The recently released major Grand Theft Auto Online DLC, The Cayo Perico Heist, brought with it tons of new content including the biggest heist yet, which can be played solo and carries a promise of more singleplayer content.
Alongside all of these additions, it added a new easter egg – one which has history with GTA already.
Players have discovered that, when viewed from a distance through the scope of a weapon or with Snapmatic, the distinct saurian head and neck of the cryptid Nessie will surface at a specific location along the shore. Initial reports of this new easter egg were met with skepticism, and with reason.
Back in the days of GTA: San Andreas, along with the Bigfoot rumor, the presence of a Loch Ness monster easter egg was one of the biggest and most common hoaxes, with a bunch of “sightings” turning out to rely on mods. Nonetheless, the legend persisted.
In this case, the easter egg is very real. Nessie is hanging out along the shore of Cayo Perico, probably on vacation. Thing is, not only is this easter egg real, it’s also somewhat bugged – under normal circumstances Nessie has a proximity detection system that causes her to submerge if a player gets too close, so that you can only see her from afar.
As seen in a video uploaded to Reddit, this doesn’t always trigger, and sometimes you can get up close and personal to the leviathan. We’re sure this will get patched eventually, but it’s a fun bit of insight into how even innocuous easter eggs can sometimes be affected by bugs.
We’re glad to see Rockstar embracing some of the community-made hoaxes of past GTA games, especially San Andreas, and immortalizing them for an entirely new generation of fans. These were the gaming urban legends of a younger, more innocent era in the history of the internet when debunking things wasn’t as easy and quick.