Recently, Rob Nelson, head of the joint studio at Rockstar North, shared his actual experience playing GTA VI, with his complete playthrough taking approximately 80 hours. This duration reflects only Nelson's personal playtime; each player's actual game time will vary significantly depending on their level of exploration and completion of side quests.
Nelson stated that during his playthrough, in addition to the main story, he completed some optional objectives that trigger chain reactions in the plot. This means that while certain side quests and optional missions may not directly determine the final ending, the related actions and events will still be reflected in the story's conclusion, adding more detailed feedback. However, Rockstar has not yet officially confirmed whether the game features multiple endings.
In the interview, Nelson also discussed his philosophy on open-world design, expressing his hope that players won't just focus on the main story but also explore the many side activities. Interact with NPCs, freely explore the map, cause trouble, pull off heists, earn wealth, and experience the colorful, free-spirited life of Vice City.
Today, Rockstar released an extended gameplay demo for GTA VI, showcasing numerous main mission segments, including plot points such as Jason and Lucia encountering a police raid and ambushes at luxury parties. The game features a massive map with diverse landscapes including cities, swamps, and suburbs, with comprehensive upgrades to map density and interactive details.
Additionally, YouTube creator TGG was invited to Rockstar North to view three hours of GTA VI gameplay footage, where he revealed comparisons regarding the scale of the game map.
Reportedly, the overall map area of GTA VI is approximately twice that of GTA V and about three times that of Red Dead Redemption 2. The main city area of Vice City itself is twice the size of Los Santos, and when including the surrounding suburbs, the total scale reaches 11 times that of Los Santos and its outskirts. The setting fully recreates the fictional state of Leonida, covering diverse landscapes such as bustling urban areas, vast swamp wetlands, archipelagos, countryside, and national parks, allowing for free exploration by land, sea, and air.
Although Rockstar has not yet released precise square kilometer figures, it is certain that the GTA VI map is "very large." The game inherits the exploration-focused design philosophy of Red Dead Redemption 2, with much of the content not actively marked on the map, encouraging players to roam freely and reap rich rewards from hidden discoveries. The team's goal is to create Rockstar's largest, most content-rich, highest population density, and most structurally complex open world to date. Leveraging the hardware of PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, the game world achieves a further leap in realism and vibrancy compared to Red Dead Redemption 2.
The NPC system represents a major technical breakthrough this time. In previous titles, NPCs of different heights and body types had to share the same set of animations, resulting in awkward movements during combat, vehicle interactions, and environmental interactions. For GTA VI, Rockstar has developed a new dynamic animation retargeting system that adjusts action logic in real time based on an NPC's build and height. Pedestrians of all shapes and sizes now have natural and coherent interaction animations, truly achieving diversity in NPC body types and enhancing the realism of the entire world.