Rockstar has revealed a relationship system in Grand Theft Auto 6, to underpin and support the bond between co-protagonists and lovers Jason and Lucia. Using this system you can nurture their bond, bringing them closer together, or neglect it, potentially leading to what sounds like a split somewhere down the line.
Said Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson to IGN: “There is a system that tracks what sort of criminal you are. And then there is also a relationship system. They’re separate. You manage the relationship in the way you hopefully nurture any relationship – which is by spending time together. So being in the open world and exploring together or doing activities together, playing pool or mini golf or kayaking; normal slice of life things. Or, robbing stores together, robbing banks together. However players want to spend that time together, it will have a positive impact on the relationship.
“With the relationship,” Nelson added, “we start Jason and Lucia off wanting to give it a shot, but just going through the story and playing missions together may not be enough to keep them together. You’ll have to keep them together by spending a bit of time together in the open world, and then hopefully that will reinforce your connection to them and increase your investment in their story.”
Players can swap between playing either Jason and Lucia seamlessly, it sounds like, in a similar but evolved way to Grand Theft Auto 5. It’s their relationship we’ve seen front and centre in previous GTA 6 trailers, and it sounds as though it’ll form the backbone of everything we do in the game. But importantly: relationship maintenance won’t be a mandatory and required task. If you don’t want to focus on it, that’s okay.
“The narrative is structured in such a way that the circumstances they find themselves in require them to stay together for most of the story and work together. At the very least they will get through most things as partners in crime,” Nelson said. “I don’t want to say too much more about this because I don’t want to spoil anything. It really adds a compelling element to things and it’s one of the reasons we wanted to approach this sort of story, because it’s completely different for us.
“Could we bring some sort of emotional resonance to GTA for people if they wanted to engage with it? Could we also provide mechanisms for people to just opt out of it if they’re not into it? If they feel like I don’t want a relationship in this? That’s what we’re going to find out. It’s not something that we want to foist upon players.”
More to follow as we scour all GTA 6 coverage and extract our thoughts from the GTA 6 Netflix extended look trailer being aired now.
