GTA 6: 27 Minutes of Netflix Gameplay Reveal Vice City, Jason, and Lucia — and It's the Game of the Decade

After 13 years, an infinite amount of speculation, rumors, and leaks, Rockstar has finally decided to show us something truly concrete. On August 27th, with a temporary exclusive preview on Netflix, a 27-minute extended gameplay video of Grand Theft Auto VI arrived.

And after seeing it, one thing we can say without hesitation: the GameSurf editorial team was left completely speechless, because what we saw is simply off the charts. 

The technical quality of GTA 6: lighting, animations, and details that seem real

Let's start with the technical quality, because it's impossible not to. GTA 6 is monstrous.

Lighting, animations, models, environments, and an infinite amount of details are at an impressive level. Jason and Lucia are impeccably characterized and realized, not only in appearance, but also in their expressions, movements, and interactions.

The light management is probably one of the most striking things: day, night, interiors, wet surfaces, reflections, and artificial lighting all contribute to creating a world that, at various moments, seems almost real.

The feeling is that of being in front of GTA 5 on steroids, multiplied to the nth power. That GTA 5 that many would have wanted to see transformed into a true remake or remaster over the years, but which Rockstar decided to surpass by building something much more ambitious. 

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Vice City is alive: NPCs with their own identity, changing streets, and a credible ecosystem

Vice City doesn't just seem enormous, but incredibly and wonderfully alive.

NPCs have been characterized much more deeply than in the past. They are no longer simply people who fill the streets: they have different features, movements, behaviors, and peculiarities. Each one seems to have its own role within this gigantic ecosystem.

And the attention to detail is impressive.

A dirty car shows different dust and marks than a new car. The water in a pool is different from that of the ocean, which in turn differs from that of rivers. The streets change appearance, the city reacts to light, and everything seems designed to give the impression of a coherent and credible environment.

We saw Vice City by day and night, chases, accidents, shootouts, and incredibly detailed police cars. The animations during conflicts and accidents seem to have taken a huge step forward.

And all this without forgetting an impressive amount of secondary activities.

Rockstar only showed a part of what we can do outside the storyline: a basketball game, a kayak ride, time spent in the gym to train the body, and many other mini-games and pastimes that seem destined to make Vice City even more engaging.

It will not just be a city to cross to reach a mission, but a place to live. 

Jason and Lucia: the protagonists and the 80-hour narrative structure

At the center of it all are, of course, Jason and Lucia.

The robberies, chases, criminal activities, and daily situations revolve around the two protagonists and their relationship. The video showed an extremely well-crafted pair of characters, supported by what appears to be an enormous cast.

The voice acting is also convincing: the performances appear credible and well-integrated into the different situations. The same goes for the sound design, with gunshots, engines, ambient noises, and chases rendered with a care that further contributes to immersion. 

Probably the most incredible thought to take away after these 27 minutes is that what was shown is only the surface of GTA 6.

Knowing Rockstar, it's hard to imagine that they've shown everything the game has to offer. On the contrary, it's much more likely that a huge part of the experience is still hidden.

Meanwhile, new information is emerging about the game's structure and its duration. Among the most interesting is the indication of a main storyline in the order of 80 hours, not including secondary missions, activities, and extra content.

If confirmed, this would be a huge figure and, above all, consistent with the ambition shown so far. 

GTA 6 on PS5 and then PC: what to expect from the most powerful version

Then there's a small, big detail that makes it all even more impressive: the gameplay shown was captured on a PlayStation 5.

And so it becomes inevitable to wonder what Rockstar will be able to do with the PC version, which will presumably arrive later. Considering the studio's timelines, it wouldn't be surprising to have to wait a year and a half, two years, or even a little more.

But if this is the level achieved on the standard console, it's hard not to be curious to see how far the game can push on more powerful hardware. 

After what we've seen, one thing seems practically inevitable: GTA 6 will set the bar for future open-world games.

The amount of detail, the characterization of NPCs, the quality of animations, the lighting, the variety of environments, the secondary activities, and the density of the world all seem to represent a new benchmark.

Other developers will inevitably have to contend with this game and the level of immersion that Rockstar is trying to achieve.

Behind all this is, of course, an enormous investment, consistent with a project developed for over a decade and destined to generate gigantic interest. And after this video, it's easy to imagine that the anticipation and pre-orders can only increase. 

In the end, after 27 minutes of gameplay, only one word remains:  Insane.

GTA 6 seems to be the result of everything Rockstar has learned over the years, brought to a scale never seen before. After 13 years, delays, rumors, leaks, and expectations that were practically impossible to satisfy, what we've seen finally makes this long wait worthwhile.

And the most incredible thing is that, probably, we haven't truly seen GTA 6 yet.

We've seen a taste of what Rockstar has prepared.

We at GameSurf can't wait to finally get our hands on the full version and, above all, we hope to be able to try it in preview to tell you all about it directly.

Because if everything we've seen represents only a part of the experience, then let's prepare for something enormous.

GTA 6 might not just be the game of the year. It might be the game of the decade.