GTA 6: From Police Tracking to Romance, You Probably Did Not Know About This

You probably saw it, but Rockstar Games finally revealed what GTA 6 is all about during the extended look last night, and, as you would probably expect, there was a lot to take in. On top of the new gameplay footage, it turns out a lot of outlets also had access to interviews and previews, adding even more information for you to digest! And some of the coolest details are not necessarily the ones that are the most obvious.

From the way Jason and Lucia’s relationship works, to police investigating crimes instead of magically appearing next to you, to a completely revamped system for stealing cars, Rockstar seems to have gone absolutely wild with the little details this time around.

So, here are some of the most interesting GTA 6 details you may have missed.

Jason and Lucia’s Relationship Is More Than Just a Story Detail

In GTA 6, you will be able to switch between Jason and Lucia at any given time when you are exploring the world. Of course, certain story moments will temporarily restrict switching, since some main story parts will have to be played with either Jason only or Lucia only. But for everything that is exploration or side activities, you can play whoever you want.

But the two protagonists are not simply separate characters you swap between whenever the game tells you to or when you want to.

When you are playing alone, you can literally call or text the other protagonist and ask them to join you. You can then go out together, explore Leonida, or simply spend some time hanging out. And when they are both in a vehicle, you will be able to switch seats. That means Jason can drive and Lucia can relax and listen to the radio, or one character can take the wheel and the other handles the shooting during a chase.

The relationship between the two also has a surprisingly detailed system behind it.

Ignoring messages from your partner can apparently have consequences. Something as simple as ignoring Lucia asking you to lock up the house can negatively affect the relationship. At the same time, you can build the relationship by spending time together, going shopping, getting haircuts, working out, exploring Leonida and, naturally, committing crimes together. Rockstar is also treating Jason and Lucia’s romance as an optional part of their relationship. The two begin the story interested in pursuing something romantic, but how that relationship develops depends partly on the player’s actions.

It is not a traditional romance system with gameplay bonuses, either. Getting closer does not suddenly give you better stats or unlock some overpowered ability. It is primarily about how you want to play the two characters and how their relationship develops throughout the story. There are even small physical interactions between them. You can apparently have Jason and Lucia hold hands using the right trigger, as well as perform contextual actions such as holding doors open for each other.

Yes, Rockstar is really going for it.

Safehouses Are Much More Alive

Jason and Lucia can live together and still maintain their own schedules and behaviors. Their safehouses also sound more dynamic than the traditional GTA properties we are used to, with other characters potentially coming and going. In that sense, they apparently have more in common with the camps from Red Dead Redemption 2 than the mostly static apartments and houses we have seen in previous GTA games.

And your characters themselves are not “static” either. You can change Jason and Lucia’s hair and facial hair, but you will still need to visit a barber or salon to get completely new styles. Different clothing stores and salons will also carry exclusive items, so you really have to explore different parts of Leonida instead of simply visiting one shop whenever you need something new.

Your vehicles are useful for more than just getting around, too. Each protagonist can own multiple vehicles, and their trunks can store clothing and weapons. That becomes particularly useful when you are trying to escape the police.

Your Body Changes

Yes, GTA 6 is going even further with character customization. Working out at the gym can increase your character’s muscles and strength, and eating too much can make them gain weight. Food is also not purely cosmetic. Eating provides a substantial health boost, giving you another reason to stop for food instead of treating restaurants as another random activity.

And, of course, these activities can be done either individually or together as Jason and Lucia.

Leonida Wants You to Get Lost

Rockstar describes Leonida as “very big”, but size is not the only thing that is supposed to make the world feel different. Each region has its own architecture, NPCs, and visual identity based on the local culture. The map itself is also getting an upgrade since we will get a sort of pause-screen map that uses satellite imagery.

Rockstar really seems to be pushing players to explore and not just simply follow mission markers from one objective to another. Activities and events can exist without being explicitly marked on the map. For example, you might run across a questionable lawyer sitting inside a dumpster and end up getting involved in something completely unrelated to whatever you were originally doing.

NPC conversations can also trigger activities or missions, and Jason or Lucia can spontaneously suggest nearby jobs or activities. So you might have an entirely different plan for your evening before your character decides that now would be a great time to go do something else.

The Phone Is Part of the World Now

One of the smaller but surprisingly cool changes is how Jason and Lucia use their phones. Instead of just opening a phone menu over the HUD, the phone is now an actual physical object in the world. When you pull it out, the camera moves toward Jason or Lucia’s hand as they use it. Jason and Lucia cannot upload their own photos because they are fugitives who are trying to avoid leaving a digital footprint. But you can still browse the platform, follow accounts, and consume content. Just do not expect your characters to become Leonida influencers.

The radio and television are also full of advertisements, continuing Rockstar’s tradition of using fictional media to parody the real world.

Leonida’s NPCs Are Much More Complicated

Rockstar took a lot of what worked in Red Dead Redemption 2 and pushed it further. NPCs now have substantially more variation in height and body shape, and their animations can dynamically adjust based on those differences. That means characters should interact with the environment more naturally instead of every NPC essentially being the same body model with a different face.

The interaction system has also been expanded. When you do not have a weapon drawn, you can interact with people by greeting them, taunting them, trying to defuse situations, or deliberately provoking them. You can even eavesdrop on conversations, although NPCs may notice if they think you are following or watching them.

And not every NPC is harmless. Some civilians can be armed and may initiate violence themselves.

The Police Have to Know You Committed the Crime

This could be one of the biggest changes to GTA’s wanted system. In GTA 6, you do not simply commit a crime and instantly receive a wanted level because the game knows what you did.

A crime needs to be detected.

An NPC has to witness it, or an alarm needs to be triggered before police start responding. And once they do respond, they are not necessarily just spawning around you. Officers receive information about the incident and investigate the location where the crime was reported.

A crime scene can even remain “hot” after you have left, with police continuing to search the area until things cool down. The wanted system itself is also returning to six stars, bringing back the maximum wanted level from earlier GTA games. One star should be relatively easy to escape, but six stars are a bit more tricky.

And cities will make high wanted levels particularly difficult because of dense traffic, narrow streets and the sheer number of people around you. That means escaping on foot can be useful. Alleys and side streets provide alternative routes, and Rockstar has redesigned running, jumping and climbing to make fleeing on foot better.

Police Can Identify You

Here is where things get really interesting. Police can know what Jason or Lucia looks like, and separate indicators can appear beneath the wanted level showing what information the police have about the suspect. That means your appearance can become part of the escape.

Changing your hairstyle can remove the appearance identification because you have physically changed your look. But changing your glasses or putting on a hat is not enough.

If police have identified your clothing, you will need to change your entire outfit. And this is where those clothes stored in your vehicle suddenly become much more useful. You can essentially keep an escape outfit in your trunk and change after getting away from the initial crime scene.

Masks also matter. Wearing one during a crime and removing it afterwards can prevent police from getting a usable description of your appearance, even if CCTV captured the crime itself.

Police can also identify the vehicle you are driving. So sometimes the smartest getaway might simply be abandoning the car and finding another one. And if police know Jason and Lucia are working together, the two can even split up. One character can deliberately draw the police’s attention and the other gets away. Once it is safe, the other protagonist can send a text letting them know the coast is clear. There are even visual differences to the wanted stars. When police do not know what the suspect looks like, the white wanted stars can become hollow outlines, indicating that quietly leaving the area may be enough to clear the situation.

This is a very different philosophy from “shoot 40 cops and drive through a helicopter blockade until the stars disappear.”

Another interesting addition is the Criminal Profile system. Basically, your behavior can influence how NPCs and the world react to you and potentially affect parts of the story. Unnecessary violence and excessive chaos can hurt your profile. Even something as mundane as properly disposing of your own trash can apparently influence it in the opposite direction. And crimes that you are required to commit during missions or robberies do not necessarily count against you in the same way.

So Rockstar seems to be distinguishing between “this is what the story required you to do” and “you just shot that guy because you felt like it.”

GTA 6 Wants You to Commit Crimes Quickly

That philosophy apparently extends to the game’s entire approach to crime.

Rockstar seems to be encouraging players to get in and get out instead of turning every robbery into a massive firefight. Not every confrontation has to become a shootout, either. For example, pointing a gun at an NPC without firing may be enough to make them flee. And when combat does happen, there are more options than simply killing everyone. Enemies can be incapacitated by shooting limbs, and accurate shots can knock weapons directly out of their hands.

Particularly impressive kills can also trigger slow-motion sequences and cinematic camera angles like in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Money is apparently going to matter much more in GTA 6 than it did in previous games as well. Some missions may even require you to accumulate a certain amount of cash. There are plenty of ways to make money, including stealing and selling cars, holding up businesses, robbing stores, and pulling off larger bank heists. Robberies can be done alone or with both protagonists, and working together can also strengthen Jason and Lucia’s relationship. But Rockstar is adding more decision-making to the robbery itself.

A simple example is a safe. You can blow it open with explosives and get out quickly, but the explosion could damage the contents and reduce your payout. Alternatively, you can take the time to find the combination and potentially walk away with more money. But that means Police might also arrive while you are still inside, forcing you to find another way out. Many robbery locations have alternative exits, including back doors that can become extremely useful when the obvious escape route is covered by police.

And just like in Red Dead Redemption 2, you will need fences to turn some of your stolen goods into money. Different fences specialize in different types of goods, including jewellery and stolen vehicles. Vehicle fences can even provide useful information, such as codes for police impounds containing cars you can steal.

Car Theft Has Been Completely Reinvented

This might be one of my favorite changes. Stealing a car is no longer necessarily as simple as walking up, pulling someone out, and driving away. Vehicles are now divided into different tiers based on their security and value. There is even a phone app that allows you to scan a parked vehicle before stealing it.

The scan can tell you:

• The estimated value
• The cost of registering the vehicle as a personal vehicle
• If it is locked
• If it has an alarm
• If it contains a tracker

Different vehicles also require different tools. Older cars might be vulnerable to something as simple as a slim jim, but modern luxury vehicles can require more sophisticated key-cloning technology. Some vehicles will even be impossible to steal early in the game because you have not unlocked the tools required to do it yet. Of course, traditional GTA carjacking is not going anywhere. If somebody is already sitting behind the wheel, you can still take their vehicle the old-fashioned way.

But once you have stolen a car, you still need to think about what happens next. A damaged vehicle will be worth less when you sell it, and the denser traffic and narrower streets of Leonida make transporting a clean stolen car more difficult. Some vehicles can even detect when they are being driven too slowly and alert police to your location. So you will have to either drive fast enough to avoid detection or abandon the vehicle before it becomes a problem.

Missions Are Not as Rigid as They Used to Be

Rockstar is also putting much more emphasis on player choice during missions. GTA 6 will have decisions with immediate consequences, but smaller choices can also accumulate and lead to different outcomes later. The story has apparently been designed with multiple playthroughs in mind.

Missions can offer different ways to approach situations, and one demonstrated mission involving a tower block gave players multiple ways to escape. You can also have some control over your role during certain sequences, such as deciding who drives and who handles the shooting.

Even police chases can suggest an optimal escape route without forcing you to follow it. Rockstar also wants the open world and story missions to feel less like completely separate systems. Instead of spending five minutes doing a mission and then going back to an open world that feels disconnected from it, the idea is that what you do when freely exploring Leonida can link more closely into Jason and Lucia’s personalities and stories.

And There Is a Lot More to Do

If you do not feel like committing a crime, Leonida apparently has plenty of other things to keep you occupied. You can play pool and mini-golf, go kayaking, visit the zoo, scuba dive, parachute, work out, and more. Animals can also be studied and recorded in a collection system inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2. And yes, you can pet the dogs. Or scold them. Because apparently Rockstar has decided that we are going to spend 200 hours playing GTA 6 and at least 50 of those hours will be spent doing absolutely nothing important.

And that is probably the point. The biggest thing that keeps coming back from all of these details is not really that GTA 6 has a new phone, a new wanted system, or a new way to steal cars.

It is that Rockstar seems to be trying to make the world itself the game.

NPC conversations can turn into activities. Random encounters can become missions. Your relationship with Lucia can change depending on how you behave. The clothes in your car can matter during a police chase. The vehicle you steal can have its own security system. Even how you treat random NPCs can potentially follow you through the story. And that is without even getting into everything we learned about the main story itself.

After the latest reveal, it feels like we have only scratched the surface of what Rockstar has built for GTA 6.

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