GTA 6’s Biggest Leap Could Be How the World Reacts to Your Crimes

We’re back with another examination of GTA 6’s potential, and it’s from EDGE Magazine this time. EDGE’s coverage of the game after a live demo at Rockstar North’s Edinburgh studio, with none other than Rob Nelson holding the controller, was bound to catch our attention. It’s made us particularly happy, since we’ve been quite excited about how its overlapping systems could make this one a treat.

Well, that preview brings several details that point towards a very interesting open world, which brings so many variables to routine interactions. A simple chase on a motorcycle that ends in a crash thanks to a well-deployed police stinger and Jason’s eventual arrest after being downed by a K9 is a great example of those systems coming together.

This feature draws on published previews and official footage to explore how its systems could come together. So, we have included some hypothetical scenarios and wishlist ideas, so, remember these are speculation, rather than confirmed features.

Now, just to be clear: This feature draws on published previews and official footage to explore how its systems could come together. So, we have included some hypothetical scenarios and wishlist ideas, so remember this is all speculation, rather than confirmed features!

Wanting To Be Wanted

A lot of what we’ve said about the chase sequence from the preview is especially noteworthy when you consider what coverage from GamesRadar has said about the game’s Wanted System and heat Markers, which already integrate variables for you to manage in the heat of the moment. The six-star Wanted Level is a measure of how aware law enforcement is of your actions, while the heat markers work to produce ways in which evading pursuits becomes challenging.

Take the fact that your minimap is out of commission when you’re actively being pursued, and you can see why we’re so excited about the aftermath and potential consequences of the crimes you commit. Having to rely on your eyes and ears when trying to evade capture, with the possibility of a K9 or two thrown into the mix, and perhaps even other things to avoid like drones and the like, can be sure to make each escape become a source of thrilling moments, or an absolutely chaotic disaster that’s spic just because of how spectacularly you’ve failed.

While the comical physics of those Busted memes might not be as prominent in GTA 6 thanks to the meticulous design philosophies that seem to have underlined its evolution over the years, it isn’t hard to imagine the Wanted and Heat systems interacting in ways that already seem interesting. We’re almost certain we’re going to forget to take off our mark, or perhaps switch outfits in the heat of the moment, and the lessons we learn in hindsight, and the clips we record along the way, are going to be a part of the fun.

That’s not even considering how vehicular theft works, thanks to civilians who now bring unpredictable responses thanks to the density of the world, and the detail packed into all of its moving parts.

We can only imagine trying to hold up another fellow criminal in the middle of a street while already being chased by the police, or perhaps having a gun pulled on us and the NPC in question then becoming a new target while we make our escape. Of course, the car itself then becomes a potential lead for the police to follow, with more variables like the theft being reported immediately and whether law enforcement was already aware of your activities in the area, whatever they were.

At this point, it’s clear that Jason and Lucia’s run-ins with the law are going to be the catalysts of a lot of the unpredictable moments we saw when we tuned in for that gameplay reveal on Netflix.

The Beginnings Of Notoriety

A lot of what we’ve talked about is certainly going to invoke memories of GTA 5. Among the first videos you can find is one that begins with Franklin in a police station’s lockup, where he picks a fight to get the attention of the cops in attendance, seamlessly switching to the first weapon he’s able to snatch up in the confusion. The ensuing shootout spills out onto the street, allowing for a terrifying shootout that sees civilians scramble to get out of Franklin’s way.

Well, what if those civilians could become a part of the conflict even if they weren’t necessarily going to pick up arms and try to make a stand against someone who’s clearly ready to shoot first and ask questions later? That would be unrealistic, and perhaps even counterproductive to the visual and design motif that GTA 6 is going for.

Many of those heat markers are tied to civilians calling it in when you misbehave in public, something we’ve already touched upon in the past when we learned of how they react to your gun being slung or holstered versus when it’s in your hands. What they tell the cops also matters now, since they can describe your face and clothes, and even your car if they see you get into it.

Failure to make a clean getaway comes with consequences that are so unpredictable, it’s a factor that automatically influences your approach. Are you somebody who likes to invite chaos in and roll with it? There’s so much of it for you to enjoy, thanks to how many things can change the trajectory of a routine crime and an attempted escape. Do you like to keep control of situations and make as little allowance as possible for mistakes via meticulous planning? Knock yourself out. Judging by the previews, Leonidas seems like it is built to allow you an immersive fantasy, and allow you to switch between either inclination at the drop of a hat.

Learning From Professionals

Jason and Lucia may be professionals going off that gameplay reveal, but that doesn’t mean that some of their tricks aren’t ones that now feel like old wisdom from video games of the past. Mafia 2 gave you the option of changing your outfit or vehicle’s plates to throw off the cops in case they were searching for either one, making your looks a part of any plan when considering your next heist.

In a world that’s boasting of the density and depth of Leonidas, it isn’t hard to imagine growing out Jason’s beard for months before a heist, and packing an electric razor in his jacket pocket that’s going to be found long after he’s in the wind thanks to how different a man can look when he loses a beard. Many of us have been there, and if you know, you know. (Look at The Witcher 3!) Are we going to try that out? Hopefully, if the game has them. It’s a lot more exciting than a mere mask, after all.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was already quite adept at having civilians report your crimes, and the Bounty system made things very interesting indeed. That’s even more so now, after Nelson described the game as the early beginnings of the systems that would eventually come together in many ways and different forms over the years before being distilled into GTA 6 and Leonidas.

We’re taken back to how you could try to intimidate a witness into silence, something we once had gone horribly wrong because somebody else saw the effort, and we were chased despite trying to stay on the down low until we could make our escape. And that’s a game based in the Wild West, while Leonidas comes with CCTV cameras, smartphones, and perhaps even a chopper or two thrown into the mix to try and thwart a potential escape should you try it.

Could that intimidation tactic feature in GTA 6? We certainly hope so. It’s sure to come with variations where we can never tell who’s going to fight back, something that was mentioned in the preview’s account of trying to steal a getaway vehicle.

It could also have ones where you’re rolling with its punches and coming out stronger, gathering either fame or infamy, or a heady blend of both if you’re the type who likes to come out swinging hard. But if you’d prefer a quiet approach, we’re thinking of Hitman-style infiltrations where you use disguises and try to sneak and bluff your way past potential witnesses, with the scope for even the best-laid plans to be suddenly overturned always baked into the game’s design. GTA 6 seems well-equipped to do that, but whether it will really do that kind of stuff is something that remains to be seen.

Weaving In The Future

Don’t even get us started on the preview saying that the vehicles themselves might carry trackers that give your location away to the cops, necessitating the need to be tactical about the type of vehicle you’re hijacking in a hurry. Couple that with the potential of a resisting civilian in your moment of greatest despair, and the tension of not having your minimap to tell you where the cops are at in the heat of the moment, and you begin to see how being a criminal is both exhilarating and life-threatening in any given moment once a crime has been committed.

Even more exciting is the apparent possibility that you might never truly feel like a clean getaway from the scene is an absolute certainty in a world where so many ways for natural interactions between systems spill onto your presence in it are present and have been duly accounted for in the chunk of the game Nelson showed off to EDGE.

That it’s all in ways that I hope would be enjoyable, something that I hope would be a believably sustainable part of a world that seems to have grown outward from when it was first conceptualized by the iterative evolution of creative processes that changed alongside it. But it would be careless not to consider the possibility of it falling short of the high standards that people expect from GTA 6 and its makers amidst all this talk of how the game might just be a very immersive physics simulation when you decide to take on the system.

But the possibility of a small robbery becoming something that its NPCs are going to see on the evening news, or on viral clips on their smartphones, is something we can’t help but be excited about. We might be on the run, but that shouldn’t mean we’re scared, after all.

And with the freedom that the GTA franchise is known to give its players, it’s nice to see its world be equally free to react to their presence in the upcoming flagship instalment.

In the end, we really don’t know how GTA 6 will turn out in the end, but all of this information from Rockstar and outlets that went hands off with the game are certainly setting up the stage for a grand evolution of the series. We sure hope that is going to be the case.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.