Rockstar
Grand Theft Auto is one of the most influential series in gaming, and knowing the GTA games in order helps you understand how the franchise has evolved over the years.
In this guide, you can explore the series in two ways: by story lore order, which lays out the timeline of events across the games, or by release order, which shows how the franchise evolved over time. Use the buttons on this page to switch between these views and discover the full history of Grand Theft Auto.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
What it’s about: The PlayStation Portable follow-up to Rockstar's monumental handheld entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. As in Liberty City Stories, this game ventures back to the location of the second PS2 game.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
What it’s about: In the year 1986, Tommy Vercetti is heavily indebted to his mafia superiors after a drug deal gone awry, but his dreams of taking over Vice City (based on Miami) push him down a different path. Featuring a wide variety of vehicles and weapons, radio stations playing hit songs from the era and an intense atmosphere, GTA: Vice City is an open-world sandbox satire of '80's Miami.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
What it’s about: Returning after his mother's murder to the semi-fictional city of Los Santos (based on Los Angeles), Carl Johnson, a former gang banger, must take back the streets for his family and friends by gaining respect and once again gaining control over the streets. However, a story filled with crime, lies and corruption will lead him to trudge the entire state of San Andreas (based on California and Nevada) to rebuild his life.
Grand Theft Auto
What it’s about: Grand Theft Auto is the first game in the Grand Theft Auto series and a sandbox-crime game published by Rockstar Games.
The original Grand Theft Auto is made up of a series of levels each set in one of the three cities in the game. In each level, the player has a target number of points to achieve, and five lives to attain the score.
The score counter doubles as a money meter; the player can spend this money on paint jobs and various other things. However, any money spent is of course taken away from the score, making the goal that little bit further away.
On obtaining the target number of points, the player must then drive to a certain location to complete the level, which allows progress to the next one.
Grand Theft Auto 2
What it’s about: Grand Theft Auto 2 is an open world action-adventure video game. It is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto, part of the Grand Theft Auto series. The open world design lets players freely roam Anywhere City, the setting of the game.
Grand Theft Auto III
What it’s about: Featuring a fully 3-D living city, a combination of narrative driven and non-linear gameplay and a completely open environment, Grand Theft Auto III represents a huge leap forward in interactive entertainment. For the first time, players are put at the heart of their very own gangster movie, and let loose in a fully-realised 3 dimensional city, in which anything can happen and probably will.
With a cast of hundreds, 50 plus vehicles, ranging from sports cars to ice cream trucks and from boats to buses, 3 hours of music, including opera, reggae, house, drum and bass, pop and disco, a huge array of street ready weapons and some of the seediest characters in video game history, Grand Theft Auto 3 is a sprawling epic which will show you that sometimes, crime can pay and sometimes it can pay you back. Available now for PlayStation2, Xbox, PC and Macintosh.
Grand Theft Auto IV
What it’s about: Grand Theft Auto IV is an action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the eleventh title in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the first main entry since 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on-foot or by vehicle. Throughout the single-player mode, players play as Niko Bellic. An online multiplayer mode is included with the game, allowing up to 32 players to engage in both co-operative and competitive gameplay in a recreation of the single-player setting. Two expansion packs were later released for the game, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, which both feature new plots that are interconnected with the main Grand Theft Auto IV storyline, and follow new protagonists.
Grand Theft Auto V
What it’s about: Grand Theft Auto V is a vast open world game set in Los Santos, a sprawling sun-soaked metropolis struggling to stay afloat in an era of economic uncertainty and cheap reality TV. The game blends storytelling and gameplay in new ways as players repeatedly jump in and out of the lives of the game’s three lead characters, playing all sides of the game’s interwoven story.
Grand Theft Auto VI
What it’s about: Grand Theft Auto VI heads to the state of Leonida, home to the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond in the biggest, most immersive evolution of the Grand Theft Auto series yet.
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