Everyone and their mother is hyped for GTA VI, even though we still have to wait another year. Yesterday a second trailer was released, and it looks really good again. This will undoubtedly be a huge gaming moment with major cultural impact.
But if I am honest… can GTA V even be matched, let alone surpassed?
The Hype For GTA VI Is Huge
This is really going to be a thing, and when I watch the new trailer, that is with good reason. The graphics, the sort-of Bonnie and Clyde story, the huge open world. GTA VI is going to be the game of the next ten years.
And I am ridiculously excited for it. So excited that I have already requested two weeks off around that period, and I am seriously considering buying a PlayStation 5 Pro specifically for GTA VI.
But still, watching the trailer did not give me the feeling I get every time I play GTA V again.
GTA V Had The Most Iconic Characters Ever
Making a game with one good main character can already be difficult, but GTA V delivered three. Michael, Trevor and Franklin: the best trio since Frodo, Sam and Gollum.
These men are legendary.
Michael, cynical and neurotic. Trevor, everyone’s favourite redneck. Franklin, the street kid from South Los Santos. Three sides of the same coin: three visions of the American Dream and three styles full of chaos and action.
They are all so different, but also so very much the same. You could switch perfectly between the characters during missions and immediately see their different approaches. I thought that was incredibly cool.
It Works Because It Does Not Work
What I love so much about that trio is the chemistry.
Not that they are always friends. Far from it. But it clicks precisely because it clashes. Their dialogue crackles, the arguments feel real, and even if you do not play for months, you still remember exactly how Trevor loses his mind or how Michael sighs and walks away from his family again.
They were not written to please you. They are awkward, stubborn, human. And therefore believable.
Maybe that is exactly why GTA VI is going to have such a hard time. The new trailer looks amazing, it really does. Lucia and that guy - what is his name again? - have potential.
But Michael, Franklin and Trevor were not just playable characters. They were people you felt something for. People who stayed with you. People who were sometimes frustrating, but never flat.
And that… that is not easy to recreate.