From its humble top-down beginnings to being one of the highest-selling video game franchises ever, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) has continually pushed the boundaries of how immersive open-world games can get. Each entry resonated with me, whether through groundbreaking mechanics, unforgettable characters, or satirical jabs in contemporary culture. Despite agreeing that every GTA game played a role in shaping the franchise into the juggernaut it is today, we can’t deny that some have aged better than others.
So, I'm ranking every standalone GTA release that wasn’t exclusive to handheld devices. Consequently, this list excludes GTA: London mission packs, GTA: Advance, and GTA: Chinatown Wars. Without further ado, let’s begin.
12 classic console games that deserve the PC treatment
These console games all deserve remastering for the PC
12 Grand Theft Auto
The humble beginnings
- Platform: MS-DOS, Windows, PlayStation, Game Boy Color
First pitched as Race ’n’ Chase, Grand Theft Auto was originally an open-world game where you roleplay as either a cop or a crook. Instead, the game dropped the law portion and focused on the criminal aspect, becoming GTA. On its own, it’s a solid game. However, compared to its successors, it’s safe to say the series has only gotten better.
Returning to GTA feels like rediscovering ancient scrolls depicting an earlier rendition of something still relevant. Yes, the top-down perspective and the relatively janky controls may not translate well to a contemporary audience. Despite that, you can’t deny the gravity of its influence on its successors. This game introduced settings for future games, including Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas. Additionally, with the colorful aesthetic, satirical writing, and shameless approach, Grand Theft Auto laid the perfect groundwork for all subsequent GTA games.
11 Grand Theft Auto 2
One of the more distant GTAs
- Platform: Windows, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color
After two mission packs for the first game set in 60s London — probably the last time we’ll see that setting — Grand Theft Auto 2 was finally released. On a superficial level, this game was justified as a general overhaul over the first game, but not much of a crazy jump. It’s a successor but not a direct sequel. It doesn’t bring back any familiar cities; instead, it continues the unorthodox setting streak by featuring Anywhere City.
Many quality-of-life improvements and features were brought into Grand Theft Auto 2, and they became a staple of the series. For instance, at some point in history, your progress in the game went into a sinkhole at the end of your session since it only saved the chapter you're in. The introduction of saving points remedied this problem. The controls improved. The real highlight of technical improvements is the camera, which was a source of general discomfort and uncertainty when following the player while driving.
10 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
It's alright
- Platform: PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, iOS, Android, Fire OS
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was the first of two 3D prequels developed for the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 2. You can technically play it on the PC, but you’d need to look into emulation. The game follows the story of Tony Cipriani, a minor character who gave you a couple of missions in GTA 3. While the series has always featured mafia-affiliated characters, it always felt like it was dipping one foot in that aspect. This aspect is the one that Liberty City Stories fully decided to embrace, being a full-on mafia game.
The story, however, is less memorable than other GTA games. Tony is, unfortunately, among the most forgettable GTA protagonists as well. The overall aesthetic is less gritty and seems alien and somewhat inauthentic to what we saw in GTA 3. The gameplay felt like a significant regression, which is particularly weird knowing this game was developed and released after GTA: San Andreas, so why can’t I swim or at least jump over ledges?
9 Grand Theft Auto 3
Now that's a real start!
- Platform: Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Fire OS
Released in 2001, Grand Theft Auto 3 marks not only a technical revolution in the franchise, but also a creative leap. From the unmistakable box art to the iconic typeface, most of the iconography we associate with GTA comes from this game — this is where the series truly kicked off. Although the weakest of the trilogy, the third installation still stands and provides a good, albeit dated, GTA experience.
Driving can be a little annoying, since cars are really fragile, and gunplay isn't as satisfying compared to later entries. However, the missions are a ton of fun to play, especially with its open sandbox nature that's noticeably lacking in modern releases from Rockstar Games. Claude, the protagonist, is a static character and doesn't utter a single word or barely a sound. Yet, he is one of my favorite protagonists in any GTA game. Finally, this game's Liberty City does a great job of feeling bigger than it is.
8 Grand Theft Auto: Online
Right in the middle
- Platform: Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
In 2013, Rockstar saw a logical next step in an online mode that promised more support than GTA 4's barren multiplayer; this was Grand Theft Auto: Online. It was released shortly after GTA 5. Unsurprisingly, it received a standalone treatment even though you need GTA 5 to play it, with the only exception being on the ninth generation of consoles, where you can buy it independently.
I have an absurd amount of hours put into this game on the PlayStation 4 and PC. My experience would range — and often quickly alternate — between downright awful and pretty great. Thanks to the horrid anti-cheat system, the game is seldom playable in a PC public session. The economy is unimaginably absurd in this game. This absurdity is made worse by most missions being insufficiently rewarding. So, the game incentivizes you to repeat the same small set of activities instead of hundreds of hours of potentially more fun content.
The adversary modes and stunt races are brilliantly entertaining, and it's a shame Rockstar keeps stripping them of content and rarely provides good rewards for playing them. Overall, it's some of the best times you'll have in an online sandbox when you're purely playing it for fun, preferably with your friends.
7 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
On the greater side
- Platform: PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2
Yet another prequel to the classic GTA trilogy, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, this time, the plot centers on Victor Vance. He’s a minor character who appears briefly in a cutscene of a drug deal at the beginning of Vice City. While his first appearance did him dirty, this prequel gave him a strong backstory nobody knew they needed.
Beginning as an army man and slowly devolving into building a crime empire is an arc that we haven’t seen in any GTA game (except maybe the fourth), and it’s one that I welcome. Speaking of criminal empires, the empire-building mechanic is a good mix of the gang wars feature and property-ownership features in GTA: San Andreas and it’s one that I hope will return to GTA 6. The map stayed mostly the same with the groundbreaking addition of swimming, which was confusing why it was left out from Vice City when it features a coastal environment.
The game is technically smoother than Liberty City Stories — hell, someone got it to run 60 FPS on a Galaxy Watch. There were a few missions that I found irritating. Although similar missions exist in higher-ranking entries, their frequency impacts Vice City Stories more due to its shorter length. Rockstar can keep all the missions that require me to control a forklift, man a crane, or eliminate enemies in a narrow time frame. I’m fine without them.
6 Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned
The Lost could go to Tahiti
- Platform: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
While GTA 4 was still in development, Rockstar had already planned for the game’s story to have two expansions as standalone DLC titled Episodes from Liberty City. Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and the Damned is the first game to release. It tells the tale of Johnny Klebitz, de facto leader of The Lost biker gang, and a minor character featured in a couple of missions in the base game.
Rockstar planning this DLC saved them from retconning these stories awkwardly, unlike in LCS and VCS, where the status of being unplanned prequels limited these protagonists’ potential. Johnny is a well-rounded character, and although I prefer Niko, he undeniably earns a spot among the better GTA protagonists. Since The Lost and Damned was released relatively close to the base game, there wasn’t much room for significant gameplay overhauls. However, this game brings back a version of the gang wars feature where you can initiate hostilities with rivaling gangs around Liberty City over territory.
No part of The Lost and Damned feels undercooked or thematically inconsistent with GTA 4. The story, while connected to its predecessor, does very well. Nonetheless, the biker gang vibe didn’t resonate with me, but that’s just a matter of taste. Put in a place where I have to choose between The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, well…
5 Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Liberty City can have some fun, too
- Platform: Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony is the second expansion in the EFLC pack, and it was released shortly after The Lost and Damned. The game begins with Luis Lopez witnessing a bank heist executed by Niko and his crew, one of the most iconic GTA 4 missions. Luis works as a bodyguard for the titular Gay Tony Prince, who manages a nightclub business in Liberty City.
The story is riddled with instantly iconic characters despite its relatively short length. Relative to other entries on this list, The Ballad of Gay Tony’s scope is rather limited, but this only proved it more focused than other titles in the franchise. While GTA 4 and The Lost and Damned are grittier iterations, The Ballad of Gay Tony represents the colorful underground night world of Liberty City — something this city has been lacking ever since its introduction.
Aside from mini-games like golfing, drinking, and dancing, along with a few new cars, The Ballad of Gay Tony doesn’t revolutionize GTA 4’s gameplay. It brought back parachutes, which were noticeably absent from the base game, but the aerial gameplay wasn’t prioritized in these games due to the map size. What makes it for me, however, is that its glamour reminds me of the next entry.
4 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
An extravaganza of a video game
- Platform: Windows, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Fire OS
Originally conceptualized as an expansion pack, GTA fashioned itself a sky blue shirt and moved to Vice City. It's a nice change-up from the gritty black jacket of GTA 3. Vice City was released merely a year after its predecessor, which is an achievement considering this game's ambition.
Tommy Vercitti, the protagonist, is a criminal with mafia ties. The story follows his release from incarceration. Vice City bolsters a star-studded cast, including the late Ray Liotta as Tommy himself. This cast was a big step up, considering the protagonist wasn't voiced in the previous game. If it wasn't apparent from the voice acting alone, missions took a more cinematic approach, resulting from direct inspiration from mafia and crime movies like Scarface and Goodfellas.
Moreover, if the movie inspiration wasn't clear enough from the mission design, Tommy's mansion in Starfish Island is a direct tribute to Tony Montana's iconic mansion from Scarface. The gameplay received enough of an overhaul over GTA 3 to minimize its most infuriating elements. It even provided a more meaningful motive for the player to move forward with the property-ownership feature that, although non-linear, was integral to progress in the main story. I'm torn between describing the missions as absurd or deranged, but whatever adjective, the undertone is positive.
The map is engraved in my mind, and I fail to forget it no matter how long I abstain from playing it. The setting is further enhanced with the exemplary selection of songs for the radio, piecing together what is inarguably the most extravagant soundtrack in any GTA. Overall, GTA: Vice City is a love letter to the culture of the era it depicts, covering its virtues and vices, but mostly vices.
3 Grand Theft Auto 5
An impressive technical feat that could've been better
- Platform: Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Do I need to introduce the second most-selling video game of all time? Grand Theft Auto 5 was a groundbreaking sensation that picked the mantle of success for the franchise and took it to new heights. We need to recognize that it’s not easy to be a technical triumph when the series’ past two main entries were known to be revolutionary for their time.
My biggest issue with GTA 5 is that it could’ve been more if it wasn’t so dialed back to run decently on the seventh generation of consoles. Despite the reasonable level of detail, it rendered the vast HD San Andreas empty for two-thirds of its space. Looking at a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 only gives you a glimpse of how far GTA 5 could’ve stretched its arms. While it deals with the typical themes of GTA, its story is unusual, featuring three playable protagonists: Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips, and Franklin Clinton.
Each character has a highly engaging story with some of the best performances in the entire series, taking inspiration from Michael Mann’s Heat. While more grounded than previous iterations, the missions still border on insanity at times. It’s worth noting that GTA 5 further restricted player agency in the mission design to give up the old sandbox feel for a movie-like experience.
The gameplay is as robust as it ever got in a GTA game, with multiple varying activities that you’re unlikely to do unless you’re a completionist — I doubt many of you realize there’s a darts mini-game in there. Many features were fully realized, while some others were completely forgotten. Nevertheless, I would argue that San Andreas saw a more ambitious depiction in one of its predecessors.