rise building in the demonstration. Jumping from the rooftop, the entire world unfolds before your eyes, quite reminiscent of the opening scene of *Breath of the Wild*:
Looking around, the city stretches all the way to the horizon. Ports, overpasses, low-rise residential areas, and skyscrapers connect with one another, with clear architectural silhouettes still visible in the distance.
The roads on the ground haven't been simplified for the sake of design convenience. Instead, like a truly organically grown city, ramps, interchanges, and blocks intricately interlock.
Other games might be able to replicate a city of this scale, but achieving perfection down to every single passerby like GTA 6 does is probably unique to Rockstar.
In the demonstration, the two protagonists walk into a nightclub surrounded by a dense crowd of NPCs. In corners of the frame that few would notice, people are taking selfies, dancing, getting drunk, and leaning on railings chatting, all with different body types, skin tones, clothing, and animations.
Lucia's hair swings as she turns, her tight clothes deform naturally with her body, and every person on the dance floor has a distinct sense of weight and rhythm.
In an interview with Dazed, Rockstar revealed that to create this crowd of pedestrians, the company's workforce had more than doubled compared to the Red Dead Redemption 2 era, and there is even a dedicated division solely responsible for creating walking pedestrians.
The team also hired over 50 street artists specifically to create the street graffiti murals in Vice City, and the people fine-tuning the driving feel were exclusively racing drivers.
Interactions with the environment have also become more detailed—walking down the street carrying a gun will make nearby pedestrians dodge and weave away; diligently...