Starting back in 1998, Grand Theft Auto has become one of the biggest, most successful, and most controversial video game franchises of all time. These open-world action games mix crime, comedy, combat, and cars into some of the most exciting digital sandboxes ever created. Add in some classic radio stations and iconic missions to the mix and you have a recipe for greatness.
But no GTA game, not even your favourite one, is perfect. So, here are the best and worst parts of every Grand Theft Auto game ever released in order of release. Oh and if you are curious about which game is the best overall, check out our recently updated list ranking every game in the series.
Grand Theft Auto (Original Release: PC & PS1, 1998)
Best: Creating The Formula: While the original Grand Theft Auto is easily the most basic and primitive of the series, it did essentially create the blueprint for which all the future GTA entries would follow: Completing missions (if you want to) in an open world that unlock more missions and new areas. That’s still the formula used by GTA and other open-world games to this day. And GTA had it right out of the gate.
Worst: Small Worlds, Bad Missions: The worlds in Grand Theft Auto are pretty small and not super fun to explore compared to the larger cities that will appear in future games. And the missions can be very tricky for new players.
GTA London 1969/1961 (Original Release: PC & PS1, 1999)
Best: Leaving The US: This was the first time Grand Theft Auto left the United States behind and as of 2023, it is also the only time the franchise has ever done this. Getting to explore London in the 60s in a GTA game is cool and I’d love to see a future GTA or spin-off re-visit Europe.
Worst: All Of GTA 1’s Problems: London 1969/1961 shares a lot of the same problems as the original game because it was just a mission pack for that first entry. So if you didn’t like the original GTA’s gameplay, this is just more of that but in London.
Grand Theft Auto 2 (Original Release: PC & PS1, 1999)
Best: GTA 1, But Better!: In nearly every way, this game improves on Grand Theft Auto, with better graphics, gameplay, missions, and driving.
Worst: A Bit Too Weird: GTA 2’s more zany and wacky world — like having Hare Krishna members fighting the Russian Mafia in a turf war — feels out of place compared to what had come before it and what would follow. Personally, I don’t hate it, but it does at times make it harder to feel immersed in the open-world action, which is one of the best parts of any Rockstar game.
Grand Theft Auto III (Original Release: 2001, PS2)
Best: Improving The Formula: If the first game created the basic blueprint for open-world action games, Grand Theft Auto III improved it, adding side content, more missions, and a larger, more cohesive open world to explore. Even 22 years later, you can still find brand-new, open-world video games that are essentially just doing the same thing Grand Theft Auto III did back in 2001: create a sandbox, and let you loose in it.
Worst: The Radio Stations: I may get some nasty replies for this, but I hate the GTA III radio stations. There are a few memorable songs, like “Rush, Rush” and “She’s On Fire”, but so much of the music is forgettable and it all feels random. Later games would feature incredible radio stations that felt perfectly suited for the game and world. This time though, eh…
Grand Theft Auto Vice City (Original Release: 2002, PS2)
Best: New Toys: It’s hard to choose one thing that I’d call the best part of Vice City, the GTA game that brought the series to Florida and the 80s, but if I have to (Editor’s note: You do.) then I’d pick the introduction of more vehicles to the sandbox. In Vice City, you could fly in planes and helicopters, drive scooters, golf carts, dirt bikes, various boats, and even pilot remote-controlled helicopters, too. All of this made Vice City a more fun playground to tinker with between missions.
Worst: Crappy Combat: The annoying, crappy combat. While it’s mostly unchanged from GTA III, it stands out in Vice City more because everything else — like the improved visuals, larger map, and better cutscenes — is so much better this time around. And Vice City has a ton of combat in it, making it even harder to ignore just how clunky and bad it is.
Grand Theft Auto: Advance (Original Release: Gameboy Advance, 2004)
Best: GTA In Your Pocket: A portable Grand Theft Auto! Wow! Sure, today that’s nothing special. You can play classic GTA games on mobile phones now. But in 2004, it was pretty cool. And it was also neat to get a GTA III prequel, even if there is barely any story in this Gameboy spin-off.
Worst: Everything: It turns out that porting a large open-world game is hard to do on the limited hardware of a Gameboy Advance. So this entry of the series feels tiny, plays like crap and looks bad.
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (Original Release: PS2, 2004)
Best: So Damn Big: Being able to explore a full state with multiple cities on a PS2 seemed impossible, even when I was playing it. And yes, San Andreas might have large empty areas, but I still think those areas, like the Bone County desert or Mount Chiliad, were great. These locales were offering players a world that wasn’t always filled with things to do or see, something that helped create a better ambiance. Sometimes you just want to cruise down an empty desert highway listening to K-DST.
Worst: Stealth: It worked, but it wasn’t much fun. I get the desire to shake things up, but creeping around in shadows to avoid guards ain’t what I want out of Grand Theft Auto.
GTA: Liberty City Stories (Original Release: 2005, PSP)
Best: GTA In Your Pocket (But Its Good This Time): Liberty City Stories blew my mind back in the day. Cramming all of GTA III’s version of Liberty City into a PSP game was amazing. And unlike GTA Advance, this was a good, fun-to-play portable prequel to GTA III. Though, the PS2 port is better if you want to revisit this spin-off.
Worst: A Step Back: Liberty City Stories feels very barebones and stripped down compared to the previous games. You can’t swim, crouch, fly planes, or customise your character much. After the series had expanded so much over the previous entries, LCS was a tad disappointing to longtime fans of the franchise.
GTA Vice City Stories (Original Release: 2006, PSP)
Best: The Music: Vice City Stories thankfully brought back many of the things missing in LCS, like more fun vehicles and guns. And that’s nice! But more importantly, Rockstar remembered that people adored Vice City’s 80s-focused radio stations and made sure to include similarly great songs in VCS. Not only that, but Phil Collins actually performs in-game.
Worst: Ageing Engine: This was the last 3D-era GTA game released that was built using tech that was first developed for the PS2. And while Rockstar did a solid job improving its tech over the years, it doesn’t change that by 2006, this engine paired with the GTA framework was starting to feel old, outdated, and creaky.
Grand Theft Auto IV (Original Release: 2008, PS3 and Xbox 360)
Best: Next-Gen GTA: The leap from GTA on the PS2 to GTA IV on Xbox 360 and PS3 was monumental. Rockstar’s worlds never looked better and it was just a visual upgrade, either. Now combat was more enjoyable, driving felt more realistic and cutscenes featured better acting, too.
Worst: Wait, Where Did All The Fun Toys Go?: Probably as a result of the leap to new consoles, GTA IV feels stripped down compared to previous games. There are no planes, no jetpacks, parachutes, RPG-like mechanics, or even tanks. While later DLC would fix some of this, at launch it was sad to see all that cool stuff missing. But hey, at least the main character Nico Bellic could swim!
GTA Chinatown Wars (Original Release: 2009, Nintendo DS)
Best: Selling Drugs: Yes, I know it’s weird to praise the ability to buy and sell drugs, never mind posing it as the highlight of an entire game. But like…it’s really good. Seriously, I had so much fun selling drugs around Liberty City in this top-down prequel to GTA IV. Having to drive around the city, finding the lowest prices on meth, and then trying to get across town to sell where demand was highest, was a blast. And you never knew if a deal was real or a police ambush, making every successful deal that much sweeter.
Worst: The DS Version: Today, it’s easy to play Chinatown Wars on iOS or Android and it looks great, featuring more music and HD visuals. But back at launch, it was only on the Nintendo DS and it wasn’t nearly as good due to hardware limitations. This first version had fewer songs, and blurrier graphics and didn’t run great at times. Later ports fix all of this and add more content.
Grand Theft Auto Episodes From Liberty City (Original Release: 2009, Xbox 360)
Best: Yay, The Fun Stuff Is Back: GTA IV is often cited as “The Grim And Dark One” which isn’t entirely inaccurate, as it did feature drab visuals, somber story beats, and serious dialogue. Thankfully, the two DLC expansions released for it later on added back some fun stuff, like a tank, parachutes, and powerful weapons. It ain’t quite GTA San Andreas, but still a good improvement.
Worst: The Biker DLC: It’s not that the Lost And The Damned DLC is awful, but compared to The Ballad of Gay Tony, it’s just mostly forgettable and more gritty and dark content for a game that didn’t really need any more of that.
Grand Theft Auto V/ GTA Online (Original Release: 2013, Xbox 360 & PS3)
Best: Grand Theft Auto Online: While it launched in a rough state and took a few years to fully become a thing worth playing, GTA Online ended up being GTA V’s secret weapon: A big, always-expanding online GTA spin-off that has hooked millions of players for years.
Worst: Grand Theft Auto Online: On the other hand, boy it’s a bummer that GTA Online has seemed to completely stalled the franchise. We used to get a new GTA game or spin-off every two or three years. Now, we’ve gone a decade without anything but some crappy remasters. Worse, GTA Online is starting to feel really old, and exploring the same city and map for a decade is not much fun. We need GTA VI, something to help revitalize the series, but that highly-anticipated game still seems years away…
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