GTA VI: IGN watched half an hour of live gameplay
At Rockstar North in Edinburgh, IGN watched Rob Nelson play roughly 30 minutes of GTA VI live. Here are the key details, from the relationship system to the new way of stealing cars.
At Rockstar North in Edinburgh, IGN's reporters watched co-studio head Rob Nelson play about 30 minutes of Grand Theft Auto VI live, and they also saw the new "Extended Look" video before its Netflix debut. According to IGN, this was Rockstar's first gameplay presentation to the press.
IGN collected 69 new details. Here are the ones that matter most:
Jason and Lucia
- While exploring, you can switch between Jason and Lucia at any time, though some story points may lock it. You can also call or text the other one, and they'll travel to you.
- The relationship system is separate from the new Criminal Profile. The pair start the story wanting a romance, and you keep it alive with time together: pool, mini golf, kayaking, shopping, or robbing a store and a bank together (romance, GTA style).
- The relationship gives no gameplay bonus, and the two can't break up.
Still, Nelson says your effort counts:
"Whether you've nurtured the relationship or not will definitely have a bearing on how their story plays out."
Police and the Criminal Profile
- A wanted level only kicks in if there's a witness or an alarm goes off. The six-star wanted level is back.
- Police can learn what you look like, what you're wearing, what you're driving and whether you're a couple, all shown as HUD icons. Masks, a full change of clothes, swapping cars or splitting up lower the heat. Hollow stars mean they don't know what you look like.
- The Criminal Profile is GTA VI's take on Red Dead Redemption 2's Honor system, minus a clear right and wrong. Unnecessary violence shifts it, good-citizen acts like throwing away trash count too, but crimes that missions or robberies require don't necessarily move it.
Car theft and money
- Cars now come in tiers. The WAINK phone app scans a car for its value, registration cost, locks, alarm and tracker.
- Older cars need a slim jim, prestige cars a key cloner, and some stay out of reach until later in the story. Anyone behind the wheel can still be dragged out like before.
- Fences pay less for damaged cars, and a tracker alerts the police if you drive too slowly.
Nelson summed up the change like this:
"Previously, you could just press triangle to automatically hotwire and steal any vehicle... So now, you start off the game and there are certain parked cars that are not accessible to you until you get a bit further along with the story and you acquire certain tools to get into them, but you can always carjack any driver you see."
- Money matters more to the story than before: some main missions require you to raise a set amount first. You can earn it by boosting cars, holding up businesses, robbing stores and pulling bank heists.
- Robberies come with a greed vs. speed tradeoff: explosives, for example, damage the loot inside a safe.
Everything else
- Safehouses are closer to RDR2's camps: other people can drop in, and you can trim your hair and facial hair there.
- Each character can own several personal vehicles, with trunk space for spare clothes and weapons.
- Physical stats are back: the gym builds muscle and strength, overeating makes you gain weight, and eating gives a big health boost.
- You can take enemies down non-lethally by shooting their arms or legs, or shoot the gun out of their hand.
- NPC interaction builds on RDR2's system, with greet, taunt, defuse and provoke options. NPCs notice when you eavesdrop or follow them, and some carry weapons and may start trouble themselves.
- For fast travel there's the Ryde Me taxi app. Snapmatic returns, but you can only browse, not post.
- The phone is an in-game item instead of a HUD overlay. The pause map uses satellite imagery, and a Focus system highlights things of interest.
- Activities: pool, mini golf, kayaking, the zoo, scuba diving and parachuting. You can study animals, and yes, you can pet dogs.
- The story has big and small choices with consequences, and it's built for repeat playthroughs.
Nelson on the map and the team
No exact map size was given, but Nelson said "the game is so big, I don't know that there's anybody on the team that knows all of it." The density of GTA VI is part of why the team has doubled in size. He admitted they're nervous, calling the game a step forward in every respect while stressing that "it's still very much Grand Theft Auto." On satire, he said very specific political issues or memes "will date fast", so the writers avoid extremely current slang.
IGN's own impression is that this is the best a game has looked on PS5, and that it could hold its own against most high-end PC games.
According to GTA fan sites, other outlets ran previews in the same wave: TroisCouleurs covered map size, interiors and police, The New York Times mentioned 600,000 animations, a huge map and an 80-hour playthrough, and EL PAÍS wrote about the hidden UI and vehicle hacking. Esquire and ZEIT had pieces too.
Which new feature are you most curious about? Let us know! ;)
