GTA 6 isn't flashy for the sake of it – I'm impressed at how additive every new detail feels to gameplay

For all of Rockstar Games' technical prowess, the genius of Grand Theft Auto lies in the beautiful simplicity implied by its title: brazenly commit crimes, and have a good time doing it. Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to be an industry milestone for open world density and attention to detail, and what we've seen of GTA 6 so far is still pinned on that promise. It remains as strong a hook in 2026 as it was in 1997 watching pixels skid across a screen from a top-down perspective.

Rockstar's commitment to its criminal fantasy means it remains utterly unreplicable. As close as the likes of Volition Games' Saints Row or Sleeping Dogs from United Front Games have come, I always find myself describing them as 'like GTA but…' There's a purity to Grand Theft Auto's crime sandboxes – simply existing in the world (and causing havoc within it) is just as valid as following their crime caper storylines. Even when cutting about off-leash, building up Wanted meter and going wild with vehicles and weaponry, it feels like you're doing so in a convincing if exaggerated world.

It's here that GTA 6 is really taking Rockstar Games' promise to the next level, as Bonnie and Clyde-like couple Lucia Caminos and Jason Duval take us on a spree across the sweeping Leonida state – Rockstar's riff on Florida.

Grand by name…

Which isn't to say that GTA 6 isn't innovating. Far from it. Only a developer with such a storied history as Rockstar Games would have the knowledge and confidence to identify Grand Theft Auto's integral foundations and build on top of those. Rather than reinventing any element of GTA's mechanics from scratch for the sake of it, it feels like GTA 6 is interrogating the purpose of every design decision the studio has made until this point, with a commitment to taking them further without diluting the joy of chaos.

In fact, the recent deeper dive into GTA 6 puts the likes of Red Dead Redemption 2 into a new perspective. Cowboy outlaw Arthur Morgan's adventure is already one of the best open world games ever made, with an emotional story and a staggering amount of detail and little touches that bring the digital world to startling life – walk into the Saint Denis theater to take in an actual stage show that changes depending on day of the week; Arthur's hygiene can get seriously bad if you don't give him time to relax with a spongebath; and of course, horse testicles are affected by the weather. These are seriously impressive details, making RDR 2 easy to get lost in, but also many of these elements were easy to ignore as you followed Arthur's journey through to its end.

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Now, after taking in the full GTA 6 extended look and getting to see the game in action across several missions and side-activities, RDR 2 feels like a training ground or precursor for the type of detail we're seeing across Leonida. The difference here is that most of those finer details aren't just for show, but have an impact on core gameplay while being so natural they avoid being intrusive or cumbersome.

There's a reason GTA 6's gameplay reveal kicked off with following Jason and Lucia into a violent police raid as a drug pickup goes south. The fidelity of the world is immediately striking as the pair stroll up to the shady establishment. The camera moves in and out of cinematic scenes fluidly as they make their way up many floors to complete the hand-off. Then, guns are drawn and the action explodes into motion – cops shooting lead before anyone has a chance to speak, bodies entangling and slamming through thin drywall.

Jason and Lucia are caught in the middle of this eruption, the camera swooping behind the player to allow for some third-person blasting with a smooth cover system. These mechanics are expected in a game like this. But for GTA, which has had floatier shooting in the past, the motion feels wonderfully refined and fluid. It's like watching Rockstar's attention to action detail, as seen in Red Dead Redemption 2's frontier west, get pulled right into the modern age, where maze-like apartment blocks hide danger around every corner.

Bag it up

Crucially, though, the duo aren't about to leave this drug lab without the bag they came to collect – they're not about to risk letting underworld kingpin Bobbie Ike down. They need to make the most of this chance to impress. Jason grabs it, shrugs it over his shoulder, and continues moving to take cover out in the hallway without breaking motion.

Here I have to admit: I have become obsessed with GTA 6's bags.

Money, usually illicitly obtained, has been one of GTA's arcadiest mechanics over the years. Each game's blip as your money counter rings up has become a universally understood shorthand, just like Pac-Man munching on a cherry. But, bags crammed with valuable loot – full of drugs, or money robbed at gunpoint from a cash register – promise to have a physical presence in GTA 6 rather than instantly being displayed within the UI.

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I love how this realizes and deepens the relationship between players and money. In a game about being a criminal, having to pick up and stow a bag isn't just a visual differentiator, but a promise of a mission genuinely in progress with parameters that feel real. What's more natural and easy to understand than actually, physically completing a bag drop-off?

This physical nature to committing crimes has an affect on gameplay, as well. During one sequence, we see Lucia laden with bags as she has to shoot her way out of an abandoned building through gang members, blasting and reloading a shotgun one-handed because one arm is so full of goodies. In another, Lucia walks into a store to commit a quick robbery, using a mechanic to hold her pistol behind her back to delay causing alarm while walking in. NPCs throughout Leonida will seemingly react realistically to seeing such danger, and even take the law into their own hands in some cases. Moments later, Lucia sprints out of the store loot in hand, linking up with Jason on a motorbike as the two make their escape to literally secure their bag.

If GTA 6 is making loot more of a physical presence in its world, then where better for its next major evolution than by overhauling the crime caper's second major pillar as you scramble to secure those goods: the getaway?

Another GTA 6 mission we've seen revolves around showcasing how the series' classic Wanted loop has been iterated upon, having Jason and Lucia work as wheelmen on behalf of criminal fixer Brian Heder to help notorious bank robber Raul Bautista make a quick escape.

Wanted has always been a crucial system for giving the sandbox chaos stakes. The more crimes you commit, and the more brazen they are, the higher your Wanted level will soar. It's always been an incredibly intuitive system when it comes to pushing at the boundaries of what you can get away with in an open world. If you're more Wanted, the more police presence will be out to cuff you. This mechanic alone has formed the bulk of my late-night GTA playtime with friends. How long can you survive? Can you get that level all the way up, and then through canny criminal skill successfully make your escape?

GTA 6 has the biggest overhaul of the Wanted system I've seen from the series to date, adding new elements of nuance to evasion while tighter driving and shooting mechanics ground the fast-paced action. Every crime you commit as Jason and Lucia contributes to a criminal profile whether you're directly seen by the police or not, but once a crime has been committed, reported, and attracted attention these modern cops will be able to track your face, clothes, and car to pick up your trail.

While the mission has Lucia drive the crew down an alley to briefly lose their pursuers – which might be enough to lose them in earlier games – here it's only the quiet in the storm. It's not until they manage to ditch their car and torch it, moving to a discreet van, that escape is possible. But, crucially, the Wanted system remains active, merely switching from white stars to red stars. Sirens signal the police hunt is still on, and you'll need to be careful to remain incognito to throw off the police.

While similarly bombastic escapes were part of GTA 5's heists, and, admittedly, this takes place in a story mission, the impression is that these different layers will present throughout the Wanted system more broadly. Choosing to rob a store clerk and escape with a bag of loot isn't a success until you manage to actually get away safely. It's such an elegant loop that I'm surprised it's taken GTA this long to truly codify it within its standard mechanics.

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GTA 6 will make keeping a low profile tougher, as well. Social media isn't just for show (though one character can doomscroll while the other drives) – it hints at a more lively network of observation that means NPCs will be taking more notice of what's going on around them, and aren't scared to get involved. One dicey gas station robbery has Jason and Lucia dodging gunfire from an understandably irate clerk. And, while the driving model seems much improved in GTA 6, that simply means a more realistic and grounded scale with tighter streets that can offer more challenge when it comes to deftly escaping behind the wheel.

While it seems you can dive into petty crime whenever you want, this scheming duo have their eyes on bigger prizes. The circumstances of Jason and Lucia's need to rise through the criminal ranks are still something of a mystery, but it's linked to a job gone south that saddled Lucia with jail time. Now, released from behind bars, the duo are feeling the pressure to grow beyond their small-time life of gas station robberies and store hold-ups. Like the alligators that crawl through the Leondia's Grassrivers swamps, we're in dangerous waters here.

Double trouble

There are still some secrets around quite how deep GTA 6's many systems will go. The extent of criminal profiling, for instance, is being kept under lock and key – but sounds like an evolution of RDR 2's honor system. Jason and Lucia's physiques can be affected by how much they snack or pump iron in the gym, but without a longer look at how the game's many side-activities feed into this, it's hard to say how big an impact it'll have on their criminal skills – but I'm betting it's not zero.

Likewise, while Jason and Lucia will always be a pair, how their relationship will grow, evolve, or even devolve, remains to be seen. One mysterious moment during character switching has the two connected with a love heart but with angry emoji, suggesting that for some reason they've had a falling out. Every main story mission so far handles the two being together so well that they almost seem incomplete when apart – they move through shootouts in tandem, covering one another to keep each other safe.

Similarly, in the narrative cutscenes we've seen the two are constantly chattering about their thoughts on dealing with these criminals safely. No one character is simply along for the ride like the Michael, Trevor, and Franklin trio often felt like in GTA 5, which it often revelled in. In GTA 6, 'partners in crime' is the name of the game, and something felt in every major mission that has been revealed so far.

It's in that final sequence we get more of a sense of how both Jason and Lucia can hand-off play in a single mission and feel distinct from one another. It sees the pair playing security for a rich man at an expensive party in a large office building at night, with the event being thrown into chaos when – Die Hard style – it's invaded by a gang looking for a major score.

Jason takes point in the emptier upper floors, where the game's gorgeous lighting really jumps out – the dark, sparse office dimly lit by desk lamps gets thrown into stark relief as bright white light floods from the elevators as enemies arrive. With guns, Jason is able to crouch around corners to ambush enemies, gunfire slowing when he uses his focus skill to slow time and line up devastating shots. This is a similar ability to Michael's in GTA 5, but here it also highlights red and yellow weak spots on enemies.

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As Jason and Lucia text one another to share info – the message popping up on-screen – the action switches to Lucia, who has had her own guns confiscated. Here, she's involved in brutal melee with these attacking mercenaries, stabbing a man with a high-heel. We've also seen Lucia training at the gym and going Street Fighter mode with enemies in the open world. At least in this mission, Jason has a gunfire specialty while Lucia is thrust into close-quarters – though it remains to be seen how strict these roles will be in the wider game. Given the detail with which side-activities seem to reflect the pair's growth and condition in an RPG-like simulation style, I wouldn't be surprised if some of this comes down to how you play.

The deeper dive into GTA 6 has allayed my fears that Rockstar Games' sharp new details might come at the cost of simply having fun. But this is still a game in love with the fantasy of committing daring crimes and getting through by the skin of your teeth. What's blown me away is how many evolutions GTA 6 is packing that simply feel like natural additions. Of course Jason and Lucia feel best working together, like two characters becoming one. Of course I actually have to think about keeping my loot safe before I can bank it. Of course a new Wanted system breathes new, unpredictable life into tense chases through its detailed world. GTA 6 has so obviously become a milestone for the gaming industry for good reason – but, shocker, this tight design might also make for some of the smartest sequel decisions in a game ever from a design stand point. Of course.

Our GTA 6 guide details everything you need to know about the story, gameplay, and world so far! Or, check out our best GTA games list for what to play while you wait!