Leonida is three times as large as the playable area of Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar told The New York Times. Vice City alone is about twice the size of Los Santos from GTA 5, and the built-up areas around it are about eleven times larger than their equivalents in GTA 5, Rob Nelson told Flow Games and TroisCouleurs.
600,000 animations
GTA 6 has well over 600,000 animations, compared with 55,000 in GTA 5 and 300,000 in Red Dead Redemption 2 (The New York Times, as reported by GameSpot). Rockstar set up a team focused on making the people of Leonida believable (TechRadar). Aaron Garbut of Rockstar North said someone thought through every room in the game: who sits where and what they drink.
People on the street
Pedestrians vary in height and build more than in any earlier Rockstar game, and animations adapt to body size so that people handle objects and each other convincingly (IGN, Famitsu). With your gun holstered you can talk to anyone: Greet and Taunt start a conversation, Defuse and Provoke appear when someone is hostile (IGN). Dazed adds that passers-by differ in age, tattoos, piercings and even plastic surgery.
Stand near people and you can overhear them, but they notice eavesdroppers and anyone who follows them too long, and may confront you. Some pedestrians carry guns, and some start fights themselves (IGN, Esquire).
Random encounters
Conversations and even overheard chatter can turn into jobs. IGN saw a lawyer sitting in a dumpster who gives legal advice in exchange for pills. El País describes strangers who flirt, rob you or share information. On the way somewhere, Jason or Lucia may suggest a nearby activity (IGN).
A world that keeps marks
Bullet holes stay on walls and scratches on cars, and characters show wounds and grazes. You can play with an empty can after drinking from it and read the magazines in supermarkets (El País). The pause map now uses satellite imagery (IGN), and the on-screen interface can be hidden entirely (El País). TroisCouleurs noticed sand on shoes, sweat after a sprint and traffic that gets heavier at rush hour.
Satire without memes
Rockstar keeps its satire but avoids specific political issues and memes that could date during the long development (IGN). As influences, Rob Nelson named Bonnie and Clyde, The Getaway, the crime writers Elmore Leonard, Charles Willeford and Edward Bunker, Michael Mann, and action films of the 80s and 90s (El País).
