Leave the mask at home and the police in Leonida will remember your face. They’ll log the car you drove away in. They’ll note what you were wearing.
That’s how Grand Theft Auto 6’s wanted system has been described so far, and none of it has been confirmed in detail by Rockstar Games. Set it next to GTA 5, though, where one well-placed tunnel could shake a five-star chase, and you can see what the studio is reaching for.
Rockstar reportedly began work on GTA 6 shortly after GTA 5 shipped in 2013/2014, which puts the game at more than a decade in development. Here’s what that decade appears to have bought.
The hype compounded for 10 years
Nothing the studio has released has been waited on like this. GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 did the marketing years in advance, and the delay produced a meme for every cultural event that happened before release.
The buzz sold this game before the first trailer existed. That alone should push GTA 6 past every previous Rockstar title on performance, and there are nine other reasons stacked behind it.
The lighting is the giveaway
The leaks that circulated before the reveal did the game no favors. Unfinished, ugly, easy to dunk on.
Then the extended gameplay reveal arrived and the PlayStation 5 footage looked like a different project. Lighting and textures are doing work that Red Dead Redemption 2, still the best-looking thing Rockstar has made, doesn’t approach.
RDR2 holds up fine. But this is one of those cases where you won’t quite believe the footage until you’re the one holding the controller.
Vice City is three times RDR2
Large maps are a studio habit. GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 both sprawl, and both of them come up short here.
Rockstar has confirmed the GTA 6 map is three times bigger than the playable area of Red Dead Redemption 2. Against GTA 5, Vice City on its own is twice the size of Los Santos.
Vice City plus the surrounding areas runs nearly 11 times larger than GTA 5’s city. Add hundreds of buildings you can walk into and the thing stretches further still.
The cops learned something
Losing the law in GTA 5 was easy. Five stars, one tunnel, and the entire department forgot you existed.
Reports on GTA 6 describe police who track the car you’re driving, keep tabs on your clothes and remember an unmasked face. None of that has been laid out as a finished system.
Getting away should be considerably harder. It should also feel better, because for once you’ll have out-thought something.
Your character is an organism
Rockstar worlds have always reacted to what you do. This one reacts to what you do to yourself.
Eat too much and your character gains weight. Put in gym time and they get fitter and look it. That’s the pitch, and it sits alongside a long list of other systems built for the same purpose.
You can scroll your phone. Ride taxis, chat with NPCs, go scuba diving, play mini-golf. Small stuff, tons of it, all of it aimed at making Leonida feel lived in.
The lock-on is gone
Shootouts in GTA 5 asked almost nothing of you. Duck behind cover, tap aim, watch the reticle snap onto a chest, pull the trigger. Point and shoot, no skill required.
GTA 6 reportedly drops the lock-on in favor of free aim. Hit markers now come in three colors: white when you connect, yellow when you incapacitate, red when you kill.
Heists that don’t run on rails
GTA 5 had no shortage of heists, and most of them had a route. Sometimes a choice of two. You picked from the menu and executed.
All that tinkering seems to have paid off, because the jobs in GTA 6 are described as far less linear, robberies and car boosting included.
Work carefully and the police may turn up. Move fast and you may damage the loot you came for. Routes adapt, so you can commit to the approach you feel strongest about.
The people of Leonida push back
NPCs in these games have been pushovers. Pull a gun in GTA 5 and the street scatters; few of them, if any, fight back.
Not so here, going by what’s been described. Eavesdrop on a conversation and get caught, and the people you were listening to will confront you. Tail someone down the street too long and you’ll get the same reception.
Rockstar has made clear you aren’t the only citizen of Leonida carrying a gun. Push too hard and you’re in a shootout. Listen well and the conversation turns into an activity you didn’t know existed.
Jason and Lucia are the mechanic
Decisions have mattered in Rockstar games before. Blowing the safe during the Valentine bank robbery in Red Dead Redemption 2 works, and it also brings the whole town down on your head.
GTA 6 will have story beats that fork. The part that separates it from everything prior is the relationship sitting at the center of it.
Lucia and Jason spend serious time together and run heists as a couple. That time builds the relationship, which carries major implications for how their story plays out. The stakes get personal.
The world hands you work
Leonida also generates events on the fly. One example given: a lawyer turns up, and gifting him some drugs gets you legal advice.
Jason and Lucia will also flag jobs and activities nearby. Take them up on it and you land missions you’d never have stumbled into, which is a real break from the campaign-first structure the studio has leaned on for years.
So talk to your partner. Give the lawyer his drugs. The alternative is a Vice City that just sits there looking beautiful.
