GTA 6 finally grows up, adopts a mature tone
But we've got the antidote to that.
It was bound to happen, really. Following Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar's open world tour de force which was equal parts Grand Theft Horsey and Sad Man Dies Slowly Of Tuberculosis, we sort of expected Grand Theft Auto to skew a little more grown up for its next outing. And from the looks of the trailer, it looks like that expectation has held up:
That's not to say the trailer is devoid of humour. Far from it. GTA 6 is clearly sending up America's culture of excess, celebrity, and vapid obsession with fame as it always has done. But the unhinged side of GTA seem like more of a backdrop here than the main event. The main story, apparently concerning a Bonnie and Clyde partnership of lovers who go around robbing places, is presented in the trailer as having some nuance and depth. An understated performance from the protagonists, and even some tenderness between them.
That's kind of a big deal, because GTA doesn't really do tenderness. None of the couples in GTA actually like each other. Friends and business partners are always one mission away from screwing each other over. People cheat on each other as a matter of course. Because, traditionally, every GTA character is basically a cartoon. Not a real person in any meaningful sense: a caricature of a typically selfish, decadent westerner, criminal or otherwise. Even Niko Bellic, GTA 4's tragic lead whose entire story is about failing to live the American Dream, is an unapologetic murderer. And that's fine, GTA is GTA.
Perhaps, though, today's trailer is evidence that GTA is changing. Not necessarily with the times, but in spite of them. It's long been a talking point among games press wanks (myself absolutely included) that the world has gotten so absurd, so extreme, so insane since the last game that GTA's crude brand of curved-mirror satire might not even touch the sides these days. In the same way that Brass Eye and The Day Today used to be searing p**s-takes of the real news media — its excesses and shortcomings dialled up to nonsense levels — but now comes off as tame compared to the actual poison that is sincerely broadcast on 24hr news networks.
Instead of trying to beat reality at its own game, then, GTA might as well pivot to something a little more meaningful. At a regressive time in human history where every society seems to be determined to win a race to the bottom, when empathy and compassion are regarded with contempt and mistrust, the most subversive thing a work of satire can be is sincere.
But if that sounds like a load of wishy-washy liberal claptrap, we've dubbed over the trailer with farts for you:
