Rockstar Says GTA 6 Is the First GTA to Encourage Empathy. You Still Start Out Robbing Servos

Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson has told The Guardian that GTA 6 is the first Grand Theft Auto that actually tries to encourage empathy. “We’ve tried for the first time in a GTA to provide mechanisms that encourage it, for those who want to,” he said, as reported by IGN.

Don’t panic, the crime isn’t going anywhere. The Guardian’s games editor Keza MacDonald spent a day at Rockstar North in Edinburgh watching Nelson and fellow senior exec Jennifer Kolbe play, and the feature paints a slower, more grounded GTA than the Trevor era.

What Rockstar actually said

• On empathy: asked if this is the first GTA to encourage it, Nelson replied “I would say so”, calling it “a product of the story we’re trying to tell”, according to IGN.
• On crime: “Crime is a fundamental part of GTA – at least up until now, it has been,” he said. Rockstar is trying not to punish people “for playing the game they are used to”, but your actions “will have some effect on how the game plays out”.
• On Jason and Lucia: Nelson called them “a younger couple with their backs against the wall”, so it makes no sense for them to go out and cause as much carnage as they can.
• A small example: in the demo, Jason could ask a dog owner whether he could pat their dog, VICE reports.

You start as small-time crims

Forget nicking a supercar in the first five minutes. According to VICE and Insider Gaming, Jason and Lucia start out hotwiring cheap cars and picking basic locks, and the bigger jobs come later in the story.

• Early jobs: convenience stores and petrol stations come before the heftier targets, according to Insider Gaming.
• Locked cars: some parked cars need tools you only get later, VICE reports, though you can still take a car off someone who is already driving it.
• Planning: you can scope out a job for a back door or a safe code, and disable the cameras or nick the footage.
• When it goes wrong: in the demo, a jewellery store job turned into a chase with cop cars and helicopters after a guard opened fire.

Relationship goals, GTA style

The bit nobody saw coming is how much the relationship matters. VICE says Jason and Lucia call and text when they’re apart and go on dates when they’re together, from the gym to a drink at a bar. A liquor store robbery counts as a date too, because of course it does.

• Hold hands: there is a button for it. Seriously.
• Neglect it: Nelson says you can look after the relationship or let it slide, though how far the consequences go isn’t clear yet.
• Switching: you can swap between Jason and Lucia most of the time, but some acts lock you into one character.
• Birdwatching: there are 62 kinds of birds to spot with binoculars and log in a wildlife book, according to VICE.

Ten years in the making

The Guardian’s online preview says Rockstar North’s first research trips to Miami were back in 2015, and the game was made by a team of almost 5,000 people. Nelson showed off details like Jason eating a donut one-handed while sipping a beer, and tucking a six-pack under his arm when he runs.

Asked whether GTA could ever leave the US, Nelson told The Guardian: “Never say never, but there’s still so much to do in America.”

Our take

Rockstar spent more than a decade and nearly 5,000 people building a GTA where you can hold hands and pat a dog. Honestly? Good, because Red Dead 2 proved this lot can make you give a damn about a bunch of crooks.

Just don’t expect Leonida to turn into a wellness retreat. The same demo ended with a jewellery store stick-up and half of Vice City’s cops in pursuit, so the empathy is very much optional.

Everything else is on our GTA 6 page, including the 30fps news and the day-one patch. GTA 6 unlocks at midnight NZDT on Thursday 19 November, with Sydney and Melbourne two hours later at midnight AEDT.

Saint or psycho, how are you playing it? Tell us in the GetRekt Discord.

Sources

• The Guardian: How years of research built Grand Theft Auto VI’s obsessively detailed world
• IGN: GTA 6 will do something the franchise has never done before: encourage empathy
• VICE: 6 new GTA 6 gameplay details from The Guardian’s Rockstar interview
• Insider Gaming: GTA 6’s Jason and Lucia start the story as small-time criminals
• Rockstar Games (YouTube): Grand Theft Auto VI Launch Trailer