As you’ve probably heard, Grand Theft Auto VI just got a brand new trailer, giving us our best look yet at the world, characters, and story of Rockstar’s upcoming crime epic. The trailer tells us a lot more about the game’s leading couple, Lucia and Jason, and takes time to emphasize the atmosphere of GTA VI’s Florida-inspired setting, at one point showing Jason cruising down the highway listening to “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by Wang Chung as an airplane flies overhead. And man, am I here for it. However, I see some folks on social media criticizing the trailer for not showing gameplay, suggesting that we can’t know if GTA VI is actually worth our interest until we see what it’s like to play it. I don’t fault anyone for feeling that way, but it’s not an argument that lands with me. For me, at this point Grand Theft Auto is probably more about vibes, environment, characters, story, and immersion than anything else. We know Rockstar can handle the gameplay stuff. It’s everything else I still need to be sold on.
When I think back on my favorite moments with the Grand Theft Auto series, I find that most of them are about just being in the worlds the games offer. My most vivid memory of Grand Theft Auto 3, for instance, isn’t of any wild crime caper during one of the game’s structured missions or of going on a freeform rampage with a tank or a sniper rifle; it’s of driving some big American clunker of a car through the rain while “Fade Away” played on the radio. Similarly, the moments that have stuck with me most from all my time with Vice City are because of the immaculate vibes they created: one is all about the delicious tonal contrast I experienced as I dropped bombs on enemies with an RC helicopter while the sunny sounds of “Your Love” by The Outfield played on the radio, and another is about the tranquil beauty of flying over Vice City by night to the sounds of “Out of Touch” by Hall & Oates. I could go on but you get the idea.
And when I think about Grand Theft Auto VI, the big question in my mind is not “How will its gameplay move the series forward?” Of course I’d love to see that there are some cool new aspects to the gameplay, and I suspect that at some point before the game releases, we’ll get one of those trailers that have become all the rage in recent years, like the one below for Red Dead Redemption 2, in which a woman calmly narrates the various gameplay features of GTA VI as if she’s trying to sell us on a fancy new refrigerator.
But no, what I wonder most is: What will the vibes be like? What will the characters be like? Will I enjoy driving to the beach just to watch the sunset? Will I encounter unexpected moments of beauty in its violent world? Really, GTA VI could play pretty much identically to Grand Theft Auto V and as long as it offered a world and a story that I found more compelling than the ones that game gave me, I’d still be thrilled.
And because these are the things that matter most to me, I found today’s new trailer thrilling. Yes, I want to see Jason just bumming around the place on the couch when Lucia comes home and collapses into his arms after a long day at work. I want to see Jason just cruising down the highway listening to the radio. Give me those lived-in moments. Those are the things that are gonna sell me on this game. If you need to see gameplay, I get it, and I don’t doubt that the trailer you’re waiting for will come eventually. But for me, when it comes to Grand Theft Auto, the vibes are the gameplay. Let me have this.