Summary
- GTA 6 takes players back to Vice City, but in a modern-day setting, showcasing a vibrant and realistic adaptation of Miami, Florida.
- The game features Vice Beach, based on the iconic Miami Beach, known for its crowded beaches, luxury hotels, and Art Deco buildings.
- GTA 6 will expand the map to include areas based on the Everglades and possibly the Florida Keys, offering diverse environments and interesting gameplay opportunities.
first trailer for GTA 6 provides a few glimpses of the setting, including an enormous "Vice City" sign to dispel any doubts about where it takes place. While GTA has put out open-world games since 2002, the past two releases in the series, along with Rockstar's other property Red Dead Redemption 2, have really raised the bar for expansive video game maps. But there's more to GTA 6's location than meets the eye.
GTA 6 looks gorgeous, and stunningly realistic if any of the trailer was indeed captured in-engine. Parts of it are straightforward adaptations of locations from GTA: Vice City, while other parts look like they jumped right out of a postcard. With the trailer's reveals, plus a little prior knowledge of Vice City geography and both games' real-world basis, it's possible to guess at several features of GTA 6's setting. Here's everything there is to know.
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GTA 6's first trailer showcased its Florida-inspired location and the eccentric citizens that inhabit it, with many comparing them to a popular meme.
GTA 6 Is Set In Modern-Day Vice City
But It Expands Further Into The State Of Leonida Than Ever Before
The rumors are true: GTA 6 brings Vice City into the 21st century. In the classic GTA tradition of adapting real-world cities into video game settings, Vice City is closely based on Miami, Florida. But where GTA: Vice City portrays the city in the 1980s, as it appears in the TV series Miami Vice and the film Scarface, GTA 6 presents a modern rendering of a current-day Miami.
That's evidenced by the various social media shoutouts present in the trailer: phone-captured videos of road rage incidents, huge beachside ragers, and hammer-wielding Karens become the backdrop for a modern-day crime drama, creating a vibrant, living simulation of a real-life city. Drawing both on actual landmarks from the Miami area and locations central to the original GTA: Vice City, GTA 6 expands on the series' legacy while drawing attention to just how much has changed.
GTA 6's Vice Beach Is Based On Miami Beach
Vice Beach is the heart of Vice City in its original GTA appearance. It's based on the real-life Miami Beach, a small district located on an island just east of mainland Florida. Miami Beach is an instantly recognizable sight: packed beaches, turquoise waters, and bleached-white hotel skyscrapers tower in the background. It's a huge tourist destination, attracting travelers from around the world, and the perfect backdrop for GTA.
The first GTA 6 trailer shows some close-ups of the beach, implying players can walk the sands and mingle with tourists themselves. There's also a depiction of a party on a nearby hotel balcony, complete with what looks like a small, private pool. Afterward, it cuts to a nighttime shot of Vice Beach's main strip, with a series of Art Deco buildings bathed in multicolored neon light.
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This area is based on Miami's Ocean Drive, a luxury shopping/dining/hotel/nightlife district and one of Miami Beach's main attractions. In the trailer, the pink neon sign of the Ocean View Hotel is vaguely visible. This is a recurring location from GTA: Vice City - it's Tommy Vercetti's first-ever safe house, which he unlocks after completing the first tutorial mission. Now much more built-up than it was in the 1980s, the street is lined with expensive-looking sports cars ripe for the taking.
GTA 6's First Trailer Provides A Taste Of Vice City Nightlife
Next, the GTA 6 trailer visits one of Vice City's hottest clubs. It's not explicitly clear from the trailer, but this could very well be a modern version of the Malibu Club from the original Vice City. It looks somewhat different, but the red curtains are a dead giveaway. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch for the club to have changed hands or been remodeled in the 40-odd years since Tommy Vercetti bought it.
Of course, in the original GTA: Vice City, Club Malibu is a money-making operation. After completing a series of missions to get it set up, players receive a daily allowance of $10,000 from the nightclub's coffers. Whether it'll play a similar role in GTA 6 remains to be seen.
GTA 6 Will Feature Wildlife Areas Based On The Everglades
In another new addition to the Vice City map, GTA 6 appears to include a nature reserve based on Florida's Everglades National Park. This is a huge swath of flooded grassland located just west of Miami. It's also a popular tourist destination, and may be traversed via fanboat. In fact, a fanboat appears in the trailer, and will hopefully be drivable in GTA 6.
The Everglades are known for incredible biodiversity, but can also be a dangerous place. It's the only natural ecosystem in the world where alligators rub elbows with crocodiles, not to mention the panthers. The trailer goes on to show an animal control officer wrestling a gator out of a backyard pool, and another gator waltzing into a convenience store, suggesting that such reptiles will be present - and hungry - in GTA 6.
GTA 6 May Include Some Areas Based On The Florida Keys
They're only seen briefly in the first trailer, but GTA 6 may also include areas based on some of the northernmost Florida Keys. This is a chain of over 800 islands off the Florida coast, spread out across 120 miles. Many of these make for isolated, luxury vacation destinations - they're dotted with hotels and mansions.
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This would make a great place for a late-game safe house, or even a source of some rarer cars in GTA 6. However, it's not totally clear whether players can actually visit these areas, or whether they'll just appear at the edge of the map. In the GTA 6 trailer, they're only visible from the sky as a plane dips above a freeway.
Other Locations Appearing In GTA 6's First Trailer
Eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted a handful of other locations - or at least references to them - in the first GTA 6 trailer. Street signs point to locations like the Vice City International Airport, Catalan Boulevard, and Kelly County. The latter may be based on the real-life Collier County, an affluent area west of Miami proper. Lucia can also be seen riding in a convertible past a lit-up stadium. This seems to be modeled after the Kaseya Center, home to the Miami Heat. Custom speedboats suggest the return of the Viceport Boatyard, the center of Tommy Vercetti's drug smuggling operation in GTA: Vice City.
GTA 6 seems to deliver plenty of Florida charm, recognizable yet decidedly distinct in the form of Leonida. Vice City looks as good as ever, and it'll be delightful to explore its areas both old and new, to see what's changed and discover new secrets. Between expensive and unique vehicles to steal, rich hoteliers to rip off, and flashy photo ops to revel in, Vice City makes the perfect playground for Grand Theft Auto 6.
Source: Rockstar Games/YouTube
