A ton of Grand Theft Auto VI footage has leaked in August. Rockstar has, in a moment of rare transparency, acknowledged the leaks and confirmed their authenticity. But there’s still the matter of the big “Extended Look” that’s set to air on Netflix on Thursday.
With so many gameplay videos swirling around the internet already, it’s easy to forget that Rockstar’s first official glimpse at GTA VI gameplay is happening this week. You’ll need a Netflix account if you want to see it at 3 p.m. ET, but it’ll go up on YouTube at 9 p.m. ET, too. We still don’t know exactly how long the footage will be or what it will entail, but presumably, it will show, in some detail, how the game actually plays.
Here are three major things I want to see from this extended look on Netflix.
The game’s other protagonist
Early marketing for GTA VI has all but confirmed that the game has two protagonists, a couple named Jason and Lucia. It very much seems like the game is going for a sort of modern-day Bonnie and Clyde thing, which is a novel hook for GTA. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Lucia has been almost entirely absent from the leaked materials so far as of publication.
We’ve seen brief glimpses of her in cutscenes, but whoever is leaking all that footage is seemingly totally uninterested in playing as her. I suppose there’s a chance she’s not actually playable, but man, that would be a huge disappointment, as GTA hasn’t had a playable female protagonist in its main story since the series blew up on the PlayStation 2.
Considering GTA V had three protagonists, it’s likely that VI has two. I’d like an answer to the question of Lucia’s playability more than almost anything else in the extended look on Netflix.
Literally anything that wasn’t already in GTA V
Another bummer of the leaks so far is that they’ve been almost entirely focused on things you could already do in other GTA games.
I frankly didn’t need a leaker to tell me I could beat up civilians, steal cars, and visit strip clubs. I’ve been able to do all of those things in GTA games for nearly 30 years. One leak featured a playable basketball mini-game, which is fine, but you could also play tennis and golf in GTA V. Other leaks have briefly showcased mechanics such as cars needing gas and cops being able to recognize the player character’s current appearance. Those are neat ideas, but again, the leaks don’t do a great job of showcasing how they actually function within the game’s design.
This game is coming out 13 years after the previous entry in the series. I need to know what has taken that long besides making beach towels look super detailed. Will this game build on the depth of NPC interactions that were possible in Red Dead Redemption II? Will it bring any original ideas to the table? I’d love to know that by the end of the Netflix presentation.
A glimmer of hope that the writing is good this time
By far the most important (and honestly maybe least likely) change I’d love to see in GTA VI has to do with the writing. I used to enjoy the sense of humor in GTA games, and then I turned 16. By the time GTA V came out, I was all the way done with Rockstar’s grating, juvenile, and sometimes outright hateful satire of American culture. To be clear, satirizing America is fine and necessary, but not the way the old GTA games do it.
What I want to see more than anything else in the Netflix footage is a sign — just one — that things have changed. I know better than to expect a fully woke GTA game, so I’d settle for something that’s a little more self-serious, heartfelt, and focused on its characters. Red Dead Redemption II wasn’t perfect, but it showed a way forward for writing in Rockstar games. I hope GTA VI follows that path.