We recently had the opportunity to visit Grand Theft Auto 6 developer Rockstar North to talk to co-studio head Rob Nelson and watch him play through an extended section of GTA 6. Over the course of the demonstration, we saw how a reimagined Vice City has been brought to life as Rob took us on a detailed tour of Rockstar’s brand-new open world. And there were a lot of details to dig into.
From how dual protagonists Jason and Lucia’s dynamic will evolve over the course of the story to how the act of stealing cars has been completely reinvented, here are 69 brand new GTA 6 gameplay details we learned during our trip to Rockstar.
Jason and Lucia
1. As with GTA 5, you can switch between the game’s leads at any time while exploring the open world. While designed to remain available as often as possible, switching may be disabled at certain points in the story.
2. When playing as one character, you can do things solo, or you can summon the other to help out with open-world activities or to simply hang out. To do that, you can call or text your partner in crime at any time, and they’ll travel to your location.
3. When traveling in a car together, you can switch seats and allow for the other character to drive if you fancy a little break and want to just chill out with the radio playing. During car chases or escapes, you can choose to sit in the passenger seat and shoot while the other drives.
4. If you’re out on your own for most of a day, you might get a text from Jason or Lucia reminding you to lock up the house when you get back late, or letting you know they’re heading to bed. Ignoring these messages may result in your relationship being negatively affected.
5. At the beginning of the story, Jason and Lucia want to pursue a romantic relationship. Whether this ends up happening is up to you, though. This is managed by spending time together outside of missions, as the critical story path may not provide a sufficient amount of time for their love to blossom.
6. Ways to strengthen the couple’s bond include exploring Leonida, going shopping, visiting hair salons, or exercising as a pair, and, of course, committing robberies together — this is GTA, after all. There are almost certainly plenty of other couples’ activities to do, too.
7. No matter how tense things get between the pair, they’ll still have each other’s backs, even if they’re not close romantically, as the narrative running through the main missions requires this. How close they are at certain points does affect how their story will play out, though.
8. There are no specific gameplay benefits earned by building a strong romantic connection, meaning romance is completely optional and predominantly a roleplaying decision for players to make,
9. If you do want to engage with that side of things, though, you can hold hands while out and about with a pull of the right trigger. Other little touches include being able to hold doors open for each other.
Safehouses, Cosmetics, and Physical Stats
10. Jason and Lucia can live in the same safehouse together, and each operate on their own schedules to make their behaviour in the world feel as believable as possible.
11. GTA 6’s safehouses are more comparable to Red Dead Redemption 2’s camps than the series’ traditional houses, meaning other people could also pop in and out. One home we saw even belonged to someone other than Jason and Lucia.
12. These bases are designed to be more interactive than their equivalents from any other GTA. Like in Red Dead Redemption 2, you’ll be able to shorten or shave your hair and facial hair (new styles will still need to be cut at a salon or barber).
13. Multiple personal vehicles can be owned by each character and kept at safehouses. These have working trunks, and you can store a change of clothes and weapons in them to aid with fighting and escaping the law.
14. As is the norm with GTA, hair salons and clothing stores can be found throughout the open world, but each will now have exclusive items and signature hairstyles to encourage you to visit different ones.
15. As well as cosmetics, Jason and Lucia’s appearance can change depending on which activities you engage with. Going to the gym increases their muscularity and strength, but overeating will make them gain weight. Eating does provide a substantial boost to a character’s health, though. Each of these activities can be performed solo or as a couple.
Open World Exploration and NPCs
16. Nelson described the map as being “very big”, though no definitive size was given. Each district is populated with buildings and people that are styled to fit the culture of their locations.
17. The map displayed on the pause screen is much more detailed than previous GTA games, with satellite imagery replacing the previous rudimentary “Google Maps” appearance of the blocks and streets.
18. Exploration is rewarded, and so there is encouragement to spend time away from story missions. Events and missions are not limited to those found through objective or map icons.
19. Random events will occur naturally in the world. An example of one such interaction is the option to give some pills to a questionable lawyer sitting in a dumpster. Grant him the drugs, and he’ll lend you some legal advice.
20. You can fast travel using a taxi app called Ryde Me. If you’re in the car with another passenger, you can talk to them and have full conversations over the course of the drive.
21. Don’t want to spend time listening to the general public? Well, fear not, as the radio is here to save you. In typical GTA fashion, there are both radio and TV advertisements to be amused by, with more of both than in any prior game in the series. We saw ones for depression drug “Angstipan” and The Prairie Sandwich, which contains a light 30,000 calories.
22. You can also distract yourself by browsing the apps on your phone. These include the returning Instagram parody, Snapmatic. This time, though, you can’t post your own photos due to Jason and Lucia being a couple on the run and not wanting to leave a digital footprint. Instead, you can lurk, follow other accounts, and browse general content on it.
23. The phone menu no longer pops up in the bottom right corner of the frame. Instead, the camera now zooms in on Jason or Lucia’s hand when they pull it out of their pocket, with the phone being an actual in-game item rather than a part of the HUD. It’s a similar presentation to how Red Dead Redemption 2 shifts to first-person when Arthur cleans one of his pistols.
24. There are many open-world activities to engage with, including, but not limited to: playing pool, mini golf, kayaking, going to the zoo, scuba diving, parachute jumping, and going to the gym.
25. When at the zoo, or out in the wild, you can study animals, and each new one you find will be checked off a list. This system is derived from Red Dead Redemption 2.
26. Dogs can be petted (or scolded, if you’re a heartless human).
27. Aside from animals, there’s also the human wildlife of Leonida to observe, with NPCs consisting of a far greater variation in body shape and height than any previous Rockstar game. Depending on their size, the game dynamically retargets animations so that they interact with the environment and other characters in as realistic a way as possible.
28. You can interact with NPCs using an evolved version of the system from Red Dead Redemption 2, with conversation options available when a character is targeted while your gun is holstered. Greet and taunt are both introductory prompts, as well as defuse and provoke if someone is being aggressive toward you.
29. You can also stand by NPCs and listen to their conversations. They’ll notice if you’re eavesdropping, though, and may confront you if they think you’ve overstepped a boundary. The same goes for if an NPC thinks you’ve been following them for an uncomfortable amount of time.
30. Sometimes, though, an NPC may just choose to initiate violence with Jason or Lucia, and your protagonists are not the only civilians in Vice City and its surrounding area who are carrying weapons on their person.
31. These conversations and interactions can trigger activities, which create an organic experience alongside the more traditional player-selected missions. Even ambient dialogue can create emergent events.
32. Jason and Lucia can spontaneously propose nearby activities or jobs, allowing an intended trip to turn into a different emergent activity, should you agree to their idea.
33. To help locate useful items and avoid police in the world, you can use the new Focus system that highlights things of interest in the world.
Police, Wanted Levels, and Your Criminal Profile
34. For the Wanted Level system to kick in, a crime must first be witnessed by an NPC, or an alarm triggered.
35. The dispatched officers will then get specific information about the reported incident and respond to the area of the crime. The ‘hot area’ can remain marked on the map even after Jason and Lucia have left the area. Police can continue to search at that scene for a period of time until it cools down.
36. GTA 6 sees the return of the six-star wanted level after GTA 5 changed to five stars. One star of heat is intended to be relatively easy to escape, while six offers that classic high-chaos GTA getaway experience.
37. At three stars and higher, it can be hard to escape if you’re in the city unless you have a very fast vehicle. This is due to tighter, narrower streets and the high-density population of people and traffic. Rather than risking a car chase, alleys and off-shoots from streets can be used to flee on foot. GTA 6 has reworked movement, including running, jumping, and climbing, to make this all feel smoother.
38. When wanted, the police can learn what you look like, as well as what you’re wearing. These details are indicated by different icons that appear under your wanted level on the HUD. Changing your hair will remove the appearance icon, as you now look physically different, but the police still know what you’re wearing and be able to track you using those details. Putting on glasses or a new hat isn’t enough to disrupt that information, either; you’ll need to change into a whole new outfit, hence why keeping a fresh set of clothes in your car’s trunk is a great idea.
39. Equipping masks during a crime, and then removing them as you escape, can prevent a description of your appearance even making its way to the police, even if you’re caught by CCTV.
40. But the cops can also know what vehicle you’re driving, so abandoning a recognised vehicle and entering a different one is also another way of reducing heat.
41. During a police search, Lucia and Jason can opt to split up to divert police attention if it’s been reported that the suspects are a couple. You can tell the other character to flee during an encounter and take the heat for yourself. If the pair are separated while escaping, you’ll later get a text from the other partner once the coast is clear.
42. The classic white wanted stars will be displayed as hollow outlines if the police don’t know what you look like, meaning as long as you leave the area of the crime without drawing attention to yourself, you should be in the clear.
43. If either Jason or Lucia is arrested, the traditional “Busted” screen appears, and you’ll respawn into the world, even if the other is still escaping from a crime scene.
44. Not all confrontations have to result in the police being summoned, though. Some scenarios can be defused without violence, such as aiming but not firing a gun at an NPC, causing them to flee.
45. Sometimes escalation is designed to be unavoidable, though, such as in some story missions. Overall, a hit-and-run approach is encouraged, with the idea that you get in and out of crime scenes before the police arrive and it all kicks off.
46. Get yourself into a shootout, and you’ll now be able to incapacitate enemies as an alternative to just killing them. Aim for the arm or leg to put them down non-lethally, or if you’re accurate enough, shoot their weapon out of their hand to disarm them.
47. Slow motion moments of particularly impressive violence will be showcased from a cinematic camera angle, much like Red Dead Redemption 2 highlighted some of Arthur’s best shots.
48. The Criminal Profile system is GTA 6’s version of Red Dead Redemption 2’s honour system, but distinct from it inasmuch as there isn’t a clear and defined “right or wrong” morality to the way you play.
49. A consistent pattern of behaviour might affect how the world and the people within it react to you when free-roaming, as well as how the main story may play out. Actions involving unnecessary moments of violence or causing more mayhem than called for can contribute to your profile. Additionally, acts that contribute to being a good citizen – such as throwing away your own trash – also adjust your Criminal Profile.
50. Crucially, crimes committed when on missions and robberies, or situations when you’re forced to use aggression, won’t necessarily shift the Criminal Profile.
Money, Robberies, and Boosting Cars
51. Rockstar intends for money to matter more to the story than in previous GTA games, and you’ll sometimes be required to raise a certain amount of capital in order for the flow of main missions to continue.
52. The main ways to make money include boosting and selling cars, holding up businesses, robbing stores, and executing bank heists.
53. Robbery targets can be approached by either Jason or Lucia solo, or as a couple. Doing a job together counts towards growing their relationship.
54. Jobs can be executed in different ways, as greed vs. speed becomes a huge factor. It may be quicker to use some explosives to blow open a safe, but that will damage the loot inside. Take a little longer to search around the business for the safe combination, and you’ll earn more money, but at the risk of law enforcement turning up mid-heist.
55. Police presence can even build outside of a store or bank and wait for you to leave. Thankfully, a lot of robbery locations offer alternative routes of escape, such as a back door.
56. Stolen goods will then need to be sold to a fence, as, once again, GTA 6 takes a leaf out of Red Dead Redemption 2’s book. Fences exist for items such as jewellery, but also for cars.
57. A fence looking for cars may also give you information, such as the code for a police impound that’s home to vehicles ready to be boosted and cashed in on.
58. Getting behind the wheel of a stolen vehicle won’t be as simple as in past GTA games, though. Cars are now categorised by a tier system, with more expensive models proving a much tougher challenge to get into.
59. When approaching a parked car that’s taken your fancy, the first thing you’ll want to do is use the new WAINK (yes, really) phone app to scan the vehicle. This will tell you how much it’s worth, the cost of registering it as a personal vehicle, whether it’s locked or alarmed, and if it has a tracker.
60. Different tiers and types of vehicle require different tools of entry, such as a simple slim jim for older, less secure cars, or a technologically advanced key cloner for modern, prestige vehicles. Some cars will be inaccessible early in the game because the necessary tools are not acquired until later in the story.
61. Any car that has an occupant in the driver’s seat can be stolen, though, with carjacking working just how you remember it from previous GTA games.
62. Any cars you’ve stolen will be worth less if delivered to a fence damaged. The challenge of delivering a pristine car is made harder by the narrower streets and denser traffic of GTA 6, which have both been designed with increased realism in mind.
63. Some vehicles will also be fitted with advanced trackers, which will alert the police to your location if you drive too slowly. This means you’ll either need to pick up the speed or abandon the car.
Missions, Story, and Choices
64. GTA 6’s story will include choices both big and small, with some minor decisions accumulating and resulting in larger consequences. Some major choices will result in significant and immediate change. Overall, the narrative has been designed to support repeat playthroughs.
65. Though Rockstar often prioritises directed storytelling when specific plot beats need to be delivered, the studio has attempted as much as possible with GTA 6 to connect open-world actions to each of its characters’ identities and their stories.
66. As much thought is given to gameplay choice within missions, too. We were shown a tower block mission which contained multiple escape routes, a mission where you could freely choose between being in the driving seat or shooting from beside it, and a police chase in which an optimal path to freedom was suggested, while also allowing other routes of escape.
67. Lucia’s ankle tag will play a notable part in the story and is key to how she and Jason are brought together. They each have dense backstories that are sometimes outright revealed, and other times only alluded to. Could a stronger relationship reveal hidden secrets?
68. The story is designed to reward spending time in the world rather than moving directly from mission to mission. Rockstar says it has blurred the lines between open world and main mission activities.
69. That trademark Rockstar satire and brand of comedy will run through the story and the larger world. It won’t rely heavily on specific political issues or memes, due to the long development cycle of the game potentially causing them to date quickly. The same can be said for contemporary slang, with the intention being that the characters’ dialogue remains as timeless as possible.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.
