GTA VI's population changes by neighborhood: Rockstar's most varied NPC system

GTA VI’s pedestrians will not be the same across Leonida. As reported by IBTimes UK from Dazed’s original story, Rockstar has confirmed its character population is the most detailed and varied in the series, and that it is tailored to each environment: the people of Little Cuba look nothing like those around Mount Kalaga.

Rockstar’s senior art director for characters, Jamie-Lee Lloyd, credits new tools and production pipelines for the leap. The variety goes well beyond clothing: there are differences in age, height, body type and appearance, including tattoos, piercings and cosmetic alterations.

Vice City’s beaches will be one of the best showcases for the system: wide open stretches where the game can gather large crowds while keeping each person’s individual differences visible. That said, IBTimes stresses what is NOT confirmed: Rockstar has published no per-district pedestrian density figures and no beach-specific crowd system.

The detail fits with what the August Extended Look already showed, full of busy public spaces, and with Vice’s review concluding that the trailers’ NPC density had not been scaled back. Read that analysis in our piece on the game’s kept promises and more systems in the gameplay page.