Grand Theft Auto V: Debut Trailer Analysis
Rockstar has finally launched the trailer for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V. We had three members of our team sit down, watch the trailer over and over, and then discuss it. We’re pretty sure we now know the game’s setting, and we’ve got some theories about the storyline and main characters. Here’s that discussion. Feel free to post your own theories in the comments section after viewing the trailer for yourself.
Matt Walker: At first, it looked like we looking at Vice City.
Josh Wirtanen: Yes, I was thinking the same thing.
Matt: But it’s L.A.
Shelby Reiches: Yeah, or somewhere around it; a Palm Springs sort of place. And it has a VINEWOOD sign instead of the HOLLYWOOD sign.
Matt: So definitely L.A.
Shelby: Yes, it looks like this is GTA’s interpretation of Hollywood, if not the greater L.A. area. Interestingly, I don’t think they really showed the protagonist, if at all.
Matt: I saw him once, looking out over the city, I think.
Shelby: Are you sure it was him and not just some random dude?
Matt: It looks like Tommy Vercetti. It looks like him a lot.
Shelby: You mean the guy in the suit?
Matt: Yeah, him. He could be just a random guy in a suit though.
Shelby: There’s also another guy, with a similar look but a smaller build, in an action shot later on.
Josh: You mean the guy on the balcony? I’m pretty sure that’s the same guy who’s leading the team of armed “pest control” people in the next shot. So he could be our protagonist.
Shelby: It could be. I thought the guy on the balcony had a bigger head, squarer jaw, and more hair. Not that you can see the “pest control” guy’s jaw.
Josh: I’m wondering if the balcony scene is present, and the exterminator scene is past, though. So he’s aged between the two shots.
Shelby: It’s possible, though the exterminator scene coincides with him implying that he always ends up going back to the easy money path.
Josh: Good point. And the Pest Control van is also from Los Santos, according to the logo on the side. So Los Santos is probably our location. And if this guy has just moved here, the Pest Control scene would be in the present.
Matt: I want this to be Tommy Vercetti though.
Shelby: You just want Ray Liotta back on the job.
Josh: Speaking of which, I’m not getting a Tommy Vercetti vibe from this guy, though I am getting a strong Ray Liotta vibe, and Liotta voiced Tommy. I think the guy in question looks a lot like Ray Liotta.
Matt: That’s what I was thinking: Ray Liotta from Goodfellas .
Josh: Exactly.
Shelby: Okay, yeah, that does look like Liotta. But Tommy was a psychopath. This guy sounds more down to earth, continuing Rockstar’s recent trend of humanizing their less-than-perfect leading men.
Matt: I never got that Tommy was a psycho, just a man with a plan and people that screwed him over. Ray Liotta is the man, though. I feel that’s why Vice City is my favorite. But the guy in the trailer definitely gives off the Ray Liotta in Goodfellas vibe.
Shelby: A few definites about him, though: He’s not an immigrant, but he’s not from L.A. (or Los Santos). He has a lot of money that it sounds like he came into through less-than-scrupulous means, and he either has or wants children. So we’re possibly looking at a GTA game with a family dynamic.
Josh: I’m getting hints of Red Dead Redemption, in terms of story.
Shelby: Yeah, exactly. Only minus the government conspiracy bit.
Josh: He sounds like an ex-gangster trying to start a new life. Instead of the government pulling him back into the underworld, it’s his own vices that eventually take him back.
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