GTA 6 May Be Set in Vice City, but It Has San Andreas’ Ambition
A return to Vice City has been a long time coming. And, from what we’ve seen of GTA 6 so far, it will at least partially feel like a homecoming for those of us who were there for Rockstar’s iconic PS2 tribute to Scarface. The 1980s may now be so far in the rear-view that our new protagonists weren’t even alive to see them, but there’s still echoes of the synthwave decade on the city’s streets: a retro Grotti Cheetah, neon-lit hotels overlooking the boardwalk, Phil Cassidy selling lethal merchandise, and a certain Vercetti Estate. It’s clear that Rockstar intends to spend at least a little time reveling in our nostalgia for Vice City.
But while it may be set in Leonida’s most immoral metropolis, what we’ve seen so far of GTA 6’s high-bar ambition suggests that it may ultimately feel more like a successor to 2004’s San Andreas than Vice City, at least in one very particular way. During a hands-off gameplay demo at Rockstar’s studio in Edinburgh, we spotted something very interesting: GTA 6 tracks an array of statistics for its two lead characters, including height, weight, sleep, nutrition, calories, shape, muscle, fat, and strength.
Rockstar North’s co-studio head, Rob Nelson, didn’t tell us much about these stats, but he did give us some minor insights into how they impact GTA 6’s overall design. “Eating has quite a dramatic effect on your health,” he revealed. “You’ll gain quite a substantial buff, so it can be useful.” He also confirmed that overeating will cause Jason and Lucia to put on weight.
“We do have gyms where you can go and work out, so you can go up in levels of muscularity or strength,” Nelson added. “You can go to the gym as Jason and Lucia together. You can go to the gym alone obviously, but if you go together, they’ll both start working out and you can get a 2-for-one to manage their stats.”
There is still much we don’t know about the system behind GTA 6’s character stats. But what I can say is that there’s a clear link between them and the RPG-style attributes that quite literally shaped San Andreas’ protagonist, CJ.
Launching just two years after Vice City, San Andreas was somehow astronomically more advanced than its predecessor despite running on the same hardware. Rather than a digital playground to commit pretend crimes in, Rockstar’s final mainline GTA of the PS2 era was a painstakingly crafted simulation of reality. At the time it was unprecedented: NPCs would comment on your appearance, car, or even odour with alarmingly authentic quips; gangs dynamically assaulted, seized, and subsequently lost turf; all 212 vehicles had their own individual physics and handling properties. The most prominent of these many sim-style ideas, though, were the bars that measured CJ’s key attributes of respect, stamina, muscle, fat, and sex appeal.