So, it was a busy night for Rockstar Games and every Grand Theft Auto fan across the planet. After a leak of the official GTA VI trailer, Rockstar decided to push out the trailer so we could all enjoy it in glorious quality.
The GTAVI trailer is finally here
It’s a 90-second trailer, but it packs a lot in, and we’re going to delve in and try to pick it apart, pointing out some things you may have missed, plus some moments that had us excited. After many weeks of speculating, let’s get into the GTAVI goodness.
Florida - Leonida - Vice City
We knew it all along but we’re officially going back to Vice City. More importantly, we know the name of the state - Leonida. This is a reference to the Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de León, who led the first expedition to Florida in 1513. The whole trailer feels like an advert for ‘Florida Man: The Video Game’ with plenty of ‘gators, dangerous stunts, ridiculous criminals, and chaos. It wouldn’t be a GTA game without some chaos, right?
Advert
Throughout the trailer we got the vibes of Florida, including the kinds of environments we’ve grown to associate with the state, particularly from 1980s movies where a cop would chase criminals through the Everglades, or gang territories. This modern Vice City is drenched in neon and colour. It screams sun, sea, and sex - the perfect backdrop to a crime spree.
Prison Prologue?
The trailer opens on the gorgeous scenery of Leonida, but from the second scene, we travel to a jail boundary of razor wire before seeing Lucia talking to a prison official. This could point to the game opening with a prologue set in the prison itself. It would be a great way to introduce us to Lucia and find out more about what situation landed her behind bars.
Advert
From her dialogue, it seems she isn’t locked up for a major crime, more likely petty crimes that she doesn’t regret. The phrase ‘bad luck’ suggests she, or someone on her team, was sloppy.
Lucia’s Bad Luck
While it looks like Jason is along for the ride and could very well be a playable character for a large portion of the game, this trailer is all about Lucia. Jason gets just one word, which already has people guessing at the actor, pointing to Troy Baker and Nolan North.
Advert
Lucia guides Jason, asks him for trust, and says that the only way they’ll get through “this” is to stick together. What is the situation they find themselves in? Is it linked to the “bad luck” that saw Lucia in jail at the start of the trailer?
Other things to note on Lucia; she leads the robbery seen at the end of the trailer, which could again point to her being in control. Lucia is also seen with an ankle monitor which could restrict map exploration in the early stages of the game.
Tom Petty Soundtrack
The trailer is accompanied by the song Love is a Long Road by Tom Petty. Its upbeat tempo and guitars are a great backing to what we see. The track was released in 1989 and is a brilliant snapshot of the 1980s. However, it’s worth digging into those lyrics. Rockstar Games doesn’t pick just any old song. The lyrics are about a boy being in love with a ‘wild’ girl who promised him the world. This relates to everything Lucia is telling Jason in the trailer.
Advert
“There was a girl I knew, She said she cared about me, She tried to make my world, The way she thought it should be.” This gives us an idea that Lucia is promising Jason the world, she has an idea of what their life should be like and will do anything to get it. When we look at the chorus, we get this “And give her one more chance, To try and save my soul, But love, Is a long, long road.” Perhaps Jason has been on and off with Lucia and he’s giving their love one more shot, but he knows it won’t end well.
Social Media
It wouldn’t be a Grand Theft Auto game without a meta-commentary and what better way to skewer modern life than through the lens of social media? So many games have featured social media feeds, but we could see video content streamed to your device. Perhaps even geotagged so players can travel and watch it in real-time. This TikTok style service will likely feature plenty of satire.
Advert
It could also play a large role in sourcing robbery locations or providing an alibi. Creating a living and breathing world wouldn’t be the same without our phones trilling to tell us about the news or local events. As much of the trailer is seen through a phone screen, we could end up creating our own in-game viral content, perhaps with the goal of being an influencer.
Animals
Animals were a must after Red Dead Redemption 2. In that game we saw all kinds of wildlife in the Wild West. In Leonida, we get a good look at several alligators, plus flamingoes and dogs. It’s highly likely we’ll see more animals in future updates, but could this mean that ‘gators will be seen in random spots across the map? Perhaps we can actually own dogs and cats? It’s a big leap, but it’s a part of life that Rockstar could capitalise on.
Potential Places
A quick rundown of some possible locations we could be exploring as seen in the trailer:
- We see several nightclubs, which isn’t a surprise given that each GTA has featured clubs to some degree.
- Beaches and coastal areas will play a large role - it is based on Florida, after all.
- At one point we see speeding boats travel past a dock where a ship is docked full of shipping containers.
- There’s a view of the Everglades, which is bound to feature in some missions.
- A sign is shown on the freeway that points to the Vice City airport.
- When we see Lucia sitting on Jason’s lap it seems to be inside a motel room.
- When we see the lady in her nightshirt, armed with two axes, the comment with the video says it was taken in ‘Hamlet’ which is one of the counties of Vice City.
Police Raid
Mixed in with the social media footage we see a police raid on a building. It’s interesting to note this is bodycam footage as noted in the top right-hand corner of the frame. This could be a throwaway shot to explore the action of the game, or it could be pointing to the police having a larger presence in the narrative. This is something the larger GTA community has wanted for some time, and many have pointed to wanting to play as an undercover cop.
NPCs
A big focus from the 2022 Rockstar leak was changes to the way NPCs would act and react. Dataminers dug up plenty of code that showed how NPCs would react to violence, nearby interactions and how they would move within groups and converse naturally. The trailer shows more of Vice City’s population than the central characters because Rockstar wants to show off this new living and breathing world that has taken over a decade to produce.
It’s always worth taking note of some of the people we see in the trailer as they could be big parts of the story to come, particularly those who appear to be mid-cutscene or take up the whole frame. Perhaps we’re seeing our key side characters.
Liquor store robbery
The trailer ends with Lucia and Jason opening the doors of what looks like a liquor store, both brandishing pistols and wearing bandanas over their faces. Robberies were a major part of the Rockstar leak in 2022 and they will likely be an activity for players, as well as a large part of the storyline.
Earlier in the trailer we see a ‘gator strolling into a convenience store via CCTV footage - something that was highlighted in the leak documents - this could point to ‘hold-ups’ being a major part of the couple’s jobs early on and plays into the ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ narrative that we’ve seen thrown around so often.
Featured Image Credit: Rockstar GamesTopics: Grand Theft Auto, GTA 5, GTA 6, GTA Online, Rockstar Games