A return to Vice City has been a long time coming. And, from what we’ve seen of GTA 6 so far, it will at least partially feel like a homecoming for those of us who were there for Rockstar’s iconic PS2 tribute to Scarface. The 1980s may now be so far in the rear-view that our new protagonists weren’t even alive to see them, but there’s still echoes of the synthwave decade on the city’s streets: a retro Grotti Cheetah, neon-lit hotels overlooking the boardwalk, Phil Cassidy selling lethal merchandise, and a certain Vercetti Estate. It’s clear that Rockstar intends to spend at least a little time reveling in our nostalgia for Vice City.
But while it may be set in Leonida’s most immoral metropolis, what we’ve seen so far of GTA 6’s high-bar ambition suggests that it may ultimately feel more like a successor to 2004’s San Andreas than Vice City, at least in one very particular way. During a hands-off gameplay demo at Rockstar’s studio in Edinburgh, we spotted something very interesting: GTA 6 tracks an array of statistics for its two lead characters, including height, weight, sleep, nutrition, calories, shape, muscle, fat, and strength.
Rockstar North’s co-studio head, Rob Nelson, didn’t tell us much about these stats, but he did give us some minor insights into how they impact GTA 6’s overall design. “Eating has quite a dramatic effect on your health,” he revealed. “You’ll gain quite a substantial buff, so it can be useful.” He also confirmed that overeating will cause Jason and Lucia to put on weight.
“We do have gyms where you can go and work out, so you can go up in levels of muscularity or strength,” Nelson added. “You can go to the gym as Jason and Lucia together. You can go to the gym alone obviously, but if you go together, they’ll both start working out and you can get a 2-for-one to manage their stats.”
There is still much we don’t know about the system behind GTA 6’s character stats. But what I can say is that there’s a clear link between them and the RPG-style attributes that quite literally shaped San Andreas’ protagonist, CJ.
Launching just two years after Vice City, San Andreas was somehow astronomically more advanced than its predecessor despite running on the same hardware. Rather than a digital playground to commit pretend crimes in, Rockstar’s final mainline GTA of the PS2 era was a painstakingly crafted simulation of reality. At the time it was unprecedented: NPCs would comment on your appearance, car, or even odour with alarmingly authentic quips; gangs dynamically assaulted, seized, and subsequently lost turf; all 212 vehicles had their own individual physics and handling properties. The most prominent of these many sim-style ideas, though, were the bars that measured CJ’s key attributes of respect, stamina, muscle, fat, and sex appeal.
More important was the way your decisions affected those stats. Eat too many burgers and CJ would grow fat, damaging his health and running speed. Dedicate time to lifting weights and his muscles would become more defined and his punches deadlier. Push yourself on the treadmill and his stamina would increase. Wear stylish clothes and improve your personal grooming and the ladies would be more easily wooed.
These RPG-style attributes proved a little controversial back in 2004. Why would you want to hammer out all those quick-time events in the gym when you could be completing missions? Why do you need to watch your weight in a game that’s supposed to be escapist fantasy? Unsurprisingly, they were dropped for Grand Theft Auto 4 and 5. But, 14 years later, they quietly found their way into Red Dead Redemption 2, which saw Rockstar return to its ambition of a simulation-driven open world. Being over or underweight impacted Arthur Morgan’s health, making it harder to recover from wounds and regain stamina. In a world where eating food is the main source of health recovery, maintaining a balanced diet is one of RDR 2’s most unusual challenges. And now it seems a similar level of health simulation will be part of Grand Theft Auto 6, too.
Like CJ and Arthur Morgan, it appears that Lucia and Jason are characters sculpted by the activities you put them through. During our gameplay demo, we saw that running would occasionally prompt a “cardio workout” pop-up to display on screen. Food was also marked with either a heart or a lightning bolt – the very same icons used for RDR 2’s health and stamina systems. With the menu tracking the likes of calories, fat, and muscle, it seems very likely that the physical shape of our characters will be determined by what we put in their mouths and the physical movements we dictate.
Looking at both how Red Dead and San Andreas handled their respective attributes, we can guess as to what these stats tell us about GTA 6. Nutrition and calories point to every food item having some kind of numeric value that either positively or negatively impacts your protagonist’s stats, and there being some level of required nutrition to remain in “peak” condition. Calories would logically be linked to the fat stat, and so it seems sensible to expect that the weight gained from overeating will reflect the calorie content of the food we choose to eat.
However, while calories are involved in weight gain, they are also fundamental to staying alive and bulking up. I assume Rockstar isn’t leaning into the survival genre for GTA, and so you likely won’t starve to death by not eating, but I think there’s every chance you’ll need to eat to allow your characters to build muscle and strength when at the gym – the very inclusion of which point to a return of the exercise mini-games from San Andreas.
Finally, the sleep stat points to the idea that we may well need to get some shut-eye to stay in good condition. Perhaps, like RDR 2, regular sleep will keep our key stat “cores” (or GTA’s equivalent) topped up and allow us to recover health and stamina over time without the need to find restorative items.
It’s a risky business to include this kind of stat-driven simulation in what will undoubtedly be the most mass-market video game of all time. The average GTA 6 player likely won’t even know their character attributes are there, never mind that they’re tracked and actively change their in-world avatars. It’s backfired before, and it’s likely that GTA 6’s stats will be much more complex and nuanced than San Andreas’ controversial attributes. But, considering the triumph that was Red Dead Redemption 2’s unparalleled simulation of life in the old west, I can’t wait to see how Rockstar have applied those ideas to a couple of criminals trying to make a living in Vice City.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.
