Image: Rockstar Games
The first trailer for GTA 6 teases a Miami-based locale and a romantic pair of criminals at the heart of its plot.
Rockstar Games has finally dropped the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, and you’d better believe that we’ve watched and rewatched it at least 10 times by now. While we’ve gone through the trailer’s major reveals - such as its dual protagonists and Miami-based setting - in previous coverage here, we thought we’d do a full breakdown of everything else we saw in the trailer too.
From confirmed GTA: Vice City references to Red Dead Redemption 2-like nature simulation, here are all the big reveals from GTA 6’s first trailer:
Our protagonists: Lucia and the mystery man
GTA 6 first introduces us to the main protagonist Lucia, who seems to start off the story as a prison inmate. While in prison uniform, she explains that she’s been imprisoned because of, “Bad luck, I guess.” The trailer then flashes through various aspects of life within Vice City (which we’ll get to in due time), before showing us Lucia with an unnamed man in a car. She tells him: “The only way we're gonna get through this is by sticking together. Being a team.”
The trailer then shows us Lucia and her partner masked up with the intent to commit a crime, before ending up together in the bed of a motel room. Earlier leaks confirmed that the game would feature a Bonnie and Clyde-like couple as dual protagonists, so the fact that they’re involved comes as no surprise. When she asks, “Trust?” and he replies, “Trust,” however, we’re given a hint that their partnership will either make or break their lives in Vice City. The trailer ends with the duo storming a convenience store with guns akimbo, ready to make more money the hard way.
We don’t know much about Lucia’s male partner - presumably, another trailer will give us his actual name - but it looks like she's placing a lot of trust in him to see her plans through.
New Vice City map
As if there was any doubt before, this trailer confirms it: GTA 6 is set in Vice City, Rockstar’s take on Miami, Florida located in the fictional state of Leonida. The neon-soaked streets and pink skies of GTA: Vice City return in startling realism for this sequel, with the weather, nature and next-gen tech seen in Red Dead Redemption 2 now updated and applied to a modern-day setting. The first real shot we see of Vice City is breathtakingly impressive, panning from sunny beaches to the massive city beyond, giving us a glimpse of the game’s increased draw distance.
We also see environments beyond the urban landscape, such as the Everglades-like flooded grasslands where people travel in airboats and flamingoes take off in droves. This swampy area is where we’ll likely find alligators in the dozens, and more dangerous wildlife out to kill the player ripped right out of Red Dead Redemption 2’s lifelike nature simulation. The very next shot looks like GTA 6’s take on Key West, where we see a wide strip of sandy beach filled with swimsuit-wearing locals, and it honestly looks like a claustrophobic nightmare.
Throughout the trailer, we see more snippets of Vice City: folks riding speedboats next to cargo ships, a woman standing upright in a moving convertible and more. The signs above her seem to hint at more parts of the city, like an airport and the downtown area. We also see a suburban area lined with cars, the interior of a busy strip club and a beautifully lit part of the city at nighttime. The next part of the trailer focuses on the city’s nightlife, with rowdy nightclubs and sports cars abound. Fun fact, at the 0:33 timestamp of the trailer, you can spot Tommy Vercetti’s safe house, the Ocean View Hotel from GTA: Vice City!
Vice City feels thoroughly alive in the short time we get to spend with it, and that’s mostly due to the upgraded crowd density of its streets and interiors. More people roaming the streets makes the city feel truly alive at night. It also makes it more difficult to steal a car when no one’s looking.
Vice City’s… interesting populace
After the trailer takes us through the ins and outs of Vice City, it starts to show us the people who live there - some of whom might end up being side characters in the main story. First, we see a woman in a bikini at a rooftop pool party, with the wide city skyline visible behind her. We see a huge golden-lit sign reading ‘VICE’, and then a montage of what appears to be social media footage. First, a man partying in a straw hat on a yacht while his companions cheer him on, and then we see an account called ‘OfficialPoach’ posting a video of an alligator getting fished out of a pool.
Another account called ‘have.a.vice.day’ shares a video of a woman twerking on a moving car with the caption ‘Someone call the department of transport on this dumptruck’, before we see two cars doing doughnuts during a street takeover and women partying to music. After that, we see footage of an alligator wandering into a convenience store, bodycam footage of police breaking down a door for a raid, and a half-naked person being chased down the street.
We also see a man in a thong watering his garden, and several people covered in mud clearly drunk and having the time of their lives. There’s a Karen holding two hammers who say, “Well, look who’s back,” before someone else falls on a table. The rest of the video is more of the same: news footage of a car chase ending in disaster, a man in Joker-like tattoos in prison garb, folks popping wheelies on bikes, and a shot of traffic from a program called ‘High Rollerz Lifestyle’.
So ends the recap
GTA 6 doesn’t seem to be shaking up the core franchise formula we've become accustomed to: we’re still playing as criminals trying to earn a buck in a bustling city filled with strangers and ne’er-do-wells. We caught a glimpse of Vice City in (almost) all its glory and a few of its surrounding locations. We also got social media clips of the locals, which will likely tie into some kind of social media app available in-game. GTA 5 made good use of its phone apps, but GTA 6 could step it up with integrated faux social media content. All we can do for the next two years is speculate!
GTA 6 is launching in 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.