Whenever Rockstar Games has a numbered sequel for one of its games, it's usually guaranteed to have a gigantic leap in visuals and technical depth. It's also a developer that isn't afraid of building on top of what it has made previously instead of going back to the drawing board for every gameplay feature.
The Grand Theft Auto VI Extended Look trailer gave us our first real look at how the city of Leonida is being built to occupy the two new protagonists, Jason and Lucia. It was also clear that Rockstar is looking backward at its own legacy catalog, resurrecting older mechanics to both slow down and enrich the modern sandbox experience instead of leaning heavily on the tried and true arcade-style action.
Red Dead Redemption 2 looks to be a major inspiration for many of the immersion-focused changes. For instance, being able to carry an entire arsenal in their back pocket has been a staple in GTA games, with everything from high-caliber sniper rifles to rocket launchers being just a click away. GTA 6 is dialing this back with a truck storage system for cars (can't really find horses in Leonida, I suppose) and a limit on how many large weapons the protagonists can carry on them visibly. We even saw NPCs react and shuffle away to Lucia pulling out a handgun in public. It seems being under the radar is more important than ever before.
It’s not just visible weapons that city citizens will react to, as there is an honor system in play for the first time in GTA, arriving as another grab from the Red Dead series. This city isn't exactly the wild west, but your behavior as a criminal can change how the world and its NPCs react to Jason and Lucia. The trailer showed Jason gaining positive honor for simply petting a dog, while another button prompt offered the option to “Scold” the animal instead, which would have probably lowered the score. We will have to wait and see just how much this feature could change a playthrough. We might even see different endings coming through depending on if you were a "good" bad guy or a "bad" bad guy.
Rockstar hasn't shied away from looking a little further back to pull ideas from either. It has been over 20 years since GTA San Andreas launched, but its RPG-like dynamic character-building system is only now making a comeback. Attributes like strength, weight, sleep, and nutrition will now change depending on how you take care of the duo. I don't think this feature will be so deep that GTA 6 becomes a survival game, but staying in shape and training different skills to pull off missions more easily is another step in the immersion direction.
Other instances we’ve seen of returning features from Rockstar's past include dynamic interactions with NPCs, the classic six-star wanted level, and more physical interactions with objects in the world. If you've only experienced the series through Grand Theft Auto V, this ambitious sequel is going to feel like entering a whole new world, while longtime fans should find more than a few familiar things.
