All GTA Games Ranked From Worst To Best

GTA San Andreas

With news of Grand Theft Auto 6 just around the corner, what better time to argue over which of the GTA games is best? None. The time is now.

Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto has become one of the biggest franchises in games, known for creating massive living cities, sandboxes for players to run wild and recreate their violent and excessive dreams. Coupled with a desire to reflect contemporary pop culture and tell a damn fine story of crime and corruption, they've pushed video games to be the most credible and legitimate 21st Century entertainment.

Also, punching someone in the face and jacking their car never gets old. So here it is, the definitive list of the best GTA games ever made.

Grand Theft Auto

The original works now as a curiosity, a flatplan of what Rockstar had always intended to do while they were busy waiting for the technology to catch up. This top down shooting and driving game for the PC has familiar elements - car-jacking, causing mayhem and escaping the law - all of which became the foundations of Grand Theft Auto as a franchise. Shortly after, Rockstar added expansion pack GTA London 1969, highlighting its UK ambitions and influences, adding the cockney crime and grime skin to an already successful cops and robbers game.

Grand Theft Auto 2

The last of the top-down mainline games, Grand Theft Auto 2 did little to differentiate it from the first game, apart from adding a multiplayer mode. With maps built specifically for six players, it showed Rockstar toying with a few different ideas, but clearly the developer had come to the point where it would move on from 2D and fully embrace the opportunities of 3D games.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

This prequel to GTA 3 was set in the same location, but with a new protagonist and storyline. Released for Sony’s defunct handheld console the PlayStation Portable, it’s more of a hardware showcase than anything else - but still a decent 3D action game on a tiny screen. You can hear the disc spinning faster than a car-jacked V8 Ghost when it’s being put through its paces, and if you ever find a copy in a second hand shop it’s worth picking up.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Chinatown Wars is another GTA game designed specifically for handheld consoles. In this case it was for the Nintendo DS, but later ported over to the PSP. Again set in Liberty City, Chinatown Wars opted for a cel-shaded look which really makes it stand out, and it even goes back to the top-down view. Those two choices alone make GTA Chinatown Wars a distinctive spin-off that holds up well, a kind of homage to old Rockstar.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Another portable handheld release, but this one also ended up on the PlayStation 2. A prequel to Vice City, Vice City Stories really felt like filler despite being a decent GTA game. It looked nice on a handheld, and we never tire of Vice City, but it didn’t bring anything new. It just kept us entertained while we waited patiently for GTA 4.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

This was the big one. Rockstar really nailed the use of movie and pop culture influences, and broke its silence by finally giving the main protagonist a voice - none other than Ray Liotta. If that wasn’t clear intent, Vice city is a homage to 1980s excess, gangster movies, and TV shows like Miami Vice. Vice City is a world of bikinis and cocaine, sports cars and sunshine, backstabbing and high-rolling. Radio stations and a massive soundtrack finally fulfilled the developer’s musical ambitions too, helping it really reflect and capture a specific era - something it would repeat with San Andreas.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Rockstar pulled out all the stops for a truly massive open world experience with GTA San Andreas. At the time there was nothing else like it, with protagonist CJ making his way through the mean streets, playing off different factions, spilling hot coffee, and being free to partake in multiple activities regardless of them being related to the main missions or not.

Some of the experimentation in San Andreas didn’t stick (exercise and diet sims were a misfire), but it probably helped reign in the developer’s excess ahead of its move to the next generation consoles. With a stunning soundtrack and true freedom, it marks the point where Rockstar realises it can really create a living city, before running with that further for the sequel…

Grand Theft Auto 4

…And boy, what a sequel. Rockstar took us to New York’s Liberty City, expanded on it, and let your gameplay influence the direction the storyline took. More downbeat than any other GTA, and with a visual style that carried a more realistic edge, GTA 4 was the series’ growing up under a heavy noir-ish atmosphere. And a much-needed cover system and auto-aim finally cleared up the clumsy gunplay of previous games. Rockstar doesn’t do expansions anymore, but it released two excellent updates for GTA 4 with The Lost And The Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, highlighting storytelling ambitions and a desire to continue to improve the game once it was released.

Grand Theft Auto 3

The last mainline GTA to feature a silent protagonist, GTA 3’s Claude goes on an increasingly violent revenge mission in Liberty City. GTA 3 is the one that really pushed the series into notorious territory, going all out with violence, sex, prostitution, language, and drug use that video games had rarely experienced so completely. That overshadows the achievements of a game that spawned a thousand imitators, but GTA 3 is the template all other GTAs have been built from.

Grand Theft Auto Online

The online version of Grand Theft Auto is a magnificent sandbox that allows players to do their own thing way beyond the regular storytelling. Online modes are usually limited to a handful of activities, but GTA Online caters to all.

If you’re just into cars, go ahead and collect them, meeting up on a Sunday evening with fellow players to show them off. If you’re looking for high-octane thrills, plan and execute the Heists. Buy a yacht and fit it out with homing rockets. Or a mansion, where you can hit the bong, and cruise the streets listening to a banging soundtrack. Pick up a camera and explore Los Santos, joining the vibrant photography community - there’s just as many mellow role-playing opportunities as there is aggressive or competitive play. In short, GTA Online has it all, and allows you to dip in and out of different styles of play at your own pace. It still looks stunning too, and has continued support from Rockstar, making it the essential Grand Theft Auto community experience.

Grand Theft Auto 5

Released ten years ago, Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best GTA game there is. Having proven it can create a living city, Rockstar went ahead and created the whole state of San Andreas. It tripled up on the protagonists too, giving players three main characters to switch between - retired gangster Michael, street hustler Franklin and psycho gunrunner Trevor. All three offer different rides through the heist life, letting you switch between them as they bat away the corrupt world of American law enforcement and grab that paper. The scale is immense, the story missions hilarious and thrilling, the world a joy to explore. If GTA 6 repeats the achievements of GTA 5, we’re in for something very special indeed.