After literal years of waiting since the game’s official announcement, Rockstar has finally pulled back the curtain on Grand Theft Auto 6’s gameplay. The Netflix-exclusive Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look gave us a chance to see the game’s open-world activities, combat, story missions, characters, vehicles, and much more, which just makes the wait for November 19 even more excruciating. Below, we’ve rounded up our coverage so you can learn about whatever it is you’re most interested in regarding GTA 6.
You can pet (or scold) the dog
Grand Theft Auto 6 has something for dog-lovers and dog-haters, apparently, as a button prompt showed you can not only pet dogs you come across in GTA 6, but also scold them. We would never.
After being absent in Grand Theft Auto 5, the six-star Wanted system returns in GTA 6. It’s not entirely clear what this entails, but the crimes you’ve been caught committing are visible via icons under the stars.
No surprise here if you’ve played GTA 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2, but Grand Theft Auto 6 could take you a long time to complete. Rockstar North’s Rob Nelson estimated his playthrough at about 80 hours, focused mostly on the main narrative and narrative-based optional content.
Red Dead Redemption 2 featured a very large map. Grand Theft Auto 6’s map is three times larger. It’s not Good Theft Auto 6, after all.
It’s about love but Jason and Lucia don’t have to be a couple
The core of Grand Theft Auto 6’s story is the relationship between Lucia and Jason. The two don’t necessarily have to be in a romantic relationship, and can exist as platonic partners if you so choose, but the pair, together, is crucial to the story.
There’s a Red Dead-style Criminal Profile system
Alongside the tweaked Wanted system is the Criminal Profile system. This will take into account your actions over time, like whether you choose to commit superfluous violence during your missions, and it won’t be cleared back to square-one like the Wanted stars are.
The guy is a little hard to understand, drawing some comparisons to Tom Hardy’s Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. We’re sure we’ll get used to it, but we imagine Lucia has to ask him to repeat himself sometimes.
The game won’t directly address real-life politics
Like with previous Grand Theft Auto games, GTA 6 will feature plenty of political and social satire, but it will not deal with actual, real-world political figures or events. That means no Donald Trump and no COVID-19.
No microtransactions or generative AI
Grand Theft Auto 6, at least the single-player game releasing in November, will not feature any microtransactions. Additionally, Rockstar says no generative AI was used in its creation.
Stealing cars isn’t always so easy
Past GTA games have let you commit the titular crime very easily–just press a button and you steal a parked car or kick someone out of theirs. GTA 6 will let you do this with older cars, but newer models will require a key cloner.
You can’t just walk around with guns without consequences
One of the sillier parts of past GTA games was how you could just walk down a crowded street with a shotgun or assault rifle and not have people running away screaming until you fired it. Now, you’ll have to be careful when you pull your weapons out, as people will call the cops.
You can throw dog poop at people
If you don’t want to attack someone with your guns or your fists, you can always throw a bag of dog poop at them. You’ll have to interrupt a dog-walker when they’re picking up their dog’s poop to get the bag, but then it’s yours. Congratulations.
Your physical fitness can change
Returning from San Andreas is a very-evolved physical-fitness system. Working out as Jason and Lucia will cause them to build more muscle, while eating unhealthy food will make them gain fat. If you don’t take time to rest, you’ll also find it detrimentally affects their health.
You can dynamically switch between Jason and Lucia
There were three playable protagonists in GTA 5 to switch between as you explored the open world, but this system is being tweaked for GTA 6. You can swap between Jason and Lucia mid-mission when you’re in a car chase, for instance, driving as Jason at one moment and firing from the passenger seat as Lucia a second later.