There I was, on my couch in the early hours of the morning, coffee in hand, logging into Netflix to watch a trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI. We live in truly wild times.
After making the insane announcement earlier this month that the first extended look at gameplay for GTA VI would debut on Netflix, the inevitable finally arrived. Clocking in at 27 minutes in length, this is a hefty dose of urban firefights, car chases, and pumping iron.
Whether you jumped on Netflix while it was still dark this morning or waited a few hours to watch the gameplay on YouTube, it’s likely you’ve already watched it in full, just like the rest of the world. But you came to us for commentary and a good time, so let’s chat about what we all saw.
Obviously, the game’s fidelity and scale are on full display, with the sun-soaked streets of Leonida brimming with interesting-looking and varied NPCs, with a whole range of different body types and looks walking the pavement. Opening with a drug pick-up in a rough part of town gone wrong, dual protagonists Jason and Lucia get into a shootout with the police, showcasing some pretty fluid weapon handling and gun swaps.
Beyond the awesome moment where a dude gets body-checked through drywall, the standout details are Jason’s incredibly lifelike movements and the social interactivity introduced in Red Dead Redemption 2, where the player can hold R2 and choose from a number of dialogue options or actions. Sure, we see Jason chat to a guy blocking an elevator, but it’s the dog patting we’re all here for.
I won’t go through a play-by-play of this monstrous trailer, because you’ve seen it, I’ve seen it, and my mum has seen it, but I do want to highlight some details that stood out to me.
The game really showed off its open-world choice, with Jason able to jimmy a car door open or just smash the window. Moreover, we see Lucia hiding her weapon from onlookers before entering a store to rob it; we see her pumping iron in the gym (yes, you’ll have to watch what you eat and work out to stay in shape again), and we see more minigames and activities than you can shake a bottle of Pißwasser at.
Kayaking, scuba diving, basketball, jetboating, jet skiing, car racing- it’s all here. But, my dear friends, there’s one snippet that stands above all others, and that’s the backyard wrestling. We see Jason getting hit with a perfect Attitude Adjustment (Or an FU for the real ones) in a roughed-up squared circle in some dude’s backyard. There are few things more authentically Florida than backyard wrestling, so I popped when this flashed by.
One more for the road: the hair physics. Reloader’s Ash Wayling and I spent a good portion of the day gushing about how incredible the in-game hair movement looked, and how lifelike and real the longer locks bobbed around. Hair is one of the few frontiers left in gaming that seems to be insurmountable for developers, but this trailer gives us hope that we’re approaching another watershed moment.
Alright, if you haven’t watched it yet (you have), take a look at the GTA VI extended look here:
The range of opinions about this trailer will be vast, but I came away pretty damn impressed. Expectations are sky-high for GTA VI, but everything on display here was a different degree of awesome. Six-star wanted levels are back, gunplay and car handling feel more dynamic and engaging, swapping between Jason and Lucia is more fluid than before, and the world feels more interactive and alive; it’s all very GTA and very appealing.
You’ve already booked annual leave, but GTA VI releases on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19.
We want to hear from you. Did the GTA VI extended look impress or disappoint? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.
1 Comment
Ash Wayling
Those are some muddy looking folk