Rockstar Games has confirmed new gameplay details about Grand Theft Auto VI in a cover story with Dazed magazine. After a string of leaks, official information about the highly anticipated game was revealed in the interview, including a physical appearance mechanic, impactful relationship choices, and character switching.
Taking cues from Red Dead Redemption 2, another groundbreaking Rockstar title, Grand Theft Auto 6 will have an RPG-style system that reflects how players choose to take care of protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos. The amount of food a character eats and how often they work out will be reflected in their appearance, with lack of sleep also making an impact.
Dazed also reported that a player’s actions will have “deeper” repercussions on the relationship between Jason and Lucia than the honor system in Red Dead Redemption games. Non-playable characters (NPCs) in the background will react even more realistically than past games.
“Between visual feedback mechanisms, deep relationship mechanics and the heightened realism of the world they inhabit, people might even think twice about going on the arcade-style rampages of GTA games gone by, once they land in Leonida,” the British magazine noted.
Rockstar North co-head Rob Nelson explained the GTA 6 creative team looked back at previous games with “a critical eye” to evaluate “what we didn’t do as well as we would have liked to, either because we didn’t have the time, resources or technological capabilities, or in some cases things we just didn’t do as well or consider as fully as we could have.”
He added, “A lot of what we do is very iterative – we adjust a lot of things by feel based on what is working and what isn’t.”
On a similar note, character switching will be improved from Grand Theft Auto V. For example, a player could be driving as Jason and seamlessly switch to Lucia in the passenger seat to fire on pursuing enemies. Players can also “choose to either play as a couple, or go off and cause chaos independently.”
These details arrive after a series of leaked gameplay clips, which Rockstar acknowledged as containing “some spoilers.” Fans won’t have to wait much longer for official footage, as Netflix will premiere an “extended look” at GTA 6 on Thursday, August 27th.
