Grand Theft Auto introduced itself to the
world in 1997, after having crawled from a vat in a lab where it was chemically engineered
to cause heart attacks in parents and politicians the world over. The series immediately made a name for itself. Well, it made a fair few names for itself,
depending upon how much it upset everyone in any given week. What tends to get lost in larger discussions
of the series, though, is the fact that the games were actually...good. People focus on the controversies at worst
and how influential it was at best, sort of missing the fact that video games are meant
to be fun, and Grand Theft Auto understood that from the very start. It’s gaming bliss when things click, and
they click with impressive frequency. As such, though we are indeed ranking them
from worst to best, be aware that the “worst” end of this list is rather narrow. Grand Theft Auto certainly isn’t everyone’s
cup of tea – or is that hot coffee? – but it’s easy to see that each game
has an incredible amount of love, creativity, and dedication to quality behind it. Well...most of the games do. Don’t worry; there were still a few stinkers
along the way! Ultimately, though, the games are almost all
varying degrees of “good,” so if something that you enjoy ranked relatively low, do know
that it’s probably not because we hate it; more likely, we just like the other ones a
bit more. Grand Theft Auto tends to have a very strong
track record when it comes to quality, and I’m sure that will continue in GTA 6...which
I look forward to playing when my children are 12 and 14 – for context I currently
have no children I’m aware of. But before we get to the ranking, we have
a few ground rules. After all what’s Grand Theft Auto without
strict adherence to rules?? This time around, we have decided to count
the various expansions to the games, so long as those expansions got standalone releases. Is it fair to compare an expansion to a mainline
game? No, of course not, but with only five numbered
games, we needed to justify making this list, so deal with it. Secondly, we don’t normally count ports,
remakes, or collections in these lists. In this case, though, there’s one entry
that is a port, a remake, and a collection, all at once. You already know what it is, and you already
know you’ll be hearing about it soon, but we just wanted to mention that we broke our
usual rules for a reason, and that reason is that we hate that game and all that it
stands for. There are also a few other “ports” that
were different enough to include, and we hate those as well. And, finally, we’ll just say “Rockstar”
when talking about the developer. We are very aware that some of these games
will have been credited to DMA Design, Tarantula Studios, Take-Two Interactive, or various
location-based Rockstar teams, but we’re just saying Rockstar. It’s easier that way, and it’s worth whatever
anger it ends up causing you. Let’s rank ‘em. I’m Ben and I’m Peter from TripleJump,
and this is Every Grand Theft Auto Video Game Ranked from Worst to Best. #19: Grand Theft Auto (1999)
Game Boy Color As an absolute marvel of limited hardware,
Grand Theft Auto for the Game Boy Color is excellent. It’s never an easy task to take a PC or
PlayStation game and make it work on a little Nintendo handheld – just ask Capcom how
that went with Resident Evil – but the GBC GTA port is shockingly faithful to the full
experience. The vast majority of the content is there,
the cities are just as big, and it runs far better than it has any right to. There are some obvious changes, such as to
the interface and the camera, so, no, it’s not quite a worthy substitute for the full
game, but, my lord, the fact that they got this working at all is worth celebrating. What’s not worth celebrating? Many of the missions have been tweaked for
simplicity’s sake, which is fine, but they are also buggy to the point that objectives
sometimes won’t update after you complete them. The limited processor of the GBC also means
that there are far fewer vehicles and pedestrians roaming the map, which sounds fine until you
realize that this also means you have far fewer opportunities to rain carnage down around
you, arguably robbing the game of its primary appeal. Speaking of which, the gore and swearing was
removed, robbing it of its secondary appeal as well. The controls are awful, which is to be expected,
but the music is awful, too, and we all know that the Game Boy Color was fully capable
of producing genuine bops, so no forgiveness there. Also, some releases advertised a free pager
on the box, but the rom we played didn’t come with one. That’s the real crime, and we are the real
victims. Interestingly, the Game Boy Color versions
of Grand Theft Auto and its sequel would prove to be influential in their own way, inspiring
2012’s Retro City Rampage, which took a similarly pixilated approach to its own lawless
open world. That one kept the gore, though, so pick that
up instead. #18: Grand Theft Auto 2 (2000)
Game Boy Color Right, Rockstar, you already proved you could
do it and we politely applauded your efforts, but was there any real reason to do this again? Ultimately, no, there was no reason to do
it again, but we’re still sort of glad that they did, because this version is an improvement. Everything looks better, the music no longer
hurts my soul, and there are more vehicles and people around to help the game feel more
alive. Well, temporarily alive. You get the idea. Admittedly, this game runs a bit worse. That’s the tradeoff for everything else
being improved and, in our eyes, that tradeoff is fair. If you disagree, that’s okay, because the
point stands that both of these games are notable exclusively for their oddity, and
the fact that we are ranking this above its predecessor does not imply that we think anybody
should be playing either of them. Both of the original Grand Theft Auto games
are available in several other versions, and all of those versions are quite faithful to
each other. You will of course run into versions that
don’t run as well, or which have certain scenes censored, or which do or do not include
expansions but, basically, if you grab a copy of either game on any system, you will be
getting a more or less complete Grand Theft Auto experience. Any system, of course, other than the Game
Boy Color, which didn’t need versions of these games, doesn’t benefit from having
versions of these games, and can only provide lesser imitations of these games. Impressive imitations, certainly, and kudos
to everyone involved who got this stuff working. But we can’t recommend that you play either
of them. Any time that you do spend with them will
be...wasted. #17: Grand Theft Auto Advance (2004)
Game Boy Advance After an underwhelming handheld port of the
first game and an underwhelming handheld port of the second game, certainly an underwhelming
handheld port of the third game will make everybody happy. Right? RIGHT?? Well, don’t worry. Grand Theft Auto Advance indeed began life
as a GBA port of Grand Theft Auto III. At some point in development, though, somebody
said, “But wait, aren’t these ports terrible?” Then everybody else sort of shrugged. They decided to make a completely new game
instead, and that was absolutely the right idea. It’s still bad, though! Obviously, no matter what, a port of Grand
Theft Auto III would have been reworked substantially out of sheer necessity. There’s no way we’d have gotten a full
3D open world on a system like this, and we can’t blame them for refining the 2D top-down
approach of the previous games instead. It does include some features of the 3D games,
however, such as vehicle-specific side missions when driving police cars or taxi cabs. The camera also zooms out when driving quickly,
which is something that the GBC games couldn’t provide. The controls aren’t great, but considering
the few buttons on the GBA, we can’t have asked for much more. The story takes place in Liberty City, about
a year prior to the events of Grand Theft Auto III. The plot is that you are Mike, a man who...well,
he is a man, I can say that much. And in my experience he commits crimes, but
not as often as he gets lost trying to navigate his own city. It doesn’t have much of a story, no, but
it does at least come closer to the graphic violence of the main games, and it fills in
a little bit of the backstory for some of the GTA III characters, such as 8-Ball. Which is...good? Look, I’m trying not to come off as too
negative, as it really is impressive that these games run at all on such weak handhelds,
but...well, they’re just not very good. We’ve played far worse, but we’ve also
played far better, for this list especially. #16: Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive
Edition (2021) PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox
One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PC Good idea: Remastering three beloved games
in one of the world’s biggest franchises. Bad idea: Turning the project over to the
old woman who restored the Ecce Homo. A repackaging like this should have been an
easy bullseye. Instead, Rockstar managed to hit themselves
in both eyes with the dart and then accidentally swallow and choke on it. The package contains new versions of Grand
Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas. They’re largely remastered ports, but there’s
a bit of “remake” about them as well, with updated HUDs, navigation, and other features
to bring them more in line with modern expectations. Sadly, the modern expectation that it lives
up to best is the one that suggests that games will be launched as buggy, unstable messes,
and everybody who paid full price at launch gets to sit around hoping that the game will
eventually be patched. Everything about this package screamed catastrophe
from the start, right down to Rockstar removing previous versions of the games from sale. That wouldn’t have been so bad if the new
versions were, y’know, not markedly worse than the ones they were replacing. Many of the so-called improvements actually
hampered our enjoyment, including weather effects that made it impossible to see, increased
draw distances revealing how small the maps really are, and an AI upscaling process that
incorrectly rendered words and images on textures across all three games. The thing with AI upscaling, in case you weren’t
aware, is that the software does most of the work, but a human being still has to actually
check to make sure it was done correctly. This is because – and I can’t stress this
enough – machines do not have human brains. Somehow, Rockstar forgot this, and it leads
to everything looking disappointingly amateurish, which is something these games never looked
like before. A set of three competent remasters could well
have reminded us all that the games weren’t as great as we remembered them being. That, of course, was always a possibility. What the Definitive Editions did, though,
was make them actively worse, more glitchy, less fun, and far less interesting to revisit. #15: Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 (1999)
PC Yo dawg, I heard you like expansion packs
so we put an expansion pack in your expansion pack so you can expand your expansion pack
with an expanded expansion pack. Relevant meme. This one is a slight stretch to include, but
at the same time it didn’t feel right to leave it out. Grand Theft Auto: London 1961 was free, but
it did require players to own both the base game and Grand Theft Auto: London 1969, so
it feels more like a sort of full-length demo. It wasn’t one, as you already needed both
of the games it might have inspired you to buy, but that’s exactly what it feels like
it should have been. It’s very brief and relies heavily on the
gameplay and assets of the previous London expansion. Yes, the London 1969 expansion came out before
the London 1961 expansion, making this the first time that Grand Theft Auto would dabble
in direct prequels, and it would be far from the last. It’s interesting that a series that is very
content with providing self-contained stories in each game would also bother connecting
narrative dots that don’t need to be connected. That’s not a complaint, but it’s interesting
how quickly and repeatedly the series went to that well. In fact, London 1961 could be considered a
prequel to the entire series, as it takes place the earliest, chronologically. At least, so far. I hold out hope for a Grand Theft Auto set
in 1959, starring those singing miscreants from Grease, and I don’t know why Rockstar
doesn’t reply to my emails. Unlike London 1969, London 1961 never made
it to consoles, but fans aren’t really missing out on much. It’s another brief dip into what most of
us already experienced with London 1969, which doesn’t make it bad, but which does make
it inessential.There are a few nice touches. There’s more multiplayer content, including
a unique map based on Manchester. I’ve been to Manchester, but I’ve never
viewed it from a top-down perspective, so I can’t vouch for its accuracy. I just wish they’d have added Newcastle. It’s a nice place, and I’d love to demonstrate
my love for it through a vehicle-based crime spree. Never mind… #14: Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 (1999)
PlayStation, PC In the days before 3D worlds, it must have
been quite easy to rework your game to take place in a new city. “Look, we’re in London now! Not that you can tell, because you’re only
looking at tarmac and the tops of buildings, but I swear, this game takes place in a whole
other country!” In fairness to Grand Theft Auto: London 1969,
the game does indeed spice things up with different vehicles and imagery, and they even
remembered to program the cars to drive on the correct side of the road. Still, it’s interesting how quickly Rockstar
used to be able to turn one city into another. Today that would take them...let’s see...nine
years and counting. The gameplay is very similar to the original
Grand Theft Auto, which is to be expected; this was released as an expansion pack on
both the PC and PlayStation, meaning that it required the original game to run. If you liked that game, this was just a less-expensive
way to get more of it. Of course, here in the UK, we got a far superior
Grand Theft Auto: London Special Edition on the PlayStation. It featured swathes of upgrades and improvements
such as...the ability to play the game without owning the original Grand Theft Auto. Oh. That was it? Really stretching the “Special Edition”
label, there. The game is notable for being the first time
the series has taken place in a real-world location. Well, unless you count “Earth.” You get the idea. Overall, though, it doesn’t do all that
much with its real-world location. It’s a repainted Grand Theft Auto with some
retro British imagery. That’s all it tried to be, of course, but
that does mean that it’s not particularly worth seeking out on its own merits. I think we can all agree, at the very least,
that the voice acting in the cutscenes is accurate, authentic, and lovingly realized. Either that, or it’s a joke. Lord above, I pray that it’s a joke. #13: Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999)
PlayStation, PC We might be in for a little bit of confusion
here, as the PC version is technically the “original” and the PlayStation version
is the port – and a lesser one – but the PlayStation port released a few days earlier. And a Dreamcast port, which we aren’t counting
here because it released the following year rather than within the original release window,
is more faithful to the PC game, so that should probably count as the direct port. Still, we are lumping the PlayStation version
in here because it’s not quite different enough to warrant a separate discussion that
treads most of the same ground. The main differences between it and the PC
version come down to content tweaks, due to the PlayStation not being quite powerful enough
to handle the same number of sprites. It’s also missing some of the map and around
half of the collectible tokens. I could keep listing minor differences, but
I think we’d end up falling asleep together, and I don’t know you that well. The game takes place in Anywhere City, which
gives you some idea of just how much thought went into the story. Like its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 2 is
more about reveling in moment-to-moment carnage than it is story or characterization. This game does add an interesting wrinkle,
though; each area of the city has several warring gangs. As you build up your reputation with one,
the others will turn on you, and you’ll have to balance your illegal activities accordingly. Otherwise, it’s a similar experience to
the first game. Whereas that game could get away with some
very rough edges on account of its novelty, however, the second game repeats many of the
same problems without much of an attempt to improve anything. It’s still unclear how to get to your destination
much of the time. It’s still a repetitive city full of areas
that are indistinguishable from one another. Its difficulty is still due to design problems
rather than challenge. If you prefer this one, we can’t blame you. To us, however, it feels like the odd game
out. It wasn’t as influential or important as
its predecessor, and nothing that it added made the game more fun. #12: Grand Theft Auto (1997)
PC Fallout. GoldenEye. Final Fantasy VII. Symphony of the Night. PaRappa the Rapper. Oddworld. Mario Kart 64. Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Riven. Age of Empires. Probably also some other things. 1997 was not only awash in great games; it
was awash in some of the most important and influential games in the history of the medium. There was no more appropriate time for Grand
Theft Auto to turn up, then; it was every bit as influential, but far more likely to
shove you down, steal your wallet, and then run you over with your own car. Grand Theft Auto hit the scene like an unwelcome
relative, reveling in its own instant controversy and bad taste. Those things would only be cranked up by its
sequels, but the first game was a raunchy word-of-mouth sensation that offered a riveting
glimpse into a very chaotic gaming future. What’s more, the entire thing was a fluke. Development began on Race'n'Chase, a game
in which players could complete missions on either side of the law in an open-world environment. An unexpected issue with the police AI meant
that the cops behaved...well, as over-enthusiastic and quick to violence as actual police. Oops! Rockstar realized that the real fun would
be in getting the police to pursue you, and then either outwitting or overpowering them. The design shifted entirely to the world of
crime, and that’s where we find ourselves today. If Grand Theft Auto seems tame now, it’s
only because of how far the series has come...and how deeply depraved it has gotten. The casual nature of the violence here and
the satisfying bursting of bodies into blood puddles made for a genuinely shocking experience
at the time. The game was originally released for the PC,
but many of you will remember the PlayStation port. It wasn’t identical, but we aren’t ranking
it separately because it’s close enough. Aside from some graphical downgrades, the
removal of trains, and a couple of missing missions, it was a fairly faithful version
of the original. If you played it in 1997, wherever you played
it, the odds are good that you still remember it fondly. There’s no denying, though, how much better
things got from there. #11: Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
PlayStation 2 Grand Theft Auto always courted controversy,
but bringing the violence into 3D made it more realistic, even if “realistic” now
seems like a rather silly way to describe any footage of this game. As such, much ink was spilled about the degenerate
antics you could get up to in Grand Theft Auto III, from mistreating sex workers to
slaughtering police officers. But, in a way, it’s admirable that Rockstar
didn’t pull its punches when translating the blood-drenched insanity of the earlier
games, or soften it for the sake of wider appeal. Instead, the developer doubled down, tripled
down, and we’re fairly sure quadrupled down as well, making this the most unhinged experience
the series had offered yet. And, in many ways, things were just getting
started. Of course, the developers weren’t entirely
heartless. Very late in development, the September the
11th terrorist attacks took place, and Rockstar understood that fiery chaos in a city based
on New York might hit a bit too close to home for many people. They quickly retooled elements of the game
and released this modified version in October. Much of the reason they were able implement
those changes so quickly, of course, is the fact that there’s not all that much story
in GTA III. You are a silent protagonist, and nearly all
of the plot developments boil down to somebody telling you to commit a crime. Granted, we could be very reductive and say
that the entire series boils down to that, but here, you can really feel how direct it
is. The characters are voiced well, and some of
the jokes are funny enough, but there’s little actual meat to the game. That’s fine if you’re only looking to
wreak havoc, but actually playing the game is when all of its flaws are revealed, from
the controls, to the combat, to the lack of variety, to the unnecessary difficulty in
even navigating the city. Grand Theft Auto III seems to do everything
in its power to prevent you from playing it properly. GTA III laid the groundwork for the 3D games
to come, and that’s notable. But going back to it? It’s easy to focus on what just about every
later game did better. #10: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
(2005) PlayStation Portable
As the first fully 3D handheld game in the series, there’s a lot to like about Grand
Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. It also handles its prequel status much more
interestingly than Grand Theft Auto Advance did. You’d see familiar locations and a few familiar
faces in that game, but Liberty City Stories goes all the way with it, showing us earlier
incarnations of more characters and drawing attention to the many ways the city has changed
over the years. Areas that are under construction here are
fully built by the time of Grand Theft Auto III, and things that get destroyed in the
course of this game’s events are missing by the time of that game. It’s superficial for the most part, yes,
but it’s nice that they bothered to give us a different version of the city rather
than a condensed retread. You are Toni Cipriani, returning to Liberty
City after four years of exile and looking quite svelte before his three-year diet of
straight pasta. What follows is a story of shifting allegiances,
double crosses, assassinations, and unchecked carnage. Goodness gracious, I’m beginning to think
mafia life might not be for me! One truly impressive feature for a PSP game
was the ability to import custom music. Granted, it required faffing about with external
software and fighting with the game to recognize your music as legitimate tracks that you definitely
did not download from Limewire, infesting your parents’ computer with spyware in the
process, but it was a very welcome touch. The game received a PlayStation 2 port the
following year, but it introduced glitches of its own and had significant slowdown and
lag issues. Those are things that can be overlooked on
a handheld, simply because of its lack of processing power, but when the PS2 had actual,
full GTA games of its own and ran them just fine, the performance of Liberty City Stories
there is appalling. And I don’t even get to import my mp3 of
Ocean Man! Unforgivable. #9: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006)
PlayStation Portable Liberty City Stories was, by quite a wide
margin, the best-selling game on the PlayStation Portable. The second-best? Vice City Stories. The third best? A game that is irrelevant to the subject of
this list, so stop trying to distract me. Vic Vance is our protagonist for this one
and, since it’s another prequel, the guy is guaranteed to live through the events of
the game. That’s a nice change of pace, eh Vic?? Vice City Stories ties its narrative a little
bit better into the main game’s events than Liberty City Stories did, at least as far
as we’re concerned, but both games reimagine familiar places and characters in intriguing
ways. Where Vice City Stories really outperforms
Liberty City Stories, though is in its...performance. The game runs much better, looks better, and
feels better to play. That game had a better difficulty curve overall,
though. And both games offer both quick bursts of
great fun and the ability to plow through missions at length, so if you’d rank Liberty
City Stories higher, I really couldn’t blame you. Actually, yes I could, because Vice City Stories
is the one with a cameo by Phil Collins, and you can plop down 6,000 GTA FunBux to see
him in concert! By that, I mean you can watch some polygons
on your PSP wiggle around while you listen to “In the Air Tonight.” If only the game had been on the Vita instead,
Phil could have sang “Invisible Touch Screen.” Oh, yes, it’s just “Another Day in Paradise”
here at TripleJump Towers with ourPhil Collins jokes. Vice City Stories is a genuinely good game,
and it’s one that gets unfairly overlooked, we feel. The empire-building feature even gives players
a reason to engage more deeply with the side content, as you are able to oust rival gangs
from their sources of income and take them over yourself. Of course, other criminals can try to oust
you as well, until you take over all of the available businesses in the city. It’s like Monopoly, but with brothels and
smuggling. Actually, the original US Monopoly is based
on Atlantic City, isn’t it? In that case, yeah, it’s just Monopoly. #8: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009)
DS At last, a GTA game on a Nintendo handheld
that feels like a GTA game. It’s less deep than the full 3D outings,
certainly, but it’s an absolutely worthy successor to the 2D ones. You are Huang Lee, and you’ve arrived in
Liberty City just in time to be shot in the head and dumped in the sea. That was a quick game! No, of course, you survive, and it’s your
job to work out what’s going on, help decide the outcome of a massive turf war, and...
ignore all of that, because this is GTA, and you have an entire city to explore and visit
death upon. Well, not quite an entire city, but an impressive
amount of one, considering it’s on the same console that gave us Nintendogs. For everything that the game does right, though,
there’s a drawback. The lock-on is a nice feature but it isn’t
always smart enough to target your actual enemy; the rotating camera is a great addition,
but it still doesn’t show enough of the environment to make fast driving satisfying;
and the number of vehicles and weapons is impressive, but it still feels limited. Chinatown Wars is worth playing, certainly,
but it probably won’t become your new favorite in the series. Later the same year, the game was ported to
the PlayStation Portable. Conventional wisdom is that this was due to
low sales on the DS, but even the earliest sales reports wouldn’t have been available
until April 2009, and this was on the PSP by October. Six months would have represented a rather
incredible turnaround time between “not even considering a PSP port” and “now
you can buy this PSP port,” especially considering that they had to rebuild a dual-screen game
for a single-screen system. More likely, they’d already had a port in
mind, but that doesn’t make for an interesting story. And, as we all know, gaming websites need
stories, even if they can’t decide what the story actually is. The PSP version adds new missions and replaces
some touch-screen minigames with QTEs. You may have a strong preference there, but
if I’m to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all. #7: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned
(2009) Xbox 360
As we’ve seen, Grand Theft Auto loves its prequels. For a pair of GTA IV standalone expansions,
however, Rockstar went a different route: separate stories that overlap with the events
of the main game. There are some who call those “sidequels.” Don’t be one of those people, because that
word is awful. It’s difficult to say, as well. Let’s all agree never to use sidequel again. The first of these two expansions was The
Lost and Damned, which focuses on Johnny Klebitz, a minor character from the main game. The action centers around the Lost Motorcycle
Club, a group of...well, let’s just say “quite awful people” and leave it at that. Johnny grapples with the direction of the
Lost, the demands of his personal life, and a possibility of getting out and doing better
for himself. It’s a decent story, and it has a unique
feel when compared to the main game, thanks to its focus on biker culture and iconography. You even need your motorcycle for missions,
which helps this game feel different and more focused in that regard. Impressively, The Lost and Damned gives you
access to the entire map from GTA IV. That doesn’t mean you get the same content
– each game has very different missions and objectives, of course – but the sheer
fact that Rockstar gave you free roam of the city feels generous. It also adds new minigames to enjoy, with
air hockey being our personal favorite, but only because we are really bad at cards. Oh, and instead of shooting pigeons, you shoot
seagulls. See? Totally different game. Right, okay, it’s not. The Lost and Damned is, at its core, exactly
the same game, with a different story layered over it, but that’s far from a bad thing. The overlap in the narratives is handled well
and Liberty City is still great fun to rampage through. This is just a very similar, smaller helping. It wasn’t a proper sequel, but it was very
clearly not marketed as one. As a way of killing time before GTA V, it
was quite welcome. In fact, we wish we had something similar
right about now... #6: Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
(2009) Xbox 360
As with The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony puts us in control of a minor character
from Grand Theft Auto IV, this time Luis Lopez, whose story here overlaps both that of the
main game and its predecessor. Indeed, both of these expansions received
praise for their writing, and rightly so; they feel like natural extensions of the first
game that also function just fine as standalone experiences. This one explores Luis’s relationship with
Tony Prince, who our protagonist sees not only as an employer and mentor, but as a father
figure. Indeed, it is their relationship that forms
the core identity of this game, and it’s a great one. You can still get up to all manner of mischief
and mayhem around the city, and by this point you’ll know the city well. But Luis trying to balance the demands of
his career and his life, all while trying to keep Tony’s empire afloat just a little
longer, is compelling. The two central characters are both well written
and excellently acted, and that alone elevates The Ballad of Gay Tony above just being another
excuse to wreck up Liberty City. And speaking of Liberty City, The Ballad of
Gay Tony received some improvements to its graphics, physics, and performance. Those things don’t completely revolutionize
the GTA IV experience, but they do make this game at least feel like more than just another
trek through the same environments. The Lost and Damned had a unique identity
thanks to its dabbling with biker culture and, sure enough, club culture has a similar
role here as well. We’re not really a part of either culture,
but we do admit that we’d probably rather spend a night on a dance floor than getting
our teeth kicked out at a biker bar, so maybe that’s why we’re comfortable ranking this
one higher. So, did the overlapping stories of Luis, Johnny,
and Nico go on to shape the approach that Grand Theft Auto V would take? I don’t know; I don’t make these games. I just commit heinous acts in them, and shoot
lots and lots of birds. #5: Grand Theft Auto Online (2013)
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Boy, there’s really no way to rank this
one properly, is there? Grand Theft Auto Online is an experience that
continues to evolve significantly, and not taking that evolution into account is sort
of missing the point of the game. It’s not an experience that was later enhanced,
in other words; it’s an experience that has been changing since day one, and will
continue to change so often that anything I say in this entry will be well out of date
by the time many people hear it. In fact, since I’ve started recording this
voiceover, the game has probably changed enough that I’m no longer even talking about the
same thing. Grand Theft Auto Online was originally an
optional online component of Grand Theft Auto V, but in 2022 it got a standalone release,
meaning that a nine-year-old game only got a standalone release recently...like I said,
it’s a complicated situation and a difficult ranking. So, let’s speak generally: Grand Theft Auto
Online was and is an opportunity for you, your closest friends, and lots of unfortunate
strangers to wander a massive map and make each other miserable. And I mean that in a good way! The appeal of Grand Theft Auto has always
been deeply rooted in causing chaos. Chaos is fun. It’s why we hired Ashton. And causing chaos with actual people, whether
you know them or not, is even more fun. It’s one thing to steal a plane and crash
it into a digital pedestrian. It’s another to crash it into a digital
pedestrian controlled by another human being who doesn’t realize just how difficult you
are about to make his plans for the evening. Grand Theft Auto Online has been updated consistently
since release, with new types of missions, a team-based heist mechanic, casinos, new
areas of the map, and, honestly, more things than we could possibly cover here. Whenever you last played the game, the odds
are good that you could pop in again and enjoy entirely new content for days on end. Rockstar has provided even more support for
this game than they did for Red Dead Online! Not that that would be difficult. I’m not sure Rockstar remembers they made
Red Dead Online. #4: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
PlayStation 2 After Grand Theft Auto III took the action
into the glorious third dimension, Vice City proved not only that the series could keep
getting better, but that it could see regular releases as well, assuring fans that they
should never have to wait more than a few years between proper installments. ...and
that was certainly fun while it lasted. Vice City pulls more than a little inspiration
from 1983’s Scarface, and by that I mean Vice City adapts 1893’s Scarface, without
having to pay anyone. But what of the game itself? Well, it’s darn good, and we’re glad Rockstar
allowed it to become a full-length experience, rather than the optional expansion pack for
GTA III that it was originally planned to be. Career criminal Tommy Vercetti gets out of
prison and decides to put his illegal dealings behind him, opting instead for a life of quiet
comfort in a fictionalized version of Miami. I’m joking, of course; this is Grand Theft
Auto, baby. Tommy dives right back into dealing drugs,
ends up surviving an attempt on his life, and turns what could have been a simple quest
for revenge into a dedicated attempt to conquer the entire city. Say what you will about Tommy; when he sets
his goals, he follows through. GTA III was impressively dense for a PS2 game,
but Vice City outdoes it several times over. It seems to be a bit glitchier than GTA III
was, but “glitchy” by 2002 standards is “almost rock solid” by 2022 standards
so, hey, we’ll take it. Most of the problems in Vice City were inherited
from GTA III, such as its controls, its unclear navigation, and its lack of cover or other
options during gunplay. But it adds so much – such as the ability
to buy up businesses and complete dedicated missions for them to build your empire–
that we really can’t complain about some unfortunate quirks. Vice City was basically Grand Theft Auto III,
but with a better city, better missions, better characters, a better story, better acting,
better violence, and, most importantly, a better showcase for Hawaiian shirts. It’s rough by today’s standards, but it’s
also still a highlight of the series. #3: Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Upon release, Grand Theft Auto V was lavished
with praise. And, just looking at it, it’s easy to see
why. The game was and remains gorgeous. The map is huge. It’s packed with things to do. Superficially, it certainly seems to check
all the right boxes. However, as the years have passed, many players
and critics have soured on the game, its uneven writing, the fact that its story loses steam
as it progresses, and a shallowness that the previous, smaller games didn’t seem to suffer
from. Let’s be clear: It’s perfectly fine to
reassess games. Something that we enjoyed as kids may not
hold up today, and that’s okay. In this case, it might be something we enjoyed
in 2013. The fact that we enjoyed it then does not
mean that we can’t acknowledge its flaws today. Having said that, we do think that the “GTA
V is by far the worst one” crowd is probably exaggerating a bit. It’s a good game. It’s not the best one, but there’s a lot
to enjoy here, and it’s not Grand Theft Auto V’s fault that Rockstar hasn’t given
us anything to keep us from getting bored with it since. There are two main, major benefits that Grand
Theft Auto V has going for it. First, there’s the map, which is hugely
impressive and impressively huge. Taking a few minutes just to explore – and
maybe smash up some pedestrians and property along the way – reveals just how varied
and well-designed the environment is. Secondly, there’s the trio of protagonists:
Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. The writing isn’t consistently sharp, but
the performances certainly are. These feel like distinct and identifiable
characters with serious differences in their hopes, worries, and motivations. That’s notable, as is the fact that you
can switch between them at almost any time with very little delay, no matter where they
are on the map.You’ll even switch between them during the same mission at times, particularly
during the heists, which are by far the highlight of the entire game and add a real element
of tension and strategy to the chaos. It’s flawed, certainly, but we still think
it deserves a spot in the top three, alongside video game royalty such as... #2: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)
PlayStation 2 Are you disappointed that this wasn’t tied
with something else for #9? Or maybe a #9 LARGE? I certainly am, but it’s not my fault the
game deserves better. (Well, the non-remastered version of the game
deserves better.) In fact, it can be argued that San Andreas
ended up being more influential to the series than Grand Theft Auto III did. The fact that San Andreas actually has a full,
fleshed out narrative means that it provides a preview of an approach that would not only
pay dividends in this franchise, but in Rockstar’s other games, most notably Red Dead Redemption. Vice City certainly had a memorable protagonist,
but San Andreas has actual storytelling and characterization. Whether or not that’s important to you is,
well, up to you, but that elevates it significantly in our eyes. Vice City had a nice roster of big-name acting
talent, but San Andreas mops the floor with them, including the likes of David Cross,
Peter Fonda, Ice-T, Charlie Murphy, and – of course – Samuel L. Jackson, whose corrupt
Officer Tenpenny character has to be the greatest villain in the history of the series. His presence is downright...arresting. Also, James Woods is there. It’s less easy to get excited about James
Woods nowadays but hooray nonetheless. The game still, of course, shares many of
the same issues as its two mainline predecessors. Long missions that need to be restarted from
scratch when something goes wrong is probably the biggest problem, but it’s really not
so bad; all you have to do is follow the damn train, CJ. And San Andreas does attempt to iron out a
few of the longstanding wrinkles, such as by adding the ability to set custom waypoints. That’s an achievement with a map this big
on a system like the PS2. There are even minor RPG elements that let
you increase your skills. That’s not really necessary and the effect
sometimes seems negligible, but it’s a nice impulse. Even if you just play these games for the
sake of causing random trouble, the story’s power struggle between the various gangs makes
all of your actions feel a bit more meaningful. The theme of the game informs how we perceive
the action, making CJ feel more like a man pushing back against the world around him
than a video game character shooting other video game characters. That’s refreshing to see. And, in our eyes, GTA San Andreas was only
outdone the once. #1: Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 There were quite a few games in the series
released between Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto IV, but the desire for a
new, numbered game was still enormous. How enormous? 3.6 million units sold on day one. 8.5 million units sold in a month. More than 25 million units in lifetime sales. That enormous. Grand Theft Auto IV was a sensation, and if
you were around in 2008, you no doubt remember the enormous marketing push behind the game. If you were not around in 2008, well...you
probably shouldn’t have watched a video about these games. Sorry about that. You are Niko Bellic, a firm contender for
the most iconic protagonist in the series. Your cousin Roman is, according to him, living
the American Dream in Liberty City. That’s... debatable, but he still gives
Niko a place to crash when he emigrates from Yugoslavia to seek some totally healthy revenge. You help Roman out of his troubles as you
help yourself right into fresh new troubles of your own. It’s an appropriately dark story that would
probably tip into unbearable cynicism if it weren’t for how fun it actually is. It takes everything that made the previous
3D games great and amplifies it all masterfully. So much so that it’s tough to play Grand
Theft Auto IV and not come away impressed by just how much it took a winning formula
and moved it further. Setting the action again in Liberty City really
helps to show how much more Rockstar was able to achieve here. There’s more traffic on the streets, more
detail on each of the buildings, more characters to encounter, more mission variety, fewer
loading screens, cleaner action... everything just feels right, and once you
play GTA IV, with its refinements and additions, it’s tough to go back to the earlier games. With a series like this one, no one installment
can make everybody happy. Features come and go, without any one game
including everything that fans have loved. If you preferred the games in which you could
purchase more properties or which had more options for customization, you might feel
like GTA IV takes a step back. That’s okay. But when everything else is so strong – when
just about every element of the game’s design, tone, story, and mechanics come together to
provide an experience that is this compelling and memorable, well, it’s not really worth
focusing on what’s missing. Focus on what’s here. When you do, it’s tough to argue that the
series ever got better.
