Rockstar Games is arguably the biggest developer in the video game industry. Whether we’re talking about Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, or one of their other famed franchises, Rockstar can stand alongside the other industry giants such as Nintendo or Naughty Dog.
One of the world’s most impressive video game studios, Rockstar brought unprecedented intricacy and immersion to the gaming industry. Through their best-selling titles like the Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption series, Rockstar lent players a more open-ended storyline suited to their individual playing styles, granting them greater customization options and expansive open worlds to explore.
From their most recent entries in the GTA franchise to their cult favorite racing games, find here the best Rockstar games, ranked from best to worst.
Grand Theft Auto V
The latest installment in the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto V broke numerous financial records upon its release in 2013. The crown jewel of Rockstar’s list of games continues to push the boundaries for open-world gaming further, bringing more cohesive gameplay, greater in-game customization options, and an even larger setting for players to navigate at their leisure. The single best GTA game yet, it’s one of the greatest video games ever.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Acting as a prequel to the events of 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2 equips itself with an even more harrowing story than its thematic predecessor. In it, players took on the role of Arthur Morgan, a philosophic gunslinger witnessing the gradual dissolution of his once close-knit outlaw gang. Through its immersive open-world design, enlarged map, and evocative main storyline, Rockstar created a game that matched and surpassed the superior quality of the original RDR.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Though no one can take anything away from the influential advancements made by most later GTA games, San Andreas perhaps qualifies as the most important GTA release. Seizing upon the technical advancements set by Vice City, San Andreas hinged on a more emotional story and an in-depth cast of characters, providing GTA with the franchise’s most grounded narrative yet. Through its brutal depiction of Los Angeles’ fictional stand-in, San Andreas never romanticized its violent or explicit subject matter for a moment. However, by showing the characters’ faithful relationships with each other, Rockstar illustrated the profound friendships that can form in the most unforgiving of places or situations.
Red Dead Redemption
In the late 2000s, Rockstar revived their dormant Western-themed Red Dead series after the middling release of 2004’s Red Dead Revolver. Opting for a more realistic portrayal of the Western world amidst its waning days in the 20th century, Rockstar revitalized the Red Dead saga with their 2010 adventure game, Red Dead Redemption. Traveling across Southwestern America and war-torn Mexico, players witness the dying days of the Old West as it gave way to the forces of the Industrial Revolution. With a story that seemed like an amalgamation of Kill Bill, Unforgiven, and The Wild Bunch, it’s the second-best Western game ever produced after its later prequel, RDR 2.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
An ideal halfway point between the warmer storyline of San Andreas and the gameplay improvements of GTA III, 2002’s Vice City continued to push the possibilities for a GTA game forward in exciting new directions. Picking up where GTA III left off, Vice Story retained the same impressive gameplay features of its earlier sister title, adding a new layer of cinematic storytelling and more outlandish characters for players to bond with and root for as the game unfolded (as seen with the game’s protagonist, Tommy Vercetti, voiced by the incomparable Ray Liotta).
Grand Theft Auto IV
Between its impeccable gameplay, game-changing open-world, captivating story, and two story-based DLC continuations, it’s no wonder why people regard GTA IV as a 2000s-era gaming masterpiece. Following up on the innovations presented in San Andreas, GTA IV introduces an even larger setting for players to wade across, complete with a more substantial cast of characters – each with their own distinct personality and set of odd quirks. The most fully-formed GTA title before the release of GTA V five years later, it’s a game players can spend huge chunks of time whiling away at, whether playing the main storyline or either of its expansion packs (The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony).
Grand Theft Auto III
The most revolutionary GTA title up to that point in time, Grand Theft Auto III moved beyond the limitations of the first two GTA games, giving rise to the first unforgettable entry in the series. Abandoning its precursors’ overhead gameplay style, GTA III utilizes a more approachable third-person perspective (which soon became a series norm moving forward). Between its open-world design, hard-boiled story, and greater emphasis on player customization, GTA III helped set the standard for Rockstar’s output of releases in the years ahead.
Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
Rockstar’s other driving-oriented series, Midnight Club, sits opposite the crime-riddled world of the GTA franchise. With a heightened focus on driving and vehicle customization, the Midnight Club series attracted most players through its arcade-style racing format (something best seen in the franchise’s standout entry, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition). Boasting high-speed thrills throughout, Midnight Club 3 feels like the kind of pitch-perfect racing game players couldn’t stray away from at the arcade.
Max Payne 3
Embittered from the personal traumas he endured in Max Payne 2, a disgraced Max returns for the third (and likely) final outing with 2012’s Max Payne 3. Detailing Max’s continued descent into alcohol-fueled depression, Max Payne 3 chronicles the protagonist’s misadventures abroad in Brazil, where he works as an enforcer/bodyguard to a wealthy local family. With a sharper combat system emblematic of Red Dead Redemption or GTA IV, Max Payne 3 is a satisfactory send-off to one of Rockstar’s most famous characters.
Bully
By its very nature, Bully might not have aged as well as most other Rockstar releases. Set in a cliched boarding school, Rockstar relied on dozens of stereotypes associated with high school culture for Bully, conjuring a world populated by nerds, bullies, jocks, and preppies. Controversies over its subject matter aside (it’s a game about bullying), Bully’s more satirical tone allowed Rockstar to escape too much negative attention from critics, with most players expressing admiration for the game’s originality, characters, and main story.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
The original Max Payne presented players with a novelty combination of Norse mythology and hard-boiled noir stories. In the Rockstar-published Max Payne 2, developer Remedy Entertainment evoked a more somber atmosphere in the second chapter of Max Payne’s story, taking inspiration from the more sobering noir films of the ’50s (complete with the mysterious femme fatale, Mona Sax). Featuring an advanced combat system that included an enhanced bullet-time slow-motion tool, the game proved a more than satisfactory follow-up to the first entry in the Max Payne trilogy.
L.A. Noire
Yes, L.A. Noire lacks the same detailed open-world design as GTA or Red Dead. Yes, its driving and shooting mechanics are faulty in some areas. Looking past these relatively minor faults, however, players can recognize a game of ingenious quality behind Team Bondi’s L.A. Noire, perhaps the most addictive whodunit ever delivered to gamers’ hands. In the Rockstar-published title, you play as L.A.P.D. Officer Cole Phelps and are tasked with resolving multiple crimes across the city, looking at various clues, interviewing suspects, and collecting evidence to support their claims. With its cinematic story, individual case files, and superb investigative gameplay, the game tests players’ intelligence first and foremost, standing in sharp contrast to the shooter-heavy nature of GTA or Max Payne.
The Warriors
In late 2005, Rockstar debuted one of their most successful games in the company’s formative year, which soon gained cult status among later generations of gamers. A faithful adaptation of Walter Hill’s 1979 crime film of the same name, The Warriors follows a small band of teens as they combat rival gangs on their odyssey home to Coney Island. As stylish and creative as Hill’s original film, The Warriors perfected the art of a beat ’em up adventure game, forever living on among Rockstar’s early string of releases.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Though a minor addition to the GTA series, Rockstar should earn praise for creating a game specifically designed for handheld devices, fine-tuning much of its gameplay to accommodate the mechanics of the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Rather than constructing a half-baked GTA game, Rockstar went all in on trying something new with Chinatown Wars, paving the way for a game unlike any other in GTA’s long line of entries.
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