GTA 6 Will Be WAY Harder Than GTA 5

So if you're going into GTA VI thinking you'll play it like you played GTA 5, I'd think about that again.

A lot of what you got used to over the last thirteen years just doesn't work in this game, and some of it is gonna cost you, like dying, which costs way more than you'd think, and that's before the cops

even come into it. Rob Nelson, who runs Rockstar North, even said it about the cops, "You can't just play the game and avoid their little vision cones anymore".

I went through pretty much everything Rockstar has said about it, plus what the people who got to watch it being played have said, and it's gonna be way harder than GTA 5.

And the money is the part I think hurts the most. In GTA 5, dying cost you a few thousand dollars at most, and if you got busted they just took your ammo and your armor.

In GTA 6 your money is split in two, there's what's in the bank and there's what you've got on you, and if you die or get busted, whatever's on you is just gone.

Nelson's advice was literally to put it in the bank before something happens. And getting arrested takes the guns you picked up from enemies too, you start again outside the police station with only the guns you actually bought.

There's also a limit to how much cash you can carry, which wasn't a thing in GTA 5 at all.

If you look at the Extended Look, that's Rockstar's long gameplay video, there's a little ring next to your cash, and it fills up as you get more money.

Someone worked out from how full that ring was that a full wallet is around $20 ,000, and I didn't want to just take that, so I measured it myself at two different points in the video, and I got pretty much the

same number. Not exact, but close enough that I'm sure there's a cap. And the big jobs don't pay out the way they did in GTA 5.

From what El Rubius saw of a robbery, you're grabbing the gold bars and the diamonds and the cash one by one, and anything that's stolen goods still has to be sold off to someone first before it turns into money you can use.

The story is kind of built around that too. Nelson said "We have made money matter more in this story", so there are missions that only start once you have enough money, and according to Game Informer's cover story, some only open up once you're

making money regularly. I think that's fair, because you can't really look at GTA 6 through GTA V.

In GTA 5 you could walk around with $100 million in cash, but the economy here is completely different, and it all works together.

For me that's actually what makes it fun. The most fun in a game is when you're broke, because when you're rich and can buy everything, you don't really have a goal to work towards anymore.

Money was always one of the main things in GTA, so making it actually valuable just makes sense.

Making it the core of the game and then treating it like it's nothing special, I think that's a bit backwards.

Then there's the cops. Think about how you got away from them in GTA 5.

You'd look at the minimap, the cops were these little dots with cones showing where they're looking, you just stayed out of the cones, and after a while the stars went away.

That's gone now, because the cops aren't on the radar anymore. They only show up when you use Focus, which is a lot like Eagle Eye in Red Dead 2, so you actually have to stop and look for them.

And I think a lot of people are gonna get caught in their first few hours because of that, because they're so used to seeing them on the radar.

On top of that they remember you. Under your stars there's these little icons for what the cops know about you, like your face, your outfit, your car, that there's two of you, even the gun you used, and Nelson said they wanted the cops

to have "a bit more persistent memory". So even after the stars are gone you still have to deal with all of that.

You'd get a haircut for your face, but a hat or glasses won't be enough for your clothes, you need a completely different outfit, the car has to go, and you can throw the gun away so you look less

suspicious, but then you've lost that gun. Cameras count too, so if you didn't wear a mask and a camera caught you, they've got your description.

Then there's the hot zone. Wherever it happened turns into a zone on the map that the cops keep searching, and when Nelson was playing he actually said "I still have one star in that area", so the stars don't just run out like in GTA

5. The area stays hot for a bit, and if you drive back in too early, the cops are still there and you get the stars back.

There's six stars now, and once you're at three stars in the city, driving away fast doesn't really get you out anymore.

And that was basically everyone's plan in GTA 5, so I think a lot of the time you'll be better off leaving the car somewhere and running through the alleys on foot.

And they react to how you play, if you go in aggressive, they get aggressive back.

Your Criminal Profile builds up from what you do, and TGG saw it go from Professional to Aggressive to Violent to Psycho, and if you push it too far it can shatter, and then that's just it, there's no fixing it.

If you keep causing chaos for no reason, the world around you and even the story can change.

Rockstar's line on that is "There isn't a right or wrong way to play this game", so it's not like they're punishing you, it's more that what you do actually sticks.

Robbing stores changes too. In GTA 5 you pointed a gun at the clerk and the money came out, but now the clerk might have a gun of his own, like this guy in the Extended Look who pulls a shotgun

on Jason. Now, in GTA 5 some store owners also pulled a gun on you sometimes, and there were armed people, like the gangs or up in Sandy Shores.

So it's not completely new. But in GTA 6 it's gonna be way more, and you have to be smarter about it.

You can't give the clerk a window where he can grab a gun. So maybe you keep your gun on him the whole time, or you knock him out.

Because if you put your gun away for a second, he might use that moment, and then he's the one shooting.

Somebody who sees you getting ready outside can call the cops too, and then they're just waiting for you when you come out.

And it's not just the people behind the counter. In IGN's preview there's this moment where a couple of women who were out jogging just attack Nelson's character, and people also notice if you follow them around or listen in on them.

The bigger robberies give you a choice. Blow the safe and you're in and out fast, but whatever's inside gets damaged, or crack the combination and take longer, with the cops maybe showing up halfway through.

And jewelry stores have proper security, so you'd better go in with a plan. You're also not walking around with a whole army in your pocket anymore.

In GTA 5 you could pull a rocket launcher out of nowhere, and Nelson said it himself, "In GTA 5, you can pull out a shotgun from nowhere in front of people and they don't react".

Now you can hide two handguns on you, and carry two big guns, one on your back where everyone can see it and one in your hands, and the rest of your guns stay in the trunk of your car.

When people see a big gun they move away from you, and if the cops see it they warn you first, but if you hold it like you're about to shoot, it escalates.

That's something you'll have to get used to coming from GTA 5. It's basically like the horse in Red Dead 2, where your guns were on the horse and you had to take them off to use them, just that now it's your car.

I like it, because I like realism in games, but that one's really personal preference.

And if this is helping you get ready for it, subscribing really helps me out.

Stealing cars was the easiest thing in GTA 5, you'd see a parked car you liked, press one button, and it was yours.

That's not how it works anymore, because cars come in tiers now. You can point your phone at one and you get its price, the registration fee, whether it's got an alarm, and whether somebody hid a tracker in it.

And for the expensive ones you need tools, like a slim jim early on and a key cloner later in the game.

The trackers are the worst part. Nelson said "if I drive slow, it pings and the police will know where I am", so you've gotta drive it fast, and the owner can report it stolen too, so the cops go

looking for that exact car. And selling it isn't free money either. A damaged car sells for less, and once you've sold one at a Pay 'n' Spray, that one won't take another one from you for a while.

To me that's a good thing, because with modern cars you can't just walk up and drive off in real life either.

And all that's only for parked cars. If a supercar drives past, you can still drag the driver out and take it like always, so you don't need special tools for everything.

Then there's fuel. Cars need gas now, and you only see how much gas you've got left when you're running low, so a car you just stole might be half empty.

When Nelson filled one up in a preview he said "You can't complain about that", because it only takes about ten seconds.

The way they talked about it, it doesn't sound like something you have to worry about that much, it's almost optional, unless you drive the same car the whole time.

If it was a big part of the game and you had to fill up every few hours, I don't think I would've liked that.

But they had thirteen years, so I think they got the middle ground right. Even just driving around asks more of you, because the roads are tighter and there's way more traffic, like actual traffic jams, so I don't think you're gonna fly

through the city at full speed like in GTA 5 without hitting something. Your garage isn't endless either.

To keep a new car you might have to sell one, kind of like the horses in Red Dead 2, and registering a car costs money.

And if you leave a car you registered somewhere, it can get impounded. Your character's body is kind of a thing now, a bit like CJ in San Andreas.

If you eat badly you gain weight, if you stop training the muscle goes away again, and you have to actually sleep.

And food isn't only about weight, a good meal gives you a boost, but that's gone the moment you get hurt.

If you skip sleep for days, your health and stamina come back slower and you get bags under your eyes.

The gym is an actual minigame, where you time your reps and try to finish the set before your stamina runs out, and if you go too fast you strain your body.

You only get three exercises a day, you level up by showing up three days in a row, and your health and stamina only grow if you actually train.

And you even need a membership for it. Shooting's harder as well. TGG says Nelson told him the default aim has less lock-on than the older GTAs, but you can still change that in the settings.

And then there's a bunch of small stuff that adds up. You can't post your own photos on Snapmatic, because Jason and Lucia are on the run, some story moments don't let you switch between Jason and Lucia, and not

every shop is open all day. Now, it's not all harder. Nobody chases you for a crime unless a witness saw it or an alarm went off, so your stars don't shoot up over every little thing.

And if your stars are hollow, it means they don't know your face yet, so you can just walk away quietly.

With only one star it's easy to get away, a new outfit gets rid of the heat, and your partner can drive the getaway while you shoot, and they're actually pretty good at it.

There's fast travel, filling up is cheap, and Rockstar even took grocery shopping out because it got too complicated.

And people are pretty split on all this. One thread about it on the GTA 6 subreddit has over a thousand comments, and one of them says "the entire point of GTA has always been a fun crime sandbox with no

lasting repercussions". Others say "this is the level of realism we all always wanted", and the top post about fuel is from someone who can't wait to run out of gas in the swamp and run from alligators and cops at the same time.

But I'm not a single bit worried that it won't be fun. Rockstar are smart enough to find a good middle ground, where the realism doesn't go so far that it gets annoying instead of fun, and from everything we've seen, I

think they did that. If you loved how GTA 5 played, you might still prefer that, and that's okay, it's kind of subjective at the end of the day.

But for me GTA 6 is gonna be like a mix of GTA 5 and Red Dead, maybe a bit more towards the realism, and I'm excited for that.

Alright, that's it for me, family. Tell me in the comments which change you think will be the hardest for you.

Peace.