“Grand Theft Auto Online” is getting a new Adversary Mode that will let players reenact a handful of iconic movie and TV car moments. The new mode, which is available Thursday, includes classic gimmes like outrunning attack choppers in a sendup to James Bond to more modern references like a police chase through the Los Santos version of Beverly Hills in a JDM sedan à la “Baby Driver.”
Dubbed “The Vespucci Job Remix,” the new game mode is split into seven parts, each using GTA’s in-game cars and locations to create not-so-subtle nods to famous on-screen automotive situations. It’s a bit like that fake “Best Motoring” episode that one dude pulled off entirely in “Gran Turismo 7,“ except here it’s actually playable and, y’know, involves cops, helicopters, and firearms. The Remix, by the way, is a follow-up to the original Vespucci Job Adversary Mode in which a team driving Weeny Issis (the game’s license-free version of the Mini Cooper) must collect 15 checkpoints around the map in under five minutes while the opposing team tries to stop them in police cars—a very obvious tribute to “The Italian Job.”
Each part of the new seven-part Vespucci Job Remix will mimic a different car-themed TV show or movie. Part one will see players driving a Karin Sultan (GTA’s Japanese sport sedan that’s a mish-mash of the Lexus IS, Mitsubishi Evo, and Subaru WRX) attempting to get away from other players in squad cars just like “Baby Driver.”
Part two will let players channel their inner Bo and Luke Duke trying to get away from Blaine County’s Sheriff’s department in a bright orange Imponte Beater (The game’s knockoff 1969 Dodge Charger. “Importe Beater,” get it?) Part three, meanwhile, tips its cap to Britain’s most famous spy by putting players behind the wheel of a Dewbauchee JB 700W (a car that looks suspiciously like an Aston Martin DB5) and the opposition in a gang of attack helicopters.
Part four makes use of the Vapid Ellie (GTA’s version of the 1967 Eleanor Mustang) in a “Gone In 60 Seconds”-inspired melee around industrial Elysian Island, while part five cuts the hero vehicle wheel count by half, pitting a Maibatsu Manchez motorcycle against a team of armed choppers in an “xXx”-style skirmish around a wind farm.
Part six appears to emulate that other, much bigger Vin Diesel franchise in a game of cops-and-robbers where the proverbial robber is driving a Bravado Gauntlet Hellfire (it’s a fake Challenger Hellcat) while part seven turns San Andreas’ Sandy Shores into the Wasteland as players try to escape from multiple Arena Dominators (end-of-the-world, battle-ready Ford Mustangs) in an Apocalypse Cerberus truck (essentially a parody War Rig from “Mad Max: Fury Road”)
This incarnation of “GTA” may be old enough to span three console generations, but back in February, Rockstar Games announced that work on the next full title is “well underway.” In the meantime, though, The Vespucci Job Remix is free to play for those who already own “GTA Online.” This new, very cinematic game mode is playable on PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series consoles, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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