Three weeks before launch, Rockstar finally put a size on GTA 6: Leonida is roughly twice the map of GTA 5, with landmass nearly equal to GTA 4, GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 combined.
The size is not even the part Rockstar kept pushing. The studio told Edge the game has far more enterable buildings than anything it has made before, packed with the furniture, photos and personal clutter of the people supposed to live in them.
“Every back alley is as densely detailed and interesting as the others. You can go anywhere, any random location, and so many people have thought about that location.”
Aaron Garbut, Rockstar North co-studio head, to Edge
The police work differently this time too. A new heat system tracks what the cops actually know about Jason and Lucia: their descriptions, their clothes, what witnesses saw. Split up, change outfits or ditch a weapon and the report chasing you gets weaker. In the demo Edge watched, a police dog ran Jason down and pinned him to the ground.
Underneath it all sits a Criminal Profile that grades how the two do their dirt, on a scale from Professional to Irredeemable. Talk people down instead of shooting and the game remembers, and Rockstar says that profile, plus a four level scale tracking Jason and Lucia’s relationship, can change how their story plays out.
The everyday stuff got the same treatment: working buses and trains, stolen cars with trackers that keep broadcasting your location, and pedestrians who get nervous when you walk around holding a shotgun. GTA 6 launches November 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.