Boats, Airboats, and the Cargo Ship: Water Travel in Leonida

Boats have existed in Grand Theft Auto since the first 3D entry, and they have almost always been optional - a way to reach an island, a vehicle for one mission, scenery at a marina. Leonida changes that by geography rather than by design statement: two of six named regions cannot be crossed any other way.

What Rockstar has shown

The Leonida Keys

An island chain running south-west. However Rockstar handles bridges, an archipelago is a fundamentally different traversal problem from a road network: routes are constrained, detours are expensive, and the fastest line between two points is frequently not a road at all. In practical terms, that is the first time a GTA map has had geography that rewards owning a boat rather than merely permitting one.

Grassrivers

Wetland modelled on the Everglades - shallow, dense, and largely roadless. The airboat shown in official footage is the specific answer to that terrain, and it is not a vehicle the series has needed before. A wetland interior also creates something GTA maps have historically lacked: a large central region that roads route around rather than through, which makes cross-map journeys longer and knowing shortcuts genuinely valuable.

• Shallow water that conventional boats cannot cross efficiently.
• Few or no roads, forcing routes around the region or through it by air/airboat.
• A central location on the map, which amplifies its effect on travel times.

VC Port

Rockstar describes VC Port as the cruise ship capital of the world. Between that description and the working cargo ship, the port reads as functional infrastructure - large vessels, container traffic, and the kind of industrial waterfront that the series has previously rendered as locked-off scenery.

What the Extended Look showed on the water

The August 27 Extended Look moved several water activities from inference to footage. TechRadar's and PC Gamer's breakdowns list scuba diving, fishing, jet skis, kayaking and airboats (fanboats) among the activities shown.

What is still not confirmed: boat handling detail, boat customisation, a boat purchase system, or what, if anything, is down there to find when diving. The footage shows that these things can be done, not how the systems around them work.

How much of Leonida is water

Two of the six named regions are defined by water, and Rockstar's own descriptions of both put it at the centre rather than at the edge.

Four of six regions have water described as functional rather than scenic. That is a considerably stronger commitment than GTA V made, where water was largely a boundary.

The named watercraft

• The Shitzu Squalo, a speedboat included with the Ultimate Edition, described as docked at Washington Beach and made open-ocean-ready.
• The Crest Kayak, human-powered, parked outside Jason's safehouse.
• Airboats, shown in three of four Grassrivers screenshots including one pursuit, and in use in the Extended Look.
• Jet skis, shown in the Extended Look; no model has been named.
• A police boat, named by Rockstar in its own description of a Squalo image.
• A seaplane over the Keys causeway, shown but not described.

Fishing is the most-described water activity

Rockstar's Squalo copy says it is "perfect for casting in Gambit Bay and reeling in catches of all sorts", an official screenshot shows Jason playing a fish from the back of a boat, and fishing is among the activities shown in the Extended Look.

A named body of water, an implied variety of species - Game Informer's cover story, as reported by TechRadar, puts the game's animal species at more than 170 - and the activity shown in play makes fishing one of the best-documented things to do on the water.