10. Manhunt

For a studio that’s no stranger to inflicting controversy as a result of contents of its video games, arguably none of Rockstar’s adverse press surrounding GTA has come near the furore that adopted Manhunt. A stealth-action horror recreation by which you play as a demise row inmate pressured into partaking in a sequence of snuff movies for the disembodied voice of a pre-Succession Brian Cox, it possibly shouldn’t have been a shock that it garnered horrified reactions from the mainstream media, leading to it being banned in a number of international locations.

However the controversy solely tells half of the story, as a result of Manhunt is an efficient recreation, and a singular one in Rockstar’s library (though we don’t speak about its inferior sequel). A disturbing satire of the USA’s fascination with violence, it is undeniably gnarly, however well psychological in its method. Linear hallways create a really particular type of stress that so most of the studio’s different works merely can’t as a consequence of their open-world nature. The result’s tight, targeted, and brutal motion that works to horrifying impact. Properly over 20 years outdated now, Manhunt has caught lengthy within the reminiscence… though possibly that’s principally as a consequence of how its stark field artwork staring out from retailer cabinets scared absolutely the crap out of me as a baby.

9. GTA 3

Only a few video games have charted the way forward for recreation growth fairly like Grand Theft Auto 3. The open world of Liberty Metropolis performs host to a twisting story of gang warfare, drug operating, and betrayal within the sequence’ first 3D entry. To say it broke new floor is an understatement, and the extra dimension and shift to a street-level digital camera is barely the beginning of it. The PlayStation 2 had seen nothing of the like by way of an immersive metropolis sandbox stuffed with alternative. Its bounty of facet missions and minigames blended with a important story that allowed for Rockstar to flex its storytelling chops like by no means earlier than, telling the story of Claude’s seek for the reality by way of a cinematic lens and an all-star solid to match the story’s mob movie-inspired ambition (The Sopranos alumni Frank Vincent and Joe Pantoliano included).

GTA 3’s slice of fictional New York might appear to be a small map to wander round in as of late, however steadily unlocking its three islands, every with its personal East Coast flavouring, felt like a miracle on the time. Sure, the repetitive, simplistic mission design and less-than-desirable car dealing with might not have aged something near gracefully since its 2001 launch, however an attractive story and compelling (if archetypal) characters are nonetheless there to be seen. It’s nonetheless value taking part in in the present day to see the place the roots of what GTA (and a dozen different open-world video games) sprouted from.

8. Bully

Bully has typically been described as “GTA, however in a college”, and to an extent, that’s precisely what it’s. By substituting shotguns for slingshots and muscle vehicles for go-karts, it hits the best spot for anybody seeking to wreak havoc at a non-public New England boarding college as an alternative of operating medicine throughout a fictional Miami or Los Angeles. The supply of that havoc is Jimmy Hopkins, a troubled 15-year-old with a historical past of instructional expulsions. Tasked with navigating a yr at Bullworth Academy, a wide range of classroom minigames, numerous clique quests, and hallway politics all serve to inform Bully’s story – one stuffed with teenage attraction and typical Rockstar social commentary.

Skating or biking across the academy and its suburban environment is a delight, with memorable landmarks like a vibrant funfair or the looming Glad Volts Asylum filling a large map that modifications temper with the seasons because the story unfolds. This world is the results of Rockstar adapting the GTA components for an unfamiliar, unconventional setting – look a little bit nearer, and also you’ll see well-worn mechanics twisted to suit college life (for instance, attending classes late dangers the fury of academics and prefects, which is Bully’s model of the Wished system).

Bully is admittedly a little bit janky to play in the present day, because of a less-than-robust digital camera and over-reliance on quicktime occasions, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a really enjoyable time. And possibly if we’re actually fortunate, when Rockstar is finished with GTA 6, we’ll get that sequel we’ve all wished for nearly 20 years now.

7. GTA 4

(*10*)

There’s a robust argument for Niko Bellic being the strongest of all of the GTA protagonists – one thing I’d possible agree with. Whether or not all of GTA 4 stands as tall round him is up for additional debate. 2008’s return to Liberty Metropolis took on the surprisingly bleak problems with the American Dream and what it means to be an immigrant within the fashionable Western world. It’s a narrative that delivers for essentially the most half, offering a stunning quantity of mature depth for a studio whose tales have traditionally been approached from a extra pulpy angle. The metropolis itself was a revelation for the time, packing a diversified quantity of detailed sights and sounds, even when in hindsight its visuals replicate the brown-grey blur that so many video games from the Xbox 360 period endure from.

It’s in goal design and common gameplay that GTA 4 is let down, although, which, for essentially the most half, is plenty of driving folks from A to B and assassinating single targets. Properly, apart from the improbable Three Leaf Clover financial institution heist mission, that’s, which might go on to encourage the central hook of GTA 5. There’s no denying the longevity of Niko as a personality, although, and the very actual, grounded struggles he battles all through his story. We actually perceive why he’d actually fairly go bowling along with his cousin…

6. GTA Vice Metropolis

There are few online game areas as iconic as Vice Metropolis. Its neon-drenched roads, soundtracked by an all-timer assortment of ‘80s hits, served because the setting for many individuals’s core recollections of the PS2. Rockstar’s time-traveling journey again to the Nineteen Eighties is anchored by protagonist Tommy Vercetti, performed fantastically by Goodfellas’ Ray Liotta. Launched solely a yr after the game-changing GTA 3, it’s exceptional how a lot of a step up Vice Metropolis achieved in simply 12 months, not simply in its star-studded solid and characterful storytelling, but additionally in the best way its design injected life into each nook of its proxy Miami.

A fascinating story full of Scarface parallels introduced with it a brand new sense of extra, which lent a blockbuster fashion to a sequence that was, in some ways, nonetheless discovering its ft. These early days are evident within the comparatively shonky controls and dated mission design – throughout the marketing campaign’s twilight hours, your makes an attempt to wrestle management of companies and stability money-making plates throughout the town don’t fairly assist the extra ballistic ambition of the story. That doesn’t take away from Vice Metropolis’s total attraction, although; it stays a landmark piece of Rockstar historical past. And we are able to’t wait to return to these seashores and golf equipment subsequent yr in GTA 6.

5. Max Payne 3

Rockstar determined to take Max Payne in-house for its third entry, having printed the primary two Treatment-developed video games. Maybe unsurprisingly, leaving Max’s Finnish creatives behind resulted in a wholly completely different tone, however one that’s equally as thrilling. Gone are the pulpy comedian guide panels, melodramatic monologues, and moonlit greys of neo-noir New York, changed by sensory overload because of blinding daylight, dancefloor bullet ballets, and a now-synonymous soundtrack composed by Well being. Constructing on the bullet-time foundations that propelled the sequence to success in a post-Matrix world, Max Payne 3 transports the tortured ex-NYPD officer to Brazil within the midst of a gritty gang struggle that results in a bigger conspiracy that’s bleaker than something Sam Lake would have cooked up.

The resolution to focus on societal ills displays the distinction between Rockstar and Treatment as builders – the previous is all the time keen to take swipes at nations and their ingrained home issues, whereas the latter appears to be like inwards for extra cerebral tales of particular person battle. Each are legitimate, and each work on this planet of Max Payne, which implies all three entries are improbable in their very own means. All of them share one factor in frequent, nonetheless: that unrivalled energy journey of triggering that bullet time, leaping backwards by way of the air, and raining twin Uzi fireplace down on anybody standing in your means. Scrumptious.

4. GTA San Andreas

If the bounce between GTA 3 and Vice Metropolis was massive, then the chasm between Vice Metropolis and San Andreas requires industrial equipment to measure. In simply two years, Rockstar had taken all of its earlier Grand Theft Auto learnings, plus a number of large swings, and blended all of them collectively to concoct its first model of California. This huge (at the very least by PS2 requirements) state is house to a number of cities that steadily unlock as you progress by way of its story. The street journey between them conveys an amazing sense of scale, as does the extremely diversified mission design and in depth solid of characters you meet throughout your tenures in every metropolis.

It isn’t simply the sheer measurement that’s spectacular, but additionally the gambles Rockstar took when it got here to gameplay. San Andreas options parts pilfered from the RPG and life-sim genres, permitting you to sculpt your character and customise their look, adjusting their physique relying on what number of weights you carry or Cluckin’ Bell buckets you feast on.

After which, in fact, there’s CJ himself, a protagonist who lives on past the meme that follows him like a shadow. Authentically delivered to life by rapper Younger Maylay, his story is one among redemption and survival that pits him in opposition to among the sequence’ most memorable adversaries, chief amongst them being Samuel L. Jackson’s despicable Officer Tenpenny. All of it comes collectively to make one among Rockstar’s best video games, and the most effective GTA of the PS2 period.

3. Crimson Lifeless Redemption

Rockstar had been displaying cinematic ambitions for a few years earlier than Crimson Lifeless Redemption’s arrival in 2010, so it was solely pure that it might at some point deal with some of the basically filmic of genres: the western. Taking heavy affect from the likes of The Wild Bunch, Crimson Lifeless’s cross-continent story of an outlaw coming to phrases with being the final of his sort takes fan-favourite John Marston to Mexico and again as he hunts down his former mentor, Dutch Van Der Linde. It’s a extra rural setting than we’d beforehand come to anticipate from a Rockstar open-world, permitting for these cinematic thrives to take maintain and current a powerful inventive achievement. Bustling metropolis streets made means for dusty canyons, and a surprising Woody Jackson rating stuffed the area as soon as dominated by fixed radio chatter.

Crimson Lifeless Redemption’s slower tempo permits for the story to play out elegantly, with Marston’s near-invisible foe hanging menacingly within the background, patiently awaiting their memorable snow-covered face-off. Then there’s the ending, which I’d by no means spoil right here for many who’ve by no means had an opportunity to witness it, however protected to say it is lived lengthy within the reminiscence as one among video video games’ most impactful finales within the 15 years since.

The street to that time is paved by some admittedly pretty routine mission design and plenty of horse driving, however there’s nonetheless sufficient character in its dead-eye capturing system and endlessly enjoyable minigames (liar’s cube, right here’s taking a look at you) to permit for Crimson Lifeless Redemption to age very gracefully. It lives on as one among Rockstar’s three best achievements.

2. GTA 5

Grand Theft Auto 5 is a blockbuster in each sense of the phrase. Not simply due to the colossal variety of copies it’s bought, nor the sum of money it price to make, however due to each facet of its design. It wears extra proudly on its sleeve, mirrored within the drive for cash displayed by every of its three protagonists. This greed – itself Rockstar’s clearest criticism of capitalism and the obnoxious characters it produces – involves a head in GTA 5’s signature heist missions, every a sequence of audacious motion set items battling to upstage each other. These marketing campaign highpoints mix in seamlessly with a Los Santos map bustling with life and teeming with attraction – Rockstar’s signature humour oozes out of each sight and sound, from avenue nook billboards to radio station ramblings.

This sandbox has stored followers entertained ever since its building in 2013, and due to the addition of GTA On-line, it has expanded and improved persistently to this present day. It’s created an entire new ecosystem for gamers to dwell in, tackle more and more advanced heists, and even construct race tracks that stretch and loop into the sky. It really is its personal ridiculous beast. However whereas it might be that expansive multiplayer mode that led to GTA 5’s monumental success, it’s Michael, Franklin, and Trevor’s story that has confirmed to have essentially the most endurance, at the very least for us. It’s the most effective {that a} Grand Theft Auto marketing campaign has ever been, and that has us excited to see how Rockstar will attempt to prime it with GTA 6.

1. Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2

The end result of all Rockstar’s work so far, Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2 took dwelling, respiration online game worlds to the subsequent stage when it was launched in 2018. The stage of element in its sprawling frontier is extraordinary, with each creature, each animal and human, reacting authentically to your each motion. This makes every interplay with these digital personalities really feel astonishingly lifelike. This expertly crafted, turn-of-the-century western America is the stage for an entire host of memorable characters, each quirky and harmful, however none stick within the thoughts as firmly as protagonist Arthur Morgan.

His journey represents the height of Rockstar storytelling, displaying a stage of complexity and nuance merely not current in any of the studio’s different video games. The Van Der Linde gang’s trials and tribulations result in a memorable set of harmful missions because of the growing desperation of its chief, Dutch. It’s a story laden with standout chapters – a turf struggle between the Grey and Braithwaite households leads as much as a manor home siege, a blockbuster financial institution heist within the main metropolis of Saint Denis results in an sudden sojourn to the island of Guarma, and tensions between the native Wapiti Indians and American Military result in flame-soaked shootouts. It could be onerous to choose a single favorite from that record. Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2 is an enormous, epic tapestry steeped in cinematic fashion, and the most effective recreation Rockstar has given us but.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can primarily be discovered skulking round open world video games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing on the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Comply with him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.