Go out without a mask and Leonida’s police will remember your face. The car you sped off in gets logged. So does the outfit you had on.
That is the picture painted of Grand Theft Auto 6’s wanted system so far, though Rockstar Games has confirmed none of the specifics. Put it beside GTA 5, where a single conveniently placed tunnel could dissolve a five-star pursuit, and the studio’s ambition comes into focus.
Work on GTA 6 reportedly started not long after GTA 5 launched in 2013/2014, meaning the project has been in development for over a decade. Here is what that decade seems to have delivered.
A decade of hype, compounding
No previous Rockstar release has been anticipated on this scale. GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 ran their marketing years ahead of launch, and the wait here spawned a meme for practically every cultural moment that passed before release.
The game was effectively sold on buzz alone, before a single trailer existed. That by itself should carry GTA 6 past every Rockstar title that came before it commercially — and there are nine more reasons lined up behind it.
Look at the lighting
The leaks that spread ahead of the official reveal were no favor to the game. Rough, unattractive, and an easy target for mockery.
Then the extended gameplay reveal landed, and the PlayStation 5 footage may as well have been a different game. The lighting and textures go somewhere Red Dead Redemption 2 — still the finest-looking thing Rockstar has produced — never gets close to.
RDR2 still stands up. But this is the sort of thing you won’t fully buy into until the controller is in your own hands.
Vice City triples RDR2
Sprawling maps are practically a house style at this studio. GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are both enormous, and both fall short of what’s coming.
Rockstar has confirmed that GTA 6’s map measures three times the playable area of Red Dead Redemption 2. Measured against GTA 5, Vice City by itself is double the size of Los Santos.
Factor in the surrounding regions and Vice City comes out close to 11 times the size of GTA 5’s city. Throw in hundreds of enterable buildings and it grows again.
The police have wised up
Shaking the cops in GTA 5 took no effort. Five stars, a single tunnel, and the whole force lost interest in you.
Reports around GTA 6 point to police who follow the vehicle you’re in, pay attention to your clothing and recall a face they’ve seen unmasked. None of it has been spelled out as a finished system.
Escaping should be a good deal tougher. It should also be more satisfying, since you’ll actually have outsmarted something for once.
Your protagonist is a body
Rockstar’s worlds have always responded to your actions. This one responds to what you do to yourself.
Overeat and your character puts on weight. Spend time at the gym and they get fitter, and it shows. That’s the promise, and it comes bundled with a lengthy list of systems chasing the same effect.
You can browse your phone. Take taxis, talk to NPCs, go scuba diving, play a round of mini-golf. Minor things, endlessly many of them, all designed to make Leonida feel inhabited.
No more lock-on
Firefights in GTA 5 barely tested anyone. Slide into cover, tap aim, let the reticle stick to a torso, squeeze the trigger. Point, shoot, done.
GTA 6 reportedly abandons lock-on for free aim. Hit markers arrive in three colors now: white for a hit, yellow for an incapacitation, red for a kill.
Heists off the rails
GTA 5 was never short on heists, but most followed a set route — occasionally with a choice between two. You selected from the menu and carried it out.
That experimentation appears to have paid off, since GTA 6’s jobs are described as considerably less linear, robberies and car boosting among them.
Take your time and the police might show up. Rush it and you risk damaging the very loot you’re after. Routes shift around you, letting you commit to whichever approach suits you best.
Leonida’s residents fight back
NPCs in this series have been doormats. Draw a weapon in GTA 5 and the street empties; hardly anyone, if anyone at all, stands their ground.
That changes here, according to what’s been described. Get caught listening in on a conversation and the people you were eavesdropping on will come at you. Follow someone too far down the street and expect the same treatment.
Rockstar has been explicit that you aren’t the only armed citizen in Leonida. Push your luck and a shootout follows. Listen properly and the conversation becomes an activity you had no idea was there.
Jason and Lucia are a system
Choice has carried weight in Rockstar games before. Blowing the safe during Red Dead Redemption 2’s Valentine bank robbery gets the job done — and brings the entire town down on you.
GTA 6 will include story beats that branch. What sets it apart from anything before it is the relationship placed at the heart of the thing.
Lucia and Jason spend a great deal of time together and pull heists as a pair. That time develops the relationship, and the relationship carries significant consequences for where their story goes. It all turns personal.
The world brings the work to you
Leonida also spins up events on the fly. One cited example: a lawyer shows up, and handing him some drugs earns you legal counsel.
Jason and Lucia will point out nearby jobs and activities as well. Say yes and you’ll find yourself in missions you’d never have run into otherwise — a genuine departure from the campaign-first template the studio has relied on for years.
So speak to your partner. Hand the lawyer his drugs. Otherwise Vice City is just a gorgeous place that sits there doing nothing.