Right after announcing a major delay forGrand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar Games revealed the game’s second trailer yesterday without any prior warnings. Given thatGTA 6was originally announced in 2023 and has been absent for more than a year up to this point, the fact that this trailer was dropped out of nowhere is surprising, to say the least.GTA 6’s new trailer has received tens of millions of views in just a few hours on sites like YouTube, and it’s set social media platforms around the world on fire. As if the trailer wasn’t already exciting enough, though, Rockstar Games has also provided a bucketload of new details aboutGTA 6on its official website.
Even though the game is still more than a year away from being released, Rockstar has shared a surprising amount of info on the plot, characters, and setting ofGTA 6, including its protagonists.Grand Theft Auto 6is going to take place inthe fictional U.S. state of Leonida, which was inspired by Florida, and it will feature a number of explorable new regions, like Vice City, Grassrivers, Port Gellhoun, and Ambrosia. One of the more interesting locations in the game, however, is a place called Leonida Keys, which is aptly named after the real-life Florida Keys. IfGTA 6is as ambitious as it seems, this location may have one of the best side activities in the entire game: diving.
Leonida Keys May Be Home to a Lot of Swimming-Related Activities
The Underwater Environments in GTA 6’s Leonida Keys Seem to Be Very Detailed
To the surprise of many, Rockstar has sharedmore than 70 new screenshots ofGTA 6on its website, most of which depict places, scenes, and characters that weren’t fully shown in the game’s second trailer. A handful of the more interesting screenshots, though, come from the site’s Leonida Keys section. According to Rockstar’s official description of the region, Leonida Keys is a tropical archipelago that has “some of the most beautiful and dangerous waters in all of America.” To accompany this information, Rockstar has provided a couple of images showcasing the oceans in this area.
Judging by what Rockstar has revealed of Leonida Keys so far, it appears that swimming activities and underwater environments will receive a major overhaul compared to previous installments in theGTAseries. On theGTA 6website, one of the images for Leonida Keys depicts a scuba diver who’s swimming in an ocean filled with underwater wildlife, such as eels, turtles, coral, and fish. If this is actually representative ofwhat bodies of water inGTA 6will look like, then it’s likely that underwater exploration in the game will be a lot more enjoyable than it’s ever been, and scuba diving could be a proper form of side content.
Swimming Has Been Present in GTA Games for a Long Time, But it Could Be Better than Ever in GTA 6
Although swimming and underwater exploration have been present in theGrand Theft Autogames for quite some time, these two features were quite simplistic in the series' earlier installments. The ability to swim underwater was first introduced in 2004’sGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas, where it wasn’t that useful for anything other than hiding from authorities. InGrand Theft Auto 5, however,the series' swimming mechanicswere given some major upgrades. In the game, players can not only go scuba diving whenever they feel like, they can also hunt for underwater treasure and compete in swimming triathlons.
Even though Rockstar hasn’t confirmed if these swimming features will return inGTA 6, it looks like the game’s oceans will be far more realistic than any of theirGTA 5andSan Andreascounterparts.Grand Theft Auto 6seems to be taking full advantageof current-gen hardware to simulate high densities of wildlife and fauna that wouldn’t be possible in any of the series’ previous games. This may be a sign thatGTA 6’s Leonida Keys will be filled with swimming-related side activities, perhaps even more so than inGTA 5. However, assuming that players actually have landmarks to look at while underwater, and sea life both big and small, it is scuba diving that could be the most engaging form of optional content within the open-world title.
