Let’s Rank The Grand Theft Auto Games, Best to “Worst”

Kotaku: We did it with Halo, so let's do it with another of the world's biggest game series, Grand Theft Auto. And by "it", I mean rank the games from "best" to "bottom of the list".

[TheLyonKing]

I liked 4 but not as much as the others it was too gritty.

Top down view is always a winner

[NukaCola]

My favorite as I remember it is still GTA SA, but I really loved Chinatown Wars on DS. I hope we can get another asymmetrical GTA on Vita in the future...and San Andreas Stories.

[ShabbaRanks]

Ya San Andreas for me 2. I dont get how this guy rated it 4th... Oh I don't like big maps and RPG elements LOLLLL have fun in ur watered down GTA4 then

[darren_poolies]

Same, GTA: SA was the best although I can see why people prefer Vice City. But 4th?! That's just stupid. Chinatown Wars was awesome and Rockstar are developing Vita games so you never know.

[blitz0623]

Vice City hands down for me

[insomnium2]

I just oplaying gta 4 through (this time I will finish it) and the game is rock solid. WTF?

[Cam977]

You're letting nostalgia taint your belief. I'm sorry, but I'd take IV over the top down titles anyday.

[Yodagamer]

I just started the gta top down titles i think last month on the ps1, and they are surprisingly fun. I'd even say i had more fun with them than 4. It just tried to hard to be a simulation of a real world environment and it succeeded in what it wanted to do, but what it wanted to do watered down the fun factor.

[TheLyonKing]

no not really I still play gta 2 and china town wars and those are great games which throw back to what made gta superb am not saying 4 is bad but it leans to heavy on the story.

San Andreas is still my favorite though

[Bathyj]

Nothing to do with Nostalgia.

I remember clearly, having fun playing GTA2.
I dont remember that with 4.

I remember frustration and disappointment though.

[Etseix]

^^^^ Not nostalgia either, the best GTA for me is III but i recognize San Andreas is way better, i expected the same giant jump, you know, from GTA III/VC to San Andreas, it was a BIG JUMP, but form San Andreas, to IV? only disappointment. The game erased all the side fun extra stuff to do that SA had, instead they included, what? a more realistic city? you need to know, that some people played GTA's for fun, not to look at a City Simulator, even when it was fun, it was just not compared at all/ to San Andreas on the fun factor(unless, again, you play it to look at a living city only). That's why people hated it.

[showtimefolks]

since GTA3 i haven't played a bad GTA game yet, even the psp games were very good. its easier to hate on GTA-4 years after release but when it came out it basically set the standard for open world games.

from the stunning world to a top of the line physics engine. going back to it now feels stale,dull but back in 2008 i played through it 3 times.

VC is still me favorite and i hope we get a GTA hd collection to relive the glory

[Imalwaysright]

It set the standard but in your opinion is not even the best GTA? "stunning world to a top of the line physics engine." Games are much more than that. Games need to be fun. Imo GTAIV was boring and a pain to finish. As far as im concerned GTAIV set the standard for boredom and disappoinrmemt.

[showtimefolks]

Imalwaysright

well i don't disagree with you, thing is RS spoiled us when they gave us VC and SA than a game like GTA4 which was top of the line graphics/physics wise but like you said wasn't a lot of fun.

i like the serious tone in the story and like i said finished it multiple times but there was a lot of things that were missing in GTA4.

but here is how i put it GTA4 was to this gen what GTA3 was to last gen, its just a starting point from here RS can only improve on the formula. like they did after GTA3 with VC and SA.

best open world game IMO is Red Dead Redemption, i believe its the best open world game ever made and one of the best games overall in gaming.

[Panthers]

Vice City for me as well. Although its hard to top the first impressions of playing GTA3. The second you started driving around that city, you knew that you were playing something that was going to change the industry.

[KingofGambling]

Of all the Grand Theft Auto series, the only one that I finish completely was GTA SA, so GTA SA for me, than GTA IV, GTA III, and GTA VC.

[majiebeast]

from lowest to highest
-GTA 2
-GTA 1
-GTA 4
-GTA Vice
-GTA 3
-GTA San

[darren_poolies]

For me:

-GTA 1
-GTA 2
-GTA 4
-GTA Chinatown
-GTA 3
-GTA Vice
-GTA San

[Thatguy-310]

San Andrea and vice city for me. I enjoyed more san Andrea for the rpg elements that were implemented. It made the game fun and enjoyable. Vice city has been the only gta game I've completed but base off the most fun I would give it to San Andrea. That game was to damn long lol but it was enjoyable because of all the freedom and things you can do. Plus the addition of coop was great and fun for its time.

[BitbyDeath]

Best to worst
-Vice City
-San Andreas
-GTA 2
-GTA 1
-GTA IV

[The_Klank]

No GTA 3? Apart from that I would with you completely.

[BitbyDeath]

Good point -

Best to worst
-Vice City
-San Andreas
-GTA III
-GTA 2
-GTA 1
-GTA IV

[Eyeco]

I Love Vice City and San Andreas equally but if I had to choose I would pick Vice City mainly because of the soundtrack

[slapedurmomsace]

@ eyeco...

hell yes!!! Vice City's sound track is still the best. I really like the 1980's theme, but I was born in the early 80's, so I am biased. Still haven't played a GTA I didn't like, though 4 was the worst for me. Doesn't mean it was a bad game at all and was definately worth the full retail price. Wish I could say that about any other series.

[Anon1974]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've never understood the appeal of San Andreas. I know I'm in the minority but to me that was one of the weaker entries and it's one of the only GTA games I just couldn't be bothered to finish. The story was so cookie-cutter, the characters uninspired. Missions where pretty much exactly what we saw in previous entries and the size of the map just made getting anywhere incredibly tedious. Throw into the mix annoying mission structures which were aggrivated by the amount of times you had to redo the missions themselves. My hats off to anyone who could stick with that game through those terrible "defend your turf!" missions. That's where I quit the game. I'd pick it up every couple of months or so, pop it back in, have to redo one of those missions and go "Oh yeah. That's why I stopped playing. Because I'm not having any fun, nor do I care enough about the story to move forward past this."

Again, I realize I'm in the minority. People freaking love this game and I think that's great. I'm happy so many had such a great time with this game. It simply wasn't for me and almost ruined the series for me if it wasn't for the masterpiece that GTA4 turned out to be. I don't know why that game isn't everyone's number one with a bullet.

For me, GTA4 was the first time the city wasn't some cartoon prop but instead it was more of a real place you could buy the characters existing in. It had some of the most layered characters and best voice acting I've seen in a game and yet the humour that was a hallmark of the series remained completely intact.

Once I learned to ignore the cell phone and most of those "be my friend" missions this quickly became my number one entry in the series and one of the best video games I've ever had the opportunity to play. While I understand it wasn't the "arcady" chaos that everyone loved about SA, I think it was a much needed evolution for the series and step forward for videogames as serious, adult entertainment.

[BitbyDeath]

San Andreas gets bonus points for having a BMX.
Also had a lot of diversity in the world and lots more you could do eg. parachuting.

Also cheats still existed back then and taking over territories was fun.

[darren_poolies]

You stopped playing at the turf missions? So you didn't even get to the second island?

[sjaakiejj]

never played GTA for the story, the world of SA just felt more complete and organic. And the getting fat mechanism was great.

[WalterWJR]

Oh how I would love a Vice city with new story on ps4

[Pillsbury1]

The best was the one that started the open world 3d genre: GTA 3 I was so obsessed with it I would see real cars and call them by their name from gta. Look a bobcat truck!

[AKS]

It's quite difficult for me to rank them. I haven't played much of the first two, so no opinion of those. In terms of setting and theme, Vice City has to be my favorite. Good gawd, what an incredible 80s soundtrack, too. San Andreas felt like it was groundbreaking at the time in terms of the massive landscape. And my perspective of GTA IV has to be influenced by the fact that I have iCEnhancer installed, easily making it one of the most graphically stunning games I've ever seen. I mean 2 or 3 generations above the other GTA games and on par with just about anything I've ever seen (although admittedly the sky occasionally turns red; iCEnhancer is still a bit buggy).

http://cloud.steampowered.c...

http://cloud-2.steampowered...

GTA IV also demonstrated some improvements as far as the narrative goes and had a very good protagonist, although the improvements in this regard weren't remotely as impressive as what I experienced with Red Dead Redemption, which I personally consider to be Rockstar's best game. And the constant phone calls in GTA IV could be just maddening, especially when it penalized me for not going to the club with Roman or Brucie.

[iamnsuperman]

Out of the ones I have played GTA: SA was my least favourite. I really enjoyed most of it but what really ruined that game for me was the constant need to eat to be able to play the game. It was a bit like the malaria gameplay mechanic in Far Cry 2. It jus became annoying remembering to eat. There are parts of life (running red lights) that do not work for games

[Deku-Johnny]

Never Get Hungry: Square, L2, R1, Triangle, Up, Square, L2, Up, X.

[claud3]

Simply put, each GTA game has pro's and cons and that is the same with any game or series..

To make a list, makes no sense

Since you either like it or not and yet you seem to like each game in the list equally and yet hated them equally to..

[TheModernKamikaze]

Best to Worst
San Andreas
Vice City
Chinatown Wars
3
LCS
IV
VCS

[FarCryLover182]

oh I hope that I can put V at the top of my list

[Tetsujin]

Whoops, almost clicked on the link.....

However articles like this is FAR more tolerable than the typical trash they've been coming out with.

[Deku-Johnny]

1) V (fingers crossed)
2) San Andreas
3) Vice City
4) III
5) London - 69/61
6) II
7) GTA
8) Chinatown Wars
9) Vice City Stories
10) Liberty City Stories
11) Advance
12) IV - Gay Tony/Lost and Damned

[Sizzon]

Vice City is the best GTA game in my opinion, but San Andreas and GTA 3 was great aswell. Disappointed with 4.

[th3n00bg4m3r]

The only Grand Theft Auto game, i consider bad is Grand Theft Auto 4.

[SephirothX21]

Best to worst:

IV
San Andreas
Vice City
III
Chinatown Wars
II
I
Vice City Stories
Liberty City Stories

[josephayal]

GTA 2 Sega Dreamcast is my fav

[yeahokchief]

impossible all gta games are perfect. there are no worst.

kotaku blows. that site isn't for gamers. its for people full of themselves who like to smell their own farts.

[YodaCracker]

IV
San Andreas
Vice City
III
LCS
VCS

[sdplisken]

vice city and san andreas are the best by far

[tigertron]

1. San Andreas
2. Vice City
3. Vice City Stories
4. Liberty City Stories
5. GTAIV
6. GTAIII

[DarthBigE]

My List (best to worst)
Vice City
San Andreas
GTA IV
GTA III
and never played the others...

[Sketchy_Galore]

I've recently been replaying GTA4 after being out in the mood by the GTA5 trailer and the atmosphere, city and characterisation are amazing but damn, the pacing is horrible. I still have probably a third of the game left to play and I've already had my fill of the same old thing over and over.

Vice city is the best for me but that's mostly just thanks to the soundtrack and style. Nothing better than flying a helicopter at night to Wow by Kate Bush.

All in all I hope GTA5 most closely resembles San Andreas. It doesn't look like there will be the same level of character customisation but I hope they bring back a lot of the other RPG elements they lost in 4.

[TXIDarkAvenger]

IMO it should go like this.

- Vice City
- San Andreas
- GTA III
- GTA IV

Can't speak for the other GTA games as I've never played them.

[Danja]

Vice City is by far the best GTA .. Followed by San Andreas, GTA III , GTA IV ( soley for the multiplayer) then GTA 2

[TwistedMetal]

dont even put them old ars top down view gta games in there lol. GTA only became super huge and big when it went open world 3D. them other ones might of been cool little games but id rather have played bad dudes/ river city ransom on nes then the old top down view gta games

[Rayansaki]

-Vice City
-San Andreas
-GTA III
-GTA II
-GTA London
-GTA IV

This is my preference. Only played these, never played the original or the mobile versions, so only these included in list.
GTA4 was bad enough for me that I never finished it, despite playing it for about 20 hours twice, 3 years apart.

[PS3Freak]

1. Vice City
2. GTA IV
3. San Andreas
4. GTA III

Didn't play enough of the rest of them to rank them. GTa III is not a bad game, I just can't justify putting it above the rest.

The people who put GTA IV at the bottom are crazy. Still play free roam with my friends to this day.

[TheLastGuardian]

GTA: San Andreas is the greatest game of all time.

[BananaEatingSquid]

The first one I played was San Andreas. LOVED it. I was really young when I started and didn't even realize their was a main story ... I just did random crap around the city lol. So much fun.

[DriftKing]

I love GTA 3...primarily because of the tracklist on the radio stations, back then I couldn't imagine that a game could have a Drum n'Bass(MSX fm) radio station with some banging tunes, at times I'd just park the car on the side just to listen to the whole 15min of MSX and RISE fm with its trance,lol...Vice City had a nice 80's theme with also great music, aaaah man!!!

[optimus]

never played San Andreas; i liked vice city until i got stuck on the ice cream truck mission because of some bug in the game and i didn't want to start the whole thing over...now that i think about it, the only game i actually finished was grand theft auto 4. with just one of the endings (i think)...didn't leave a lasting impression overall so i never played it again...
did enjoy the 1st grand theft auto, don't remember which one gave you the option to play the top down view (i think it was 2) but they should bring that option back... maybe i'll go back and replay 4 and try to get the other ending...maybe it's just me but games that give me too much to do i end up giving up on...
i guess i'm not the gamer i used to be; either that or games have just gotten waaay to big for the time i give them.

[ALLWRONG]

I thought GTA IV was pretty good and TBOGT was some of the best fun online this gen.

[porkChop]

Personally I would put GTA IV behind Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA III.

[goldwyncq]

GTA San Andreas had a jet pack, that's more than enough to make it the best game...

[nevin1]

1. San Andreas-Most Variety
2. GTA 3-Started It All
3. Vice City- Best Story
4. Liberty City Stories- 1st PSP GTA
5. Vice City Stories- Good but felt rushed

GTA 1-Never Played
GTA London 69- Never Played
GTA London 61- Never Played
GTA 2- Only played demo
GTA Advance- Never Played
GTA 4- Never finished it because it was boring
Lost And Damned- Never played it
China Town Wars(PSP)- played a few missions never touched it again.
The Ballad Of Gay Tony- Never played it
GTA 5- Not excited for it due to GTA 4 and RDR. But will get it at some point.

[Tornadobounce]

Gta, gta 3, vice city, gta4, San Andreas.

[Machina]

III
I
San Andreas
II
Vice City
London
IV
Chinatown Wars

Haven't played the rest.

[princeofthabay]

SA was the ultimate Gta game it had everything

[black911]

GTA 4 is at the Bottom of my list!!!!!!!!