At long last, the trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI has dropped and it’s everything we could ever have hoped for: gorgeous visuals, guns and cars galore, and off-colour jokes that your grandma would blush at.
Speaking of visuals – one of the most exciting parts of the new trailer is way it introduces us to a new and improved Vice City. For those not familiar with Vice City, it’s been a GTA mainstay since the dawn of the franchise, and this trailer teases a modern-day playground of beaches, superyachts, rooftop parties… and plenty of violence, of course.
Here’s what you need to know.
Where is it?
Vice City is essentially Rockstar’s take on the cities of Miami and Miami Beach in Florida (the state of Leonidas, where VC is based, is also modelled on Florida). Miami was a major hub for cocaine shipping in the 1980s: perfect for the crime-ridden world of GTA.
The city itself consists of two large and two smaller islands, all of which are linked by roads and bridges; the islands themselves are separated by a stretch of water known as Ocean Bay. The Vice City tourist guide introduces it as “a city run by dealers and weasels. Expensive suits, flashy cars and beautiful women are the accessories of millionaires that spend their afternoons in the shade, determining the fate of Vice City's less fortunate and waging war on rival drugs barons. Vice City's warm weather may be the only reason anyone would have dreamed of inhabiting the place at all.”
Where have we seen it before?
This dubious locale made its debut in the very first 1997 Grand Theft Auto game, which was set in a version of Vice City (it could be unlocked after completing the San Andreas chapters). Even back then, it was clearly modelled on Miami – though seen through a prism of 90s-era graphics.
Rockstar returned here with a vengeance in the 2002 gangster-tastic Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Set in 1986, it introduced players to the franchise’s first-ever speaking protagonist, Tommy Vercetti (voiced by Goodfellas star Ray Liotta), a member of the Forelli crime family who is sent to VC to oversee a cocaine deal.
Its final outing (until now, of course) was in the 2007 GTA: Vice City Stories, which remains a bit of an undiscovered gem. Set two years before GTA: Vice City, it told the story of Lance Vance, one of Tommy’s friends and later, his betrayer.
What can we expect from GTA 6?
It’s not a surprise the beloved franchise has moved on from the GTA 5 setting of San Andreas: any attempts to recreate it would have met with massive scrutiny from its millions of fans. Setting the action in Vice City offers a nice blend of nostalgia and a fresh world for the developers to flesh out.
This modern take on VC offers gorgeous beachesa lot of satirical takes on Floridian life (naked pensioners relaxing at home, alligators infesting everything from businesses to swimming pools, rooftop parties). We also find some seriously glowed-up areas from previous games including Ocean Beach (where the residents can finally swim, as opposed to previous games); the Ocean View Hotel (Tommy’s safehouse) and road signs for Kelly County, Catalan Boulevard, the VCI airport, Vice Beaches, Port VC/ Keys. There are also some city districts called Stockyard and Downtown: all very intriguing.
