Rockstar showed 3 hours of GTA 6 gameplay – details and impressions from a preview participant

Rockstar Games flew the host of the TGG channel from Australia to Edinburgh for an early look at GTA 6, well ahead of the public release. At the Rockstar North office, the studio showed him a 26-minute version of the trailer that later aired on Netflix, then followed it up with two and a half hours of free-roam gameplay.

The person actually holding the controller wasn't the guest, though – it was Rob Nelson, one of the game's development leads, who has spent more than twenty years at the studio.

Here's official 26-minute gameplay:

A car picked the blogger up from his hotel and drove into an underground garage so the visit wouldn't draw attention. From there he went up several floors to Nelson office, where part of the studio leadership had gathered.

The main point the team wanted to get across was simple:

The game is massive, and the developers don't intend to hide any of it.

The biggest takeaway from what he saw wasn't about graphics but about pacing. According to the blogger, GTA 5 let players coast on autopilot, while the new entry constantly forces you to weigh decisions, closer to how Red Dead Redemption 2 plays. The world is filled with NPCs who act like real people, and every action carries consequences.

Nelson addressed this directly.

There's just so many more decisions you have to make. All the time. And I think that adds so much to the game. You can catch yourself playing kind of reserved, and then someone crosses the line and it's like, alright, I've got to deal with this guy. Or you're just like, I don't care, screw it. But even that's a decision, and it feels weighty, and it's often really funny in the moment too. Now there's a risk to pulling someone out of their car.

They're going to call the cops, right? I'm going to have a bunch of trouble. Then I might have to deal with that. So maybe I don't pull anyone out. Maybe I find a car parked somewhere with nobody around and break into it, knowing I can pull it off and get away clean. I feel like you feel a lot more like a criminal and have to think like one a lot more often, that's just how this game is built.

The system tracking player behavior is called the Criminal Profile. It works differently from the honor system in Red Dead Redemption 2 – there's no on-screen meter, and the status only shows up in a separate menu tab, displaying both Jason and Lucia stats at once. A low profile isn't treated as a bad outcome by the developers, just a different way of playing.

The profile drops from genuinely brutal behavior, like killing puppies, finishing off already-dead bodies, or running down crowds of pedestrians. It doesn't rise from good deeds, though – it rises from professionalism. Robbing a store cleanly, without casualties, boosts the score even though it's still technically a crime. Nelson said the profile can be tanked to a point where the logo actually cracks, and once that happens, there's no recovering it for the rest of the playthrough.

Relationships

The relationship between Jason and Lucia lives in that same tab and also skips the meter approach. Players can strengthen the bond through texting, wishing each other goodnight, going on dates, or even hitting the gym together. Walking together lets the couple hold hands, which also affects their standing.

Map size

Nelson put actual numbers on the world size. The map is twice as large as GTA 5 and three times bigger than Red Dead Redemption 2. Vice City itself is twice the size of Los Santos, and once you factor in the surrounding suburbs, the city ends up eleven times larger than Los Santos and its outskirts combined.

Three meters

The top left corner holds three meters – health, stamina, and Focus. All three can be topped up temporarily through food, drinks, and protein bars, or permanently through regular workouts and side activities. Once a meter gets pumped above its normal cap, using it up brings it back down to the standard ceiling rather than the boosted one.

Focus

Focus only looks like Eagle Eye from Red Dead Redemption 2 on the surface. On top of slowing down time, it highlights weak points on NPCs and vehicles, including tires, engine blocks, and fuel tanks. Shooting at these spots is noticeably more effective than before.

Money

The top right corner tracks three separate sources of money. The bank account, marked with a purple icon, keeps funds safe, cash gets lost on death and possibly on arrest, and whatever's in the duffel bag needs to be dropped off with a fence. Cash can't be deposited through the phone – players will have to walk up to an ATM for that.

Driving

Driving got noticeably harder. Rear-wheel-drive cars now fishtail if you floor it from a standstill, so mashing one button and speeding off isn't an option anymore. Top speeds are higher than in GTA 5, though, so crossing the map feels faster overall.

Police

Police got the biggest overhaul of all. Patrol icons are gone from the minimap, so the old trick of hiding in an alley while watching the screen no longer works. The six-star wanted level is back, it's tough to reach, and at six stars the search covers the entire map.

At one to five stars, two zones show up on the map. A dark red circle marks the crime scene, while a lighter outline shows the wider search area, beyond which police mostly stop looking. Cops got smarter too, shooting out tires, and driving on a blown tire is much harder than in the previous game.

Trackers are a separate headache. Many civilian cars carry them, and every single police vehicle does too, so escaping a chase in a stolen cruiser is basically impossible. A fence can strip the tracker out, but that service has to be unlocked first.

Losing the cops

There are several ways to shake a police chase:

• change clothes, since police remember what you look like

• switch to a different car, ideally an older one without a tracker

• drive to a Pay and Spray shop, which unlock as the story progresses

• split up if Jason and Lucia are traveling together

• put away any conspicuous weapon

• get outside the lighter search circle

Phone and activities

The phone has turned into one of the central tools in the game. It runs a full social network where NPCs post updates tagged with locations, and players can actually show up at those spots to catch the event happening live. The app lineup looks like this:

• Buckme, a Cash App parody, handles banking

• RideMe calls a cab, Uber-style

• Scooter Bros delivers personal vehicles, something the GTA 5 single-player campaign never had

• WhatUp handles texting with NPCs and between Jason and Lucia

• a fitness app tracks workouts and sends reminders

Gyms get a surprising amount of detail. Players buy a membership at the front desk, vending machines with a wide selection sit near the locker rooms, and a protein shake before a workout gives a temporary boost to strength and stamina. Eight reps on the bench press fill the workout ring by 33 percent, and stacking three strength exercises in a row grants a temporary health bonus.

All of these side activities stay optional, and it's entirely possible to finish the campaign without ever setting foot in a gym. Fast travel works through bus stops, taxis, and other options. Auto-aim is gone entirely, replaced with aim assist instead, and finishing moves now play out as cinematic shots in the style of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Max Payne.