Ranking Every Single Rockstar Game

Introduction

Rockstar Games, a leader in the game industry for over 20 years has been Rockstar Games. Rockstar Games was founded by a group of Scottish developers who loved crime and pulp fiction. They have since evolved into innovative and provocateurs that has created some of the most important and popular titles in the game industry. 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.

Updated (February 4, 2019): 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, PC and 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 might be best known for the Other Rockstar Series With Cars. It is sad, as these racing games have been so good and are very enjoyable. Midnight Club Original is the least popular of all the series. However, future versions and visual enhancements would be a major plus.

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 Platform, Xbox 360

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. Simple, but engaging 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 provided a vast improvement to the original title thanks to an improved visual experience and increased online competition. The best and biggest Midnight Club games, however, were years off.

19. Grand Theft Auto

Press Release: PlayStation One, 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 cleverly reworked the core elements of the original while reducing its shortcomings. 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. These features created the illusion of a live world that very few games had at the 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, Xbox 360 and PSP

Los Angeles is one of the most memorable moments in the Midnight Club Series. This was due to many improvements and additions including a day/night cycle and realistic tweaks. Beautiful visuals and a police force who will chase you down in the open-world Los Angeles version if you even speed or run a stop sign. 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: Vice City Stories

Release: 2006
PSP2, Platform

It had an impressive amount of tech, but it was not Liberty City Stories. 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, Xbox 2, Xbox 360 and PSP

The Warriorssssss are out for a game. It seems simple at first. The WarriorsThis seems to be a strange title that a large game company would choose to adopt. 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-crafted environments, faithfulness to source material, and hysterical fighting were all reasons why The Warriors is a great adaptation.

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 MatrixThe gunplay could still be amazing, despite its style. 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 has a disturbing and unsettling level of violence. Basic household items are being used as weapons to murder individuals while the camera captures every minute and detail. Each convulsion, each spurt has a disgusting result. 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. As a modern version of the street and world. Running ManSnuff movies, which are everywhere these days, can be disturbing both on a psychological and visceral level. 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. Although the fourth entry was a huge hit upon its release, many people think that it doesn’t compare well to other entries. Grand Theft Auto IV is still a truly amazing title. It combines a beautiful, bleak story about falling in love with The American Dream, and an incredible combat system which makes great use of 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 was the first to offer players options that would affect the story. Three Leaf Clover is one of the greatest missions in the entire series. This mission also laid the foundation for Grand Theft Auto V’s complex heists.

The supporting cast is strong and brings out the laughs. A great performance was given by Packie McCready and Roman Bellic, a bumbling, but kind-hearted, and loyal Irish gangster. 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 separate expansions, The Lost And The Damned, and The Ballad Of Gay Tony added compelling stories to the game as well fun activities. You could easily spend 100 hours playing this game just by doing some of the side activities.

Check out this article about Grand Theft Auto IV and how it addresses 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 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’s attention to detail remains impressive. Each student has their own personality and model. The expectation that the protagonist Jimmy Hopkins/the player attends classes presented in minigames is surprisingly entertaining. Bullsworth’s small, open world is still fun to explore many 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. Story mode takes about 30 hours and is full of hilarious moments and devastating tragedies. San Andreas, based on how it makes use of its real estate, is the best game of all time.

The PS2’s final Grand Theft Auto game is unique because we can mold its 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). He could get a haircut and a new wardrobe. You can also make him slimmer by taking him to the gym or feeding him too many hamburgers.

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

A handful of games have changed the face and souls of video gaming forever. Grand Theft Auto III was one of those titles. Rockstar used the same open-world design principles as the other two games to create an interactive 3D sandbox where players could play the role of a criminal seeking revenge. Once you had escaped the prison truck, your goal was to climb the ranks of the crime scene, transporting illegal material, killing people, and causing chaos in your spare time. 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.

Although games that focus on freedom of the player had existed before (see Ultima, Fallout), it was new for console gamers. Grand Theft Auto III’s open-ended nature helped to address topics at that time that were controversial for video games: prostitution and dealing with drugs. 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. It was more than this though. The game sparked a flurry of crime-driven Sandboxes like True Crime or Saints Row, and an industry focus on giving gamers greater control of their 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, despite its significance, is simply a great proof of concept. 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 has a unique setting.

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, however, is a step up from the original in that it slowly makes you feel more powerful as you take control of real estate scattered throughout the city and become a drug lord at 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. We don’t need to talk about the radio and soundtrack. 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 4, Xbox One, 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 that were directed at the game upon its release. 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. It is a great story, filled with memorable lines and a final act that will be remembered.

Atop of its storytelling achievements, the gunplay is fantastic, successfully setting itself apart from Grand Theft Auto’s gameplay. The Old West offers a variety of activities, from rescues from cannibals and captures bounties to five-finger knife fillets with people. Red Dead is one of the most beautiful games in the past generation. It features stunning views of snowy mountains, deserts and endless vistas. Red Dead Redemption is a fun multiplayer online game with many modes that allows you to revisit the story after you have completed it. 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: PS3, Xbox One (PC), Xbox 360 (PC), Xbox 360 (PC).

For many people at Game InformerRed Dead Redemption, with its beautiful storytelling and gazillion of side activities is the best open-world game. 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 HeatAnd 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. It’s a world that feels alive, and it rarely wastes its land. This makes the game a great place to explore for unexpected events and treasures.

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, as it stands today, is something that will be remembered forever. 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 2 had much to prove. 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 released finally after a lengthy wait and impressed players from all angles.

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.

This world will be a great place to play Red Dead Online. 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. Although John Marston was the fan favourite and most liked character, his replacement with Arthur Morgan the gruff henchman proved to be a risky move. Over the course of several stories, Morgan revealed the man behind the facade and provided a compelling portrait of how people struggle to live in decency even under difficult 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.