GTA 6 Could Finally Fix Gaming's Huge Drug Problem
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
People are very excited by recent reports claiming that Grand Theft Auto 6 will allow players to carry cocaine and snort it off their hands at any time. While that’s obviously an entertaining (and thematic) detail, developer Rockstar Games has an opportunity to push the envelope forward in terms of game design here.
We already know that drugs will feature prominently in GTA 6’s story: As shown during the August gameplay reveal, Jason and Lucia find themselves in a drug deal gone wrong during the opening moments. Later, while the couple work security for a VIP at a media company, one of their clients goes upstairs to do cocaine in a conference room. It’s not surprising to see references to drugs here — this is a GTA game, after all. Nor is it unprecedented for Rockstar to include drugs as a gameplay mechanic, since the protagonists of GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are able to partake in illicit substances. I don’t expect or want GTA 6 to provide a scolding lecture on substance abuse, but I am hoping Rockstar’s latest goes a little further with this as an in-game mechanic than what we typically see.
Usually, drugs in video games provide a short-lived stat boost, paired with a debuff if you use them too often. Starfield and The Outer Worlds 2 are probably the most recent examples of this among big-budget games. In Starfield, if you use too many stimulants, your oxygen recovery will slow and your carry capacity will be reduced by 20%. Addiction can be cured with a simple doctor’s visit, but if you’re outside a major city, it can be a nuisance. In The Outer Worlds 2, overusing using your tobacco-fueled inhaler can trigger the permanent “drug addiction” flaw, which diminishes the restorative effect of the inhaler but reduces its toxicity. Both of these are very, very minor consequences, all things considered.
Rockstar North co-studio head and head of development Aaron Garbut recently told Game Informer, “Normally you compromise scale for detail or detail for interaction, but with this project we went the other way – everything is dialed up, detail, scope, breadth, scale, interaction and density. I don’t think we have ever created anything close to this before.” Elsewhere in Game Informer’s preview, Garbut noted that GTA 6’s choice-driven gameplay aims to inspire multiple playthroughs. With all this in mind, I’d be surprised if drug use didn’t have more intricate gameplay consequences than we’ve seen elsewhere.
There are several ways this could play out. We already know that diet and exercise routines — or lack thereof — will impact how Jason and Lucia look and feel. Obviously, doing cocaine nonstop might curb their appetites, leading both to sport slimmer builds. But what I’m really hoping to see is how drug use in GTA 6 affects your relationships. It would make sense if the optional romance between Jason and Lucia suffered if one of them used drugs excessively while the other abstained. It’s not hard to see it becoming a cause for getting locked out of GTA 6’s romance route. Then again, if they’re both regularly consuming, maybe it won’t negatively impact the relationship.
Based on various previews so far, we’ve also seen that NPCs are far more complex and multifaceted in their reactions than in many other video games. In other words, just because you can do cocaine at any time in GTA 6, that probably doesn’t mean that you should. Miami’s cocaine culture has been immortalized in TV shows and movies like Miami Vice and Scarface, but in the real world, there can be consequences for whipping out a bag of drugs in plain view at a restaurant or bar — you could get dirty looks or have a video posted on on social media, you could get asked to leave, and in extreme cases, the cops could get called. Given the level of realism in GTA 6, the same logic could apply in the game.
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What’s more, it would make a lot of sense for folks who play Jason and Lucia as open or heavy drug users to get some unique missions as a result. Maintaining a cocaine habit isn’t cheap, after all. It would also make sense if being a habitual user of cocaine locked you out of certain missions and relationships. Even if a potential client has made their money selling drugs, odds are they wouldn’t want bodyguards who are high protecting them.
I’m rarely disappointed when a video game allows you to use drugs: like parkour and wielding a broadsword, it’s a fascinating way to go to extremes that I probably wouldn’t in real life. But other than an occasionally trippy visual filter or a debuff, it rarely results in major, long-lasting narrative or gameplay impacts. Frankly, drugs should be a more consequential aspect of a Grand Theft Auto game than they have been in the past. And if Rockstar’s ambitions for GTA 6 are as high as they claim, that’s probably about to change.