Following last week's announcement of a delay to Grand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar has sugar-coated the pill with the release of a new trailer. It mostly focuses on Jason and Lucia, who seem to be the dual protagonists of the game and, surprise surprise, get in over their heads when "an easy score goes wrong."
Alongside the trailer, Rockstar's official website was also updated with a ton of new information about the characters and the game.
Jason Duval "grew up around grifters and crooks. After a stint in the Army trying to shake off his troubled teens, he found himself in the Keys doing what he knows best, working for local drug runners. It might be time to try something new [...] Meeting Lucia could be the best or worst thing to ever happen to him. Jason knows how he'd like it to turn out but right now, it's hard to tell."
Lucia Caminos was taught to fight by her father "as soon as she could walk" and all that fighting led her to the Leonida Penitentiary. "Sheer luck got her out. Lucia’s learned her lesson—only smart moves from here. Fresh out of prison and ready to change the odds in her favor, Lucia’s committed to her plan—no matter what it takes."
Then we get a rundown of some of the game's supporting cast. Jason's buddy Cal Hampton is an online conspiracy theorist who's "safest hanging at home, snooping on Coast Guard comms with a few beers and some private browser tabs open [...] Cal is at the low tide of America and happy there. Casual paranoia loves company, but his friend Jason has bigger plans."
Then there's Boobie Ike, one of the few to turn his youthful indiscretions into a "legitimate empire spanning real estate, a strip club, and a recording studio—Boobie's all smiles until it's time to talk business." In the game, his focus is all on Dre'Quan Priest and Only Raw Records: "now they just need a hit." As for Dre'Quan, he "was always more of a hustler than a gangster" and breaking the music scene is the goal.
Doubtless they'll be crossing over with Real Dimez, two women called Bae-Luxe and Roxy, high-school friends who have "the savvy to turn their time shaking down local dealers into cold, hard cash via spicy rap tracks and a relentless social media presence." They had an early hit but have gone off the boil, and are now signed to Boobie Ike's Only Raw Records, "hoping lightning can strike twice."
Then there's career criminal Raul Bautista, "a seasoned bank robber always on the hunt for talent ready to take the risks that bring the biggest rewards." One suspects that Bautista may be the starting point for GTA 6's version of GTA Online: "Sooner or later, his crew will have to double down or pull their chips from the table."
Finally we get Brian Heder, who seems to be the kingpin of Vice City's criminal scene. A "classic drug runner" from the "golden age of smuggling in the Keys", Heder is "still moving product through his boat yard with his third wife, Lori." He's the character we see in the new trailer pulling up to hassle Jason, who's living rent-free in one of his dilapidated properties on the seafront.
Heder "looks like a Leonida beach bum" but "moves like a great white shark", and his apparent benevolence towards Jason extends only insofar as Jason "helps with local shakedowns, and stops by for Lori’s sangria once in a while."
GTA 6's second trailer focuses on Jason and Lucia, but we get a brief glimpse of all of the above characters. As ever, Rockstar's telling a story through an ensemble cast of apparent lowlifes and hustlers with big dreams, and this feels like a setting where absolutely no-one has their shit together. It's also by a distance the most visually stunning game I've ever seen: the delay certainly hurts but, by god, it sure looks like this game is going to be worth it.
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