Ok, we knew this was coming but it was supposed to be tomorrow. Then the trailer leaked, Rockstar decided that sticking to a plan that didn’t survive first contact with the enemy was a terrible idea, and here we are with the first trailer for the biggest, most anticipated game of, as it turns out, 2025. It wasn’t supposed to go like this, but- Surprise! On the plus side it’s scored to Tom Petty’s Love is a Long Road, and any day with more Tom Petty is a good one.
As could be expected, it’s an appropriate song for what’s looking to be a Bonnie & Clyde crime story. Lucia and Jason are a couple of small-time crooks in modern-day Vice City, and while what they’re up to and where it goes is a revelation for another time we can expect it be a rocky path. Armed robbery is in, of course, but the trailer is showing a giant, beautiful, sun-soaked city filled with street races, boating shenanigans, and hundreds of people packed into a sprawling city. That’s not even taking into account the trouble you’ll be able to get up to in the swamps and keys, and lets not forget the crocodiles (alligators?) stealing the show in their all-too-brief scenes.
Grand Theft Auto is its own world and doesn’t need to play by anyone else’s rules, so the long wait for its release is just another Rockstar quirk. With the huge crowds and variety of locations it’s looking to be a giant game where every possible idea is given room to breathe, and the budget to bring Vice City to life is very clearly unlimited. It’s about as Florida as Florida gets, even if the state is given the fictional name Leonida, and while at the moment Lucia and Jason are getting all the attention everyone knows the point of a new GTA is to get up to as much trouble as possible. Vice City and its surroundings are the perfect places to do this, and while the wait for the chaos is longer than expected it’s going to hit like an airboat at top speed when it lands. For now the first trailer is up even if it’s a bit earlier than planned, so get ready for mayhem and possibly a bit more romance than expected while trying not to get too impatient for an unspecified date in 2025.
