Grand Theft Auto Games From Worst To Best

Grand Theft Auto 6 is a game that many of you are eagerly awaiting. The title took its sweet time to get announced, but now that it’s definitively coming, we can be excited about what it might bring. So, what better time to look back at the franchise and see how far Rockstar Games has come with it? Of course, no list is perfect, and your opinion will likely heavily differ from ours in some ways.

Grand Theft Auto

Typically, the beginning of a franchise starts off huge and then goes from there. But, in fact, that didn’t happen with Grand Theft Auto. Or, at least, not in the way you think. You see, long before it was 3D and had a third-person view, the original GTA had a top-down style and a much different mission structure.

To that end, the game wasn’t given the best reviews and was criticized for many elements. However, the gameplay was enough to get good sales, and that allowed things to continue.

Grand Theft Auto 2

Sadly, things get a little dicey here, as Grand Theft Auto 2 was another title that had rather dreadful reviews, including an incredibly low score on some of its ports to handhelds.

You can really tell that this was the point where Rockstar knew they needed to elevate their game in the literal and metaphorical sense. They’d get the chance; they just needed to wait for some new tech to happen.

Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 & London 1961

I’m lumping these two together because they’re basically the same thing, just with an eight-year time difference. In fact, these were hailed as “expansions,” but they were more like mission packs than anything else.

The only thing that really got praised from these “expansions” was the 1960s music. Glad they got one thing right, at least!

Grand Theft Auto Advance

If you were to guess one platform maker that GTA would never be on, you’d say Nintendo, right? But there were actually two games from the franchise on Nintendo systems, starting with Grand Theft Auto Advance. Yep, they made one of these games for the GBA! And…it was pretty mid.

It was another top-down title, but one that tried to embrace some newer elements. It felt like a half-hearted attempt at times, and that’s why it’s near the bottom of my list.

Grand Theft Auto 3

If you wish to know what was the title that took GTA from a “meh” franchise to a legendary one, it was Grand Theft Auto 3. This was when Rockstar Games took it out of the top-down setting, put it in a 3D open-world-type area, and then let the fun and violence flow.

This game was the best-selling title in 2001 and was so beloved that Rockstar started cranking out spinoffs and other entries to capitalize on the greatness they had created.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

Yes, I know the game was a bug-ridden mess at the start of its life, okay? But it got better! And half the point of the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition was to give players a chance to play the original titles in a better way than they could before.

To that end, the games were praised when you looked outside of the bugs and the launcher that kept ruining things. So let’s look at this in a “glass half-full” kind of way, okay?

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was on the Nintendo DS and was a timed exclusive for the best-selling hardware back in 2009. But don’t worry, this one was actually good this go around.

It took things back to the series’ roots via the top-down style but also embraced everything the series had done since going 3D. The game was so good that it not only got ported to other platforms to increase sales, but it managed to score some pretty high ratings with critics.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Rockstar knew that they had the ability to push their prized series to other platforms and decided to do that with the PlayStation Portable back in 2005 via Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, which is a prequel of sorts to GTA III.

The game was praised at launch and sold over 8 million units on the PSP! That was a big deal, and it became the best-selling title on that platform.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

I showed you one side of the coin before, so why not jump to the other, huh? Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was another PSP title meant to help flesh out the franchise even more. It was a prequel to the original Vice City title that I’ll focus on later.

Overall? It was a solid game. The only real problem was with the PS2 port because they didn’t fix anything and just decided to sidestep it over. Not clever, Rockstar.

Grand Theft Auto IV

You might think a series like GTA wouldn’t get many awards or praise due to its controversial nature, but that’s a lie. Grand Theft Auto IV proved that in spades by not only setting sales records upon release but also getting numerous Game of the Year Awards, and it’s not the only game on this list that got that accolade.

What helped set this game apart was the more original styling and visuals. This was meant to be a grittier story set within the fictional Liberty City, and it worked. This game set a tone that Rockstar has continued to build up. It even scored some DLC which we’ll also showcase.

Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned

Typically, the GTA franchise didn’t do DLC; they did spinoffs. But with Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned, they decided to expand off what the original story did and focus on a motorcycle gang and all the problems that came with it.

With new characters, stories, and issues to deal with, people really resonated with this. Plus, it tied into the main story of GTA IV, making it even better.

Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony

What? I mentioned the first DLC; I need to mention the second! Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony was the last DLC for GTA IV and tied up many of the loose ends that the main game and first DLC brought while also introducing the unique character of Gay Tony.

He was as advertised, a gay nightclub owner and social magnate, and you played the bodyguard that tried to keep him alive.

The DLC was fun, and many people loved the character of Gay Tony, and that’s why the DLC got awards as both gaming content and for the Gay Tony character.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

It’s ironic that I talk about Grand Theft Auto: Vice City so highly on this list when GTA 6 will make a triumphant return to the city next year…hopefully.

So what makes Grand Theft Auto: Vice City so great a game? Just about everything, honestly. This was a unique and full-on impersonation of what Miami was back in the 1980s. It took references from things like Miami Vice and even Scarface to help people feel like they were truly invested in all that went on in it.

The game was so good that it got Game of the Year awards, and is still praised for its epic 80s-style soundtrack.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Look, there’s no way around it; sometimes, a game can be better when it’s controversial and doesn’t try to hide it. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is widely considered not only one of the best games of its gaming period but one of the best games ever.

One of the biggest reasons for this was that the open-world elements were incredible, as you had three different cities to have fun in and do whatever you wanted. The game was fun and revolutionary for its period.

Sure, it had controversy, but that’s just what made people want to play it more!

Grand Theft Auto V

Come on, what else could I have put here? This is the second-best-selling video game of all time! It just recently crossed 200 million units sold, and I’m still not sure how that happened! Seriously, this game on its own was great, but then Rockstar Games threw in the online mode, and everything got even better.

Grand Theft Auto V followed three very unique protagonists in the main game, and that was a fun ride. But with GTA Online, everything was open to you, so you could do just about anything you wanted, both alone and with friends.

This is the series’ peak, and GTA 6 has a lot of ground to cover should it want to match this game’s greatness.