GTA 6 Combat Looks Like A Different Game Entirely

For all the neon and the characters, one question hung over GTA 6 more than any other: how does it actually feel to play? The Extended Look finally answered it, giving us our first proper look at the gunplay, and it is a world away from GTA 5.

A clear step beyond GTA 5

GTA 5's shooting always leaned arcade-loose. What the reveal showed is heavier and more deliberate, closer in weight and feel to Red Dead Redemption 2 than to anything in the last GTA. Gunfights during the getaway and the gas-station robberies looked tactile and grounded rather than floaty, the kind of shooting you feel in your hands.

Pick it up and go

The standout detail: weapons can be grabbed off the ground mid-fight. That is a small change with big implications, hinting at a looser, more improvised approach to combat where you work with what is around you rather than just cycling a weapon wheel. It is exactly the sort of systemic touch Rockstar built into Red Dead.

What it sets up

On this evidence, combat is one of the biggest leaps between GTA 5 and 6, not a tweak. The full picture, cover, gunfeel per weapon, how encounters escalate, is what we will break down frame by frame once the footage is in. But the direction is clear: this is the most serious the series has ever taken its shooting.

Sources: Grand Theft Auto VI: An Extended Look, plus reveal coverage from GamesRadar and TheGamer, 27 August 2026.