The Extended Look at Grand Theft Auto VI put a huge amount of new gameplay on screen, from a Red Dead-style aiming ability to a wanted system that tracks what you wear and drive. Much of it borrows directly from Rockstar’s recent work while adding mechanics the series has never had. Here is what the footage actually shows about how Jason and Lucia move through Leonida.
Quick answer: The reveal confirms a Dead Eye-style slow-motion ability, a returning six-star wanted level, a robbery system where disguises and getaway vehicles change how police react, simultaneous control of both protagonists, gym-based body changes, and a phone treated as a physical in-game item.
Combat, Dead Eye, and weapon limits
Both protagonists have a slow-motion targeting ability shown by a purple bar. Jason’s version highlights enemy weak points and lets you target specific limbs, disarm enemies, and trigger cinematic kill cams, which lines up with Deadeye from Red Dead Redemption 2. Lucia’s version also slows time but focuses on a single precise shot.
Weapon carrying is now limited rather than the bottomless wheel from GTA 5. You can hold two rifles and two pistols at once, with extra guns stored in vehicle trunks or a safehouse. Dual-wielding does not return. The weapon wheel has been redesigned so you can swap between weapons and items with R1 or RB, and confirmed equipment includes binoculars, body armor, a flashlight, food and drink, duffel bags, and trauma kits.
Other combat details include one-handed reloading while carrying loot bags, destructible environments, and AI that uses cover tactically. Stealth adds crouching, but the prone position seen in the 2022 leaks has been cut from the final build. Two healing items appear, Zombix and an EpiPen, and Zombix is described as losing effectiveness if you use it too often.
The wanted system, robberies, and disguises
The six-star wanted level returns after GTA 5 capped it at five. The bigger change is how police identify you. During a robbery, on-screen icons track a camera, your clothing, your weapon, and whether accomplices are recognized. Factors like face wraps, your outfit, your getaway vehicle, and who you bring along all change how the police respond.
Wanted stars also change color to show how much the police know. Stars appear white before turning red during an active chase, and can show as black with a white outline when officers are heading to a crime scene but do not yet know who they are looking for. Losing the police no longer clears you completely, because the area where you committed a crime stays marked on the map, and drawing attention there can reactivate your wanted level.
Store robberies are shown in detail, and Jason and Lucia can rob a location together as a duo, switching between them mid-robbery. Larger criminal work appears too, including armored van robberies, police helicopters, and co-op driving and shooting during escapes.
Vehicle theft and mission escape routes
Breaking into cars has more than one method. Older vehicles use a slim jim mini-game or a smashed window, while modern cars require high-tech tools such as key cloners and phone scanners. An Immobilizer Bypass item points to a separate mini-game for stealing luxury cars.
Missions support multiple exit routes rather than a single scripted path, including options like jumping out of windows. Drive-by shooting has expanded so you can fire from car windows, truck beds, and even while swimming.
Enterable interiors and NPC interactions
The world is denser and more open than past entries. Buildings are fully rendered and enterable, including apartments, drug dens, clubs, and rooftop bars, some reached by elevator. NPCs follow their own routines and trigger random events and street encounters.
The Red Dead Redemption 2 interaction system returns. Holding L2 or LT brings up context options for talking to characters, and it now extends to pets. You can scold, pet, or study dogs, and those choices feed into your reputation. Binoculars let you spy on NPCs from a distance. You can also open fridges to pick food and drink, which ties into the health system.
The health bar is split into two segments. The first appears to regenerate on its own over time, while eating is what fills you back to full health.
Safehouses, body changes, and the honor system
Safehouses let the protagonists change clothes, eat, shave, and sleep. Physical appearance changes over time as well. Jason and Lucia can gain or lose weight, and working out at the gym alters their build, a feature the series has not had since San Andreas. The footage shows Lucia on a bench press and Jason shooting hoops outside his safehouse.
A morality mechanic also appears. A small emoji shows either a halo or devil horns depending on the action you take, which works much like the honor system from Red Dead Redemption.
Jason and Lucia: dual control and the relationship system
Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos are the two playable leads, with Lucia the first female protagonist in the series. Their story draws on a Bonnie and Clyde dynamic, and the partnership is built into the mechanics. You can hold hands, coordinate during robberies, and act together in the open world.
The character selection wheel offers three modes, listed below.
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Solo Jason | Play as Jason alone, including individual story missions |
| Solo Lucia | Play as Lucia alone, including individual story missions |
| Dual control | Use both characters at once during open-world play and missions |
During a vehicle chase you can switch between driver and passenger, so one character drives while the other shoots at pursuers. Character switching itself is not instant. It uses the same top-down zoom-out and zoom-back-in transition as GTA 5, just faster.
Mini-games, vehicles, and world activities
The reveal shows a long list of side activities and vehicle types. Confirmed activities include basketball, wrestling, scuba diving, kayaking, day and night street racing, dirt bike racing, and shooting range challenges. Pool, boxing, mini golf, and gym workouts are also confirmed, and both hunting and fishing return from Red Dead Redemption 2.
Vehicles on show include e-scooters, airboats, and dirt bikes, alongside the usual cars and boats. Parachuting also appears in the footage.
The phone, media, and smaller details
The phone is treated as a physical in-game object rather than a static HUD element, and its interface has been reworked. Through it, social networks are part of gameplay, letting you watch viral videos, follow influencers, and discover world events. In-game TV shows and browsable social media are also present.
Smaller touches round out the presentation, including sunburn effects, advanced hair physics, and weapon cleaning. Police response varies by situation, and “Florida Man” style random encounters lean into the game’s satire of its setting.
Release and platforms
Grand Theft Auto VI will release on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S after two delays. It is a single-player game, confirming that the next version of GTA Online will be a separate release. The Standard Edition is priced at $79.99 and the Ultimate Edition at $99.99, and the game is digital only, with any physical box containing a download code rather than a disc.
Taken together, the reveal shows a game leaning heavily on systems from Red Dead Redemption 2 while layering in disguise-based crime, body changes, dual-character control, and a wanted system that reacts to what you look like and what you drive. Rockstar has not detailed every mechanic, so exact behavior of some systems may shift before launch.
