With Grand Theft Auto 6 still a way off release (until May 2026, in fact), players might be forgiven for feeling a little, well, impatient.
Step forward, Grand Theft Auto London. Or at least, the trailer for an imagined GTA London. The brainchild of 3D artist and director Carlos Rico, it’s an homage to the GTA franchise, if that franchise happened to be set in the UK capital instead.
Over the course of roughly a minute, we see people having punch-ups on the platform at Mile End underground station (something he animated himself), a man with a shotgun driving a Land Rover, run-ins with the Met and hanging from a helicopter above the Houses of Parliament.
What made it in? “I wanted a good mix of the obvious spots, like Piccadilly Circus and Big Ben, along with places that have more sentimental value to me, like Southbank Skatepark,” he says.
“My goal for the locations was to make Londoners feel like it’s the real London — not just a 3D animated tourist brochure. So I included things you’d see all the time if you’re always around the city: 10-foot tags, traffic wardens, and classic metal gas canisters on the streets. Those are the elements that people might not know you’ve included, but they'd know if you didn’t.”
Oh, and there’s even a shot of a phone being snatched by a thief on a Lime bike. Yep, that feels like London alright.
Though Rico says he didn’t really go for the ‘Rockstar look’ as much as the “PS4 generation aesthetic”, there are a few tell-tale nods to the franchise, most notably in the Shell station scene.
“If you look closely, as the two characters are blasted back from the explosion, you’ll see money hit the floor with GTA IV’s famous orange glow around the cash.” Oh, and the ‘game over’ scene in which the main character ‘merked the Maybach’.”
The idea had been in the works for a while. “I had toyed with the idea of reimagining iconic games in London before, with a Def Jam Fight For London concept I animated last year,” he says.
“It feels like London's modern scene doesn’t get as much love in the online animation or gaming space, and I wanted to tackle that and show love to my home!”
Rico started storyboarding the video at the beginning of January and used a piece of free open-source bit called Blender to make it.
There were also apps like Character Creator 4, Marvellous Designer and his own motion capture suit, called a SmartSuit Pro 2 (which he used, among other things, to choreograph a fight scene in which his own character gets beaten up).
It’s a labour of love, but has he heard from Rockstar at all? Sadly not. “I never expect to hear from the people or entities that inspire me to make the animations I do. I imagine they have bigger fish to fry right now for sure, but I do hope they got a kick out of watching it.”
Rico does have plans for future projects, too — such as a Silent Hill spinoff, London-style.
“With [upcoming survival horror game] Silent Hill f being set outside of the original foggy town, I can't help but wonder what East London would look like if it were a location in that franchise,” he says.
“So maybe I’d like to put in a Boris Johnson Silent Hill monster that ziplines towards you at great speed before getting stuck midway, giving you time to attack (that would be a great boss battle). That one's for free, Konami.”
