Everything Revealed in Grand Theft Auto 6: An Extended Look

The world has waited 13 years for the sixth main installment in Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto franchise, and we’re just a few months away from booting up GTA 6 on our home consoles. Sorry, PC players, you’ll have to wait a while longer. If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the last decade, you are well aware of how anticipated the game is. Everyone makes memes making fun of the long wait, including the classic “We got XYZ before GTA 6.” But finally, after teaser trailers, info reveals, a series of leaks, and the two main characters, Jason Duvall and Lucia Caminos, gracing the cover of DAZED, Rockstar has given the world an extended look at gameplay and features from Grand Theft Auto 6.

GTA 6 Features Revealed

You can Interact With Characters Like in Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 introduced a new way to interact with characters in-game. By holding L2 or LT, you are presented with options on how you can speak to characters depending on the situation. This returns for GTA 6, including the option to interact with pets.

There are Fake Air Jordans and Nikes

Multiple characters seen in the world have what appears to be Air Jordan 1s on, including one pair that looks just like the UNC Toe colorway. There was also a pair of AF1 look-alikes. With how deep Rockstar went with incorporating streetwear, expect to see plenty of knock-off brands and silhouettes.

There’s Multiple Ways to Break into Cars

In a clip where Jason is breaking into a car, there’s the option to break in by smashing the window, or using a “slim jim.” No, not the meat-based snack, but what looks like a tool to get in-between the window and the door to unlock the car.

You Can Access Food and Drinks in Fridges

Jason is seen opening the fridge, with multiple options to select food and drink. Later, Jason is seen eating a bag of chips, leaving a convenience store, and his health bar appears.

The Health Bar is Split

In GTA 6, the health bar is split into two rectangles. It’s not confirmed, but it appears that based on the fact that you can eat food that you’ll regenerate the first bar on your own over time, but will need to eat to get 100% health.

Jason and Lucia Can Rob Stores Together

With the story going for a Bonnie and Clyde-esque feel, it makes sense that you can take both characters out together to commit crimes. There are a few different instances where you can see Jason and Lucia robbing stores together, and of course, you can switch between them during the robbery.

Six-Star Wanted Levels are Back

An iconic part of the Grand Theft Auto franchise is the wanted level. The more chaos and crimes you commit, the more stars you gain, meaning a larger and more aggressive response from the authorities. Most GTA games featured six stars, but for some reason, GTA 5 brought the wanted level system down one. Thankfully, in GTA 6, you can once again achieve a six-star wanted level.

You’re Limited to the Amount of Weapons You Can Carry

Unlike GTA 5, where your weapon wheel was massive, allowing you to somehow store rocket launchers, railguns, melee weapons, and more in your back pocket by some magical way, GTA 6 is going down a more realistic route. It looks like you can hold a primary, a throwable, binoculars, a side weapon, and maybe one or two more items. Based on leaks and info, extra guns are stored in your trunk or safehouse.

Areas Where You Commit Crimes are Marked

Old GTA titles featured a simple system where once you lost your wanted level, you were scot-free and didn’t have to deal with the cops. But in GTA 6, losing the cops doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook. An area where you commit a crime is marked on a map, and making yourself known will reactivate your wanted level again.

There’s Multiple Ways Cops Can Recognize You

Cops are able to recognize you based on multiple factors. It hasn’t been explicitly spelled out yet, but in the corner during a robbery, you can see there is a camera icon, a clothes hanger, a weapon, and two circles with a silhouette of a person.

Wanted Stars have Different Colors

Looks like some of the devs at Rockstar are fans of the Hitman games because the wanted stars have different colors depending on your visibility. During the pursuit, the four stars were colored white before turning red, indicating a change in status while the police are chasing you. Once they swap out of the car and into the van, the four stars remain red, and police are still searching, but since they don’t recognize your vehicle, you are able to make a clean exit.

Another sequence that features the wanted stars is a moment when Lucia has just made her exit from the store they robbed and is about to be picked up by Jason. As she gets on the bike, the two stars appear black with a white outline. That could indicate that while the police are on the way to the scene of the crime, they don’t know who they’re looking for.

You Can Play Basketball and Wrestle

Short clips in the Extended Look showed Jason shooting a basketball outside of his safehouse and another with Jason being bodyslammed into the mat of a backyard wrestling ring.

Jason and Lucia can go to the Gym

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you could change the body type of the main character CJ by going to the gym or eating too much. This system is finally returning to the franchise in GTA 6. The feature was confirmed in the DAZED article, but there’s a short clip of Lucia on a bench press in the Extended Look.

There’s an Honor System

Many games have a morality gauge of some sort, and in Red Dead Redemption there was the honor system. Good choices would increase your honor, and bad ones would decrease it. This hasn’t been included in a GTA game until now, as we can see multiple times, a little emoji appears and either has a halo or devil horns, depending on the action you take.

Switching Between Characters is Just Like GTA 5

Even with modern consoles having SSDs, switching between characters is not actually instantaneous in GTA 6. It appears quite fast in the Extended Look, and it's identical to the zoom out and zoom back in found in GTA 5.

You Can Go Fishing

A few screenshots have been shared showing Jason holding a fishing rod with his buddy Cal, but we finally see gameplay of Jason actually fishing.

Dead Eye is Now in GTA

Dead Eye is a feature that was present in the Red Dead Redemption franchise, allowing time to slow down so you can aim your weapon and be more accurate. Another version of this was present in GTA 5, but only if you used Michael. However, the GTA 6 version of this “bullet time” is much closer to what John Marston and Arthur Morgan used in the Red Dead universe.

The Soundtrack Remains Undefeated

When the game’s Vice City setting was announced, expectations were high for the soundtrack. Between the neon glam of the 1980s, the rich Latin and Caribbean roots from pockets of the town, to the ever-evolving hip-hop sound, the pressure is on Rockstar to deliver a sound that’s worthy of the area.

The extended look features a wide mix of music that we expect to hear from the different stations, but it wasn’t clear if you will be able to play them on your phone just yet. A gripe that some fans had with GTA 5 was the inability to play music from their smartphones, so it will be interesting to see if they have since added the feature.

Here are some of the songs that we heard from the Extended Look:

Pop Bottles - Birdman featuring Lil Wayne

Pound Town - Sexyy Red

Skrilla - Kodak Black

Let Your Love Flow - The Bellamy Brothers

Love Bites - Def Leppard

People Are People - Depeche Mode

But I Think It's a Dream - Captain and Tennille

Cars and Girls - Prefab Sprout

Devil Woman - Cliff Richard

Se Me Nota - Chimbala and Omega

Against All Odds - Phil Collins

Inner Light - Elderbrook and Bob Moses

If we want to play armchair psychologists for a second, the use of Inner Light with the monologue about this time in Jason and Lucia’s life being their glory days could also be a message from Rockstar. After releasing three GTA games every other year during the PS2/OG Xbox era to bookending the PS3/Xbox 360 era with GTA 4 and GTA 5, GTA 6 is more than likely going to be the only game from this franchise on the PS5/Xbox Series X, and people should appreciate that.

When Does GTA 6 Release?

Barring any further delays, Grand Theft Auto 6 will release on November 19, 2026. Gamers on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S can pre-order the game now, and pre-loading for the game begins on November 12, so you can have the game ready to go at midnight on the 19th of November. The standard edition retails for $80, while the ultimate edition is priced at $100. Included in the ultimate edition are special customization hubs, exclusive shops for tattoos, streetwear, and hairstyles, vehicles, exclusive missions, cosmetic and apparel options, and weapon sets.

Nicholas Vlahos

Sneakerhead from South Florida who turned his passion into a career. When not writing for Sole Retriever, I enjoy watching films and discovering music. Follow me on Letterboxd @nickvlah For tips, reviews, or any shoes in a size 13, email nick@soleretriever.com

Juan Martinez

From video game journalism to veteran of the sneaker blog era to podcasting about well, everything, Juan is smiling through it all and can't believe this is his life. After recently getting into Formula 1, he now has hot takes about who the greatest driver of all time is. Email: juan@soleretriever.com