Jason and Lucia are going to work up a sweat in Grand Theft Auto 6 – literally. Among the many detailed systems Rockstar built for the game is one that sees realistic sweat gather on characters’ bodies depending on how much effort they’re exerting in physical activities. No wonder GTA 6 has taken so long to make.
Earlier today, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier published an extended report on GTA 6’s development, confirming that it was once meant to feature a more extensive open world spread across North and South America. While the scale of the project was eventually reined in, it’s still a game being built at a level of detail rarely seen even in the biggest AAA games. That’s partly why there have been so many delays – to the chagrin of Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick. The sweat system is one such example.
“They told me that they have a specific system in the game that will make it so Lucia, Jason, or whoever will exert different amounts of sweat depending on how much effort they’re putting in,” Schreier says in a YouTube video published alongside the report. “If they’re dancing extra hard in the nightclub, they will sweat more than if they are not, which I think shows you the level of detail they’re putting into this game.”
Video game sweat was once a regular indicator of technological development. With each new console generation, another NBA 2K game would arrive with athletes dripping ever more realistically. Game characters sweating? Now that’s the future. That’s next-gen.
I’m not sure sweat alone is going to be a selling point for GTA 6, but the sum of all those detailed gameplay and world systems – the weight gain mechanic, the weather, even that robustly detailed iguana – is intended to give us one of the most immersive and believable open-world sandboxes ever created. That’s a high bar for any dev to meet, but Rockstar seems comfortable enough with that level of expectation.