GTA VI looks just as great as we could hope for

Netflix and Rockstar Games finally debuted their “extended look” at Grand Theft Auto VI. It showed that the new game looks to keep much of the spirit of GTA — exploration, driving, crimes, shooting, and cinematic story scenes. But everything just looks much better than previous entries, with impressive graphics, densely-packed rooms, and detailed environments. The footage was captured on PS5, according to the end of the video.

A key focus of the game seems to be how protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos work together. In one scene, it appears you play as Duval as he hangs out of the window of a car that Caminos is driving so he can shoot at police chasing after them. Later, though, it looks like the player controls Caminos as the driver while Duval and another character keep shooting the police.

Another part of the video shows a mission where Duval and Caminos are split up. As enemies barge into an upper floor of a building, Duval, who is a security detail for the mission, takes them on by hiding behind cover and shooting at them. Caminos, who is on a different floor, sneaks around on foot to try and evade detection. At one point, while she is struggling on the ground against an enemy, you can see button prompts to press to escape their grasp.

Much of the video included tightly-edited scenes and cutscenes from the game, but there were a few other brief glimpses of gameplay, like a weapon wheel menu and activities driving a boat, playing basketball, underwater diving, racing on a track, and parachuting.

The game appears to be quite large. As part of a preview by The New York Times, Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson said that a February playthrough of the game took 80 hours, including both the main story and some optional content. The map is three times as big as the playable map of Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar tells the NYT.

You’ll be able to switch between the two protagonists at “any time,” though you can also choose to have one character tag along while you’re running around the world or experience things as just one of them, according to IGN, which also got a preview of the game. Duval and Caminos also don’t necessarily have to be a romantic couple; that’s up to the player. (There’s a specific mechanic for holding hands.)

Snapmatic, GTA’s take on Instagram, returns in GTA VI, though you can’t actually post on it “due to Jason and Lucia being a couple on the run and not wanting to leave a digital footprint,” according to IGN.

The six-star wanted system is also officially back, and police can remember what you look like, meaning you may need to change outfits to lose them, IGN says. If you want to steal a parked car to get away from a sticky situation, you might want to look for an older car: more expensive cars will be harder to steal and you may need certain equipment to break into certain cars.

The deep dive follows several apparent video leaks of the game from a person or group identifying themselves as “CyberLeek,” which Rockstar said were “heartbreaking.”

Update, August 27th: Added details from IGN and the NYT’s previews.