One of the core elements of the GTA series is allowing players to engage in various criminal activities. Many of these crimes involve guns, and often require shooting targets. In the past, GTA handled the necessity of firearms and the logistical difficulty of characters carrying an arsenal in real life by ensuring that as long as the protagonist didn't use their guns, carrying heavy weaponry would raise no suspicions.
But not anymore. The state of Leonida has explicitly banned open carry of firearms, and law enforcement will intervene immediately if anyone brandishes a machine gun in public.
This news comes from an interview with Rob Nelson, Head of Development at Rockstar North and Co-Studio Head, conducted by Dazed magazine. The interview compared Grand Theft Auto V with Red Dead Redemption 2: Grand Theft Auto V "satirized modern life through quirky characters, thrilling car chases, and explosive shootouts," while Red Dead Redemption 2 was "hailed as one of the most realistic and immersive games of its time, adopting a slower, more emotional tone that complemented the game's narrative."
Nelson stated that GTA VI sits right between these two styles.
Dazed magazine described GTA VI as still having "all the weapons and supercars you'd expect," but noted that the game world will be more "grounded in reality and responsive to player actions" than before.
For example, in Grand Theft Auto V, you could "stride through the city like a god"—of course, gun in hand, swaggering down the street. But in GTA VI, things will change: "If you walk down the street with a rifle, the city will give you a piece of its mind."
This sounds like players will no longer be able to casually stroll down main streets with assault rifles. In previous GTA titles, even if you stood next to or walked past pedestrians with a terrifying-looking gun in hand, others usually wouldn't react. Even the police remained indifferent. They would only respond when you fired your weapon or started aiming at them or their immediate vicinity.
However, GTA VI seems to introduce a more realistic NPC reaction mechanism to weapons. Previous leaks had hinted at similar features, such as civilians reacting when players carried knives.
Nelson stated: "We look back at previous games with a critical eye and think about where we can improve further. Sometimes we want to make these changes because we were limited by time, resources, or technical capabilities at the time; other times, it's simply because we didn't do certain things well enough or didn't fully consider all possibilities. Much of our work is iterative—we constantly adjust various designs based on intuition, depending on what works and what doesn't."
It remains unclear whether simply carrying a pistol will lead to arrest, or if it will merely cause pedestrians to scream and flee. It is also uncertain how this mechanic will integrate with the player's weapon inventory system: Will players be unable to carry firearms on their person altogether, or will they need to store guns in backpacks or similar items?
Regardless, this change likely means players will need to adopt different behaviors when hanging out in the city compared to the past—unless you're intentionally trying to panic an entire street, it's best not to bring an assault rifle to the beach for a peaceful afternoon.