Ranking Every Single Rockstar Game

Introduction

Rockstar Games is a name to reckon with within the gaming industry over the last two decades. Rockstar was born from a small group of developers in Scotland who enjoyed crime fiction and pulp. It has evolved dramatically, becoming innovators and provocateurs. We gathered as a team to rate every Rockstar game. This excludes published titles such L.A. Noire or Smuggler’s Run. From the humble top-down beginnings of Grand Theft Auto to the blood-soaked streets of Manhunt and the beautiful jaw-dropping vistas of Red Dead Redemption, you’ll find every single title put in its proper place in terms of influence, importance of innovation, and just plain fun.

With all that in mind, let’s steal a ride and roar down this road to hell.

Last Update: 02/04/19: Now that Red Dead Redemption II has been out for a few months and we’ve had time to analyze and discuss its achievements, we’ve added it to the rankings below.

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24. Wild Metal

Release: 1999
Dreamcast and PC platforms

Wild Metal is technically Rockstar’s first game, but the company wasn’t Rockstar yet. Wild Metal, which was originally released in 1999 under DMA Design’s label, has seen a lot of wear and tear. The game pits tanks against one another on various planets, which just isn’t much fun to play. However, you can see the developer’s interest in vehicular carnage budding here, something that would come to define much of its catalog.

23. Midnight Club Street Racing

Release: 2000
Platform: PS2

Midnight Club may be better known than the Other Rockstar Series With Cars. This is unfortunate because these racing games can be so enjoyable and well-done. Midnight Club’s original version is one of the most disappointing. Future implementations and visual improvements would improve the series to make it a darling.

22. Manhunt 2

Wii, PSP and PSP Released
Platform: 2007

Manhunt is a morally compelling stealth game. It features a riveting taut story featuring a murderer who seems to be both disgusting and sympathetic. This sequel took out all the greatness of the original and focused only on the gory kill cameras that the original caused so much controversy. With stealthy executions, you can do things like skull-popping, decapitation and castration on a daily basis. Couple that gleefully shock jock approach to violence with a terrible story about multiple personality disorder, and you have a sequel that falls well short of the original but is still a fun time (if you’ve got a strong stomach).

21. Rockstar Table Tennis

Release: 2006
Wii, Xbox 360 Platform

Considered a bit of a joke on its announcement (“Why the hell are the Grand Theft Auto people make a table tennis game?”), Table Tennis nevertheless emerged as an enjoyable sports title respected for its smart A.I. Its simple but addictive gameplay. It’s also the first Rockstar game to be developed on the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), which would go on to be used in Grand Theft Auto IV and subsequent titles.

20. Midnight Club II

Release: 2003
Xbox 2, PC Platform

Midnight Club Racing II was a significant improvement on the original game. This is due to the visual enhancement and solid online play. The best and biggest Midnight Club games, however, were years off.

19. Grand Theft Auto

Publication: PSOne, PC
Platform: 1997

As Michael Fassbender once said in that movie that we all pretend never happened, “Big things have small beginnings.” Grand Theft Auto would eventually go on to be the biggest selling games franchise in the world, with GTA V still showing up in the NPD Top 10 list consistently more than five years after its original release. However, the original GTA didn’t make much of a splash. It sold well but both critics and players weren’t endeared to the 2D graphics and the game doesn’t play particularly well today.

Still, Grand Theft Auto is a fascinating prototype, packing in staples that we’d still see in entries to come, including radio stations and a small version of the open-world freedom that has come to define the series.

18. Red Dead Revolver

Release: 2004
Platform 4, Xbox 2, Xbox

Redemption came before Red Dead! The game was originally a Capcom title. However, it was abandoned by the publisher after several poor performances at shows. Rockstar purchased Revolver’s creator Angel Studios in 2002. Angel San Diego was able to finish the title and purchase the rights. The final release was interesting thanks to many quirks that piqued the interest of players, including well-done animations (like holstering your pistol instead of it just magically disappearing), leaning in and out of cover, and a dead-eye system that slowed down time and let you target specific points of a foe’s body.

17. Grand Theft Auto Stories: Liberty City Stories

Release: 2005
Platform: PSP, PS2, Mobile

Liberty City Stories was a technical revelation when it came out, proving that you could take something as huge as Grand Theft Auto III’s open-world experience and pack it down so it could still work on a portable device. Yeah, the story’s weak compared to later games in the series, but it’s still a fun little romp in the GTA verse.

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16. Grand Theft Auto 2

Release: 1999
Platform: Dreamcast, PSOne and PC

Grand Theft Auto 2 carefully preserved the best elements from the original, while also addressing its weaknesses. True 3D graphics wouldn’t arrive until GTA III, but this game is much easier on the eyes. Bigger improvements included the player working for multiple factions instead of one, a stronger police response to crime (including SWAT), and the most important one: NPCs weren’t just mindless drones, but actual characters that would interact with the world, using cars and getting into fights with gang members. It created the illusion that there was a real world, something very few other games were able to do at that time.

Grand Theft Auto’s big moment was still four years away, but GTA 2 showed that the series was capable of becoming something truly special.

15. Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Release: 2008
Platform 3, Xbox 360, PSP

Los Angeles represents one of our best Midnight Club moments thanks to numerous improvements and additions. These include a day/night cycles, realistic tweaks, stunning visuals, and police forces that can hunt you down in this open world version of Los Angeles. Los Angeles may have shrunk down the multi-city focus of III, but that doesn’t mean its setting is any less compelling or impressive.

14. Grand Theft Auto Stories from Vice City

Release: 2006
PSP2 Platform

Vice City Stories was not like Liberty City Stories. It featured more impressive technology than its counterpart. Focusing on Vic Vance, the brother of Lance Vance, and a character unceremoniously killed in the opening of Vice City, Vice City Stories not only let us roam around what is arguably Grand Theft Auto’s best setting on the go, but also gave us new stories featuring fan-favorite characters from the origins game and helping set the stage for the eventual rise of Tommy Vercetti.

13. Midnight Club III

Release: 2005
PSP and Xbox platforms

Although street racing was a relatively new genre in the 2000s, Midnight Club is still the most prominent. Before Midnight Club III, the series was regarded as one of Rockstar’s lesser passion projects. The third game mixed a bit of Grand Theft Auto’s ambitions and polish into its street racing focus and the series is that much better for it. Midnight Club III stands out as the best of the series, with three major cities to explore (Atlanta and Detroit), great music and vehicle customization.

12. Grand Theft Auto – Chinatown Wars

Release: 2009
Platform: Nintendo DS, PSP, Mobile

The portable Grand Theft Autos at their best. Sure, it lacks the 3D visuals of the City Story counterparts and the writing is iffy at best, but the minigames for stealing cars and a surprisingly detailed drug-dealing system focused on systems that GTA hadn’t really bothered with before make it a standout entry. Chinatown Wars’ approach to the series staple Wanted level, requiring the player to destroy a certain number of police vehicles to lower the level, was also novel and is frankly a little missed. Chinatown Wars still doesn’t hold a candle to the main entries of the game, but we wish future GTAs would take a little more inspiration from the best portable spin-off when it comes to making interesting systems that help you immerse yourself in the world.

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11. The Warriors

Release: 2005
Platform 4, Xbox 2, Xbox One, PSP

Warriorssssssssssssss comes out to play. At first glance The WarriorsIt seems odd for major gaming studios to use such a title. Rockstar, however, has never been one to follow the crowd. In the case of The Warriors game, that’s a great thing. The Warriors, before Arkham Asylum and Rocksteady joined forces to redefine what a videogame adaptation should be like, was one of the most successful movie adaptations. Its engrossing combat scenes, well-done settings, faithfulness to source material, and bleak, but compelling environments made it stand out.

10. Max Payne 3

Release: 2012
Platform, Xbox 360, PC and Mac

Rockstar took over the reins to everyone’s favorite series starring a widowed, drunk cop after Remedy bowed out, and the third entry is a hell of a sequel. Max Payne 3 is a bold game, essentially throwing the closure of the second game’s ending out the window to focus on Max’s time in Brazil working private security for a wealthy family. Our tragic protagonist’s past trails him, causing misery and death to everyone around him, not to mention glorious shootouts.

Even if Max Payne 3 didn’t have the series’ renowned bullet-time sequences (it does, thank goodness), which allows you to slow down the world MatrixGunplay in this style would be still fantastic. In 2011, the game’s approach to mixing realism with Michael Mann-like violence was unparalleled. Max always holds his weapons in a convincing way. A pistol is in one hand; a shotgun by the barrel the other. Max’s body feels like it has weight as he leaps around, often taking a full second or two to get up once he’s landed, leaving you open to enemy fire. The environment is often shredded to bits, destroying you and your enemy’s cover during the course of a firefight.

In the moment-by-moment action (as well as the beautiful setting that balances exotic with despair) Max Payne 3 does so much right it’s easy to overlook the story’s habit of aping Man on FireThe game’s storyline or that it might be too lengthy for its own good. Max Payne 3 is easily one of the best third-person shooters ever made, and we’re still waiting on that sequel, Rockstar.

9. Manhunt

Release: 2003
Platform 4, Xbox 2, PC

With the likes of Metal Gear Solid, Thief, Tenchu, and Splinter Cell often thought of as the monumental stealth-action titles, it’s a shame that Manhunt has never been regarded in the same way. Rockstar’s first stab at stealth drew attention from major outlets for its gory action, letting you strangle unsuspecting victims with barbed wire and suffocate them with plastic bags. To a degree, that’s fair. Manhunt’s violence is so disturbing that it makes you uncomfortable. Even now basic household objects are used to kill people, while the camera records every detail and moment. Every convulsion and every spurt have a horrifying effect. However, unlike the sequel, Manhunt’s violence feels thematically apt and like it has a point.

You’re a rat in a huge maze, scurrying around to survive, as predators much stronger than you lurk around every corner. This is a contemporary take on the streets and the world. Running ManWhere snuff movies are the norm, they can also be quite disturbing from a psychological standpoint. You can’t beat the feeling of being pushed behind someone with a shotgun in their hand as tension builds.

At the end of the day, Manhunt feels like a world-class game that’s never gotten its proper due thanks to the controversy surrounding its violence. However, as both a thematically unified interactive story and as a stealth-action game, Manhunt is a gripping thriller and one of Rockstar’s best.

For more on Manhunt, check out this opinion piece we wrote on the game’s timelessness.

8. Grand Theft Auto IV

Release: 2008
Platform, Xbox 360, PC

The dark sheep among the 3D Grand Theft Auto main entries. While the fourth entry received universal praise upon release, it was not able to match the vibrant settings in San Andreas and Vice City or Los Santos. Grand Theft Auto IV, however, remains an amazing title. This is a dark, touching story of loosing yourself in The American Dream with a fighting system that makes excellent use of cover and effects. You’d frequently end up in intense gunfight moments where glass would shatter above you or you’d nail an enemy from around a corner in a slum with a lucky blind fire shot from your pistol.

Rockstar’s first attempt at offering choices to players that could affect their narrative was on the design side. Three Leaf Clover was one of the most memorable missions in the series. It also sowed the seeds for complex heists we would see in Grand Theft Auto V.

A solid supporting cast brings laughter and groans to the show, including a stellar performance from Packie Mcready, an Irish gangster and Roman Bellic. However, it’s the tragedy of Niko Bellic that steals the show, with our protagonist caught between the future that he wants and the past he’s trying to escape, with no way out.

Sure, Vice City and Grand Theft Auto V might be prettier than IV’s dreary, perpetually overcast setting, while San Andreas is much bigger, but the series has never surpassed the superb, epic storytelling in this entry. GTA IV’s two standalone expansions The Lost And The Damned (and The Ballad Of Gay Tony) added new compelling stories and fun things. This game is so addictive that it can be lost for up to 100 hours just from doing critical path stuff.

You can find more information about Grand Theft Auto IV in our article on The American Dream.

7. Bully

Release: 2006
Platform: PS4, PS2, Xbox, PC, Mobile

One of Rockstar’s strangest, most delightful works, Bully proved that the developer could branch out beyond the gritty The pulp for its other franchises. Bully, even years later, is still a great treasure trove of creativity. Players can use things like stink bombs or marbles to make weapons. It also features an entertaining storyline that explores adolescence and rebellion against authority.

Bullsworth students are still able to show their attention, each with their unique model and personalities. Jimmy Hopkins (the protagonist) is expected to attend classes. The minigames are surprisingly entertaining and Bullsworth’s open-world is still an enjoyable place to explore even years later.

For all of Rockstar’s image and marketing being tied to games with Adult themes, there is perhaps no stronger showcase of the developer’s talents for building systems and games that are just fun to play regardless of tone than Bully.

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6. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas

Release: 2004
Platform: PS4, PS3, PS2, Xbox, PC, Mobile

Years before Oblivion and Skyrim set general audience expectations of getting lost in a massive world for hundreds of hours, San Andreas took GTA’s immensely popular sandbox design, blew it up to frankly ridiculous proportions, and even mixed in some RPG-lite mechanics for good measure. Following in the wake of Vice City’s embrace of the ’80s, San Andreas did the most natural thing in the world, paying homage to ’90s gang films like Boyz In The Hood as it followed protagonist CJ’s return to his old neighborhood after the death of his mother and subsequent reconnection with his old gang, The Grove Street Families.

Even now, San Andreas’ ambitions are impressive, with GTA’s standard city setting expanded into a full state, featuring mini versions of Los Angeles, Los Vegas, San Francisco, and entire wilderness of desert, canyons, forests, and small towns between them. It takes around 30 hours for the story mode to be completed. The journey is a balance between hilarious laughs and tragic moments. San Andreas stands out for its use of real estate.

The PS2’s last Grand Theft Auto is special because it allows us to mold the protagonist. Literally. CJ has a set personality and story, but you can also define him in a way that you couldn’t with Tommy or Claude (GTA III’s protagonist). Give him a haircut or buy him clothes. Or you could make his body slimmer and fatter by making him go to the gym.

San Andreas is often considered to be one of the most important PS2 songs and it still shines bright today.

5. Grand Theft Auto III

Release: 2001
Platform: PS4, PS3, PS2, Xbox, PC, Mobile

There are only a few titles that can be said to have changed the course of video gaming forever. Grand Theft Auto III was one of those titles. Rockstar took the open-world design principles from the first two games and created an interactive 3D Sandbox. This allowed players to play as criminals seeking revenge. You escaped from a prison truck and worked your way through the criminal world. The possibilities are endless. You can taxi NPCs, be an ambulance driver, or wage war on the police by lighting the local car dealership ablaze with a flamethrower.

While games that focus on player freedom have been around for some time (see Ultima and Fallout), this was an entirely new concept for general console users. Grand Theft Auto III was able to marry its open-ended structure with topics that were at the time controversial in videogames, such as prostitution and drug dealing, which helped. GTA III caused shockwaves in the gaming industry. It attracted international attention, and prompted a new conversation on violence in games and its effect on the people who use them. The game caused more than just shockwaves in the industry. There were many other crime-driven sandboxes (True Crime and Saints Row), as well as a growing focus within the industry to give players greater control over games.

Grand Theft Auto III might be rough to go back to, especially when you look at all the implementations that future entries built on top of the foundation it laid, but the importance of its release and its effect on the industry – and culture at large – cannot be overstated.

4. Grand Theft Auto Vice City

Release: 2002
Platform: PS4, PS3, PS2, Xbox, PC, Mobile

Grand Theft Auto III has more to its merits than any other game. Its story was ho-hum, the silent protagonist forgettable, and it didn’t really have any personality outside of its middle-finger-to-taboos tone. Rockstar’s most significant game in terms of building its brand is Vice City. It proved the studio could make a compelling story, and that they were capable of creating a world that was worth living. Vice City is a rare setting that games can match.

Vice City is a swarm of neon lights and brown cocaine packages. Tommy Vercetti, who has spent time in prison, slowly gets back to normal. Where Claude is silent, Ray Liotta’s Vercetti is constantly angry or amused. Vice City makes it easier to feel empowered. You take over vacant real estate throughout the city, and you become both a businessman by day, and a drug lord night.

Vice City’s grand cast of supporting characters — from cowardly lawyer Ken Rosenberg to wingman Lance Vance and pornographer Steve Scott — is the apex of the series when it comes to characters that are delightfully oddball and a pleasure to interact with. Is it necessary to spend time raving about the music and radio stations? Mister, Mister, Michael Jackson, Laura Brannigan, Flock Of Seagulls. There is perhaps no licensed soundtrack in games more iconic than Vice City’s.

As a put-up-or-shut-up feat, Vice City is infallible, demonstrating Rockstar’s ability to innovate and build upon previous established systems in interesting ways and draw players into a memorable setting. It’s perhaps the greatest bit of irony that for all its nostalgia waxing, people now look to the game with a passionate nostalgia of their own, eager to revisit the PlayStation 2’s flashiest classic.

3. Red Dead Redemption

Release: 2010
Platform, Xbox One and Xbox 360

Let’s be real here. Rockstar wouldn’t have had to go too far outside of its wheelhouse to make the best Western game. Beyond a couple decent titles (looking at you, Gun and Call Of Juárez), the genre was mostly abandoned. Red Dead Redemption far surpasses all the Grand Theft Horse satires. An adventure epic in scope and ultimately tragic in tone, Red Dead Redemption’s shining achievement is its humanistic angle, painting its hero John Marston as a man taking up arms to try and right an evil past and save his family from destruction. This is one of my favorite stories, complete with memorable one-liners and an amazing final act.

Atop of its storytelling achievements, the gunplay is fantastic, successfully setting itself apart from Grand Theft Auto’s gameplay. The Old West has many activities that you can do, including rescuing cannibals or capturing bounty money. Red Dead has one of most stunning graphics of all time, with views that encompass snowy mountains and vast deserts. Red Dead Redemption’s story was completed in a thrilling online multiplayer game. This made it possible to return and play the fun, varied mode-filled online multiplayer. Undead Nightmare is a huge expansion pack with a new, fun campaign full of zombies that gave gamers even more reasons to play again.

A beautiful world filled with a memorable, zany cast of characters and a nearly flawless story makes Red Dead Redemption one of Rockstar’s best.

2. Grand Theft Auto V

Release: 2013
Platform: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC

For many people at Game InformerRed Dead Redemption is the pinnacle of open-world games. Its beauty, blend of great storytelling and a multitude of side activities makes it stand out. In the end though, we couldn’t overlook Grand Theft Auto V’s astonishing multi-faceted success. V was released with a rich, compelling story mode that featured great missions, sympathetic characters, and a glamorous, glamourous Los Santos. Trevor, Michael and Franklin each have their own storylines that connect them. Each character has its own unique gameplay element, such as clothing, hiding places, hairstyles and haircuts.

GTA IV has seen a major overhaul in gunplay, driving mechanics and physics. This makes combat much more exciting. The heist missions’ customization (letting you choose how you were going to conduct the robberies and letting you pick your accomplices) had engaging consequences for your actions, encouraging you to replay them to see how different choices pan out. At its core, Grand Theft Auto V is a glorious, ambitious interactive television show about robbers and the lives they lead – a mixture of Heat The Wire.

GTA V’s Los Santos has a vibrant, beautiful version. This world includes ocean floors players can explore and huge mountains they can jump off. Every corner of the world is alive. It rarely throws away any land.

However, GTA V’s trump card actually didn’t come out until a month after release: Grand Theft Auto Online. As the name implies, GTAO, taking inspiration from MMOs and the like, allows players to roam Los Santos untethered, letting them run solo or in groups, to take on everything from liquor store hold ups to multi-million dollar heists in order to accumulate cash that they can use to buy cars, houses, clothes, guns — everything.

Rockstar has supported the online community over the years, dropping pack after pack of content packed with missions, items and new systems. GTAO has seen a steady increase in content over the years. This is thanks to new events and crazy stunt races. The ongoing support, as well as the quality of the base game (and re-releases) has resulted in GTA V continuing to appear in the NPD’s Top 10 for years. Its longevity has seen the game become one of the most successful entertainment media, with two different console generations.

GTA V is an absolute phenomenon. Its story might not stand up quite as well to Red Dead Redemption, but the combination of a robust, impressive single-player campaign with the innovation (and still supported) online component made the game Rockstar’s boldest and most accomplished work….until a new game galloped over the horizon.

1. Red Dead Redemption II

Release: 2018
Xbox One Platform

Red Dead Redemption II had a lot of work ahead. The original boasted one of gaming’s most convincing and enthralling open-worlds as well as one of its best storylines. Rockstar revealed that this game was actually a prequel, focusing more on the Dutch Van Der Linde gang’s days than the chronological sequel suggested by the title. Red Dead Redemption II was finally released after an extended wait. It impressed all levels of players.

Featuring a ridiculously complex world filled with intractable NPCs that maintain schedules, realistic ecosystems where animals hunt one another, and a bevy of tactical simulations and realistic touches that dwarfs any other AAA game, Rockstar’s latest features its most exciting world. Given that the developer’s pedigree includes Los Santos, Vice City, and Bullsworth Academy, it’s not an easy feat. And yet there’s so much to do (Don’t believe us? Here’s a list of 101 in-game activities) and so much beauty in Red Dead Redemption II’s snowy peaks, dustbowls, small towns, and most of all its camps, where characters party, mourn, and try their best to make it through the Wild West in one piece.

Red Dead Online players already have a wonderful playground in this virtual world. Although the multiplayer is far from GTA Online, riding the prairies with friends and building a little fortune with them is thrilling enough.

This complexity and allure of this world is only matched by the masterful storytelling in Red Dead Redemption II’s campaign. It was an interesting decision to replace John Marston, a fan favorite and instantly likable, with Arthur Morgan, a gruff henchman. However, it paid off. The story uncovered the true man beneath the rough exterior and created a captivating portrait of decency in harsh circumstances.  Arthur’s relationship with the gang, particularly with entropic leader Dutch, is incredible to watch unfold, whether he’s comparing one of the camp’s layabouts to parasites, offering words of comfort to someone going through a tough time, or even awkwardly seeking his own measure of reassurance among the people he considers his family.  With memorable chapters featuring train robberies and fiery mansion shootouts, Arthur’s story also has more than enough exciting set pieces to keep its lofty character-driven narrative from becoming sluggish.

While some players might understandably grow frustrated with its admittedly confusing control scheme or certain realism quirks, like having to constantly fetch weapons from your saddlebag, Rockstar’s executions of its mad ambitions cannot be denied. With a tragic and epic tale, an arresting world, and an online component ripe for creating emergent stories, Red Dead Redemption II is an incredible experience top to bottom and marks the developer’s most stunning achievement yet.