As much as Grand Theft Auto 6 is about the journey of Lucia and Jason, flaws and all, as a score gone wrong embroils them in a conspiracy spanning Leonida, the core appeal of any Rockstar title is the world. For LOVE Magazine’s upcoming issue, the developer talked about how it designed the setting, and how there’s “no ‘background. There’s foreground you’re not paying attention to right now,” as open world writing director James Horton describes it.
“It needs to wash over you when you’re sprinting down the busiest street in the city, hearing snatches of a hundred different conversations as you go. If you shift your focus onto something new, it’s going to fill the frame, and it’s going to push back,” he said in a snippet posted by the publication on Instagram.
One example provided is Amborsia, where you’ll see voting signs, hear radio commercials, or see a “political talk show working itself into the state.” But it’s all satirical in the way that Grand Theft Auto is known for. “There is a big focus on not just holding up a mirror,” says Rupert Humphries, senior VP of narrative, “But on making everything satirical, larger than life, and more grotesque.” That may be why the team “ran with” things like “conspiracy theories, the strange ways the public reacts to everyday occurrences,” and so on. Truth is stranger than fiction, after all.
However, as much as Rockstar has been a proponent of realism, from how you steal cars to new criminal profiles that police can build on the characters, it’s seeking a healthy balance. “Sometimes you need things to feel realistic to help with immersion, and conversely, sometimes you need to forego realism in favor of what’s convenient for the player.”
Grand Theft Auto 6 is out on Xbox Series X/S and PS5, and if it wasn’t obvious enough already, this may be the biggest video game launch in years. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick called pre-orders “unprecedented and astonishing.” He later revealed, unsurprisingly, that the $100 Ultimate Edition is more popular.
