Rob Nelson shares new details on how GTA VI plays

Rob Nelson, Rockstar’s co-studio head, has shared new GTA VI details in an interview with the Japanese magazine Famitsu. We read it via the full English translation by GTAVice.net; we have not checked the Japanese original. Among the most striking: players will be able to deliberately fire near a pedestrian to frighten them and buy time without causing harm, and suppressive fire will cut off enemy flanks, stop them returning fire, or slow their push toward an objective.

The in-game map will mark gang hideouts with their entry points and even how much cash and drugs they hold; stolen drugs can be sold to a fence, and jewelry stores and small banks can be robbed alone or as a pair. On robberies, Nelson described a quiet entry through the back door: kicking it down would trigger the alarm, so the crew uses a “snap gun”, a special lock-picking tool. Once inside, destroying the cameras and disabling the security system lets you empty the register without anyone knowing.

Customization goes well beyond GTA V: “thousands of outfits”, in Nelson’s words, with clothing stores and hair salons scattered around the map. New clothes come from buying them or completing missions, and you can get a haircut at a hideout too, though with limited options: for the elaborate styles you need a salon.

Car theft gains layers: cheap cars just need breaking into, but luxury ones require a digital key cloner and usually carry an alarm plus a tracker that can transmit a signal while you drive slowly, giving your position away. And if the owner reports the theft, police open an investigation based on the information available (your clothing, your appearance, the car) even without knowing your exact location. That state is called Heat: you can lower suspicion by ditching the weapon used or changing clothes at a store, but as long as you stay inside the Heat Area the pressure does not disappear, and getting into an already identified car remains risky even after shaking off the patrol.

Inside Jason and Lucia’s home, objects go where they belong: you cannot drop a mug on the floor, you have to take it somewhere appropriate. Days later, in comments to IGN reported by GameRant, Nelson summed up the project’s ambition: making Leonida “the largest, deepest, most densely populated, and complex world” Rockstar has ever built, continuing the path set by Red Dead Redemption 2.