Put together all the various disparate nuggets of information released about Grand Theft Auto 6 since its big release on Netflix, and you might spot a pattern emerging: Rockstar is reaching for complete Red Dead Redemption 2-style realism with GTA 6. In fact, it seems like it’s going even further. Forget the light-hearted, plug-and-play, at times almost stupid action of previous GTAs, where you could steal any car in sight and mow down crowds of bumbling, screaming NPCs with abandon. Forget about the game you half-play at 3 in the morning, or illicitly but easily at age 12, or simply on autopilot to casually disconnect from everyday life. GTA 6 sounds like it’s filming real life itself. In fact, it may be so real that it is downright uncomfortable at times. Below are some examples of what we’ve seen so far. The search system is changing, so you’ll no longer be able to escape the police by driving too fast and leaving the minimap’s giant radius for long enough, or maybe, at most, by giving your car a new coat of paint. Now, you may need to change your hairstyle, your outfit, your vehicle, whether you’re traveling with your partner, or, as Rockstar North’s studio co-head told our peers at IGN, you may need to simply get out of the car and flee on foot, seeking refuge in the game’s seemingly vast network of alleys. Then there’s the new Criminal Profile system, which apparently records your actions, cruel and kind, and impacts how people might react to you in the world as you explore it – no more consequence-free rocket launches to get you out of trouble. And probably no more ‘see how many cars I can blow up at once by parking them at a gas station and throwing a grenade’ without some people taking notes. You also have to think about your relationship: apparently, details as small as whether you hold the door open for your partner will affect your relationship, which will then affect how the story unfolds. They can commit crimes together or separately. Then, on top of that, you have to worry about your health, with your appearance and stats (those exact stats yet to be specified) impacted by how much you eat and probably what you eat, whether you’re going to the gym, or whether you’re drinking bougie shakes from your safe house fridge or cracking beers. The promise is a St. Andrew-style system and then some. And then, of course, there is the question of whether the car can actually be stolen. High-end parked vehicles are now unreachable at the beginning of the game, unless you rob a driver in the vehicle the old-school way, as they come with their own security systems, which are only prevented by the skills you acquire as you progress through the game. And just in case, they’ll come with a GPS tracker, requiring you to drive faster to overcome their location capabilities. That will coincide with the fact that driving itself, particularly at high speeds, will be “more challenging” in GTA 6, according to Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson, thanks to the roads being denser and narrower, to, again, more accurately reflect real-world Miami and the broader Florida area. Even beyond that, there are things we’ve seen in leaks over the past few days, like a trunk storage system, which suggests you may no longer be able to take a machine gun out of your back pocket, plus the apparent need to even refuel your cars while driving them. So the big picture is already pretty clear, even before anyone outside of Rockstar appears to have played it: GTA 6 intentionally strives for realism, and by design it will come at the cost of the famous ease with which you can play it. Ease which, if I had to guess, has probably played a huge role in its unprecedented success, particularly in how GTA constantly breaks out of ‘core player’ containment into the typically less patient mainstream. It seems like a gigantic risk. I’m also downright delighted that Rockstar accepted it. Despite all the comments of “do I have to control my bowel movements too?” that I’ve seen (and enjoyed), and despite all the genuine concerns I have about whether this could actually be fun (and don’t get me started on the seemingly RDR2-like controls; there were a worrying number of occasions where I tried to press a button to raise my hat in that game, only to inexplicably knock my horse), I’m actually glad Rockstar is doing this. This is, in essence, exactly what we have all been talking about for the past, however many months, years or eons we have been in this games industry in eternal crisis. Too many decision makers have been acting distressingly and irrationally confident. And ultimately, it has been to their own detriment. Rockstar, here, has the privilege of making something that is as close as any game has ever come to guaranteed success. It has an incredibly large budget. Apparently he has all the time he likes to do it. And with that incomparable privilege, you choose to be truly ambitious. It’s not ambitious as is typically used in video game writing; read: a big, expensive map with good graphics. Ambitious like trying to do something that is not even remotely easy. It’s also perhaps less of a risk when you start to think about what’s really taken off in recent years. Elden Ring. Baldur’s Gate 3. Even Animal Crossing: New Horizons. These are games that made it to the BBC, that your non-gaming friend maybe even bought a Switch during the pandemic. And most importantly, these are not “casual” games, by most definitions. These are games with deep mechanics, sometimes very deep, systems that require you to try hard, fail, or cling to suspended meaning. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this poses no risk. Difficulty and discomfort can also sell, especially at a time when people increasingly crave friction, in the face of the astonishing fluidity of modern digital life. That said, making refueling fun will still be very difficult. Like forcing myself to look for it in dumpsters and backyards instead of driving a fake Ferrari to escape the police. Like managing my Tamagotchi companion and being a not-so-evil villain and manually scanning each car before deciding to steal it. Rockstar may or may not make it. But it could, just look at how good that big Netflix showcase was. And if any study has the obligation to try it, it is this one.
